Houses, who were Bakers in smallheath

[bilsat]

Another challenge for you.
Does anyone remember "Houses" the bakers who were based in Small Heath and had a shop fronting the bakery in Muntz St where the road bends.
My father worked as a delivery baker and his round went from Small Heath-Yardley-Acocks Green.
We would deliver to a small cafe in Mansfield Rd Yardley then enjoy its brew! In years to follow we would be linked with the owner of this cafe, Mrs Leonard and her family, when they bought "Pinfold House" next door to the cafe.
In my school holidays I would get up at 5am and we would cycle to work, I remember watching the bread being made and also the cakes.

They disappeared into the large conglomerate of Rank/Mcdoogle/Hovis around the 1960----1970 period.
Pete

 

[ColinB]

They seem to have had quite a large business in 1949, Kelly's list
155 & 157 Muntz Street
580 Green Lane
762 Alum Rock Road
352 Stratford Road &
446 Bordesley Green

Colin

 

[Dolphie]

Oooh Pete, what a lovely memory. My Mom worked for them for many years & always comes out with stories. I think she said the boss was Mr Pratt?? Does that sound familiar. She must've been there in the 1950s & left when she had me (1957).
I got the impression it was quite a small bakery (the Small Heath one). We used to live in Golden Hillock Road, so it was dead handy to walk to work for her I suppose. I know every now & again she would buy broken custards & our old dog who would chase one around the floor with it on his nose, bless!

 

[Dolphie]

Meant to ask.......what was your Dad's name........I'll ask Mom for more stories & ask her if she knew him?

 

[bilsat]

Houses the Bakers

Hi Dolphie.
My dads name was Herbert Haylor known as "Bert". He left just before the selling out and went to work at Cadburys until he retired.
I dont know any of the owners names but dad was friendly with a Mr Bates, who also worked there, they lived in Shard End and we used to visit them from time to time.
Pete

 

[Dolphie]

Hi Pete,
Mom is 'Eve' (Dolphin) & worked there from about 1949-1957. I'm sure I've heard her mention a Herbert........I'll ask her tomorrow. You dont have a photo of the old place do you?? I've never seen it.

 

[bilsat]

Hi Dolphie.
I'm sory but I dont have any photos of the bakery . I can't go and take some as the frontage was demolished years ago, I believe the back of the bakery is still there and used for car repairs, I will take a look next time I am in the area.
I found this picture of dad caught when he was taking a break at Pinfold House.
Pete
Photo replaced

 

[Rod]

Bilsat what a tremendous picture, weve said many times on and off the fourm how pictures speak a thousand words. Thanks for sharing it here.

 

[Dolphie]

Oh that pic is great Pete, I'll show it to Mom & see if she remembers him. She reckons she worked there from when she was about 21-ish up until '57. She used to suffer terrible probs with arthritis & could barely walk some days after a heavy shift, so one of the van drivers would take her home (she would stand in the back of the van holding onto the sides!).........wonder if it was your Dad??

She can still knock up a marvellous batch of cakes & can still scoop out the cake mixture with one hand & sort of drop it into the cake case really quickly.......I cant describe it clearly but its magic to see her do it.

 

[dav19390]

Houses Bakers, Alum Rock Road

I remember House's. They had a shop on Alum Rock Road a few doors down from the Capitol Cinema. I lived exactly opposite for about ten years from about 1946 - when I was 6 years old. My father had a hardware shop with three petrol pumps outside that served petrol over the pavement into vehicles drawn up in the road. Next door to our shop was Hawtin's the music shop and on the other side was Tozer's, the butchers.

House's the bakers shop had Arrowsmiths, a sweet shop on one side and a milk bar on the other.

The manageress of House's was a Miss Townsend who seemed old to me from my age viewpoint, but was probably in her 30's or 40's. She was very kind to me and used to help me to cross the busy Alum Rock Road when I came home from school each day.

House's was a very busy bread and cake shop and I used to love the (synthetic) cream cakes from there but, unfortunately, we seldom bought them as Miss Townsend did not have a car so did not buy petrol from us, while the owner of the other cake shop near us (Mayne's) ran a gas-guzzling Jaguar that drank the stuff!

 

[rowan]

Oh Day19390,
You have set my hubby's memory going.!! He remember's all the names

you have posted.

He used to live in St Agatha's Road so knows there area well.

Thank you for nudging his memory

 

[Wendy]

My hubby remembers Hawtins music shop well........he lived in Ralph Road.

 

[dav19390]

Re: House Bakers

I lived next door to Hawtins the music shop when I was a boy. Jack and Mary Hawtin were the owners. They sold records and sheet music. There was a piano inside the shop on which Jack would play from sheet music if someone wanted to hear what the tune sounded like before they bought it.
We had adjoining walls and from my bedroom I could hear the piano. Jack would come into the shop some evenings and practice on it after I had been sent to bed. He would often play requests for me that I had asked for earlier in the day - usually The Teddy Bear's Picnic - just like having your own private disc-jockey all those years ago!

From my bedroom, I could see the front of the Capitol Cinema. It was one of the first cinemas outside the city centre to install a wide-screen system, although it was a bit of a cheat really because, although they had to install a new, curved, screen, it was the same size as the old one (i.e. roughly square) and they blanked off the top half of it when they showed a CinemaScope film. This meant their normal films were shown on a larger screen than their wide-screen films!

Unlike the Rock Cinema, which seemed to have a massively wide screen. When you sat in the front of the balcony and looked straight ahead you couldn't see the edges of the screen without turning your head. It was as good as Cinerama which came later of course to the Bristol Road Cinema.