• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

College Street, Brookfields / Ladywood

  • Thread starter Thread starter the doc
  • Start date Start date
T

the doc

Guest
G’day,

My name is Jeff Holloway and I was born at 5 back of 12, College Street, Brookfields / Ladywood. Ours was one of eight back-to-back houses in the “yard”, each house being three stories with cellar, a single room downstairs with a kitchenette just large enough for a gas stove, sink (cold water only) and a small cupboard, one bedroom and an attic.

As you walked up the “yard” there were

- The Bakers (Irene and ??)
- An old lady (Mrs ?) who lived on her own. She worked from home making cardboard tubes
- The Barkers (Nancy and ?)
- The Allens (Ray and ?)

Then you entered the open, common area that had the two wash houses (brew houses?) and four toilets. Two familes shared a wash house and toilet.

Then came

- The Lanes. He worked for the railways and smoked twist in his pipe.
- The Holloways. Marge and George with children Jeff, Kay and Susan
- The Iresons. Don’t know the parents names but their children were Raymond (he was in the navy), Thelma, Ronnie and Kenneth
- The Whiteheads

Our “yard” was blocked off from the “yard” facing us by a wall. The houses in the other “yard” were considered very “posh” compared to ours because they were only two stories but had TWO rooms downstairs (yes, they had their own parlour!!) and two bedrooms. In this yard lived my grandmother (Nin Phillips) and my mother’s sisters and their families. There was Dilla and Ernie Gregory with their children Brian and Janet, Floss and Fred Dukes with their son Roy and Amy and John Franks who lived with my Nin with their two sons Tony and Roger. There were two other families in the “yard” one of which I think were the Moorheads (not sure of the spelling).

There was a small “shop” owned by a Mrs. Swindler (?) that seemed to sell only bundles of firewood and cigarettes. Times were hard and my father would send me to her shop with a penny or two to buy him one cigarette and one match wrapped up in newspaper. There was also a true “corner shop” on the corner of College and Myddleton Streets owned by the Roberts I think. The “Old College” pub was on the corner of College Street and Spring Hill and the landlord was Bill Millington, a fairly rotund guy.

Other families I can remember in the street were the Mountneys (son David), Robinsons (son Dennis), Smith (they had a large family including a son called Teddy) and the Leonards (son Trevor)

Around 1961 the Council decided pull down the houses and we were “relocated to Kings Norton.

I have been living in Australia for the past 40 years and would like to hear from anyone who lived in College Street area in the period 1943 to around 1962 or who can give me any information and/or photographs on what has happened to the street over the years.
 
Billy Millington of The College pub was married to my gran's sister. I have an idea they moved on to running the Yew Tree in Erdington, but I'm not sure about that. Have you looked under Main Sites at the Winson Green to Brookfields site? Lots of info there, and I think College Street gets a mention.
 
G,DAY To Ya Doc ,
I Can Recall Some Of Them Familys You,ve Mentioned
The Mountneys , The Robbo,s The Ireson,s And Most Definately The Football Team , The Smiths
The IRSON,S Are Living In Bromsgrove Worcestshire , ,
The Robbo,s Are Living In Edgebaston B,ham By The Queen Elisabeth Hospital
But When They Left The Colledge Rd ,They First Went Up The Road To Barford Rd By The SchoolThen They Moved To Where They Are Now
The Smiths Are All Over The Place One Of The Smiths Turned Out To Be A Bad ONE In His Later Teens , Spent Alot Of Is Time In GAOL ,And Now Finaly In Is Adult Life He is Serving Life In Gaol For Murdering A Prostute , He,s Only Been In There A Couple Of Years Now He Dumped Her In Worcestershire ,
He Picked Her Up In Spark Brook [ Braitwaite St ] Do You Recall Bonna Hollond The Chimney Sweep Man In The Colledge Arms And Is Wife Iris
With Is Push Bike Outside Loaded Up With BagsOf Sut On IT
He Used To Work At Lucas,s In Great King St Until He Had An Accident At Work On The Night Shift He Was On The Maitenance Team And He Fell Off The Ladder ,He Got Big Compensation ,Then With The Money He Bought The Cross Keys Public House In Stewart St BY THE CHROMEAFRAME Factory
Behind Stewart St School And He Eventualy Died , His Wife Bought
A Bungleow On Icknield Port Road And Gillot Rd [ DOC , ] HIS WIFE WAS
CALLED ELSIE AND NOT IRIS AS I FIRST STATED . OK .]
EIYERS STREET IS STILL THERE , THEY ONLY MODERISED A COUPLE OF THE OLD FACTORIS BUT IT REALLY IS A SCRUFFY LOOKING ST NOW , UH.
George St west Has,t Changed Either Colledge RD as Gone
Clisold Sideing Cannal Is Still The Same Almost All The Pubs Have Gone
From Summer hill Right Up To The Green , The only One Still Standing His StanKirbys Pub , The Old Wind Mill , The B,A AS Gone The Duke Of Wellington ,The Lee Bridge Tavern ,The One Next To The Park
The Old Coach And Horses,s Went Years AGO Long With The Queens ,
The Turf ,The Free house And Of Course Along With The INGLBY ARMS,
The Only Thing Left IS The LIBARY , I.LL Try And Send You Some PICS SOON ,BEST WISHES ASTONIAN ,;;;I THINK I HAVE APIC OF BILLY MILLINGTON
FROM When The Brewery Sent Thirty Of Us Gathers To Dublin, Some Years Ago
Any Way I Will Try And Find The Pic
Doc, I Will Be In Touch Again Soon Best Wishes ASTONIAN ,
 
HI CHARLIE
I,LL DO MY DAMMED BEST TO GET THE OLD CASES OUT TO RUMICH THROUGH
And Hopefully I,LL PutMyHands On It
We Had Some Pics Taken In The Guiness Brewery As Well Whilst In Dublin ,
So Charlie Please Bear With Me On This One Okay ,
Because I Know The Names , But Bear InMind IHAVE TO Pick Out The Faces Because We Have All Changed And Older Looking
I WILL CATCH YOU LATER CHARLIE ,
BEST WISHES ASTONIAN ,;;
 
Thanks for the feedback Charlie and Astonian.

I was intrigued with the whereabouts of all those names from the past and surprised at the dilema of one of the Smith boys. Was it Teddy? He was really the only one I knew and went to school with.

Reading your feedback, Astonian, I began to remember thing I thought I had long forgotten. Yes, I remember the chimney sweep but had forgotten his name. The rag and bone man and the winkle carts trundling along College Street and the buses continually going up and down the street to the depot in Roseberry Street.

Do you remember Billy(or Jimmy?) Fox? He was the local street bookie and lived down the same yard as the Smiths. He was a familiar sight, standing on the corner by the pub, wearing an overcoat and flat hat and trying to disguise what he was doing as he quicky pushed bets ("discretely" passed to him by passing punters) into his pocket.

Billy Milligton was landlord at a pub in Kings Norton around 1960 after his stint at The College. I cannot remember the name of the pub but it was located around the Hillmeads Road / Sisefield Road area on a new estate in Kings Norton just past the Green.

I used to earn a few pence in the winter months fetching coal from the coal yard at the corner of Clissold and New Spring Street. It was a nighmare journey trying to control a coal barrow with a hundredweight of coal careering down the ice on the hill of Roseberry Street, and then trying desperately to push the empty barrow back up the hill, feet slipping everywhere and taking "one step forwards, two steps back"

Look forward to hearing from you both again
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi There Doc
Its A Small World Really Aint it , The Chances Are We Bumped IntoEach Other And Not KNOWN It In The Colledge Arms And Chatted
The Chimney Sweep Bloke Lived Down On Spring Hill Is Name Was Bonna Holloand He Kept The Best Racing Pigeons Around The Area Apart FromThe Bloke ,Named Jukes , Between ThemThey Won Afew Bob , I Met Billy
The Runner Afew Years Back , Im Was Told He Died , And Our Penny Winkle
Man Was Jack Kelly The Hawker, Loved Atot Spent His Pennies As Fast As He Made It It Seems To Me He Spent More Time In The Bell ,On The Corner
Of Stour Street Which Was Up The Little Spring Hill Passage His Hand Cart Never Moved Until Closing Especialy On Sundays , Teddy Smith Died ,
It Was One OfThe Very Young Ones WhomCommitted The Crime [ philip ]
You Not Recall Him I USED To Speak With Him If I Ever Passed Him On The Street, The Coal Yard You Mentioned Was Clissold St Wharf Where The Coal Was Brought In By Barges ,I Remember Fetching Coal FromTHAT Wharf
For A Lady At The Top End Of Rosemary St, She Would Pay Me Half A Crown For Fetching It For Her And As You Say THEY Used Those Big Hand Carts
By The Way Doc I Don,t Know Whether Or Not Anybody Told You Of Another Sight Called Brookfields But Check It Out ,There IS Pics In Galore OF The Old End
George St West And The Surronding Area And Hingestion st And The Laurells Pub
That Was One Of Mossy,s Haunts I Don,t Wether He,s Seen Yet ,I Did This Morning .Speak To You Again Doc , Best Wishes ASTONIAN ,;;;
 
On the Main Site Winson Green to Brookfields, Jack Slade has posted a photograph of a Penny Winkle man in a group of people outside the George and Dragon in Albion Street...but didn't know his name.
Could this be Jack Kelly? Or is this photo of an earlier age?
 
:cool: G'day Astonian,

You mentioned a pidgeon owner called Jukes. Was his name Fred or Roy by any chance? If so it may have been my uncle / cousing who lived in College Street.

You seem to know the pubs in the area. Do you ever remeber my father, George Holloway serving at any of the pubs in the area? He worked as part time barman at quite a few of the pubs in the area. The one I recall quire clearly was at the intesection of Dudley Road and Heath Street. I cannot remeber the name of the pub but the landlord was called Nicklin. He also worked for quite some years at the Barford Road Club (around late 50's early 60's). His full time job was along Heath Street at GKN and I can still remeber their childrens' Christmas parties where you sat, waiting for yor name to be called then you went up on stage to collect a small gift and a couple of pieces of fruit.

Doc
 
Would any of you good people have a photo of the Old College Pub.....Jimmy Warner the Villa goalkeeper of the 1890's was the publican there during that period....I am in close contact with his great grand daughter....and I would love to be able to show her a picture of the College Inn....ta
 
Soory, JKC, can't help you but I, too, would appreciate a photograph if anyone has one

Doc
 
Charlie,the College pub was run by Billy Millington in i think the 50s it had a boxing ring up strairs,and a famous Birmingham boxer used to go there.

Billy was a lager than life character i new him very well a smashing bloke.
When i moved to Kings Norton Billy had a pub called The Primrose we use to have some great times after time with billy and his family that was in the 70s-80s Billy also done a lot for charity
 
Mossy: Someone sent me a photo once (but I'm blowed if I can find it!) of Billy Millington with Johnny Prescot the boxer. I didn't realise there was a boxing ring upstairs at the College...that explains the photo then! Will keep looking for it.
I didn't realise he kept a pub in Kings Norton, someone said it was Erdington - then again, maybe he moved around a bit!
 
Thanks Charlie i would love to see the photo,every body thought Billy was a boxing promoter,he had that look about him the way he dressed and yes the boxer i mentioned was Jonny Presscot

The College pub was a well known pub for boxing i did box myself and belong to Midland Ex Boxers Association which is run from the old M&B club in Portland Road....:cool:...Mossy
 
HI DOC /CHARLIE
First Of All Charlie Yes It Was Old Jack Kelly Him self
He Always Spent Alot Of Time At That [ The Dragon ,] And The Free House
Just Aong From There Always On Saturday Lunch Time , I Think It Was Bcause Of The Blokes Coming Out Of Bulpitts And He Used To Sell Alot
There I Know Our Kid Used To Buy Alot Off Him When He Came Out Of Bulpitts Our Kid Was A Polisher There For Donkey Years Before They Mved To West Bromwhich And Sunday If He Was,nt At The Colledge Long He Would End Up At The Bell Up Springhill Passage AT The Corner Of Stour St All Day , Doc , I Cannot Recall The Christian Name But I Stake My Life
I Think IT Was One Or The Other And I Do Know The Man Was Definately Jukes The Fancier , Him And Bonna Hollond Was Always Winning The Club
Top Prizes Between Them , With The Fastest Clock In Birds
I Lived Right Door To Bonna, And I Seen All His Best Birds
Incidently I Did Meet Your Uncle At Barford Rd Club ,I Had The Pleasure
Because They Changed The Name Of THE Club , To Barford AMATURES
Gardeners Club And I Was Asked To Run It , But On The Morning We Was To Move IN My Old Dutchess Did Want Me To Take It On, Only Because
I Am Well Know In The Trade And Virtualy Knowing Every-body In The AREA
Whom Are The Drinkers And They Would Want Me To Give Them The Afters
I Had To Tell Them No ,They Were All Disopointed , Even Me , Any Way
The Pub YouMentioned Was The Lee Bridge Tavern At The Junction Of Dudley Rd And Heath Street And The Other End Of The Heath St Was
The Shakespear [ Which Was Oppersite An Old Friends House Of Mossy,s And My Good Self Micky, House ,, Do You Recall Mossy , ?,
Doc , Do You Recall The Queens Head Or The Coach And Horses EVEN The Inglby The B,A, The Duke Of Wellington , The Old Wind mill
I,ll Leave It At For Now Doc, Speak Soon G,DAY TO YA, Astonian ,;;
 
G'day Astonian,

Sorry about the delay in replying.

As usual your postings opened a wealth of memories. I knew most of the pubs you mentioned (which was the one almost opposite Dudley Road Hospital?) and I was surprised to hear the Barford Road Club had become the Amateur Gardeners Club. I had quite a few memories, mainly when I went to pick up my dad when he was relief manager there. The name of the pub was, indeed, the Lee Bridge Tavern. Did you know the landlord there - Billy (?) Nicklin?

Reading your posting I realised that Pat Morgan at Camden Street School was NOT my first love. That was in fact Sonia Sanders whose father was landlord at the Coach and Horses. Ah, those romantic dreams of a nine year old !!

Your last postings seems to have disappeared from the site but I think I can remeber most of the content.

Yes, I did drive a big, black car but it was an old Jowett "Javelin". And , yes, I did wear a sheepskin jacket - it was one of those false suede jackets with the thick, white fleecy lining that were popular at the time.

I remeber Wakelin's green grocers very well. We didn't have electricity when I was young so it was my job to take the accumulator batteries for the radio up Spring Hill to a shop close to the "cut" where they had a battery charger. They would exchange them for the flat ones and I the family could listen to Radio Luxemburg, Dick Barton, PC 49, Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future etc for a few more days. Other shops I remeber on my walk up the hill were Luckman's, Carmichael's faggots and beautiful mushy peas, Verrachias ice cream, a sweet shop called Russells after the owner and a toy shop.

Do you remeber the old bonfire nights, Astonian? :steamingpile:

The groups of kids would go "plundering" for stuff to burn and spent a few hours making a Guy Fawkes. But you had to watch your plunder hoard carefully because rival gangs (particularly from Myddleton Street) would try to creep in at night and steal it. Mind you, we did the same to them !!

But the night itself was a real party night for the families in the yard. Plenty of fireworks - catherine wheels, jumping jacks, roman candles, sparklers, rockets launched from empty milk bottles (no "bangers" allowed), writing your name on the brew house wall with your penny squib and "enjoying" a few burned potatoes and hot chestnuts from the fire. Looking back, with the price of antiques rocketing in Australia, on current day values we must have burned many hundred of thousands of dollars of furniture.

Ah well, the wisdom of hindsight.

Talk to you soon
 
Last edited by a moderator:
G'day again Astonian,

Found your last posting. It hadn't "dissappeared" from the site but, for some reason it was in another posting I placed on this site under "Schools and Schoolfriends" with the thread name "Camden Street Primary & George Dixons"

Regards
 
the doc said:
G’day,

My name is Jeff Holloway and I was born at 5 back of 12, College Street, Brookfields / Ladywood. Ours was one of eight back-to-back houses in the “yard”, each house being three stories with cellar, a single room downstairs with a kitchenette just large enough for a gas stove, sink (cold water only) and a small cupboard, one bedroom and an attic.

As you walked up the “yard” there were

- The Bakers (Irene and ??)
- An old lady (Mrs ?) who lived on her own. She worked from home making cardboard tubes
- The Barkers (Nancy and ?)
- The Allens (Ray and ?)

Then you entered the open, common area that had the two wash houses (brew houses?) and four toilets. Two familes shared a wash house and toilet.

Then came

- The Lanes. He worked for the railways and smoked twist in his pipe.
- The Holloways. Marge and George with children Jeff, Kay and Susan
- The Iresons. Don’t know the parents names but their children were Raymond (he was in the navy), Thelma, Ronnie and Kenneth
- The Whiteheads

Our “yard” was blocked off from the “yard” facing us by a wall. The houses in the other “yard” were considered very “posh” compared to ours because they were only two stories but had TWO rooms downstairs (yes, they had their own parlour!!) and two bedrooms. In this yard lived my grandmother (Nin Phillips) and my mother’s sisters and their families. There was Dilla and Ernie Gregory with their children Brian and Janet, Floss and Fred Dukes with their son Roy and Amy and John Franks who lived with my Nin with their two sons Tony and Roger. There were two other families in the “yard” one of which I think were the Moorheads (not sure of the spelling).

There was a small “shop” owned by a Mrs. Swindler (?) that seemed to sell only bundles of firewood and cigarettes. Times were hard and my father would send me to her shop with a penny or two to buy him one cigarette and one match wrapped up in newspaper. There was also a true “corner shop” on the corner of College and Myddleton Streets owned by the Roberts I think. The “Old College” pub was on the corner of College Street and Spring Hill and the landlord was Bill Millington, a fairly rotund guy.

Other families I can remember in the street were the Mountneys (son David), Robinsons (son Dennis), Smith (they had a large family including a son called Teddy) and the Leonards (son Trevor)

Around 1961 the Council decided pull down the houses and we were “relocated to Kings Norton.

I have been living in Australia for the past 40 years and would like to hear from anyone who lived in College Street area in the period 1943 to around 1962 or who can give me any information and/or photographs on what has happened to the street over the years.
Click to expand...


Hello Jeff, I only just read your piece on college street. I was born in 1937 (just) and lived until the 1960s at No 39. My father lived there until the redevelopment when he moved to Gt. Barr until he passed away in 1987. You may remenber me and my father we were keen cyclists my mother passed away at 65 in 1968.The area has changed of course Spring Hill has grass and trees and where Dalton used to run his betting shop (on the QT of course) is now a school and Camden St. school is an OAP home.
I can remember all the names you mentioned and Brian Gregory and Co. did some renovation work a few doors up the road from me here in Gt. Barr/ Perry Barr. I have Photographs of the area as it is now but alas my father destroyed all the old ones when he moved
 
hi jeff
i am sure we can provide you with some pics of the area
but you would be shocked to see the old place its all gone its all new territory now colledge rd you would not beleive it i took a pic of colledge rd
and regards the colledge arms i was to late its just an empty space
so i took the picture of where it did stand the very corner
i got one of old clissold passage where that shop you took your battery
by the cut ,- do you remember the big fire along the cut it backed on to colledge rd it was along the clissold passage right next to the cut
it was a big bedding company you could see it for miles
and oh by the way i remember george your father
one of my old friends whom i see in and around bromscrove is the iresons
they have there own big business scaffolding business
and it was ray and myself asked your dad for a loan of his car to go
down to london for the week end i think it was about 25 ,or fifty quid
we payed him on the way down ireson was driving we had a blow out
it was dark and an isolated part of the m,i in those days,we sat there for hours in the dark before the old bill pulled up and asked what the problem was
they got us the AA out we was not members and short of cash
so the AA driver said sign my form and i will get you on the move
ireson said okay and off we went we finaly got to london we went to
kenninton . in vauxall just from the city of london in fact it was lambeth
the peopl;e we came down to see was all in bed very late of the night
so we slept in the car around 5,30 we was surrounded by the london cops
they used to drive the old ford anglias in those days and the minis and a couple of motor cycles cops they woke us up and asked us to get out and what are we doing we told them of our plight they knocked our friends up and asked if they knew us we got cleared and they left us alone
i most certainly remember him working in the pubs
as you know we used all those pubs down and around there you would have known the adams family from new spring street and spring field st
nipper lived in new spring st by you and joyce and dave we started at the coach and horses working up the dudley rd cor , blimey they openend at 10 -30 in
those days and at 5-30 i think you should remember the watkings family
especialy wholly watkings he died many years ago ,
would you remember the mousdalesfamily from cope st
well jeff its been nice speaking to you again and look foreward for more of you on the forum best wishes astonian ;;;;
 
Hello!Jeff.
My name is Teddy Smith(Glad to say not deceased) I lived in college street with mom and dad with three brothers Derek, Johnny,Allan and five sisters val, barbara,Linda, June ,Pauline. We lived at 1 college terrace college street . yes I do remember you.I went to school with you at Camden Street ,I then went to Barford Road Boys Senior school, not brainy enough for George dixon.The yard you lived up backed onto the alley where the Ice Cream Vans were parked 'Verrecchias, you lived next to the Iresons, I still see Kenny.
Reading Astonians reply to you I am not sure where he got his info from but I am very much alive, also there isnt any of us that have ever been in prison and certainly never ever killed anyone, we areall just a hard working decent family and have all done very well for our selves.We didnt turn out too bad being as we were supposed to be a rough family.
Yes I can remember a lot of the people you have spoke about and the area has changed a lot in the last few years,
Some roads are there where we lived but it is all new housing now.
Some of the names I can remember from Camden Street are Micheal Sketchley, Raymond Lucy, Billy Bettam,Trevor Dance,Dennis Bowen,Jaqueline Cox,Diane Smith,
 
HI LITTLE TEDDY
Just read your thread about college rd ithink you are getting yourself a litle bit mixed up
regarding the smiths i was on about the smiths are the ones facing the colledge arms
not the ones whom lived in colledge arms
if you remember the taxie office across the rd from the colledge arms on the main rd
walking up opast the steward street and then eiyer street you got the shops the main rd
there was an entry going up behind the shops there was also a robert smith whom i went to schol live lived in the shops as well on the front also went the same school ;
so i was not mentioning your emediate family of smiths which i presume you was not aware of your neibours my friend ; i know the iresons and terry is still alive and kicking and the sibbling are alive andkicking and i se themnm quite regular i also borrowed a car of jeff years ago with one of the iresons whom asked jeff onmy behalf for the week end and we went to london on a bussines trip
have a nice day best wishes astonian ;;
 
Hi, Astonian, Little Ted here I did not know that there was another smith family living in spring hill, college street
obviously we are not talking about the same families. we will leave it at that then now.
Regards
Little ted
 
Hi Teddy I'm using this forum to search my family tree and entered my dads name Billy Bettam and the result was your quote,my dad has moved away from Birmingham and now lives in Somerset.He remembers you as he said he was your best man and also talks about the meeting in the shed at the end of his garden.It really made his day when I showed him all the people that are mentioned on here its amazing how much he still remembers about all the things you guys got up to.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top