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Kingstanding

  • Thread starter Thread starter margaret
  • Start date Start date
Hi Miriam

You like that site then hehe. I never went to the Mayfair myself but as a child my wife lived in Hurstwood Rd, the old prefab's, and would go most w/ends with her family, my local cinema as a kid was The Odeon Kingstanding and it was 3d for the Satuday morning kids films. The Legion is still there on the corner of Hurstwood and College Rd, more popular now as there are no pubs left in the area. McD's is always busy but the Crossways is once again all boarded up, they spent who knows what turning it into flats for the homeless of Handsworth but it would seem they didn't appreciate it and it soon became a wreck.

bren
 
Bren my house that i sold 4 years ago was built where the prefabs were in Hales Gardens of the Hurstwood Rd

Mossy
 
Hales Gardens
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I know it, my youngest had a mate lived at the top end, so you know the junction of Hurstwood and Capilano, well that is where they built houses straight across Dovedale. I live top end Witton Lodge by Court Lane, i've only been in the area going on 40yrs lol and we must have passed each other at some time surely

bren
 
Hello Bren. So many changes since I was that way - my friend lived in Capilano Road, but now lives in Worcester. We were 'gels' together since age 14 and each year we meet in Birmingham, have lunch and catch up on each other's news. I must tell her about Capilano Rd. Miriam.
 
bren said:
Hi there, i was born in Dormington Rd, the other end, No17. Was 148 the other side of Wandsworth Rd going up the hill towards Lambeth Rd

bren
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Bren, yes, it was right at the top, we used to go to the Lambeth Road chippy when we were kids. I used to walk right down to the bottom Dormington Road, it came out not far from the circle if I remember correctly. I am trying to work out which school my dad would have gone from where he lived.

He would have only stayed in Kingstanding until about 1950 when he joined the army, but the rest of the family never moved away.
Celine
 
Cjeynes said:
I am trying to work out which school my dad would have gone from where he lived.
He would have only stayed in Kingstanding until about 1950 when he joined the army, but the rest of the family never moved away.
Celine
Click to expand...

Hi Celine

Yes, you have remembered it correctly, when you come out of Dormington into Kettlehouse you had the cinema on your right and shops on the left down to the Circle.
There are two J&I schools, the nearest would have been Sundridge Rd but not much between Kettlehouse Rd school also (Bandywood). By the way, we are talking before my time, but my bro's/sis's would be around your dads age by what you say about him going into the army around 1950. As for his secondary school, i know that the 11+ exam started about 1944, he might have just missed this but i think there would have been a choice of three, most from that area went to Peckham Rd Secondary Boys (or Girls lol), Great Barr School, Aldridge Rd or possibly Cardinal Wiseman RC School, Old Oscott Hill.

bren
 
Re: kingstanding Mayfair cinema

Al banner I can remember our mom picking us kids up from Dulwich Rd school and walking us up Plumstead Rd to the Mayfair cinema to see Al Jolson in The Jolson Story (no TV in those days) this was about 1948-49 There was a very long queue so we did not get in and had wait for the next house.Remember how the cinemas were always full of cigarette smoke,the ice cream lady, the manager getting up on stage to complain that the fence alongside the Mayfair had been vandalized again (the local gangs used this fence as a test of strength to see how far apart they could spread the railings) Any one know what the setting capacity of the Mayfair was, at a rough estimate I would think it could have been up to a 1000. I remember taking my girlfreind,now my wife, in the back row of the 1/6s.
Moss in Aus

I wish I was a little bit younger and know what I know now.
 
Oh. Mauricesellers. Wouldn't it be 'loverly' to be younger and have today's knowledge. Remember the Mayfair being full of smoke as you say, and those back rows were very comfortable!! I had to walk through the Mayfair Passage to get home - I remember it getting very icy during the winter and creeping along holding onto those railings. It wasn't me who bent them - honest!!! Miriam.
 
Hi John,

I lived on King's Road, know Dormington rd, used to pass it when walking up Wandsworth Rd, to get to Lambeth Rd.

I knew a Jessie Wilkes and her younger brother Roy Wilkes, he sadly died in his teens
or early 20's, he was Diabetic and had gone blind. He was my brother (Brian Wolverson's) friend.

Iris
 
Hi Celine,

Your dad would be a bit younger than Hubby and me,(1927 & 1929) about my brothers age, (1934). He would most likely gone to Peckham Rd School, or even the same school as us Aldridge Rd. School, that was the first Comprehensive at the time.(1939) Infants and Junior my daughter (1951) went to Kingsland rd School, as we did.

Iris
 
Re: king standing Air Training Corps kingstanding/Perry Barr

Help wanted can anybody help with what pages on this site there are references to The Air Training Corps 487? squadron. My brother in law Stan Rose was a member in the 1940s He tells me that there are only 7 members of of his squad still living with the passing of Jack Smith last week ex R A F
 
Re: kingstanding the archers

Hi reading the internet version of The Birmingham Mail I read that "Philip Archer" has passed away. How well I remember this radio program in the 50s (no TV then in our house) I remember when Grace Archer was killed off "unannounced" and the whole country went into morning.
The other wireless or should I say radio programs we listened to,Dick Barton Special Agent (sig tune The Devils Gallop), Paul Temple (sig tune The Coronation Scot) and then there was Carol Levis Discoveries (sig tune Stardust) and Billy Cotton (Wakey Wakey) . Those were the days.
Moss in Aus
 
Hi Moss,

Do you remember THE MAN IN BLACK Valentine Dyall, Saturday night, mom, dad & brother, me of course, used to listen in the firelight.

Iriselsie.
 
Hello Iriselsie - That post of yours could have been us in Boardesley Green. We all sat around the fire listening to Valentine Dyle - I remember him having a very deep. smoothing voice. Happy memories. Miriam.
 
Hello folks--re radio programmes in the 50's--who could forget all the great comedy/variety shows, where the great comedians/actors made their names first. 'Rays a laugh'--Ted Ray/kitty Bluitt ? / Peter Sellers/ Ken Connor etc. 'Educating Archie' Peter Brough with the only Ventreloquist dummy to make it on radio ( when he got on tv, we could see how poor he actually was) But the show had such great support from the likes of Beryl Reid/ max Bygraves/ Julie Andrews/ Harry Secombe etc. Talking of him---Hows about 'The Goon show'? years later, I read that several people had commented that they (as kids) were forced to listen to the show with volume turned right down ( with heads pressed to the speaker) because parents could'nt get the humour,or stand the racket. I thought I was the ONLY one who had to do this .-----'Take it from here'---'Variety Bandbox'-----'Midday Music hall'---'Music While you Work' ---'Workers Playtime' ----'Down Your way' I was always frustrated by this programme because they would only play snippits of the music---and chat too much. Same with 'Desert Island Discs'.---I'll pass the batton now----best wishes . Golightly
 
Re: kingstanding radio

golightly we forgot Wilfred Pickles and Have a Go, Workers Playtime and do I remember a cowboy one Riders of the Range Then there was Welsh Rarebit Harry Seacombe was in that as well.
Moss in Aus
 
Blimey! Wilfred Pickles, and 'Have a Go'--'How much have we got in the kitty, Mabel?' '3/11d' 'give 'im the money Mabel'. So, so, old fashioned, I can't believe I lived through that period when I think of that. That was a good 'un you mentioned , 'Rider's of the Range'-- by Charles Chiltern. What a story teller he was. And what did he come up with next ? (could'nt be more different) 'Journey into Space' WOW ! absolutely Brill. Now that WAS a cliff hanger, and so fresh and new to us fifties kids. It was of it's age, the dawning of the new Space Decade. Just the fact that the strange music and sound effects from the BBC's new 'Radiophonics Department' made it so real. We could'nt miss it--ever. Remember #Jet--Doc--Lemmie--and Mclean, who's mind was taken over by the aliens, with his mantra----' Orders Must Be Obeyed without Question at all Times ' in his monotone voice. We used to go around saying it to each other. About 7yrs ago, I bought the wholes radio series 1 & 2 on cassette--then my player bust. One day I'll buy a new one and listen to it all again. Back to 'Dick Barton --Special Agent' Am I right in thinking that it was replaced by 'The Archers' in 1950 ? I remember the announcement for the 'new ' series, and then 'Barton' disappeared . Here's another--'Palm Court?' was it ? on a Sunday evening. Max Jaffa on the violin. Then 'Time for Old Time' with Harry Davidson & his Orch. Over to you---Golightly.
 
Hi radio listeners of yesteryear,

You have made my day, remembering all the happy times and pleasures of the radio.

Thank you, Iriselsie xxx
 
If you listen to radio 7 on either DAB or your machine they are still on. They run some of the old comedy progs regularly.
 
Old Mohawk--wow, thanks for the goons link, It will never lose it's humour for me--laughed out loud, all over again---cheers, golightly.
 
Hello Iriselsie,
I think we've all turned this 'Kingstanding' thread into a 'radio' one although I'm sure they had radios in Kingstanding, because I posted a picture once which shows the long aerials in the back gardens.

oldmohawk
 
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I was born in '41, so i don't remember ITMA, but i do remember the actual radio news report of Tommy Handleys death,( 1947? ) and the grown ups all being shocked and upset. I understand that he wasn't very old. Since then of course, I've heard all the quotes of the charactors in the long running series, and how important it was to the Wartime moral. I've just thought of another good 'un---'Much Binding in the Marsh' The marvelous Kenneth Horne, Richard (Stinker) Murdoch, and Sam Costa. A most bizzare comedy. Other names from the period. Richard Dimbleby, Gilbert Harding, Joyce Grenfell, Ronald Shiner, Joan Regan, Ruby Murray, Ralph Reider's ( Gang Show ) Eamon Andrews, Raymond Glendenning, David Nixon, Barrington Daubey. Sylvia Peters, MacDonold Hobley-----over and out ---golightly.
 
Back to 'Kingstanding', does anyone remember Jack and Alf Thompson ? who ran a home removal business (and sold cars on their plot) from the back of Hawthorn road shops. Coming up the hill on Kingstanding Rd, from Town, and looking up to your right ,they would be seen on top of the cinder mound built up behind the shops so as to extend the land outwards--hope thats clear. My dad knew them well, and used to deal in cars with them. This is late forties at least, cos we moved away (yet again) after 1948.
 
Remember Thompsons removal firm and cars being sold from that site near 29/33 bus stop (top of Hawthorn Rd.).Think Tiger Hart the Birmingham Speedway rider sold cars there before Thompsons
 
Thanks for that Pembroke, at last someone who remembers the Thompsons. That was interesting about 'Tiger Hart', I can remember adults talking of him, and I know he was a local hero in the speedway world. When we lived in Rivington Crescent in the immediate post war period, You could hear the speedway racing going on at Perry Bar track. The sound would drift away and then become very loud, according to the wind direction. As a 5 yr old, it used to scare me, not knowing what was causing it, and I'd run back indoors. At the back of our house, no 114, was Twickenam road infants school, the first school I went to. You could look into the play area from our bedroom window. The first day I was there--aged 5, I wandered off at afternoon playtime, round the side of the school, and through open double doors, I could see dozens of toddlers asleep on folding type bunkbeds, with grey army style blankets over them. I was totally puzzled by this, and wondered why they were asleep in the daytime--at school, when I and others had to be doing lessons----such as they were. It was explained to me later, that they were only 3 and 4 yrs old. In 1989, my elder brother and I did a round trip visit to all the houses and schools we went to as kids, living in Brum ie. 8 and 9 respectively. Most of these places still existed, and apart from finding the real --scale-- much smaller than remembered, things were easily recognised.---over and out---golightly.
 
Re: kingstanding schools

Golightly remember all the new classrooms that were built in the playgrounds of some of the schools Dulwich road had there fair share, they were all asbestos clad and they did not use protective clothing in those days. I wonder how many kids and workers were affected ? Also the prefab houses were asbestos clad .
Do you remember the man who used to come round selling perry winkles from a cart also the man selling ties from a suitcase he had a turban on his head, a very strange sight for us kids in the 1940s
Moss in Aus
 
Hi Baron,

I knew a SHELLEY family lived in Kings Road, near the Odeon. My brother was friends with a Trevor Shelley who later became an Obstetrician, there was another older brother who was in the Fleet Airarm.

Iris
 
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