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Hawkins jellied eels fish bar

A

Astonian

gone but not forgotten
Hi guys and gals
How many of you remember the Hawkins fish bar at the old six ways Aston just at the top of park lane
Did any of you frequent the shop and sat in and had a jelly eels or whelks and cockles and alsorts of fish food
I passed it every day a d night and the other reason I will not forget is I spent the night out on the tiles if you know what I mean
But walking home at four and five in the morning but bear in mind I was a young man not married living with mother as I crossed all across that big red
I seen a pack of yogget on the steps so I helped myself to one and blimmey it was sour and since that yeazr in the late fifty and early sixties I vowed not
To ever touch one indeed and true to form I have not but I used to buy my jars of cockles for myself and the whellks for mother
More often than not she would pop along from the corner of Victoria red and get there with anti Ede from the bottom of Victoria red park street next to the vine pub
She was. My dads sister Edith Marsden best wishes astonian
 
Don't mean to hijack your thread Astonian, but soon as I saw the thread title, it reminded me of the jellied eel/cockles shop in town. My dad used to take me there on the way back home after watching Blues. I can't remember it's exact location, but think it was in Bull St not far from it's junction with High St. I know it was in the Dale End area anyroad.
 
hi zambodini
thank you for your reply no i do not think you are hijackng me it was nice to know where about this other hawkins bar was i know there was anther bar some where but i just cannot place it i thought some other member may have responded when you said down by the blues ground to support you on it
but sorry to say i am a hardend villa suporter if that a concelationto you ; no ; i did not think so ; ahah
any way zambi ; please let me know if you can recall about it was as i was not in that neck of the woods in those days
have a nice evening and please reply best wshes astonian;;
 
You guys sure know how to hurt a fella. I love whelks and jellied eels, but can't seem to get them here. Not even a small plate with a pinch of salt and malt vinegar. I was down the lower St. Lawrence in Quebec a few years back and went in a fish store and...gosh there they were...whelks. Ready to go. I bought some and hurried back to the trailer to eat them. Well I don't know what the locals there do to them...sea water is pretty much the same everywhere is it not. Boiling in water and winkeling out is pretty much easily done and only salt and vinegar to taste....where can you go wrong. They were pickled in something and whilst the texture was similar...the taste was awful...ruined. Disappointing. I should have bought fresh in the shell and boiled them myself but I don't speak French.
 
I remember the one in the Market hall next to the sea mine, had a clip round my ear from my Mother after making a rude comment after seeing customers eating the jellied eels.
 
Peter said the shop at six ways Aston used to sell at the Dog Track too. I used to love them all Rupert. When my brother in law was sixty he hired a club and had a table filled with the stuff. Guess what?. He was born six ways Aston?.
 
Astonian said:
hi zambodini
thank you for your reply no i do not think you are hijackng me it was nice to know where about this other hawkins bar was i know there was anther bar some where but i just cannot place it i thought some other member may have responded when you said down by the blues ground to support you on it
but sorry to say i am a hardend villa suporter if that a concelationto you ; no ; i did not think so ; ahah
any way zambi ; please let me know if you can recall about it was as i was not in that neck of the woods in those days
have a nice evening and please reply best wshes astonian;;
Click to expand...

Hello again Astonian, you got me looking on Google maps, and I'm pretty sure it was between Priory Square and Greggs, but can't remember the exact location. There is also something else I remember about that area, and that was Platts the tailor in Dale End, my dad use to go there for his suits.

Now, a quick word about being a Villa supporter, that's fine (good game against the Baggies last night btw), I lived for 20 years in Erdington, right in the middle of Villa country. Both next door neighbours supported Villa, and one week they would come with me to St Andrews, and the next week we would all got to Villa Park. Bet that there isn't much of that going on these days.
 
hi zambonini
many thanks for your reply and at least i know where you was i did know the one in the market and at perry barr but never knew theone you mentioned excisted
on the subject of your neibours being villa fans and you being a blue nose as they call your supporting teams i used to have alot of the old guys
in acocks green whom was the true blue noses brigade daily in my pub ; at first i used to get alot of ribbing from them ; as being a gather of there pub ;
but i did treat them with respect and they treated me ith respect for being a true astonian villa supporter through and through and my family had family connections to the villa ; but thats another story as the old saying zambi ; if you have got good neibours today its worth its weight in gold
recall the old dale end and plaitts they had swarve suits costly but nice ;i can recall the old dale end from the age of a nipper from the fortys onwards
and like other members whom are older than me have seen it change many many times and seen most of brum change i have seen the new stret change four times in my life
but to be honest i do not know the city now especialy the city centre i would get lost i arranged to meet another member recently but got lost and i was abit woried and amazed how just those new rd ,s are so wide i used to run a pub in the city but its all gone now that big dome oplace is thee now in its placestill thats progress they say
zambi i have to end hear ;best wishes astonian;
 
img973.jpgWhat a small world! I've just this minute replied to your "Icknield Street" posting and now I've come across this thread.
Yes! I remember Hawkins. We used to go there every Saturday lunchtime for a bowl of mushy peas & cockles (plenty of vinegar) and a free bowl of bread slices.
Next door up was the second-hand shop and on the corner was the Florist. Chemist on opposite corner and further up High St do you remember "Davis's"? They had about four shops joined together to form one. Was the pub next to the Orient Picturehouse the "Malt Shovel"? Opposite was "Barts" sport shop (somebody stop me)!!
Happy memories.

hi banjo ive just found this cracking pic..not sure if its been on before but i think you can just make out hawkins (our mom and dad used it ) also you can see the orient and the malt shovel

lyn
 
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I remember Hawkins just up from Burlington Hall, it had coloured glass squares in the windows, red, yellow and orange, I never liked shellfish but my mother, eldest sister and husband did, and they often used it. When my mother was a little girl about 10 years old her dad was a bookie and used to go to races all over the country, he took my mother with him to the local courses to help out at the Hawkins stall, these Hawkins were probably the fathers or grandfathers of the Hawkins in Aston in the 1950s/60s.

I also remember in the 1960s on Sunday afternoons a man used to hawk periwinkles round the streets, my then husband always used to buy some and would pick them out with a needle, and my son who was only a toddler then used to love them, I couldn't look at them - ugh.
 
Banjo said:
What a small world! I've just this minute replied to your "Icknield Street" posting and now I've come across this thread.
Yes! I remember Hawkins. We used to go there every Saturday lunchtime for a bowl of mushy peas & cockles (plenty of vinegar) and a free bowl of bread slices.
Next door up was the second-hand shop and on the corner was the Florist. Chemist on opposite corner and further up High St do you remember "Davis's"? They had about four shops joined together to form one. Was the pub next to the Orient Picturehouse the "Malt Shovel"? Opposite was "Barts" sport shop (somebody stop me)!!
Happy memories.
Click to expand...

You have a great memory, I don't remember all those names, but I do remember Rose's fish & chip shop in that area...Hawkins meant whelks (we called them wilks) and peas, just like pea soup, but the whelks were always tough regardless of what you soaked them in. Never tried jellied eels, still doesn't appeal....
 
Hi Zambino
Just scrolling through some old threads regarding Hawkins cockle and mussels shop ,in your last thread you said firstly that you could not recall it
And I also said I could not recall it as you said it was not far from the old blues ground then you realized just later like me you said priory Square dale end
Then that got my brain into gear (the priory Square) yes my head bell rang it was where my family the Jones,s was market traders operating
There and of course around by the costermonger side there was a cockle bar opened up but I was not the same family of cockle sellers
As six ways Aston whom was there from the year dot early 1900 upwards (Being Hawkins) I am sure prior to that there was a company selling cockles around the pubs in the later period and I can only presume that's your period when this bar set up in the priory square
I read you was a blues nose fan, and that your neibours went to the blues ground like most of us do villa fans especially Astonians
We are a hardened fans and today I think we have proved to any blue fans we are the salt we are in the FA cup may 30th against a true gritt team
Arsenal (The Gunners) so that says it all my friend best wishes Astonian,,,,
 
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This is Burlington Hall in Aston. Hawkins jellied eels shop was close by (to the right or left, I can't remember). I remember passing it going to Orient with my dad.
 
Finally, I've managed to upload the Burlington Hall photograph!
 

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That photo brings back memories! The hall was situated about halfway down the hill between Rocky Lane & Barton Arms pub. Hawkins was further up on the same side (to the left of the photo). It looks like it was taken after 1967 because it wasn't a dual carriageway until after that.
 
Hi Barr beacon
Yes it all depended which way you was coming up from the hall or going down to the hall coming up from the Barton arms or going down to the Barton arms
Yes walking up from the barons arms you pass the hall and then you will pass Hawkings after passing the Hall on your way to the orient pictures at the old six ways
And it was on the very corner of park lane coming up from Aston cross
The number 8 bus stop did stop short of the corner of park lane and the six ways and as you walked around onto six ways to head down
To the hall Hawkins was the second or the third shop door way on your left hand side once you started to walk down
And yes jean and her Pete are correct they was selling down the perry Barr track they was cracking
Astonian,,,,,,
 
After seeing Astonian's reply, I realised that I should have said "between PARK Lane & Barton Arms" not Rocky Lane. When I worked at B.S.A, I came home on the No8 bus, and when it came to turn from Park Lane across into Whitehead St, it always had to stop to cross High St. Although there was no bus stop, it's where I always jumped off to go home in Victoria Rd.
 
banjo ive just found this one...think we can just see hawkins shop (our mom and dad went there) also the malt shovel and the orient cinema...you can click 3 times on this one to enlarge..

lyn
 

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Lyn do you remember Dodd's the jewellers think its in the picture my dad worked there he was a watch maker I had my ears pieced there at the age of 13
 
sorry rosie i dont recall dodds but i can remember going to a shop along there to buy my stockings..used to jump the no 8 from nursery road...i remember you had to go up 2 wooden steps to get into the shop...cant be sure but i think the shop was just up from the bartons arms pub...

lyn
 
Lyn, That's a great photo! It shows all the shops I remember from Six Ways to Burlington Hall. Hawkins unmistakable with those thick blocked windows. I wonder if the shop you were mentioning was Davis's which was actually three shops knocked into one. There were wooden steps inside going up to each shop level. I know the shop the other side of the Orient from the Malt Shovel was a bookmakers. Before it became legal they operated from Rifle Crescent (behind the Orient) in one of the houses there. Banjo (Barry)
 
ahh barry i think it could have been davis,s shop because i do recall it was not a small shop and as you went in the counter was on the right..glad you like the photo...happy days..oh is that building on the right just in the picture st stephens church by any chance..

lyn
 
Lyn, if it's the building with the two tiered level roof on the right edge of the photo you mean then, that's the Aston Hippodrome.

Barry
 
of course it is barry..what got me was i could not see the bartons arms pub which must be just out of shot...the church was further down then..

thanks barry

lyn
 
Good morning Lynn
First of all i have to say how please I am to see thaat the oriniginal picture as now appeared
After all this abscence of time just like all the other pictures that went missing
are slowly coming back from whom knows where but still its great to have them back
I remember when this picture first appeared
still getting back on track banjo is correct in what he his saying
the bartons are right at the very botom of the picture and the roof is the shape you can see in the dark
of the bartons as the hippo was right behind the rear of the bartons wich was at lowe bartons bank
emediatiatly from the arial view at the beginning of the picture by the sub way below on your left was the
Corner of victoria rd and the corner building by the crossing was the Nat West bank
And there was a finnance and Accounts company above that bank and there office door was on victoria rd
I used to know a young lady in those days persoanaly whom lived in crabtreee road hockley
whom worked for them
Barry was correct about the bookies being by the orient i used to use it and about there operation
around the back of riffle crescent i lived at 47 victoria rd then and it was at the corner of the crescent
our back yard backed onto it later years Jony prescott aropund the same time operated a bookie office him self
with an another guy i think it was cutler operite the OAK pub across the Island and later years opersite our
House a stock steel bussiness down a yard at the back of houses on victoria rd
thankls for the memory and for searching for the picture best wisjhes Alan ASTONIAN,,,
 
thank you alan....glad you like the photo..we are doing our best to repost some of the lost images....have a good day alan

lyn
 
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