Hi. You may not see this reply but thought I'd share with you just in case. I just joined this site as I'm trying to find some old photos of Erdington Fire Station from the 50s/60s as my mother is almost 70yo and am trying to put some old photos together as a surprise. She grew up on the station at that time. My grandfather was Sub-Officer Ashley 'Tom' Atkins. He lived there with my grandmother (Vera), my mother (Linda) and my aunt (Susan). My mum and aunt were only little girls growing up there initially but were there for quite a few years and went to Moor End Lane School while living at the station. So when you visited the station you may well have known them and played with them too.
Now, something I used to love is spending time with my grandfather and he would have many, many stories about his days in the fire brigade. Most of the stories I heard time and time again. I would never interrupt because they were great to listen to. One of the characters that often came up was your uncle, Bungy Williams. From what I can tell he was really well liked and always a bit of the comedian at the station.
One story I recall my grandfather telling me was your uncle manning the public office one day which had a hatch window for the public to speak to someone. Someone arrived (I think it was someone from the gas board or similar) who needed access to the station. Your uncle informed the gentleman that the station officer was sleeping and he couldn't possibly allow him past his office because he'll wake up and he really didn't like being woken up. So, to get around the problem Bungy suggested the gas man climb through the small hatch window. So there he was pulling this guy through the hatch and into the office so he could carry out whatever he needed to without waking the gaffer. And then made sure he exited in exactly the same manner! Of course there was no such sleeping station office but was just Bungy doing Bungy things.
