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Growing Up In Brum - Roy Blakey Inspired.

When the lights came on again.
( Street Lighting returned around 1945 ).
I remember the time that the street lights were switched back on around Brum.
It was strange to wander around in the evening with my pals and experience this forgotten phenomenon.
Prior to this occassion we were used to moving about the district, in the evenings, in complete darkness. It was perculiar really because on the one hand it was great to have the street lights lit up again and be able to view everything around us but on the other hand we had lost our ' cloak of darkness ' which daft as it might seem had somehow provided us with a sort of ' privacy ' as we moved about ( I think it might have had something to do with minding our P's and Q's a bit more now that the lights were back on ).
The top line was though and more importantly was that this was the final signal that we were at last rid of those Air Raid Sirens, the Air Raid Shelter and the Air Raids.
 
I remember the lights coming back on after the War too. Dad took us children up to town from Handsworth to see the Neon Lights and signs lit up on the shops - something we'd never seen before. It was like fairyland to us. Just magical.
 
No more "Put those lights out!".....No more blankets hanging from the windows...........No more carrying a torch,........No more covering the car headlights. Shop windows became lit up. In fact the whole city slowly became lit up, and 'back to normal'. Whatever that meant.

As Vera Lynn sang "When The Lights Go On Again, All Over The World".

Eddie
 
Street lighting was only resumed where there already had been street lighting which was principally in the City of Birmingham. Many outlying areas never got as far as street lighting prior to WW2: the hostilities made it inappropriate and more important work was to be done.
From memory in parts of Solihull UDC, particularly Shirley, German POW's were used to dig the trenches for the gas mains and posts. It was possible to speak with them during their meal breaks. Some were surly in manner and reluctant to speak, possibly suspicious about what might be heard by the British military guards, but others - some spoke some English quite well - answered the sort of simple questions posed by young children. Those that did speak probably found the lack of hostility by us youngsters welcome. Adults, by and large it seemed, avoided any contact them. Understandable I guess in 1945 after such a grim period in most adults lives.
 
Alan, I remember well the German prisoners of War mending the pavements in Soho Avenue, Handsworth, when I was a little girl. I used to go and talk to them and take them biscuits, which I think they enjoyed. They were always very friendly as I remember. Thinking about it, I wonder if my parents knew - probably not!
 
That is interesting, Jayell, that the POW's were also at work elsewhere. I guess there was no reason to mention it to parents as it seemed quite natural to talk to people then. I am sure I told Nanny but she made little of it as far as I remember. I am pretty sure I never mentioned it to my father when he returned from the Army in late 1946: I realized he had had seen and heard enough German to last him for some while.
 
DOOR STEP PLAYGROUNDS.
Spent a few minutes to-day using the ' Maps ' option on the Internet and enjoyed the birds eye views of a few parts of our old 'stomping grounds ' that we used as kids.
Pre- war, around Brum. Newly built Council estates came into being and were a delight for the many lucky families that were able to move onto them. Our particular growing up patch was the Kingstanding Council estate.
Looking at the two dimensional overhead pictures on the screen I was reminded of the many spaces suitable for the kids to enjoy on our estate and how fortunate we had been, as kids, to have had them. It brought back the memories of the great ' meeting up " and ' play areas ' that we had right on our own door step.
The spaces I mention were those area's provided around such places as the road junctions ( ie Cross Roads and T junctions). They were great spaces for the kids to meet up on and use as games area's.
There was also the generous size front and rear gardens , added to which, their was added width to the street pavements in the form of grass verges and tree lined runs on some streets.
All in all, very nice. Perfect places for for the kids to grow up in.
So a belated thank you to the Council and the Planners that brought it it all into being.
Photo : Our Patch, our play ground. ( Note the space surrounds of the Cross Roads ).image.jpg
 
THE PIDGEON FANCIER.
A nice little pass time that we enjoyed as kids were the times when we would ' sit on the gutter ' or ' sit on the street corner ' and watch the different flocks of Pidgeons being exercised and flying their formations above the houses. I remember the ' Tumbler ' pidgeons would catch our attention as they seemed to roll over backwards in flight and then had to do a bit of catch up to get back into position in the airborne flock.
In all areas around Brum there seemed to be a scattering of ' Pidgeon Fanciers ' who would have their own ( mostly home made ) Pidgeon Lofts tucked away somewhere in their back gardens. At week-ends and periods after they had finished work these Pidgeon fanciers would open their lofts and let their pidgeons loose to fly and exercise. Often, after a period of time, when the Pidgeons had completed their exercise the owner could be seen, stood in front of his loft, tapping on a bowl of Pidgeon feed luring and enticing his pidgeons back to base.
It's one of those sights that you don't see much of to-day but it was one of those tranquil like experiences that we kids loved at the time.
 
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK.
Came the occassion when one of the neighbouring families ( which included one of our mates ) moved out and a new family moved in. As a group we kids found it pretty sad to be losing one of our mates. So as the new family arrived on the street we were keen to find out a bit about the new arrivals.
We found out that there was a Mom, Dad and four children.
Two of the incoming children were roughly in our age group ( One of the Boys and a Girl) so we were hopeful that they might fit in and become our friends.
After a cautious beginning we started to ' gel ' and interact. It started with this new lad and his sister coming out to watch us playing in the street. They began by ' standing off ' and watching us for a little while and then gradually closed in so that we could converse to-gether
At this time, we kids ( as in most cases with kids ) didn't have the skills of creating initial introductions, so the potential friendship process took a bit of time. We began by having them join in some of our games and bit by bit we learned their
' history ', and vice versa, they learned ours.
As it turned out they had come from the other side of Brum and we found it interesting in that some of the games we played, that they called them by another name.
The new Boy was a terrific athelete and he brought with him a cracking street trolley. The Girl was very bright and cheerful
and she showed us one day how she could play the Piano.
Yeah, we liked them.
We were obviously sorry to have seen one of our mates leave our group but these two new friends turned out to be a pretty good swop.
Oh, their Mom and Dad were pretty nice people too and got on friendly terms with their new neighbours very quickly.
 
GOT TO PLAY INDOORS.
It would probably be a cold rainy Sunday and we kids were stuck in the house unable to play out. We had exhausted reading our comics and playing marbles in the corner of the living room.
So, what's to do now. Bit limited innit.
But then, good old Dad. He's spotted the situation and has just been out to the Shed and brought in one of our ' games '
Our ' kept in the shed ' indoor games were;
ESCALADO. This was a fix it to the table top Horse Racing game. It had a long fabric racing track and Lead racing horses and jockeys. It was hand cranked to vibrate the track and cause the horses to race down the track.
DART BOARD AND DARTS. Hung on the Pantry door ( you know, the grown ups never did catch on that we little uns had to throw the darts uphill because they kept on putting the dart board up too high ).
PING - PONG. ( Table Tennis ). Dad had bought two large squares of ply-wood which he hinged together so that that they could be unfolded and placed on the living room table to form a Ping - Pong table top. Two Bats, a net and a celluloid ball and we were up and running.
We kids really loved the Escalado best because we could have pretend ' Bets ' on the races.
Playing Darts was alright. Never could find out were our Dad kept the darts hidden though. He wouldn't let us use the darts unless he was in attendance. Ping - Pong was pretty good but you had to be careful that you didn't crash into the Settee or chairs as you dashed back and forth at the end of the table.
I think that Dad's a bit too tired to set up the Ping - Pong or the racing game today so it looks like it's going to be Darts today.
Im gonna ask him if he can put the Dart board a bit lower down on the kitchen door so that we can reach up and pull our own darts out.
Photo : ESCALADO.image.jpg
 
We had an Escalado game, turning the handle made the 'track' jerk and the horses moved along, if I remember right it could give you a blister on ya thumb.:frown:
 
I had Escalado as well! I could never quite get the hang of it though. Never could move the horses fast enough! They usually fell over when I cranked the handle and made the track vibrate.
 
I had a darts board pinned to the back of my bedroom door. My mother and father went ballistic when they found all the holes in the door around the board. When I was bored, and playing darts by myself, I would play a game called CRICKET.

The bull for eleven wickets to be taken. For the batting, if I remember right, all runs would have to be scored between the outer and inner rings. Any darts in the inner ring did not count for runs. The opponent, the bowler, would have to try and take wickets, a bull was two wickets, and the outer bull was one wicket. Any darts landing outside the treble inner ring, would be runs for the batsman.

Complicated but enjoyable.

Eddie
 
THE ZIG ZAG BRIDGE.
Early morning on a week-end. ( Around 1943 - 44 ).
We met up with a group of friends over on the Davis Estate, played a game of football kick about for about half an hour and then discussed what we might do for the rest of the morning. About six of us decided to have a wander going south towards Perry Barr. We headed down Birdbrook Road and then onto the Aldridge Road. Eventually we arrived at the Boars Head Pub at the junction of the College Road and the Aldridge Road. Right ahead of us Perry Barr Park had to be explored, we did a bit of a walk up and down the stream for a while ( wished we had brought a fishing net and a jar with us, stacks of decent size tiddlers in there). Out of the park we ventured up Church Road and came upon the St John the Evangelist Church and it's little Graveyard. Had a very short nose around the graveyard ( not really our cup of tea ) so we returned to the Aldridge Road.
At this point we discussed whether or not to head back home or progress on to Perry Barr. One of the lads mentioned that perhaps we might go on a bit further and have a look at the river that flowed under the Aldridge Road. Sounded okay to us, so this we did.
So now we are standing on this old stone bridge and observing the river flowing beneath.
There was a couple of points I remember thinking back, the first was that we were standing on this very old bridge which we had all seen many times before from the tops of the buses as we had come from Perry Barr or Brum City Centre and had not thought too much about it. But standing there, on the bridge ,on that day, it was quite striking , and a history atmosphere was easily gotten.
We loved the ' V ' shaped alcoves built into the walls of the bridge ( apparently bult that way to allow the pedestrians to stand out of the way whilst allowing the Carts to pass through ).
We later learnt that the bridge was called the ' Zig Zag Bridge ', it was built around 1711 and the river it spanned was the River Tame '.
The second point I remembered about , on that day, was that there was an extremely strong smell that came off the river.
We likened it to the smell of some sorts of chemicals.
Yes, it had certainly been worth the walk. We would look on it kindly the next times we would pass on the bus.
Note : If you are passing through that way , and haven't been there before and have the opportunity, it's well worth a look. I would assume that the river smells a bit sweeter these days.
Photo : THE ZIG ZAG BRIDGE.image.jpg
 
Hi All,

The approaching General Election has revived my dim memory of riding around on the back of a lorry with about a dozen other children chanting. The chant went :-

Vote, Vote , Vote for Mr Salt, whose that knocking at the door?
If its Jarman and his wife we will stab them with a knife and they wont come knocking any more.

It must have been the 1935 election. I have no memory of how we came to be doing this but for many reasons it could not happen now, not least the Health and Safety Regs.

Old Boy
 
A BEST OF TREATS. A day out with Mom and Dad to the social hub of Brum.
" THE BULL RING " ( Around 1939 ).
For us kids it was exciting to wander around amongst all these people who had made their way in from all parts of Brum.
The sight of the street performers and the sounds of the stall holders was something special.
The ' Escapologist ' struggling to escape from his ' Straight Jacket ' and ' Chains ' always drew a good crowd ( My favourite that one ).
The Barrel Organ Grinder would provide entertainment with his bright popular tunes.
On every stall the stall holder would be barking out his, or her, particular bargains.
I remember on one of the first visits with Mom and Dad there was a moment of confusion for me when I saw this man moving amongst the crowd, he had these big notice boards strapped to his body and written on them were the words
" The end of the World is nigh ". This bothered me so I asked Dad when was the end of the world going to be. I remeber Dad saying something like " We are all going to be around for a long time yet Son. Don't worry about it ". That was good enough for me.
The stall that I liked best was the one that sold baby chickens. There were scores of these little chicks and they were all chirping merrily away. I would have brought all of them home if I could have.
As a kid I always came away from the Bull Ring with the thought that when I was old enough I would love to get a job down there and be amongst it all every day.
Sketch : The Bull Ring.image.jpg
 
Do you remember the old lady ( blind I think ) on the fish market steps selling her " 'andy carriers get your 'andy carriers.
I also recall having my first taste of a pineapple sold by the slice from a barrow just after the war.
 
Good to see the modern day kids coming out onto the Street corners again to meet up and play their games in that lovely weather we had on Easter Monday.
 
" I REALLY WANT TO HAVE A CRACK AT THAT ". Period : ( Late 1930's to around the 50's ).
The chance to try and ride a Bicycle. There came the time for most kids when they yearned to be able to ride a bicycle, but not many were in the fortunate position to own their own bikes.
So, what to do ? A ' borrow' had to be accomplished somehow.
Some of the ways a ' borrow ' would work would be a short term 'swap '. Swapping your Roller Skates, your street Trolley or your latest Beano might do the trick with a bit of luck.
Great. You've accomplished a borrow and you're going to experience your first attempt at riding a TWO wheeled bike.
You will probably remember your own early attempts and the seemingly impossible task of keeping your balance.
Eventually you probably learned that the only technique that would work was to ' go for it ' and get those pedals moving and that when you had built up a bit of speed the balancing was not a problem anymore. A great feeling to circle around the Estate in less than a quarter of the time it would have taken you to walk it.
TIMES UP. Your ' lender ' has had enough of your swapped old Roller Skates. Time to hand him back his bike.
So, what can you dream up now as a swap for your next bicycle borrow.
" I wonder if my Catapult and my Tin Can Stilts will be enough for another swap tomorrow ".
Sketch : THAT FIRST ATTEMPT.image.jpg
 
cookie273uk said:
Roy, cannot agree with all your comments I'm afraid. I was born and bred in Aston by Villa Park in the summer of 1930, recently paid it a visit, that is nothing like the Aston I was born in, I found it heart breaking and upsetting will never visit it again. Only my opinion of course others may disagree, we are all different. Eric
Click to expand...

I totally agree with you Eric. The only time i visit Brum these days if for funerals. The places i knew from the 40`s & 50`s have totally changed & not for the better ( just a personal opinion ) Btw Eric, i seem to remember a relative of sorts named Ada Cook. Any relation to you?
 
Totally agree with both Eric & Smudger.

These days my visits are few and far between, also mainly for funerals.

The Birmingham that I knew is no longer there. I do not have a problem with that, changes happen,

I was not born until the early 1930's, but driving around some of the city districts depressed me. I am not sure that the changes are for the better. Even the 'modern' structures do not appear to be anywhere near as magnificent as some of the older, Victorian type buildings. I am proud of the Birmingham that I remember, and prefer to leave it at that.

Like the others, just my opinion.

Eddie
 
Hear. hear !
Watching "developments" on the web, it seems to me that I should change my nickname to "Best Western Birmingham Metro Maypolebaz".
Downe 'ave the same ring to it though, duzzit ?
 
LINING IT UP FOR THE SUMMER. ( Period : 1945 to 1950 ).
What would our breed of young people have been up to at this time of the year.
We had reached the stage whereby we didn't consider ourselves as ' kids ' anymore. ' Young Lads ' or Young Girls ' titles suited us fine.
So, making plans for the summer year we began to consider our options.
First and foremost we now had the longer daylight hours coming back which gave us more potential outdoor opportunities.
Most of us had now acquired our own larger road Bicycles and now felt that we could travel further afield on any of our proposed adventures.
I recall that we came up pretty quickly with a set of hit suggestions. First off we all seemed to fancy taking up serious
" Train Spotting ". We had already heard of a place up near Tamworth where two sets of railway systems crossed over and under one another and seemed to offer great train spotting oppurtunities. We new that there was also the historical Castle
at Tamworth as well. So with our cycling confidence this went on our list. Sounded like a great day out now and again.
Another plan that seemed to be agreed on pretty quickly was that we might ' club together 'and buy a " Bird spotter"book and much the same as the Train Spotting, we could see how many different bird varieties we could observe and identify and then tick them off. ( Previous years, either around Sutton Park or Barr Beacon, we had seen lots of different bird varieties but had not paid too much attention to identifying them ).
Another proposal that gained some interest was the idea that we might think about joining the Naval Cadet group ( which if I remember correctly used to meet up in a building close to the Birmingham Town Hall at that time ). I think that the main attraction here was that we all fancied wearing the Sailor uniform with it's Sailors Pork Pie Hat, the Blue and White Collar and the Bell Bottom trousers. The time commitment and the diiscipline side of this caused us some doubts though, so this was put on the " think about it some more " agenda.
Most of us would have been moving close to " leaving school " age so some of the comments ,views and discussion included what sort of ' job ' we had all got in mind. I recall that it was pretty obvious that most of us wanted some sort of outdoor work and didn't fancy enclosed factory type jobs.
So there it was. Time to get on with ' Servicing ' our bikes. Save a few pennies for our Train Spotting and Bird Spotting books. Check our road routes to places like Tamworth and Lichfield. Scrounge a couple of Ruck Sacks and fix a few dates to start off with.
It was guaranteed to be one of our best years yet.
 
THE OLD CHAP AT HIS WORKBENCH . ( Approx. 1940 - 1950 ).
I always, without fail, found myself looking out for this ' character ' on any bus trip that I took to the City ( No 29. Kingstanding to Snow Hill ).
Somewhere on Constitution Hill the bus would come to a halt at this particular bus stop to allow passengers to either get off or get on. From the top of the ' Double Decker Bus ', if you glanced down , you could see through the small windows of this dark interiored Jewellers/ Watch Repair business and invariably you could see this ' character ' sat at his little workbench, his eye glass magnifier squeezed into one eye, his sleeve garters on, a little table lamp at his side and he in a most obvious air of concentration as he worked on some intricate piece on his little work bench. Maybe doesn't sound a particularly world shattering observation but truly espying it offered the atmosphere of a Charles Dickens novel.
There were occassions when the bus was not called upon to make a stop at this point of the journey. Hence I wouldn't get to watch the old chap at his work on that occassion and I genually felt that I had missed out on a slice of something strangely unique. Always looked forward to the next opportunity to have a peep at it again.
 
norfolk brummie said:
Totally agree with both Eric & Smudger.

These days my visits are few and far between, also mainly for funerals.

The Birmingham that I knew is no longer there. I do not have a problem with that, changes happen,

I was not born until the early 1930's, but driving around some of the city districts depressed me. I am not sure that the changes are for the better. Even the 'modern' structures do not appear to be anywhere near as magnificent as some of the older, Victorian type buildings. I am proud of the Birmingham that I remember, and prefer to leave it at that.

Like the others, just my opinion.

Eddie
Click to expand...

Another expat "brummy" I'm afraid, how I agree with your comments about the "new" Brum. I saw the new Bull ring and library developments and hated every bit of it. Where my family shops were in Suffolk Street is now an underpass.

But at least my home area has not really changed at all, Bournville is still virtually as it was. The Green, schools, Yachting Pool are still the same.
We used to jump or pole vault the stream through the yachting pool and make dens in the woods the other side of Bournville Lane where I lived.
Many times we also walked from there to the Licky Hills with a bottle of water and a jam sandwich to last us the day and then walk back. By walking we saved the fare on the 72 or 73 tram (I think) so that we could have a go on the "pin ball" machines in the amusement arcade at the tram terminus at Rednal.

Ah happy carefree days of the fourties and fifties
 
SAFARI DAYS.
For us kids we would take every opportunity to meet up and then spend a full day at Sutton Park,
Period : Around 1938 - 1940.
Into the park through Banners Gate we would begin our day by doing a bit of exploring in Westwood Coppice. Here was an early treat because just inside the woods we found a Sweet Chestnut tree and at the right season of the year we could collect a pocket full of Chestnutson on which to have a chew on throughout the rest of the day. ( note : Can't remember any of us ever having any tummy problems from this ).
Recallling some of the things we did and things we learned.
I know that we learned how to approximate the time of of day by using the position of the Sun ( whenever it could be observed ) and our East to West position.
We learned to some degree how to anticipate any forthcoming bad weather by ' reading ' the clouds and noting the drop in air temperature ( pretty important if you were the other side of the park and could avoid a heavy downpour of rain and get back home dry ).
After a few sessions of getting our socks and shoes wet we learned the technique of ' Bog Journeying 'at the back end of Powells Pool. ( finding the firm spots of the Bog and hopping from one firm spot to another). There was always some unusual bird observations to be seen amongst the bog and undergrowth at that end of Powells Pool.
We learned the hard way how to avoid getting overly ' stung ' by nettles in some areas of the park. Basic rules were, roll your socks up as high as possible, roll your shirt sleeves down and most importantly, take it slow and look carefully where you were stepping.
We also clocked it eventually that as regards ' Bird Spotting ' we had to , as a group, be very quiet, move very slowly and that we had to be very patient.
There was always some cracking adventure and something to be learned for us kids in that great park.
 
NOT A GOOD DAY FOR RONNIE.
We were always on the lookout for small round stones that were to become our ammunition for our Catapults. Very often, wherever we where,we would spot the odd ideal shaped stones and put them in our pockets for later use. Other types of stones that might be collected were the flat stones which we used as ' skimmers ' across ponds and lakes.
On this particular after school late afternoon a collection of us kids had met up in the street and we were participating in our usual mix of games. Ronnie ( one of our gang ) arrived a bit later to show us all his latest home made Catapult. Naturally he was eager to try out and demonstrate his new ballistic devise. The street was empty ( apart from us kids ), no
people, no cars or carts about. We packed in our activities to witness the performance of Ronniesl latest Catapult.
So, proudly he steps forward,reaches into his pocket for one of his ammunition stones, loads his Catapult, pulls back on the elastic bands, takes aim down the centre of the street and then let's go to allow his projectile to fly straight and true.
BUT IT DIDN'T.
What actually happened was that for the first thirty feet or so the stone sped off in the direction aimed but then rapidly began to change direction making a disturbing curve to the left. The end result was that the stone eventually struck and cracked a front window of one of the houses. Guess who's house it was. Yep, Ronnies own house front window was the unfortunate recipient of the stone.
We found out later that poor old Ronnie, in his eagerness to demonstrate his latest Catapult had loaded with one of the flat ' skimmers ' stored in his pocket and this had obviously caused the ' aerodynamic ' effect that we had witnessed.
The end of the story was that poor old Ronnie had to wait a couple of hours until his Dad came home from work and to receive his ' come uppers '. Both his treasured Catapults formed part of the next mornings living room fire lighters.
 
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