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Heaton St Hockley

Peg Monkey said:
Carolina, I thought we were about to have our first disagreement! I'm pretty sure it was where I said, but there were at least 3 butchers on The Flat and buying animals on the hoof was no doubt commonplace.

Regards,
Peg.

PS I can hear Lyn tutting - we should be on The Flat thread.
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Hi Carolina, I was pretty sure of my facts because I often wondered up to The Flat on Sunday afternoons in the hope the Boys' Brigade Band would make an appearance, you may remember it. It was an impressive band and the accoustics created by the shops produced a fantastic sound, I don't know which company it was, it could well have been the 1stA which was actually based at our school (HLS), in which case they would also have a connection with St Saviour's Church (I guess, anyone able to confirm?) if it wasn't that company there was another one close to Spring Hill Library.

Anyway I waited, but on that Sunday (I'm aged about 7-8) they did not appear, but while I was waiting a cattle truck pulled up, quite close to Sport & Play, and began to unload animal down the side of the butcher's shop. In those days the only establishment open for business on The Flat was The Hockley Pentecostal Church and I suppose it was the best time to deliver the animals, whilst the road was quiet, all other days it would be bustling. I did once think delivering the animals on a Sunday would distress fewer people, but I don't suppose that was the reason.

Regards,
Peg.
 
I can only remember one shop where they delivered animals for slaughter, and that was the butchers next to the outdoor on the corner of the Flat and Ford St. I remember standing there watching them being herded into the back of the shop, and a few days later we kids used to go and ask for a pigs bladder so we could blow it up for a game of football.
 
terryb18 said:
I can only remember one shop where they delivered animals for slaughter, and that was the butchers next to the outdoor on the corner of the Flat and Ford St. I remember standing there watching them being herded into the back of the shop, and a few days later we kids used to go and ask for a pigs bladder so we could blow it up for a game of football.
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Hi Terry, a grim picture - kicking a pig's bladder around, but that's how football started, I guess - no more gruesome than a chicken's neck being wrung on a Sunday morning (quite a few people reared chicken for the purpose (safe as long as they were laying, I suppose) some favoured pigeons, I don't think they got served up for Sunday lunch, but I suppose it depended on how hard up you were ( it wasn't unknown for people to rob their own gas meters).

Butchers shop - looks like I'm out-voted (for now) until another pic of that section of The Flat comes to light, can't rule out the possibility my butchers just stopped trading, shops came and went then, much as they do now; (Witness: Norton's Dept Store, can't remember what is was previously.)

Peg.
 
Two pictures of the Flat and one of Tims in Key Hill (note, established 1863) was this shop pre-Nortons?
 

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No Tims was further up Key Hill. It was on the opposite corner shown here on Hadley Street
 

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the boys brigade company close to springhill was at the methodice chuch
just up past sprinhill and it would have been them
the boys photograph are in books that i have also there photographs are on the old ladywood site
and they was put on there by my old friend albert mosedale whom we went to school
with us and our neibour and he his the grandson of albert mosedale whom you can read on here
if its still there older members wil relised it when they think back
he was the hereo of the fire brigade and chiefe fire officer of birmingham
and my old dutchess teresa is a old shool and long term friend of his wife right up until they got married and they are still in touch
with each other Astonian,,,,
 
The big building is the rear of the Gem Building (built 1913) and you can just about make out the rear entrance to the Post Office next to it. Viv.
 
yes thanks viv...i took some piccies of that building last year..didnt realise just how many shops were on key hill either..
 
carolina said:
Peg there was a butchers by Sport and Play it was W A Clements.
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Thanks, Carolina, buying on the hoof must have been widespread - I guess the only way in those day that butchers could be confident about the quality of the meat.

Regards,
Peg.
 
Astonian said:
the boys brigade company close to springhill was at the methodice chuch
just up past sprinhill and it would have been them
the boys photograph are in books that i have also there photographs are on the old ladywood site
and they was put on there by my old friend albert mosedale whom we went to school
with us and our neibour and he his the grandson of albert mosedale whom you can read on here
if its still there older members wil relised it when they think back
he was the hereo of the fire brigade and chiefe fire officer of birmingham
and my old dutchess teresa is a old shool and long term friend of his wife right up until they got married and they are still in touch
with each other Astonian,,,,
Click to expand...

Thanks Astonian, that was a long standing mystery sorted. I was a member of the Life Boys at that church, I was 7ish and not old enough for the BB. I would imagine the sound from the band was awesome as it went under the arches (Hockley Station), I know if I had been playing I would have played with particular gusto!

Peg.
 
Hi Folk, We only had a small back yard but it was very private (high wall) and there was enough room for a tiny cultivated area where each spring/summer my dad would grow a spectacular display of dahlias; I don't know what feed he put on them but it must have been magic, one theory was, because the yard was so confined the blooms were reaching for the sun; each autumn the tubors would be lifted, cleaned and stored in the cellar for next year.
We had a gardener's WC (in fact, it was the only WC!) which was convenient if you were busy gardening on a summer's day but not so at 2.00am on a winter's night and you were sleeping in the attic. No light, and certainly no heat, in the winter my dad put a lit hurricane lantern in there to help stop the pipes freezing.
If we were expecting posh visitors my mom would put sheets cut from The Times on the nail, only joking! They had The News of The World like everyone else!
There were fortunes to be made in gazunders in those days.
Ah! The good old days!

Regards,
Peg.
 
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Hi Folks, It wasn't all wine and roses (or should I say, Ansell's Mild and Dahlias) in Heaton Street (??!!), during the 50s, one of my most poignant memories was of a woman being carried by a burly bobby up Heaton Street one Sunday lunchtime. He carried her under one arm as she cursed and swore, clearly the worse for drink. He must have been on point duty on Hockley Brook (as he was wearing his white water-proofs) when he was called upon by a landlord to assist, a little girl (about 6) brought up the rear carrying the woman's shoes. I didn't recognise the woman or her daughter which suggests he was destined to carry her quite a distance, beyond The Flat I would say.
(I think she could have been over-indulging in one of 2 or 3 pubs, can't remember the names without checking. Point duty on Sunday? Yes, that sounds a bit odd to me as well.)

It was ironic my father, a South Wales Miner came to Birmingham in the 40s to escape the pit but was forced initially to work at Hamstead Colliery, later he got a rolling mill job at Earle Bourne, almost opposite Dudley Road Hospital (now the City Hospital), he bought me a comic each evening - Beano, Dandy, Eagle. Hotspur and others. I used to think he was a real Trojan walking all that way to work, I suppose it was actually only about 30 minutes, everything seems bigger and longer when you are small.

Regards,
Peg.

Earle.jpg
 
Hi Folks, must have been c1953 (I was aged 4) when my mother purchased a TV, 9" screen, one of the very few in the street; probably with the money my grandfather had left, not a fortune but enough to update the kitchen and a few other luxuries. I can't remember which electrical retailers were around at that time, some on The Flat (could it have been Nortons or Pooles?) and I think there was at least one on Hockley Brook - not far from the Pally Cinema, anyway as you can imagine we seemed to end up with lots of friends!
Only 1 channel of course - BBC, ITV came later as a bolt-on box, then only 2 channels, but we had no trouble in finding something entertaining to watch, even the test card was interesting (my horizon was very limited in those days!)
Flower Pot men, Andy Pandy, Picture Book.......Ah! The good old days.

Peg.

PS who was it that lived in the hamper?
 
Hi Folks, I'm now in the last year of my residency in Heaton Street which makes it 1959 and I'm aged 10, or thereabouts, it's a Saturday morning and I 'm heading for Woolworth's on The Flat to buy an Airfix plastic kit, to be honest by this time I've made quite a few of these kits and some of the sparkle has left the pastime, anyway I'm approaching the toy counter and suddenly my eyes light up as they settle on something being proudly displayed - a plastic rapier!
The sands of time have covered some of the more intricate parts of my memory, but I think I may have seen The Mark of Zoro at a matinee performance at the Palladium on Hockley Brook, Woolworth's, never slow to exploit the latest children's craze, no doubt had the rapiers on sale minutes after the first showing of the film (I remember dashing to Woolworth's shortly after I had seen Davy Crockett at the Elite, with my mum, to get a hat and a gun).
Anyway, I buy the rapier instead of an Airfix kit and make my way home. Over the course of the next few days I have a great time in duels with an imaginary adversary, more than the odd dahlia head gets sliced off in the process, but after a while I begin to wish I actually had someone to duel with - best friend Johnnie! - but he has no sword.
Sure Peg, I love a rapier, but go no money to buy one, was his reply.
Over the course of the next week I do odd jobs, take empty pop bottles back for their deposit and anything that results in a profit, until I've got enough money together to buy Johnnie a rapier, he gratefully accepts the sponsorship and agrees to get one at the earliest opportunity.
It's a day or two before I see him again and then one afternoon after school (we went to different schools) I see him approaching: Right, Johnnie, get your rapier, I'll get mine and we'l have a duel, I instruct.
No can do, Peg. They had sold out of rapiers, so I got this gun, he announces.
I was absolutely speechless.
I will never know if Woolworth's had actually sold out, or if he fancied the gun more than a sword.
The moral is crystal clear:
If you want a dueling partner and he hasn't got a sword go and buy him one, don't give him the money to buy it.
Still on the subject of Woolworth's, do you remember the old 45 rpm records and the Top 20 hit parade? Well you could get the hit records a lot cheaper from Woolworth's, the only thing was they weren't the original artist, they we singers mimicking them!
Ah! The good old days.

Peg.

P.S. Top of UK Hit Parade June 19th 1959: Roulette - Russ Conway

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Peg we bought ours at spring hil but we bought old winniie Attwell great pianoist
Along with paul anker and of cours pat boone april love
Did you not like old libby archie ,, best wishes Astonian,,,,,
 
Peg they were called Embassy Records and owned by the Levy Brothers. Often well known singers recorded under other names - it was said that John Lennon did and also Elton John but of course its not confirmed.
 
Astonian said:
Peg we bought ours at spring hil but we bought old winniie Attwell great pianoist
Along with paul anker and of cours pat boone april love
Did you not like old libby archie ,, best wishes Astonian,,,,,
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Hi Astonian, he was certainly a great pianist and what a showman? I watched a TV account of his life-story awhile ago, apparently after being diagnosed with a terminal condition he disposed of all his assets only to find out the doctor had made a mistake! By then he was broke and he had to start again.
Catch a falling star - was that Michael Holliday or Perry Como?

Regards,
Peg.
 
I
Peg Monkey said:
Thanks, Carolina, great picture. It's been many decades since I last walked up Key Hill, is that a school to the left of the building?

Peg.
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I dont think so Peg. There was an alleyway there where you could walk through to the bus stops on Hockley Hill.
 
The Heaton Street Ensemble.
Hi Folks, Heaton Street wasn't all cakes and go-carts in the 50s, there was the occasional cultural high-point, notably a would-be musical quintet which unfortunately did not progress to choosing a name. The string section (Colin on guitar and Ray on tea-chest base) was well-balanced (number-wise) with the percussion section, namely Jim on spoons and me on drums, unfortunately the same cannot be said of the volume produced by each section - when Jim was up to full speed he was louder than a Browning heavy machine-gun, drowning out all but my most determined drum beats.
The core members of the band namely me, Jim and Ray, were the survivors of the, now infamous, 1956 Go-Cart Crash but the leader of the band was Colin, who lived a few doors up from my house, he was having piano lessons and was teaching himself to play the guitar (as a side issue Elvis' record and film Jail House Rock had just been released) so he could put a decent tune together on both.
Our musical style was still to evolve, but it could be described as somewhere between Heavy Metal and Rock : Heavy Concrete.
Unfortunately (or fortunately if you were a music-lover) the band made only one performance, and that was in my back-yard where the accoustics were enhanced by the high wall, adding to the virtuosity of all the musicians involved, there were countless shouts of encouragement from all neighbours within ear-shot, unfortunately it was all negative, and could be distilled down to Shut that !BLEEP! row up.
Who knows where the band could have gone? No-one can say - soon after our first, and only practice session, Colin's family was re-housed and the band broke up.
Ah! Happy Days.

Peg.

P.S. I know what you are thinking: No girls - sounds like sexist policy - not so, there weren't any that wanted to be part of the band.
 
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Hi Folks,
Once upon a time.....
The formation of the No-name Quintet was not the first entertainment episode worthy of note to take place in Heaton Street in the 50s; it was actually preceded by the, little known, Sue & Peg's Puppet Theatre, which came about, initially, thanks to the transfer of technology from one sector to another. My first go-carts were constructed from a wooden orange box but the limitations of this design (notably the absence of steering and brakes) soon became apparent as speeds increased but they still had their place in the evolution in go-cart technology and when the orange box design did eventually become obsolete it was about then my thespian aspirations led me to check-out puppet theatre design. It was then I forged an association with Sue, a bit younger than me (7) who lived a few doors away and who quickly demonstrated at least the same enthusiasm as I did for the performing arts - specifically puppeteering.
And so the trusty old orange box (inverted) enjoyed a new lease of life as the basis for puppet theatre, little did I know then tragedy lay ahead for one of the cast (the lady puppet) - more about that later.
So the theatre was constructed (by this time I was now the proud owner of a carpentry set, courtesy of Father Christmas) to accommodate 2 puppeteers) and two glove puppets were procured (probably from Woolworth's, but could have been Norton's), the logic that drove the choice of characters is shrouded by the sands of time, one was a policeman, the other a lady in a headscarf (entirely predictable. I suppose, what self respecting lady in the 50s would be seen, at large, without her headscarf?).
A number of performances were executed successfully in front of packed houses (our parents) and then tragically a promising acting career was cruelly cut short when the lady puppet met an untimely end, which I have to confess was entirely at my hand.
The cast was being prepared for a matinee performance - first the policeman, I ironed the glove portion of him and carefully put him to one side and then I did the same to the lady puppet - catastrophe.
The policeman had a cotton glove but for some reason the lady had a vinyl glove and it melted under the hot iron.
Needless to say I was traumatised - but the show had to go on, but it couldn't, with only a cast of 2, to start with, the story could not be re-written for one - it had to be cancelled.
To be frank the rubber head and hands could have been salvaged and attached to a new cotton glove, but it seems the project was destined to end and Sue and Peg's Puppet Theatre had given its last performance.
Ah well! That's life.

Peg.
 
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