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ladywood

postie

postie

Gone but not forgotten. R.I.P.
I received a email today and would like to share it with you all.

I have a number of photos from the area around S:t Mark's Street taken in the summer of 1964. An international group of young volunteers helped working with decorating and building a playground.

Here's a link ( other photos on the same site are a bonus of only Swedish interest)

https://ladywood1964.palaver.se/#!album-25

Some of these photos were published in The Birmingham Evening Mail in 1998. The story by Maureen Messent can be found at:

https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-17534160.html

There was a follow-up with the readers' comments a few days later.

Hope this might be of some interest to old - and young - Ladywood inhabitants.

Ingemar Lindahl

Lidköping, Sweden
 
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How lovely to see old Ladywood, which I knew and loved, I called there again in 2000, and did not hardly recognized any where, it was a pleasure to look through these photos and reminisce, thanks Ingemar.
 
Thank you for sharing that with us Postie. My mum was from Ladywood and lived there till the late 1950"s so I love looking at photos of how it used to be.
Also many thanks to Ingemar for contacting you with the links.
 
Fascinating old pics of Ladywood. Ladywood and my home area were chalk and cheese, but I loved the liveliness and bustle of Ladywood, even if it did look grim. I often visited a relative in Monument Road though I have not been there since 1954. I have looked on the satellite maps and along with Paul. who says he made a revisit, did not recognise many areas. The Library does stand out, despite the monstrosity next door. Closer examination does show a few recognizable buildings.
 
Ladywood photo No.69 on Ingemar's website - uniformed man looks remarkably like one of the park keepers of Summerfield Park - a Mr Devereaux or a Mr Burns? - I went to school (Dudley Road) with their sons
 
Malvernian said:
Ladywood photo No.69 on Ingemar's website - uniformed man looks remarkably like one of the park keepers of Summerfield Park - a Mr Devereaux or a Mr Burns? - I went to school (Dudley Road) with their sons
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& the other girl is Maureen Smith with her mom, they lived in St Marks St.
Hi Malvernian, You are correct he was one of the Park Keepers, I am the smaller of the girls, I was Vivienne Hay & the other girl is Maureen Smith with her mom, they lived in St Marks St.
 
Vivienne - I'd forgotten about this thread - it's good to see Ingemar's photos again - thanks - Maureen and her mom appear in a few others? - on reflection I think the park keeper is Mr Devereaux - wonder what he was doing down your end? - perhaps they had to "keep" at several parks in the mid-60s - I got to know him, and Mr Burns, in the late 50s when they "kept" just Summerfield Park - my twice-a-day job was walking the family dog round there!
 
Malvernian said:
Vivienne - I'd forgotten about this thread - it's good to see Ingemar's photos again - thanks - Maureen and her mom appear in a few others? - on reflection I think the park keeper is Mr Devereaux - wonder what he was doing down your end? - perhaps they had to "keep" at several parks in the mid-60s - I got to know him, and Mr Burns, in the late 50s when they "kept" just Summerfield Park - my twice-a-day job was walking the family dog round there!
Click to expand...
Awww bless I didn't know his name (or I'd forgotten) but I have to tell you that he was a lovely kind man who genuinely took good care of me, I was one of sixteen children & to be fair I was a bugger as a kid, I wouldn't go to School & I kept running away from home, I usually ended up at Summerfield Park or the Museum in Town centre etc (depending on weather lol) & Mr Devereaux used to worry about me like he was my dad, he always shared his sandwiches with me, gave me a few pennies now & again & he would speak to me at length about how vulnerable I was on the streets etc & if he knew I was scared to go home he would walk me back home to Anderton St & he said he would wait at the bottom of our yard in case no one was home etc (he knew they would be) it may be stretch but that may have been one of those days that he walked me home! the fact that my friends Mom is with my friend in the pic is odd unless my mom had asked them to help look for me, that would explain a lot ha ha, there are also pics regarding the 'Ballerina Girl' from Balsall Heath, in fact she was also from ladywood & lived in Anderton St & her brother married my sister, they have a pic of her 'grown up' but I swear I don't think it's her, plus they said she lives in Brum which in fact hasn't been true for approx 35/40 yrs as she emigrated to Australia! Anyway thank you for responding to me & thank you for giving me the name of a very dear friend whom I'd forgotten about, did Mr Devereaux have any children would you know? kind Regards. Vivienne.
 
Vivienne - Sounds just like the Mr Devereaux I remember - whether it was me or my dad walking the dog round the park, he would join us and we'd wander round chatting and putting something in the world to right. I went to Dudley Road School with his son James (think he might have also had an older sister), but with the 11-plus he went on to George Dixon School and I went on to Lordswood School. Used to see him sometimes on the way to school on the No.11 bus but we eventually lost touch. I did come across the name, through my work in the 80s, as someone working for an environmental firm in West Brom, but I never did get round to checking it out.
 
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