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Erdington

Hi Lyn, I've just realised that I haven't responded to your earlier query about the original Swan. I think it must have been Georgian. Long gone now but I do I remember it still being there in the 50's as were some of the shops on the other side of Wilton Road. There is a thread just for the Swan with one of your photos starting it. I think it must have been a coaching inn originally. I wonder why they felt the need to demolish it to put up the present box? It didn't have anything to do with the new road which had been up and running for about 20 years. Blockbusters wasn't built until the video boom so what was there before? Were there any shops left fronting onto the village green after the Sutton New Road came through? There don't seem to be any pictures of that time.
 

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Erdington High Street in the early 1960s when the parking was easy as demonstrated by the owner of that Vauxhall Victor.
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I would guess that an accurate date might be known if date the shop mentioned in post 771 actually opened. It does appear to be 'now open', The people look better dressed in the photo than the 'third world' fashions of many today.
 
If the picture is from the 1960s, and there are so few cars parked in the High Street, the well dressed people would be making their way to St Barnabas Church or the Abbey on a Sunday morning.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Was it Taylor's/Owen Owen shop to the right where the man with the stick is walking ? Viv.
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I think he is near the (new) Robuck, I think the shop was a men's tailors, corner of the precinct. To me it looks like a Sunday in the early 70's. Just looking at the 1,100 and the Hilman Imp?
 
I say, someone has left their empty bottle of Sam Brown or Bruno or Albright outside the shop. When did they stop giving money back for the bottles?
 
Think there's a female mannequin in the shop window and there's the lower loop of a letter on the shop fascia. Viv.
 
The photo was taken more or less where Walter Smith butcher's shop is now, not far up from Barnabas road. Would not see cars parked that way these days either, being a one way street the other way.
 
I can remember in my local pub in reading them marking the (few ) bottles that were purchased as they would only pay out on bottles purchased there. this would certainly have been in the 1980s.
 
The number plate on the Vauxhall fixes the earliest date, the suffix 'A' was used Jan '63 to Dec '63. The shops look closed so it was probably on a Sunday. When did 'Sunday trading' start? A Morris 1100 and possibly an Hillman Imp parked might offer date clues. A man in a smart belted Gaberdine mac holding his daughter's hand ... I think that might have gone out of fashion before the mid '70s. It has a mid to late '60s look to me.
 
More traffic in Erdington High Street compared to the pic in post#770 . Parking still looks easy, loads of spaces between cars. F.Foxton & Sons has a blind out so maybe it is a weekday and the shops are open in this pic, in the #770 pic the blind was not out. F.A.Powell closing down may give a date clue.
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The Owen Owen shop in Erdington High Street and a Tandy Electrical shop on the corner of Harrison Road. The shop had presumably replaced older buildings like the ones next to it. It has now been replaced as shown in the modern pic and possibly could not be classed as an improvement.
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Spent many hours in Owen Owen in their cafe - upstairs - after school with friends. Tandy, I think, was also a cafe in the 1960s. Think it was called the Griddle Inn. Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Spent many hours in Owen Owen in their cafe - upstairs - after school with friends. Tandy, I think, was also a cafe in the 1960s. Think it was called the Griddle Inn. Viv.
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Indeed it was the Griddle inn! You must be a frightfully posh girl Viv... they used to cut the rind off the bacon for your sandwich there. It was Des O'Connor who did the official opening of Owen and Owen. My mom got his autograph on the day. Was it called Tays or Taylors before that?
 
Yes it was Taylor's - must have been taken over by Owen Owen in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Rindless bacon was all I knew Mort. My mum always cut the rind off bacon - to feed to the birds ! Never questioned why though. In fact I still do it today.

Cba - it might have become a Wimpy Bar, but not too sure. Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Yes it was Taylor's - must have been taken over by Owen Owen in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Rindless bacon was all I knew Mort. My mum always cut the rind off bacon - to feed to the birds ! Never questioned why though. In fact I still do it today.

Cba - it might have become a Wimpy Bar, but not too sure. Viv.
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Gosh that is posh. Bet you had Crumpets and cut your sandwiched diagonally.

I have to admit that I did go into the Griddle Inn with a friend, and he did ask the waitress to leave the rind on the bacon. We were sharing one half of a bacon sandwich. Funny to think that you could buy half a bacon sandwich.

I was so impressed by frothy coffee made with milk.
 
Witton Lodge Road seems to be on the border of Erdington and Kingstanding ... I've chosen the Erdington thread. The 1st pic looks late 1920s and the road surface is not finished but the houses are completed. Foreshortening in the photo makes distant items look closer than they are. Two trees have been coloured in and the same two trees (coloured in) appear to be in the 2nd pic which is an aerial view dated 1926 . The probable camera position is marked with a red spot. Many of the houses unfortunately had to be demolished in the 1990s because of serious structural problems and replacement houses can be seen on Google Earth.
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Somewhere on the forum we had a discussion about the shops opposite Erdington library and what was in place after Sutton New Road was built but before Blockblusters. I just couldn't remember what was there but I was talking to my friend the other night and she caught the bus for work (in the 1960's) on the other side of these buildings. She remembers these shops as she came from the other side of the green and L - R they were, from memory, a Photo shop with a man's name, a school outfitters and then a shop she can't remember. So they were there well into the 1960's and possible later.
 
You have me thinking now Lady P, I recall Blockbusters being built, but have forgotten what it replaced. I recall the row of shops on Sutton New Road being a Chemist, an Optician and a Chinese restaurant
 
Morturn, they were on the opposite side of the road weren't they? Same side as the police station. That Chinese Restaurant was the first one I ever went to. Was it called the China House? I don't remember the chemist or the optician though. I think my problem with this end of Erdington was that I very rarely went this way. If we went 'up the village' from Court Lane it was usually on the little red bus or if we walked we would go through the two gulleys coming out in Summer Road and then cut through to Sutton New Road and up to the shops. I probably only passed that way going to the swimming baths.
 
Stitcher said:
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Erdington High Street 1928
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Many folks will be more familiar with the route 17 and its short working that ran from the city centre to Yardley and Garretts Green.
However there was an earlier route 17 which was classed as a semi express running from the Maypole, via Alcester Road, the City Aston Road and on to Sutton Road/Chester Road in Erdington. This service commenced 19th. March, 1928 annd continued in that form until September 1939. The one-way system in the city centre in 1936 saw the route split into to numbers: the northbound buses remained as 17 but the southbound became 35. Wartime economies saw the northbound section abandoned in September 1939 leaving only the 35 service operating. The 35 route ceased running on 2nd. October, 1949 being replaced by routes 48, 49 and 50 when the Moseley Road tram services were abandoned. A letr 35 routse, initially single deckers, commenced in 1967. It was a city - Pool Farm service and replaced the 49 in 1975.
 
Morturn said:
Indeed it was the Griddle inn! You must be a frightfully posh girl Viv... they used to cut the rind off the bacon for your sandwich there. It was Des O'Connor who did the official opening of Owen and Owen. My mom got his autograph on the day. Was it called Tays or Taylors before that?
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I cooked burgers there back in 1965! Met my wife there too ... still with her to this day!
 
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Welcome Philbee5. I was going in the Griddle from about 1968. Maybe you were still there ? Worked at Boots the Chemists on the opposite side, further down towards Six Ways. Viv.
 
Absolutely no idea why this little snippet would appear in a newspaper for the Bristol area. It was reported right at the very bottom of the page. Must have been a 'no news day' Where was the dance hall ? Viv.

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