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Coalmen/coal yards

Hello David. Sorry to hear about your brother Charley, but he sounds like a very decent bloke. Condolences to your family, and RIP Charley.
 
When I was a nipper living in The Broadway, Witton, our coal was delivered by horse-drawn cart by a pair of real characters. One of them as I recall was called Sam, and at some point in his life he'd broken his neck, or so my mom reckoned, as he couldn't hold his head upright! If I was around, mom would always ask me to count the sacks, and to see if they were filled to overflowing. I also had to be ready with a bucket in case their horse dropped manure anywhere near our house. They had to cart the sacks up the long 'entry' between the terraced houses, along the passage at the end of the gardens, then down our garden to the coal-house, and for years my mom reckoned they charged her extra for the long walk. They probably did!

Big Gee
 
Hello Wendy, and thanks for your kind thoughts. I was lucky to get him on the telephone just before he died as the nurse in Dudley Road hospital managed to get a telephone to him and we said our goodbye's. Hard being so far away on the other side of the world. Regards, David.
 
Hello David I am so glad you were able to talk to your brother before he passed away not many of us get that chance. How kind of the nurse to take the time to find a phone. The NHS is so stretched their time is very limited I am so glad she did that for your brother we only here negative things these days. Just remember the happy times and pass it on to the young folk. Wendy xx.
 
my condolances too david on the lost of your dear brother...not only did he serves the community but also his country...

RIP charley....

lyn
 
I remember our coal man. He was gorgeous and I fancied him like mad. I never bothered to count the sacks !!!!!
 
Here is one of three guys from Old Hill, The Black country. The name fits.




Image2__Old_Hill_Coalmen_1960s.jpg



Regards Stars
 
When our family lived in Tilton Road,Small Heath in the early 1950's our coalman was a guy called Bobby Evans.
 
This is a pricelist and bill head from my grandfather's sisters family who moved from Birmingham to Llandudno. It states on the top left the company was founded in Birmingham in 1908. It all looks quite posh..ha ha I think they were trying to establish a good buisness.

Davies_Family.jpg
 
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My father Albert Ainsworth used to deliver coal for Mr Neale, I remember as a child sitting in the office on the wharf Mr Neale was very kind he always gave the workforce a Christmas cake at Christmas but it did seem to get smaller as the years went by!
 
#122 When I was a nipper living in The Broadway, Witton, our coal was delivered by horse-drawn cart by a pair of real characters. One of them as I recall was called Sam, and at some point in his life he'd broken his neck, or so my mom reckoned, as he couldn't hold his head upright! If I was around, mom would always ask me to count the sacks, and to see if they were filled to overflowing. I also had to be ready with a bucket in case their horse dropped manure anywhere near our house. They had to cart the sacks up the long 'entry' between the terraced houses, along the passage at the end of the gardens, then down our garden to the coal-house, and for years my mom reckoned they charged her extra for the long walk. They probably did!

Big Gee Big Gee I think you had the coal man from Franchise street where my nan lived. He used to let me groom his horse but I can't remember either names. Was the horse black like the coal?

 
hartwell1.jpg
Here's a picture of Reg and Albert Hartwell who lived in Brook Lane, Kings Heath. They worked out of Small Heath yard. In this pic they are at Victoria garage which was on the corner of Coventry road and Watery lane. This pic was taken about 1982.
 
My mother would pass father's old coats ( and I mean old) for the coal man to wear under his heavy leather body protector. After one delivery she went into the road to give him
another jacket when he said he had counted the empty bags on his lorry and was just about to bring the missing one to the coal bunker. Did he think mother was going to approach him about the deficite and he own up? We will never know. Coal at this time was after all 4shillings (20p) a cwt including "bats" that never did burn. Our family were
well known around the area for emptying slack from local coal bunkers. Father made a substantial hand cart which he and I would push for what seemed miles just to get about 1 cwt . This mother burned on an Ideal boiler which heated the kitchen and water. The claim to fame was that during the War years no fuel was purchased for this boiler.
 
Our coal when i lived in Formans Rd was delivered by Sid Sansom, who had a coal yard in Bromyard Rd. An old trick of my mothers to make the coal go farther
was to fill a tin can with the slack or at other times with pebbles.
 
I've come to the forum, and thread late, but interested in this thread. My dad was a coalman, worked for Henry Lloyd, between Stirchley and Cotteridge. He started out with a horse delivery, and the horse knew the round by heart. One day dad came out of a delivery, and the horse and cart had gone, he had taken himself home! Dad always said the horse didn't have a name, he just answered to 'oi you", my dad loved that horse.... Later he had a lorry, doing the Northfield, Stirchley, Kings Norton area. I remember getting up in the middle of the night to go with him yo Myrthr Tydfil to collect coal in a tipper from the mine.

He he was as straight as the day is long, and never undersold the weight.... :-)
 
Modern houses rarely had cellars but some sort out bunker outdoors but I do recall going down a steep flight of stairs into the darkness that was was my grandmothers coal cellar.

I still have a coal delivery, by a coalman, and I have a specially constructed bunker for my coal fires.
 
Hi All,

I lived in Carlton Road, Small Heath. My saddest memory as a lad was one day down the bottom of the road I saw a coalcart with the horse lying on the ground still between the shafts. It had apparently collapsed and died. The coalman was sitting on the kerb crying. A lady, one oif our neighbours ,was trying to comfort him but I heard him keep saying "He was my best pal and I have lost him" I was later told that it had taken ages for the body to be removed and also the cart. I did not see this as my mother had called me in and said that it was not a sight for little boys to gawp over.

Old Boy
 
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The photo is of the Coal office in Frances Road, Cotteridge where my dad worked for thirty years. It's now a private residence, and by chance I just found it on Rightmove, for sale... This place hold many memories for me.
 

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I remember our coalman and his lorry, but he never had a 'Stop Me and Buy One' sign like the one in this pic. The dividend from that Co Op looks good.
coal.jpg
 
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When my Mom died in 1943 I went to live with my Nan in Queens Rd Aston (I was 13) and when the coalman arrived it was my job to count the number of sacks he emptied down the cellar grating (not very trusting our Nan !!!). Eric
 
Eric we had coal delivered when I was young. My mother would sit me in the veranda, to count the coal being put in the coalhouse, trouble is I was easily distracted and got into trouble for not doing my job!
 
I'm puzzled by what appears to be large 'boulders' on that lorry, or they could be large lumps of coal which the coalman had to break up to re-fill sacks after he had emptied them into customer's coal cellars. Maybe it was it was a way of carrying coal without lots of small bits moving around as the lorry travelled along the road ...
 
Hi Lyn - the sack at the back looks as if it could almost fall off especially when the lorry is going up some of the hills round there, and I suppose the sacks at the front could have leaned against the cab.
Phil
 
The linked pic in #144 has the following caption which maybe explains the 'Stop Me and Buy One' sign and also the decorative small curtains in the cab.
Co-op coal wagon in front of Co-op garages on Meadow Street. Decorated for Thornsett Carnival 1927 - The driver was Clifford Wild who in 1984 lived at 108 Buxton Road. the vehicle was a Dennis motor wagon.
Click to expand...

and the Co-op would have supported a carnival attended by potential customers.
 
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