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Between 1964 and 1972 I used to travel along Short Heath road every school day on the #28 bus. Sometimes I'd get off at Bleak Hill Road and walk up to Marsh Hill. But I can't for the life of me remember this pub. Was it still there during this time? Viv.
Bob Davis
Bob Davis
Interesting to see your comments on Erdington Libs football team, I remember seeing them in Short Heath Park in 1957......they always seemed to win and we're always very smart. Where they the team used to play in Italian style black shirts and shorts? If you ever went to Short Heath, do you remember the old guy with the polished boots available for any team short of a player, he had a different name every Sunday. He was a bit like a character out of Hotspur, Wizard or Champion......Alf Tupper at al
Bob Davis
This entrance was situated on the junction of Shortheath Road and Turfpitts Lane
The photo is ok, the main bar door was at an angle across the corner of the building, the footprint of the pub was a V shape. As you walk into the entrance, there were two doors on either side to the two bars.
The photo is ok, the main bar door was at an angle across the corner of the building, the footprint of the pub was a V shape. As you walk into the entrance, there were two doors on either side to the two bars.
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
In the pic in post#35, the guttering (top left) on the side of the building is at right angles to the guttering on the angled front face. With the V shape of the pub it should have been at an angle as below taken from the full view in post#25.
Keith Berry did put notes with his image about digitally stitching views together.
Keith Berry did put notes with his image about digitally stitching views together.
What Keith had done is to is to take two photos, top and bottom, straighten the converging verticals then stich them both together. If you look at the cill beam adjacent to the overjet on the right hand side, you can see a ghost image where he stitched the photos together.
Its not a bad attempt he made, but bringing together two distorted images is always a bit of a compromise.
Its not a bad attempt he made, but bringing together two distorted images is always a bit of a compromise.
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
Hi Morturn, yes looking through his notes he started to experiment when digital cameras appeared and also with digital editing software. It is a pity he did not take a photo from across the road to give the complete view of the building. There seems to be a scarcity of pics of the pub when it was the Golden Cross.
It may have been because the pub did have a row of lime trees all around it that may have obscured the view.
Saying that, it is a great record of the photographic work that Keith created, even more so with the notes he made.
I have very fond memories of the Golden Cross, I spend my first four years living with grandparents in Endmore Grove off Turfpitts Lane. Also, this was my grandfather’s local. He always sat in the same bar in the same seat for years, though those doors in fact.
Saying that, it is a great record of the photographic work that Keith created, even more so with the notes he made.
I have very fond memories of the Golden Cross, I spend my first four years living with grandparents in Endmore Grove off Turfpitts Lane. Also, this was my grandfather’s local. He always sat in the same bar in the same seat for years, though those doors in fact.
Lady Penelope
master brummie
Thank you Oldmohawk for the aerial view. I'm still wondering what was there before. There must have been a pub there originally. I'm sure the houses were built shortly after that date as were many of the houses around Perry Common. It must be fairly new as there are no trees.
Viv, I'm sure the pub was there in at least some of your time.
Viv, I'm sure the pub was there in at least some of your time.
Lady Penelope
master brummie
I probably saw you watching the match from the comfort of our pre-fab. Dad would be on the touchline telling them how to play. Nobody swore then, did they? Even if the ref 'didn't know his job'. Sometimes if it was really cold they would ask Mom to make them some tea. She always did and once, when it was perishing, the pot had frozen to the tray when they brought it back.
Bob Davis
Bob Davis
Probably alongside my Dad, on Saturdays we went to either Villa or Boldmere St Michaels, but on Sunday's always down the park and the back fro Sunday roast and Tw Way Family Favorites....Aaaah memories, did you ever have to get the coal from the place Dow Chester Road?
Bob
The original Golden Cross was on the opposite side of the road on Turfpitts Lane.
I have a feeling the pub was built in the 1920’s which coincides with the building of the council estates in that area. Seems that the breweries were quick to capitalise on the potential new client base.
Lady Penelope
master brummie
(I'm only straying off topic to respond to Bob) - I remember Two Way Family Favourites well, along with the Huggetts, Archie Andrews, Life with Bliss, The Navy Lark, The Clithero Kid etc. No - we got our coal from the wharf in Erdington I think.
Thank you Morturn - I wonder how old that pub was. Is it in the photo from 1927?
Thank you Morturn - I wonder how old that pub was. Is it in the photo from 1927?
The one in the photo is the later pub. It look like it was extended at some stage later to accommodate the dance room.
Lady Penelope
master brummie
Morturn, I realised that the black and white building was the the new pub but I wondered if one of the old buildings on Turfpits lane was the old pub or had it been demolished by 1927 do you think?
From hearsay, it was located on the opposite side of Turfpitts lane, so there is a possibility it was the larger building (1899 map) in the corner facing Short Heath Road.
The small farm building to the left and above was still there when I was a kid. It was a small holding.
The building to the left of the serif of ‘Heath’ maybe also still standing. I have a feeling that this was a farmhouse too. It used to stand off Short Heath Road along a private foot path.
The pumping Station of the Birmingham Water Corporation is marked too, I’ll have a look for a photo, as this was quite an ornate building.
alan bartlett
master brummie
We used the "Golden" all the time. Started with being outside with a bottle of pop and a bag of crisps,(separate bag of salt). Then we were older, penny for the guy. Allways a good haul at chucking out time. Then going in there on the way home from work at Stubbings builders. Used the Gents Only bar, not many pubs still had them in the 60,s. My last memories of the Golden was when it changed to OSheas, lost all its character when they refurbed it. Does anyone remember the gardens at the back and poss a tennis court?
Believe it or not the gardens at the back was once a bowling green, one season we had a brainwave to convert it into a training pitch for the "Libs " football team .
we hired a big lawn mower and cut the grass, but there was so much rubbish under the grass that it broke the mower, so we gave up and carried on using Short Heath park...
we hired a big lawn mower and cut the grass, but there was so much rubbish under the grass that it broke the mower, so we gave up and carried on using Short Heath park...
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
My sister recently reminded me that I had been inside the Golden Cross for a wartime wedding reception in 1945. I can't remember it but can see what I was wearing as shown in a forum post.
If expanding the quote, click pics once to enlarge then click again to reduce. Only visible if logged in.Just replacing wedding photos of my Uncle Bill & Aunt Freda's wedding at Erdington Parish Church in 1945 as the war was ending.
Money was tight, all spent on the wedding, so we all went to the Pavilion Cinema in the evening. I also went and saw a newsreel of an Atom Bomb dropped on Japan.
My sister is a bridesmaid and I'm on the right. Notices for the 1945 General Election are on the church wall.
The Pavilion Cinema we went to. The mood of those times was such that the audience cheered when film of the atom bomb was shown.
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alan bartlett
master brummie
Cheers Postie, that would have been it, high wall round it if I remember. It was very popular in its time but as you say was left to rot.
Lady Penelope
master brummie
Pedrocut, this is slightly topic so apologies first. Do you have the next bit of the 1884 map which you posted #31, on this thread please? I'm trying to find out what happened to Turfpits Lane between when it appears on my 1760 copy of Tomlinson's map showing it meeting up with Court Lane and Goosemoor Lane. A conjectural medieval map shows it heading to College Road as does a similar map from the Georgian period and 1880 & 1933 maps show it truncated in the middle of what I think was Witton Common. Thank you.
Lady Penelope
master brummie
Thanks Mike, I suspect it has something to do with enclosures as it ends so abruptly.
Pedrocut
Master Barmmie
Turfpits Lane was eventually extended the short distance to meet Witton Lodge Road. At the time of the abrupt end there was Jerry's Lane below extending to Court Lane. Do the old maps actually name the lanes? I have a feeling that Jerry's Lane got its name some time in the mid 1800s, but a track may well have existed before. Bill Dargue says...
"Here is a name that is open to conjecture. The location is at Short Heath west of Erdington and the implication of heath is of a sandy infertile soil. Could this have been a damp fertile area of grassland in an area of heath? Could the pits have originally been sand pits or marl pits? The name, which was in use by 1817, is now recalled in Turfpits Lane at Short Heath."
Lady Penelope
master brummie
Thanks Pedrocut. No, none of the paths / lanes is named on my 1760 map. I'm off to the library on Wednesday to see if they are on Tomlinson's original. Should be fun, the notes say that it's in 16 pieces. I think that when the common (now known as Perry Common) was enclosed the path became disused.