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M
mauricesellars
Guest
Re: kingstanding orange juice
oldmohawk As kids we used to put the concentrated orange juice into a cup or a jam jar (we were poor) add a couple of tablespoons of national dried milk and top up with ordinary milk, the resulting drink was not unlike yogurt. Any body remember the 33 bus with a gas bag on the back during the war also the old leyland iluminated bus that ran round the bus routes at the end of the war and also at the Queens Coronation. Moss in Aus
oldmohawk As kids we used to put the concentrated orange juice into a cup or a jam jar (we were poor) add a couple of tablespoons of national dried milk and top up with ordinary milk, the resulting drink was not unlike yogurt. Any body remember the 33 bus with a gas bag on the back during the war also the old leyland iluminated bus that ran round the bus routes at the end of the war and also at the Queens Coronation. Moss in Aus
Because my little sister b.1945, naturally got most of the attention and 'sweetie foods' ie..Concentrated orange, powdered milk, and that malt stuff--(nearest thing to soft toffee) we 3 boys were er---a bit naughty, and helped ourselves when mom was out with her. AT LAST--a CONFESSION ! boy that feels good.
Peter Walker
gone but not forgotten
Pembroke,
Yes the 25 was a rush-hour only route from Highfield Road, Hall Green, to Finchley Road, Kingstanding via Hockley and Heathfield Road. But it had a very different route through the centre.
In the early 40s the 29 route ran from Snow Hill down Steelhouse Lane, back along Corporation Street and down Bull Street to High Street, the Bull Ring and Deritend. Coming back it came from the Bull Ring left into New Street, right into Corportion Street and then left into Bull Street and down Snow Hill.
The 25 route turned right from Snow Hill into Colmore Row, then Victoria Square, New Street, Hill Street, Bromsgrove Street and Bradford Street into Camp Hill and Stratford Road. Coming back it went straight up Hill Street into Victoria Square, then via New Street, Corporation Street and Bull Street over to Snow Hill. According to a reliable source, the route was cut back to Victoria in October 1942 and never ran to Hall Green again. I think it ceased to run altogether in the late 1970s, although it's listed on a 1978 route map.
Any one else remember the gas producers on the 33 buses in 1943-44?
Peter.
Yes the 25 was a rush-hour only route from Highfield Road, Hall Green, to Finchley Road, Kingstanding via Hockley and Heathfield Road. But it had a very different route through the centre.
In the early 40s the 29 route ran from Snow Hill down Steelhouse Lane, back along Corporation Street and down Bull Street to High Street, the Bull Ring and Deritend. Coming back it came from the Bull Ring left into New Street, right into Corportion Street and then left into Bull Street and down Snow Hill.
The 25 route turned right from Snow Hill into Colmore Row, then Victoria Square, New Street, Hill Street, Bromsgrove Street and Bradford Street into Camp Hill and Stratford Road. Coming back it went straight up Hill Street into Victoria Square, then via New Street, Corporation Street and Bull Street over to Snow Hill. According to a reliable source, the route was cut back to Victoria in October 1942 and never ran to Hall Green again. I think it ceased to run altogether in the late 1970s, although it's listed on a 1978 route map.
Any one else remember the gas producers on the 33 buses in 1943-44?
Peter.
M
mauricesellars
Guest
Re: kingstanding big bangers
golightly one for the memory of you old persons or perhaps the historian's, one day at noon there was a radio broadcast, I think the commentator was Richard Dimbleby he was doing the the countdown to a hugh explosion on Heligoland. The army was blowing up a massive pile of redundant munitions. The point of my story is did Wilder's Firework company buy up some of this explosive and turn it into the penny bangers called Thunder flashes that we could buy for a while after the war, these fireworks were very powerful, they could split a jam tin wide open, lift a pig bin lid six feet into the air and create a waterspout if you dropped them down a drain, remember em Moss in Aus
golightly one for the memory of you old persons or perhaps the historian's, one day at noon there was a radio broadcast, I think the commentator was Richard Dimbleby he was doing the the countdown to a hugh explosion on Heligoland. The army was blowing up a massive pile of redundant munitions. The point of my story is did Wilder's Firework company buy up some of this explosive and turn it into the penny bangers called Thunder flashes that we could buy for a while after the war, these fireworks were very powerful, they could split a jam tin wide open, lift a pig bin lid six feet into the air and create a waterspout if you dropped them down a drain, remember em Moss in Aus
Well 'mauricesellars' I don't recall the actual story you refer to but, I've no doubt there is truth or credability to it. Your right to say that the fireworks of that time were far more 'active' than today. The name you gave certainly sounds familiar, and so does the effects you speak of. After the 5/6 yrs of death and dustruction people experienced and witnessed first hand, I don't think the authorities of the day would have even considered these fireworks too loud or dangerous---unlike today of course, were kids can't even play tag in the playground anymore. I won't go into that rubbish further-----I'm on blood pressure tablets as it is. Just one memory I'd like to mention. About 1949 Bonfire night, we had a box of fireworks --all the same type,(from a well off aunt) they were nothing more than a cardboard version of a Japanese Zero fighter. You had to place it on say---a gate post or garden wall , light the torch paper, and it would shoot off into the night with flame streaking out of the back---totally uncontrolled. We had no idea were they went--and did'nt care, they were great, to a kid of 7 or 8. Imagine that on the market today !-----neither can I.
maggs
master brummie
Hi Jean,
Just looking at your son's photos - what a view. It's amazing how many trees there are in Brum.
oldmohawk
I thought the same things Mohawk. I also noticed that they have the Autumn tints in the trees. Here in Cambridge the sun was so hot and lack of rain,everything just got scorched and didn't recover. So we have no Autumn tints at all here, just burned leaves. Never seen in so bad.
pedlarman
master brummie
Peter,
I must have been a lad of about six or seven years old when I had my first introduction to the "brand-new Council Estate at Kingstanding..."
I can't say specifically when they started building the estate but calculating from the aforesaid it must have been around the middle thirties, or something like that.
I and my parents and sister, plus nearby neighbours were allocated tenancies in Orpington Road, when our houses in Adams Street collapsed!
Mom and Dad had gone one Saturday evening to attend a football dinner on the occasion of my dad's team winning some cup or other. My young Aunt Florrie had been left in charge of us "little 'uns", and when my dad and mom arrived home around midnight, my aunt had dropped off to sleep and they couldn't wake her up.
No. 5 back of 31 was a simple house in a courtyard - just one room down and two (one and a half..!) up.
And when Aunt Florrie wouldn't wake up, dad said: "I'll have to put my shoulder to the door...!
He did so and as my parents stepped in, across the dark room (there was no electricity for immediate illumination in those days) mom said: "Where's the piano?". As they entered a little further they could see the night sky and the stars where the back wall should have been...
Then they heard the sound of falling bricks and masonary. Dad immediately ran upstairs to drag us lids - along with Auntie Florrie - out of bed, and carried us quickly down the stairs, just as everything began to collapse around us.
Luckily, our Gran lived just "down the yard" and to the left in the main Adams Street, so it wasn't long before we were tucked up safely in Gran's house...
It appears that a factory - newly-built in Adams Street next to the courtyard - had installed turbines at the backs of our houses, and the vibration from these had caused our house foundations to slowly disintegrate.
The foundations decided to give up on the night of the football dinner...!!
So, as I say, as a result of being left homeless we were swiftly accomodated on the "brand-new estate at Kingstanding..."
I loved it. There were TREES and GRASS - just like in the countryside...!!!
But my little Paradise couldn't last. In those days, there was no such thing as commuting, and the long, long , tramride into the centre of the city where my mom and dad worked, could not be accepted - especially when there were no relatives around to see that your kids were OK. And you couldn't leave the house key with a couple of young schoolkids, could you...?
So, my sister and I - with me, the eldest, in charge - waited around until either mom or dad arrived home.
As far as my parents were concerned the situation could not be tolerated, and when the Adams Street house that had collapsed was rebuilt and ready for occupation a year later, we came back - to the haunts we were used to: THE OLD END !!
Cheers,
Jim Pedley (pedlarman)
I must have been a lad of about six or seven years old when I had my first introduction to the "brand-new Council Estate at Kingstanding..."
I can't say specifically when they started building the estate but calculating from the aforesaid it must have been around the middle thirties, or something like that.
I and my parents and sister, plus nearby neighbours were allocated tenancies in Orpington Road, when our houses in Adams Street collapsed!
Mom and Dad had gone one Saturday evening to attend a football dinner on the occasion of my dad's team winning some cup or other. My young Aunt Florrie had been left in charge of us "little 'uns", and when my dad and mom arrived home around midnight, my aunt had dropped off to sleep and they couldn't wake her up.
No. 5 back of 31 was a simple house in a courtyard - just one room down and two (one and a half..!) up.
And when Aunt Florrie wouldn't wake up, dad said: "I'll have to put my shoulder to the door...!
He did so and as my parents stepped in, across the dark room (there was no electricity for immediate illumination in those days) mom said: "Where's the piano?". As they entered a little further they could see the night sky and the stars where the back wall should have been...
Then they heard the sound of falling bricks and masonary. Dad immediately ran upstairs to drag us lids - along with Auntie Florrie - out of bed, and carried us quickly down the stairs, just as everything began to collapse around us.
Luckily, our Gran lived just "down the yard" and to the left in the main Adams Street, so it wasn't long before we were tucked up safely in Gran's house...
It appears that a factory - newly-built in Adams Street next to the courtyard - had installed turbines at the backs of our houses, and the vibration from these had caused our house foundations to slowly disintegrate.
The foundations decided to give up on the night of the football dinner...!!
So, as I say, as a result of being left homeless we were swiftly accomodated on the "brand-new estate at Kingstanding..."
I loved it. There were TREES and GRASS - just like in the countryside...!!!
But my little Paradise couldn't last. In those days, there was no such thing as commuting, and the long, long , tramride into the centre of the city where my mom and dad worked, could not be accepted - especially when there were no relatives around to see that your kids were OK. And you couldn't leave the house key with a couple of young schoolkids, could you...?
So, my sister and I - with me, the eldest, in charge - waited around until either mom or dad arrived home.
As far as my parents were concerned the situation could not be tolerated, and when the Adams Street house that had collapsed was rebuilt and ready for occupation a year later, we came back - to the haunts we were used to: THE OLD END !!
Cheers,
Jim Pedley (pedlarman)
Hi Peter W
Thanks for info re.No.25 Bus.Remember the "Spud Boilers" gas buses well.It was always touch and go if they would make it up the hill on Kingstanding Rd.past the Golden Hind pub.Was on one that didn' quite make it and passengers had to get off to lighten load and give it a push
Think this used to happen fairly often
Pembroke
Thanks for info re.No.25 Bus.Remember the "Spud Boilers" gas buses well.It was always touch and go if they would make it up the hill on Kingstanding Rd.past the Golden Hind pub.Was on one that didn' quite make it and passengers had to get off to lighten load and give it a push
Think this used to happen fairly often
Pembroke
Great story 'Pedlerman' glad you lived to tell it. Further to the 'Kingstanding cliffe' I spoke to my half-sister today about this (she was a teenager after the war) She said there was a travelling fair that came on the flat site at the bottom of the cliffe, and the Americans who were based nearbye would all visit this fairground---so I was right, maybe she took us kids on one occasion, because I can see it now---------. Here's another recall, can anyone remember a Dairy just down from the 'cliffe' --was it Hornby's? i remember seeing alot of those little battery carts going in and out of a yard there---anybody??
Peter Walker
gone but not forgotten
golightly and pedlarman,
How I remember that area, where we used to go lunchtimes from Hawthorn Road Juniors in 1942/3. Certainly the red cliffs were very exciting to us 8 or 9-year olds. I certainly remember a fairground at the bottom of the cliff in 1948, over the Easter weekend.
Below is a list of properties on that part of Kingstanding Road in the 1950 Kelly's Directory:
.. here is Goodway rd ...
— Birmingham Co-operative Society Ltd. dairy
— Territorial Army H.Q. 594 (Mobile) Heavy A.A. Regiment R.A. (T.A) 382 Perry Barr Division
—Unionist Association Headquarters
400 Mousley Horace Stanley, billiards hall
402 Fearne (E. 0. Finnemore, proprietor), florist
404 Wallis Sidney Victor. confectioner
406 Reed Joseph. H. T. cooked meat shop
here is Dyas rd
Peter
How I remember that area, where we used to go lunchtimes from Hawthorn Road Juniors in 1942/3. Certainly the red cliffs were very exciting to us 8 or 9-year olds. I certainly remember a fairground at the bottom of the cliff in 1948, over the Easter weekend.
Below is a list of properties on that part of Kingstanding Road in the 1950 Kelly's Directory:
.. here is Goodway rd ...
— Birmingham Co-operative Society Ltd. dairy
— Territorial Army H.Q. 594 (Mobile) Heavy A.A. Regiment R.A. (T.A) 382 Perry Barr Division
—Unionist Association Headquarters
400 Mousley Horace Stanley, billiards hall
402 Fearne (E. 0. Finnemore, proprietor), florist
404 Wallis Sidney Victor. confectioner
406 Reed Joseph. H. T. cooked meat shop
here is Dyas rd
Peter
M
mauricesellars
Guest
Re: kingstanding shops
Peter W what happened to the M B outdoor beer shop cnr Kingstanding and Dyas road. Moss in Aus
Peter W what happened to the M B outdoor beer shop cnr Kingstanding and Dyas road. Moss in Aus
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
There is a photo of one here, and probably other photos in the 'depths' of the forum.
https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?p=169055&highlight=trailer#post169055
G G Jean
Brummy Wench.
#415. Peter if you look at the second photo you can see the barracks and the backs of those shops. My Dentist is now one of them a cafe a vets on the corner Citizens advice beaureau and a closed down hairdressers shop. Oh also a sun tanning salon. Will take a photo next week for you. Take care. Jean.
bren
master brummie
Peter,
I must have been a lad of about six or seven years old when I had my first introduction to the "brand-new Council Estate at Kingstanding..."
I can't say specifically when they started building the estate but calculating from the aforesaid it must have been around the middle thirties, or something like that.
Jim Pedley (pedlarman)
The area now known as Kingstanding came under Perry Barr Council, seperate from Birmingham. It was acquired by Birmingham around 1928 when Perry Barr Council basicaly went bust and work started almost immediatly with farm land being taken over and Kingstanding being built. Kingstanding Rd was at that time known as Holly Lane, there are some pic's somewhere, will see if i can find them. I know they included the junction of College Rd and Holly Lane, Warren Farm, Kettlehouse Farm and Bandywood.
bren
bren
master brummie
Here's one i found on my puter but there is a site, will post the link when i find it. This is College Rd/Kingstanding Rd i think about 1930
View attachment 37754
bren
View attachment 37754
bren
bren
master brummie
How's that for speed, went straight to it, feast your eyes
https://www.search.digitalhandswort...1&records=109&direction=2&pointer=1588&text=0
bren
https://www.search.digitalhandswort...1&records=109&direction=2&pointer=1588&text=0
bren
bren
master brummie
The vet on the corner used to be the "offy". There is a doctors surgery just in Dyas Rd and the vet used to occupy the back of this place, you had to walk down the ally at the side of the doc's
bren
pedlarman
master brummie
bren: Thanks for coming back with your info about Kingstanding. For obvious reasons, the Kingstanding experience was not one of graphic proportions in my young life...!
But when you quoted Warren Farm and Bandywood and Kettlehouse, I remembered those vaguely as having touched on my 12 month Kingstanding experience.
If I remember rightly, wasn't that Warren Farm Road where I went to school for the one year we spent in the area? And don't I remember a Kettlehouse Lane and Bandywood Road?
Your other info is rather interesting, too. I didn't know that Perry Barr and Birmingham were two different Councils at one time. Further, since you tell us that Perry Barr was acquired by Birmingham in 1928, might I tell you that 1928 is the year I was born...?!
And if work was begun immediately on the construction of the estate, Kingstanding was not as "brand-new" as was described when we were allocated the tenancies. Wish I could recall the year our house fell in...! I know it was before the war, but I can't remember how many years before.
Just a little afterthought: do you know - much as I enjoyed that boyhood saga of emigrating to the green, green environs of Kingstanding - I have never been back there! It must be at least 70 years since the episode of the collapsed house in Adams Street, Duddeston, and entry into the pungent, new smell of a just-built council house.
Yet - as I say - I have never been back there...
Thanks for the memories, bren.
Cheers,
Jim Pedley (pedlarman)
M
mauricesellars
Guest
Re: kingstanding "spud" picking
Do any of you old blokes remember going "spud" picking with the school I was in Dulwich road 4th year senior boys at the time. I don't remember if we went in the back of a covered lorry or on a coach. We all had on our wellies and big thick overcoats It was about AM on a cold frosty October morning, we were taken out to the Shenstone area. We all had to line up along the furrow, the tractor would then come along with the scuffle on the back and knock the top off the furrow exposing the "spuds". Then it was our job to pick up the "spuds" and put the in sacks. They were then taken and stacked in a Potato camp and covered with straw and then soil until they were needed at the markets. From memory I think we were paid about 7/6d for our weeks work. Moss in Aus
Do any of you old blokes remember going "spud" picking with the school I was in Dulwich road 4th year senior boys at the time. I don't remember if we went in the back of a covered lorry or on a coach. We all had on our wellies and big thick overcoats It was about AM on a cold frosty October morning, we were taken out to the Shenstone area. We all had to line up along the furrow, the tractor would then come along with the scuffle on the back and knock the top off the furrow exposing the "spuds". Then it was our job to pick up the "spuds" and put the in sacks. They were then taken and stacked in a Potato camp and covered with straw and then soil until they were needed at the markets. From memory I think we were paid about 7/6d for our weeks work. Moss in Aus
Hello 'mauriceSellars', the only spuds I was familiar with was the ones in my socks--a permenant darning job for me poor mom, which was about the only time she got to sit down if I recall. I can remember as a little kid going to a wedding, and at the reception, the large patch and repair my mom had spent hours the night before,trying to apply to the seat of my pants, fell apart as I wrestled with another kid on the floor. I spent the rest of the evening with my back to the wall or sat down. Ps. this was my new suit bought for this occasion, and wrecked the day before falling off my go-cart trolley. Kids eh?
M
mauricesellars
Guest
Re: kingstanding patches
golightly Like you I always had my toes sticking out of my socks and my a--- hanging out of my trousers. Remember bath night was once a week and there were four kids in my family we all had to use the same bath water, starting with the youngest first. I was always being told to wash my neck properly. When my cousins came to stay overnight we all had to sleep in the same bed,the girls at the top and the boys at the bottom 8 of us all together. Love your sense humour you are definitely a brummy
The kids of today don't know they are born
Moss in Aus
golightly Like you I always had my toes sticking out of my socks and my a--- hanging out of my trousers. Remember bath night was once a week and there were four kids in my family we all had to use the same bath water, starting with the youngest first. I was always being told to wash my neck properly. When my cousins came to stay overnight we all had to sleep in the same bed,the girls at the top and the boys at the bottom 8 of us all together. Love your sense humour you are definitely a brummy
The kids of today don't know they are born
Moss in Aus
'mauricesellars' well--yes, the oldman was a Brummie all right, and he had a good sense of humour BUT--me mam had such a sly-dry and cunning humour, that it would go strait over me dads head, but leave us kids rolling about, because dad was usually the target of it, but was always late getting it. Mom was a 5 foot nothing, petite, green eyed auben haired scouser, of Irish decent. Yet she was basically shy and quiet---but would not be taken for granted, and stood up to anyone. She was a wonderful storyteller, keeping us spellbound with recollections of life as a little girl before the first world war in liverpool, with all the great liners coming and going etc. She was from a very poor family, and it is only recently that I have been able--( through family history searches) able to find out what became of her family. Sorry I strayed of course there, but life is a series of connected happennings I think you'll agree.--regards---golightly.
M
mauricesellars
Guest
Re: kingstanding surnames
Bren go to website ''greathead.org'' and then click on surnames you will then find some of the surnames you are researching including mine
Moss in Aus
Bren go to website ''greathead.org'' and then click on surnames you will then find some of the surnames you are researching including mine
Moss in Aus
Hi-De, Are there any photographs of Cranbourne rd school in your library--such as the entrance ? Thats hoping the school still exists/and or--it has'nt changed in 60 odd years. I'd like to see if I can recognise it--I don't suppose Brenda Roberts still attends ? my first crush. --golightly.