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Kingstanding

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Re: kingstanding drill hall

oldmohawk great pictures on the nature strip in front of the drill hall were a couple of very old oak trees (shown in the photo) I noticed they were not there when I come back to Brum for a holiday in 2000 as we passed by on a 33 bus, Moss
 
It would be interesting to see exactly where the Beeches Estate photo was taken.The only clue I can see is the steet sign at the junction.Fascinating photo.I was born on the Beeches at Scarsdale Road.Les
 
Hello Les,
I use to sledge down your road in the winter, straight over Beeches Rd. I think I have a photo somewhere of that area, I'll look for it and post it. I have posted 1940's pictures of Grindleford Rd on the forum.
oldmohawk.
 
Just read Ray Griffiths interesting account of living in Birdbrook Road Great Barr. I lived there from 1956 until 1968 and never knew about the watercress farm. I lived opposite the chip shop, off licence and grocery shop. Not aware that our garden ever flooded. Thanks for the memories, as they say

researching. Bracey, Tibbins, Lyons, Hollingsworth, Baker and many more Brummie ancestors
 
Brum baby would you like me to take a couple of photo's as it is today? only my hairdressers is in Birdbrook. Do you mean the end towards the colledge?. Jean.
 
Re: kingstanding Halesbury grove

Hi Dennis The only one I can remember in Halesbury Grove is Lesley? Pitman I do remember the brook/storm water drain that was at the end of the grove. It started somewhere by the Kingstanding circle ran behind the houses on Danesbury crescent under Warren Farm road it then came out on the Warren farm island were the prefabs were, it then went under a short bridge in the middle of the island. On the walkway over this bridge was the Birmingham Coat of Arms (the artist and the blacksmith ) laid out in crazy paving, this may have been destroyed when the brook on this island was covered over. At the end of the island the brook went underground again. This was a brick build tunnel about 4ft high with a concrete base as kids we used to traverse this tunnel and others on its journey all the way to Witton Lakes They were long dark tunnels and we did not have touches. In 1951? there was a hugh thunder storm and this brook was completly full.The water even went over the spillway at Witton Lakes. We never played in that brook again. Do you want more Moss Adelaide South Australia
 
Hi Pembroke i am Allen Gibson we did live on the left side of a entry to the back yard just up from Leyton grove i went to Cranbourne road from 1937 i seam to remember the name but cant place you, Hurlingham road was great in those days ,i heard its not very nice now .i have not been back there since 1984 my mother lived there for over 60 years
 
Re: kingstanding-beeches estate

Hi Mohawk,Now you are bringing back the memories.I also used to sledge down Scarsdale Road Hill with my mates.We always had a lookout for cars at the bottom but it got a bit scary if the call was too late because of the speeds we used to get up to.I lived at No.40 which was right on top of the hill.What years would you have been sledging.I did it about 1955 to 1965 with the rest of the baby boomers.Wher were you living?Les
 
Hi gibbo 2005
I started Cranbourne Rd.School 1940 so I think perhaps it was your brother Eric I knew.I more or less left the area when I joined navy in early 1950s. Going by one of Eric's posts re.Peckham Rd.school I would have been there the same time as him but can't remember him from there,although I can remember from earlier time at Cranbourne Rd.
Regards
Pembroke
 
Re: kingstanding-beeches estate

lesr1 said:
sledge down Scarsdale Road Hill
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Hi Les,
I sledged probably 49/50, supposed to be 'grown up' by 55 - 65, and we risked it without look-outs. I lived in Grindleford Rd and have posted pics of the play field and brook where the M6 runs now. If you can't find them on here, I'll put links on. GoogleEarth street cam has been round Beeches Estate, Hassop Rd and along Beeches Rd etc. Apologies if you've already looked.
I went Beeches Rd , Aldridge Rd, Handsworth Tech schools. Here's a couple of pics from 1941 - the time of the WW2 bombing of Brum, the one pic show what looks like a water tank on the island.
Oldmohawk
Phil
 
Re: kingstanding-beeches estate

lesr1 said:
bringing back the memories Les
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Hi Les,
Just noticed you are in Australia. If you hit Search, type Grindleford, and search posts, you will see various posts, with the comments, and photos I've posted about the Beeches. I think I even mentioned someone who emigrated to Australia.
oldmohawk
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Hi Mohawk,I have just spent a couple of hours catching up on your posts to bring me up to date.The fellow in Oz that you posted to was my brother,although I did not know he used this site.He went to Aldridge road school a few years after you I think.There was a photo you posted of your wife at Great Barr Comp(1959) which is the year I started there.What was her maiden name.I am going to have another good look at the photo you posted of The Beeches-1936............I am fascinated as to where it was taken from.Les
 
Re: kingstanding Greenholme road

Hi Mohawk a aged brummy freind of mine told me today that Greenholme road was originally called Green lane and it was a very narrow rocky dirt track, the sand pits on the bottom right hand side had a firering range where the T A used to fire there pistols. I would say that the photo of Beeches road was taken just round the bend from the Drakes Drum pub.
Moss
 
Hi Moss,
Here are a couple of pics courtesy of Google Street view. In the b1 pic the bushes on the right would be where the early 1936 view was taken from. The b2 pic shows the view down Thornbridge Ave. Yes the 'Green Lane' was changed to the posh Greenholme Rd name. There is a pic in the '1st Peddle Car' thread of me and my sister at the bottom of the road during WW2. I was going to post the pics for Les in 'Oz' but he's probably in bed now. I'll put a short post to Les pointing him here. He's asked me a few questions which I'll have to look for the answers. I'm going to switch into the Linux partition of my 'puter where I have a link to a site showing some great pre war pics of the area.
oldMohawk
 
lesr1 said:
I am fascinated as to where it was taken from.Les
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Les,
If you look at the previous post, I've sent a pic to Moss, which shows where I think the 1936 photo was taken from. I sent it to him because it might be well into the night in Oz !! With regard to your other questions, I'll have a trawl through the forum to update myself and hopefully get answers.
oldmohawk
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lesr1 said:
photo you posted of your wife at Great Barr Comp(1959) Les
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Hi Les, She is 2nd from right in the front row. Her maiden name was Penny Hipkiss. I haven't yet found the post I sent to your brother - I'll keep looking. My 1st ever post on the forum was #63 in the 'Spring Hill Ice Rink' thread. A lot of us on the forum have re-lived the good days of our youth in that thread. You can see where my 'forum name' came from. A link with some really old photos of the Gt Barr area is shown below. They range from very early to the building of the the Perry Barr underpass, although that was 45 years ago
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Some good pics of Perry Hall park etc. There are a lot of photos, it takes time to search through them.
oldmohawk
Phil
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https://www.search.digitalhandswort...5&records=250&direction=1&pointer=6185&text=1
 
Hello again Mohawk,Thanks for the links,I'll look at the photos tomorrow.My brother is Ozontop.I'm off to bed now.Les
 
Re: kingstanding the bogs

Old Mohawk thanks for the quick reply. I in Australia like les. I remember the bogs that were behind the beeches school we used to catch frogs there When I came home for a holiday in 2000 I saw there is now a golf driving range there, also where the hugh sandpit at the side of Aldridge road belonging to the Quesslet Sand and Gravel, that is now a fairly big hill. How many tons of rubbish did they dump there. Moss
 
Hi Moss,
Did not realise you were in Oz. I see we over here have just took a pasting in the 1 day cricket !
The hill by Aldridge Rd did have a lot of rubbish dumped and they have to burn off methane gas from it. They have turned part of it into a nature reserve with a pool etc.
If you search threads ref Queslett or Quarries etc you may find info on the forum. I have seen pics of it on here, it's just finding them, others may remember where they are.
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oldmohawk
 
Pembroke said:
Hi gibbo 2005
I started Cranbourne Rd.School 1940 so I think perhaps it was your brother Eric I knew.I more or less left the area when I joined navy in early 1950s. Going by one of Eric's posts re.Peckham Rd.school I would have been there the same time as him but can't remember him from there,although I can remember from earlier time at Cranbourne Rd.
Regards
Pembroke
Click to expand...

My last year at Peckham Road was spent in the science lab with the science teacher Frank Payne, he called me 'bottlewasher' and it stuck, I was bottlewasher to all the kids long after I left school.

On the subject of the Co-op Dairy my younger brother's best mate worked there in the late fifties/sixties, when I moved down here he came visiting with my brother and fell for the local milkman's daughter, they married and he's still here, I was chatting with him just last week, his name's Dave Ford. E.
 
Re: kingstanding photo links

oldMohawk thanks for the links you are teaching me a lot. behind Danesbury cres/Hurlingham road corner was a hill called The Pimple it was also called The Ash Hill there were no ash trees on it, was it a dump at some time? Moss
 
Hi Moss,
I don't know too much about Hurlingham Rd in Kingstanding. There may be other forum members who know about it.
olmohawk
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Hi Moss
Think you might be reffering to what we called the "Gully"It lay behind Hurlingham Rd.Sidcup Rd.Danesbury Cres.and Ellerton Rd.A tarmacked path that ran from Sidcup Rd.to a grove off Ellerton Rd cut it in two.Looking at it from Sidcup Rd.there was some allotments on left hand side the right hand side was just waste ground.It was only an unofficial dump.Was great for sledging when we had snow.
Pembroke
 
We called it the gulley too Pembroke, I can remember us sledging down there on the curved side piece of an Anderson air raid shelter.

There was a cycle speedway on the top for a time where all the local kids raced.

I can also remember a bit of a war with kids from the Sidcup Road side and from the Ellerton Road side tossing stones at each other over the top, it got out of hand and the cops and firemen turned up to break it up. E.
 
Hi Eric
The run got that slippy and there was that many of us on the shelter section one time we finished off by going through the back garden fence of one of the houses in Sidcup Rd.
Still chuckle thinking about "The War" as you called it.Each evening for the best part of a week the kids would congregate on their own side of the hill. One side would charge to the top,the other side would then make a charge from their side of the hill and drive the first lot down.This went on till everybody was just about exhausted, rushing up and down the hill,and went home.The following evening would be a repeat performance of the previous one.As you say the police eventually broke it up.Can only remember one kid getting hurt and as soon as he was everybody else stopped to inspect his injury and give him a bit of encouragement by telling him how bad the cut was ,how many stitches he might need,how bad he looked etc.etc. Happy Days
 
Re: kingstanding pimple,ash hill, Gully

To all If you have stood on this hill over the years you would watched the big bomber raids going overhead, the sky was filled wth planes, also for the Arnhem and D Day landings with gliders attached. The engine noise was deafening. From the top you could see the Sutton Coldfield T V mast being built. Moss
 
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