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Erdington

There is a thread for Goosemoor Lane, but it seems to have been locked for some time.

Anyway in 1895, according to the Medical Officer, it was the site for an offensive trade where blood drying and manure
making were being carried out.

In the same year a gale force wind, on Sunday 24 March, caused large damage to buildings. In Sutton Park 635 trees were destroyed, 555 torn up by the roots.
 
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I am not aware of any reason why the Goosemoor Lane thread should remain closed and so I have unlocked it.

Chris
 
Some more memories. Source: British Newspaper Archive
 

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A few more Erdington memories. Source: British Newspaper Archive
 

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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.
Sunday Trading started around 1986 and Wilton Market opened in 1970 so the photo above was taken around 1966 as you can see the Village Green in the distance
 
This is a follow-on from my post #652 of 28th April 2022. I have finally got round to looking at the Bell & Cuckoo in Erdington. From a visit to Birmingham Archives I have discovered that the land was sold in 1866 and from reading 'Coaching City' by Howard Clayton (about Lichfield) the most likely reason for the pub's decline was the railway. Apart from passengers, cattle and the post all began to travel by train. The turnpike trusts began to lose profits too and were gradually wound up.
 
oops! The lorry stuck the bridge in Summer Road, Erdington, carrying rail services on the Cross-City Line. 2018
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Whoops it's happened again! A lorry collided on Summer Road in Erdington, before 11am on Friday (Jan 3). The road was shut in both directions by police while emergency teams worked to remove the lorry. Train services from New Street Station to Lichfield Station were disrupted by the incident:

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Happens too often nowadays, how about taking the license of the driver who does not know how high is load is, or remove the operators license or a hefty fine to the Company for not training their drivers in height measurement?
One day all those delayed by such stupidity will follow the increasing USA practise and start suing for every delay and inconvenience caused by such stupidity. That would make idiots drivers almost uninsurable!
 
I remember how my Mum used to drag me around Erdington shopping during the 1950s before supermarkets existed. I recall a grocers at the upper end of the High Street called either the Maypole or Perks where she would often buy a quarter of broken biscuits. I also remember my Mum coming home from the village and saying that a bull had jumped out through the plate glass window of Thompsons butchers and run amok in the High Street! Does anyone recall that incident?
 
A few years ago I posted a couple of photos of the National School which stood close to
Erdington Parish Church on the High Street and also a photo of the second edition of
the Roebuck Pub which was next to the National School. These photos were sent to me by
Erdington Library many years ago after I asked them in particular for a photo of the National School
as no one seemed to have a photo of the place. I remember both of these buildings very well. I will post the black and white photo of the School in the next post.
I can date that photo for you. The brick extension to the Roebuck was built in 1962, and everything you see was demolished 2 years later in 1964.
 
I can date that photo for you. The brick extension to the Roebuck was built in 1962, and everything you see was demolished 2 years later in 1964.
Thanks for your kind offer of information. Unfortunately, member Jennyann passed away a while back, hence her avatar is showing “gone but not forgotten”
 
So is this what Spring Lane is named after?
Yes. The High Street travels along high ground that dips down sharply towards Spring Lane. Rainfall would take the same path and rose as a spring now concealed under the gardens of Fern Road. It was piped under the houses to the other side of the lane, where it emerged in the field behind Briar Cottage known locally as the 'Scout Field' on account of it hosting the scout hut for the 105th Birmingham scout troop (later burnt down by vandals). Crossing the field it was known as Holly Brook and was conduited at the outbreak of WWII to cross under Spring Lane AAA site, finally emerging on the far side of Holly Lane. The Scout Field was later developed as the Blossom Hill estate. The scouts used to host a fireworks night like no other; there would be a huge bonfire and a basic display, but visitors were allowed to bring and set off their own fireworks wherever they wanted! Health & Safety would have a fit these days, but then it was just incredible fun with jumping jacks and bangers going off all around.

For completeness, access to the Scout Field was down a drive off Spring Lane between two houses opposite Fern Road. At the end was a farm gate in line with the far ends of those properties' gardens. After Blossom Hill was developed the drive appears to have been subsumed into one of those properties mentioned, and no trace remains.
 
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I'm going to come out all guns firing here, as this is my patch. These are two conjoined cottages known as 'Shipley Cottages', which stood in Moor End Lane from around 1600 until 1936, whereupon they were bulldozed in favour of the Berkswell Road development. They stood opposite to what became Moor End Lane School, and my family home was built on the site in 1937. Here is a larger photo, which shows the Moor End Lane context:
 

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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.
That restaurant was called the 'Lotus House'. Back on the library side was Wilton Road, which hosted 'Colmore Depot' and a music shop. I recall that the garage extended back to a showroom that opened on to the High Street where the old 'Picture House' had been (possibly the same building knocked through). I went with my father there to have a look at an Austin 1100 when it was introduced c1970. What stood in place of 'Blockbusters' I also cannot recall.

Opposite the police station was the 'Erdington Coffin Manufacturing Company', which had a huge air cleaner outside that looked like a tornado and used to scare me!
 
The modern building opposite the library (and next to the Swan) was a big carpet shop - Allied Carpets - in the 1970s. Used to cut through alongside the shop there to cross Sutton New Road to head down Wilton Road, then Osborne Road to Station Road to the #28 bus on Gravelly Lane. I think the building was new in the 1970s.
 
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I'm going to come out all guns firing here, as this is my patch. These are two conjoined cottages known as 'Shipley Cottages', which stood in Moor End Lane from around 1600 until 1936, whereupon they were bulldozed in favour of the Berkswell Road development. They stood opposite to what became Moor End Lane School, and my family home was built on the site in 1937. Here is a larger photo, which shows the Moor End Lane context:
If you lived opposite the school would you remeber the Newton family?
 
I'm going to come out all guns firing here, as this is my patch. These are two conjoined cottages known as 'Shipley Cottages', which stood in Moor End Lane from around 1600 until 1936, whereupon they were bulldozed in favour of the Berkswell Road development. They stood opposite to what became Moor End Lane School, and my family home was built on the site in 1937. Here is a larger photo, which shows the Moor End Lane context:

How did you trace the cottages as far back as 1600 ?
 
How did you trace the cottages as far back as 1600 ?
Pedro you've asked an essay question, which I will gladly answer in due course on the 'Moor End Lane' thread rather than the 'High Street' thread, because there is a wealth of history attaching to that particular area. In very simple terms you only have to look at it to date it, but its actual structure goes back to mediaeval times and was probably moved from elsewhere c1600.

Edit: I've now located a lot of related info that we both contributed to some years ago on this thread: https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/threads/moor-end-green-house.48947/page-3
 
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