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Clifton Road Aston

  • Thread starter Thread starter shannon
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Thanks everyone

My dad will really be interested in all your memories i will mention everything to him and i will try and let you know his thoughts.
My Uncle Jim (James Hunt) had a grocers shop in Clifton Road and like i said the family lived at number 154 until 1969.

Thanks again
Lindy:)
 
Lindy

Clifton Road was divided into 3 sections. The lower numbers were closest to Park Road. Park Road ran from Aston Cross down to Aston Church.

The next section of Clifton Road had Upper Thomas Street running paralell at one end and Upper Sutton Street runing acroos the other end.

The third section obviously had Upper Sutton Street running paralell and I think ended towards Potters Hill.

Opposite The Golden Lion on the corner of Clifton Road and Upper Thomas Street (1st section) was a chemist called "Saunders", with a bookies on the opposite corner.

I think your uncles shop would have been in the 3rd section.

In the 3rd section there was a laundry shop on the right hand corner (Clifton Rd and Upper Sutton Street) and on the left hand side of Clifton Road just a few yards up from the laundry shop I seem to recall a coal yard.

Not sure if I am supposed to post this bit here (if I have dropped a clanger then I apologise) but in the mid '60's a little girl went missing from Clifton Road towards Potters Hill - Margaret Reynolds. Two other little girls also went missing from other areas at a later date and I think the case was reffered to as the ABC murders. Please correct me if I am wrong though.

Fay
 
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Clifton Road

Hi Lindy, we were glad to have somewhere to live when were married at Aston Church in 56, my wife's Gran (May Reynolds) lived down the Yard behind Jackson's chippie and in fact May used to go and help out there tearing the B'ham Mail and Evening Despatch in to wrapping for the chips. My wife - Nee Pat Burford remembers The Outdoor well and Dolly Mellon. When we lived there Pat used to work down at Griffins the Greengrocers down by The House That Jack Built Newtown Row. Changed so much now but hasn't everywhere?
 
Hi there
Thanks for all your memories i know my mom Rene Hunt used to clean at a chip shop close to where we lived in Clifton Road,like i said my fathers was born at 154 and we moved out of there in the May 1969 .


Lindy
 
Clifton Road Coal Merchant

During the early 1960s i lived next door to the white swan pub on upper sutton street. I remember my dad sending me around the corner onto clifton road to the coal yard pushing an old pram, and some coal would be tipped into it. Am i right if i say the people who owned the coal yard had the surname of Baglin. The man i remember was always dirty looking to be expected if working with coal, he was a large man with a ruddy face, he wore a flat cap, and a small pair of spectacles. You would always see him in the area delivering in his lorry laden with coal sacks Who was he.?
 
Clifton Road, Aston

Uncle, you are right about Baglins having a coal yard in Clifton Road. Lily his daughter and other family members went to Burlington Street and Upper Thomas Street schools and often come to the Annual Reunion at the Barn Social Club, Witton, held on the 7th July.
 
Heres a photo of Clifton Rd Aston that I found. I think its from the mid sixties.

pmc1947

Aston Clifton Rd 2.jpg
 
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I was a twin Born in Clifton Road

Hi everyone, found site by fluke today. I was born at Clifton Rd August 1968 my moms name was Lily or Lynn as it appears some people called her. My dads name was "Bill". Does anyone remember us ? It has given me butterflies seeing the street I was born in as never seen it.
 
Hello Objd1

Welcome to this fabulous site.

What number in Clifton Road did you live at?

What was the surname of your parents?

Fay
 
What number Clifton Road ?

Thank you for the welcome. I have just looked at our birth certificates and we were born at 3/177 Clifton Street which I expect to be a room in a house as I know we were quite poor (I still am with teenage kids) : - )
My dads surname was Mills and my moms maiden names were McCarthy, Broughton or Thursfield. I am finding all three and reasons behind them. I remember mom saying she kept us in a drawer !! We only weighed 1.5 and 21b. We are now nearly 40, own families and weigh alot more .....
 
Objd1

You just referred to Clifton Street - is it Clifton Street or Clifton Road?

Fay
 
Thanks for all the memories and information about Clifton Road. My Grandmother Louisa Moss lived at no 30 Clifton Road until she died there in 1959.

Faye you answered a query I was going to have to look up to add to my family history and it was the name of the pub on the corner of Clifton road. I had been racking my brains to remember it.
 
Louisa

What lovely (and funny) memories you have of Clifton Road.

As I a child I lived at no 12 (until 1970). My grandmother kept the outdoor at number 100, and my Great Grandparents owned the Golden Lion which was on the corner of Clifton Road and Upper Thomas Street until they sold it between 1930 and 1935 and bought number 12 - the house I grew up in.

My Great Grandmother (before she married and bought the Golden Lion actually lived at number 32.

Regards

Fay
 
Hi Icarus

Yes she did. My aunt Lily had a son called Arthur, his wife is Daisy.

Are you a relative or a neighbour?

Regards
Louisa
 
Hi Louisa

My wife lived in Clifton Road in the 40's and she often spoke of her neighbours. I got to meet a few of them too - I remember a Mr Cuzick, George & Ada Neal, the Platts, the Annetts and the Cashmores.
 
Cuzick, this name rings a bell some with this family name sold crocks at local markets, the Aston market in Newtown row brought this subject up previously and I am sure a relation came on the old forum can any one else throw any light on this.
 
Clifton Road

John H, although guilty of going off topic, thought I'd let you know I worked with a George Cuzick at Wolseley Engineering in the 1960s, he was probably about 50+ at the time, he was quite a character and he used to help erect the stands at the various agricultural shows around the country where Wolseley exhibited. I have a feeling he may have lived in Bordesley Green or Saltley area of the city.
 
The Cuzick in Clifton Road was James (Jim) if my memory serves me right. He was quite elderly and lived alone.
 
Hi Icarus,
Just saw your post where you mentioned the neighbours of your wife in Clifton Road as George & Ada Neal. I am researching a Neal family and have an address from the marriage certificate of Marian Lily Neal in 1913 as 261 Clifton Road, fathers name Joseph Henry, mother Mary Ann, incidently she married a Charles Howell also from Clifton Road No. 310. Although this is a long time ago I was wondering if you knew anything more on George & Ada, they are names I have not come across yet but just thought I'd ask.

Thanks
Liz
 
Hi Lizzie

I know little about the Neals apart from they had a daughter named Doreen and a son, Alfie, who died at age 13 ... oh...and they attended our wedding reception at Upper Thomas Street School and bought us an ironing board as a wedding present! :)

I don't think the Clifton Road, Aston, numbers reached as high as 310 and believe yours is the one in Sparkhill/brook. Checking the Electoral Rolls, I see that a Sam Howell lived at 310 Clifton Road, Sparkhill with the Pannell family in 1920. May be a relative of Charles?

In 1930 & 1935, Charles & Marian Howell lived at 113 Avondale Road, Sparkhill ... in 1930, Mary Ann and Florence Emily Neal were also listed there.

In 1912, Henry Neal lived at 261 Clifton Road, Sparkhill.
 
Hi Icarus,
Firstly thank you for replying and I'm sorry I seemed to have put you to the trouble of looking through the electoral rolls as I already had this information but thankyou anyway. I don't know too much about the districts in Birmingham so didn't realise there could be two Clifton Roads but Sparkhill is the area I am looking in and I will keep this is mind.
Hope the ironing board was ok:) and you never know maybe these Neals will crop up somewhere so I will make a note.
Thanks again
Liz
 
Hi everyone,
Lots of good memories and memory joggers from you all.
Some more to add, my Father, Henry John Chinn, was born at, I think 1/161, which was 1 back of 161, Clifton Road although the Family home was 159. He was a twin but sadly his brother, William Percy, died before his 1st Birthday.
From what I can gather my Great Grandfather, Henry Chinn, moved in to 159 Clifton Road when they were first built in the lat 1800's He had 9 children, all living in a 3 bedroom house!
I have happy memories of visiting my Grandfather, William Henry Chinn, at 159 and staying there occasionally, we lived on Washwood Heath Road in Washwood Heath, I can just about remember the Coronation street party in 1953 and have a couple of photographs somewhere of it. My Grandmother died long before I was born and my Grandfather remarried Elsie Bridge but we were NEVER allowed to call her Gran!
My Father's Sister, Agnes, married Tom Clarke and used to live in one of the 'back' houses 3/159 they had 4 children, Michael, Peter and twins Colin and Christopher, sadly Michael died from Leukaemia, when he was 18/19 and at Leeds University, and from what I remember Christopher died in a motorcycle accident so they had more than their share of sadness!
Access to these back houses was via the entry between 159/161 which then split either way to the back gates of 159 and 161 and the 'Brewhouses' the main entry continued and there were 6 houses with small front gardens a central front door with a room either side, the right hand one being the living room/kitchen and the stairs went up from this room to the 2 bedrooms above. The outside toilets were at the top of the entry, shared by all of the back houses, it was always sheets of newspaper on a nail on the back of the door! The houses that fronted on to Clifton Road had their own toilets although they were outside as well.
There was a brassworks factory on the other side of 161 which extended back behind the 'back houses', there was an Ansells outdoor on Clifton Road opposite the 'Terrace' which was next to my Grandfathers hose and I can remember being sent over with a jug to get it filled with Mild or possibly Nut Brown Ale. I always thought it was strange because you had to go up 2 or 3 steps into the 'shop' but when they had to access the cellar they had a trap-door behind the counter to go down into the cellar.
At the end of Clifton Road as someone has, quite rightly, said was Potters Hill. This used to run from Victoria Road down to New Town Row where the Aston Hippodrome was. In Potters hill there were more factories as well as houses one of which was the Cyclo Gear Co. when I had my first bike I used to take it there to get my buckled wheels 'trued' which they would do for you straight away if they wern't too busy, I also bought replacement cables from there too until they moved or maybe closed down. I then had to get my cables from Clarkes in Nechells, but that's another story!
One of my Uncles, Uncle Arthur[actually a Gret Uncle, I think], I seem to remember ran a pub, which [I think] was the Vine down Lichfield Road, supposedly the only pub bordered by a Road/Street/Lane and, at the moment, still exsists!
Another Great Uncle, Ernie, was a butcher at the Co-op at Aston Cross where we would occasionally go to get a joint for Sunday Dinner, we didn't have lunch in theose days! Aston Cross was quite a bustling shopping centre in those days.

Bill.
 
Hello Bill

Thank you for such a wonderful description of where your family used to live in Clifton Road. I was particularly interested in the fact that your gt.grandfather lived at 159 Clifton Road as my family lived in No.25 Court, also known as Gothic Terrace, which I believe came between Nos. 157 and 159. My gt.grandparents James and Ellen Martin lived in this court from at least 1881. Ellen's mother, Ellen Bellamy, was living in the court in 1871. My own grandparents, William Thomas and Rose Hanson were living in the Court from about 1911. Rose was the daughter of James and Ellen. So you can see I have a lot of family connection to 25 Court. After James and Ellen died, their daughter Minnie and her husband Ralph Jones,took over the same house, No.7, and was there until the late 1930's. Your family may have known mine!

Your description of the houses with windows either side of the front door, fits in with a description my Mom gave me of her grandmother's house with a large Conch Shell on each windowsill as decoration. I have often wondered where this house was and whether it was the Court in Clifton Road, but after reading your description, I feel sure that this was the location.

I know that in the court there were a couple of shared lavatories, and the my young children had to take their turn in scrubbing the communal them out. Also there was a cold water pump in the yard where Grandma Hanson and Gt Grandma Martin (mother and daughter) would sit scrubbing the skin off new potatoes in the sumer. My Mom and her brother and sister all went to Upper Thomas Street School. An interesting piece from the School Log Book for 20 December 1922 - "Low attendance due to weather. Bad boots a cause. Snowed heavily in morning - thaw in afternoon"

Judy
 
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