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Marston Green & Tile Cross

no its not just you mike. I've found thta whenever an attachment comes out on the forum reading "attachment xyzabc" in blue, i can never open it
Mike
 
hello and welcome Maggie Robinson,
fantastic picks i love the shirestone rd as a family i knew at 28 the tailors.
he worked for wilsons / mothers pride bakers... happy days regards dereklcg..
 
Pics fine now thank you Maggie. I was the driver in the bus at Marston Green in my previous posting. Have had a dabble with your postcard view but our skilled photo restorers here on the Forum will make a better job of it if you ask them.
 
Hi Everyone: I didn't know this was called "bauldies mansion" --I knew it as Sheldon Hall and passed it every day on my way to school at Byng Kenrick. I loved the look of it so I used to stop my bike at the gate and stand there. One day a man who was working in the grounds (he was bald); he said he'd seen me stop several times and asked if I'd like to look inside. I was terrified because my mother had told me never to go with strangers but on the other hand...I was very keen to see inside it. So I went with him (I'd have had kittens if one of my kids had done that!) and he showed me the Great Hall and the fireplace big enough to roast an ox in. He was very kind and I gathered that he was the owner. He'd wave as I went by on my bike after that.
 
hello i'm new at this forum but so glad i've found it, as its taken me to memory lane!! i was born in marston green and lived in stretton road in the 70s. i know unfortunately the pics have been hacked or destroyed (temporarily i hope). but if anyone has any old pics or new pics of both marston green maternity hospital and stretton road, rocky lane or aston junior primary school.. i'll be ever so grateful. many thanks : )
 
mariew said:
I don't know the full story, do you know whether it was a man living there, and did you ever see him?
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Yes, we saw him a few times walking round the grounds with his shotgun under his arm and 2 dogs with him. We would watch him very quietly through the hedge because everyone knew that if he saw you he would shoot you!! No questions asked!!
 
Marston Green in 1955. At this time the Green has a Post Office and shop, a necessary requirement of any small village. Since then several rooflines have changed, the post box has gone (as too has the Post Office at this position I expect). The large (1930s ?) pub to the left has been replaced. But a 'keep left' arrow on the roundabout is still deemed necessary! Viv.

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Lovely picture Viv, spent much of my formative years in the village, although didn't live there.

Avid train spotter always at the station come rain or shine, happy days...
 
This image shows a number of members of the Marston Green Home Guard unit, probably taken between 1942 and 1944. The interest in it is probably less the foreground (except for that tiny minority of Forum members who are interested in such things!) but, as is often the case, the background.

The building in the background is Chapel House Farm, situated near to the Marston Green railway station. It later became the clubhouse for the Marston Green Golf Club before being buried under extensions to Birmingham Airport in the 1970s. Look carefully and you will see behind an open window a couple surveying the scene below them.

It isn't clear when the farmhouse ceased to be a farm and became a golf club. A nine hole course was laid out in 1938 and it was a further 10 years before the final nine appeared. And so the people in the window could either be the farmer and his wife; or whoever it was who looked after the place as it transformed itself into a golf club. What seems to be established is that a Mr. and Mrs Harry Monkhouse lived in the house, at least in the immediate post-war era: Harry Monkhouse was the head greenkeeper and his wife looked after the clubhouse catering. But whether that was the couple hovering in the background.....

If anyone has any knowledge of Marston Green in the 1940s and can add anything to what we know about the house and its function, that would be very welcome.

Chris

(Sources: private collection and staffshomeguard; websites of Solihull Council and golfsmissinglinks)

Bryan39thWarksGroupw800.jpg BryanChapelHouseFarmw300.jpg
 
Several posts relating to specific Home Guard aspects of this image have been transferred to the main Home Guard thread where further similar discussion can be continued. (A higher definition image of the image can now also be seen here).

Comment will still be welcomed here concerning memories of Chapel Farm House and its function in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.
 
Anyone recognise this Marston Green lady from 1943/44 (from the recent Home Guard group photo)?

Chris


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I wonder what the badge (or is it a broach?) was. I thought it might have been that of a bus conductor/conductress (remember when men were men and women were women ;)) but it does not seem so.
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No, Alan, I think it is the official Women's Home Guard Auxiliary badge, worn from mid-1943 when women were officially allowed to join the Home Guard. As below, a 42mm plastic affair and, officially, the only bit of uniform issued to them. Note the very civvy gloves!

It would be great if someone could identify this lady.

Chris

(Image source: I.W.M.)

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Hello everyone, I attended Tile Cross Primary School from about 1965 to early 70's when I went to Sir Wilfrid Martineau. I became an avid photographer from about the mid 70's until now. I took many photos of Marston Green around the back of the airport which I scanned in a couple of years back. I lived in Shrewley Crescent so I have a number of photo's from around there also. Not enough, sadly. I probably have the only known photos of Tile Cross Primary school in existence. I read in the Evening Mail they were knocking it down and I took my camera around. Sadly, I only got some 20 photos and my regret is that I didn't take 120. Oh well. Anyway, if anyone has any interest, I can pop these on a Google drive. Anyway, it was nice to hear some of these stories. All the best, Gary Walton
 
ChrisM said:
Several posts relating to specific Home Guard aspects of this image have been transferred to the main Home Guard thread where further similar discussion can be continued. (A higher definition image of the image can now also be seen here).

Comment will still be welcomed here concerning memories of Chapel Farm House and its function in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.
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Just come across this thread and I remember the Golf Cubhouse at the farm in the 50s when we used to go trainspotting ant the station and then on to the bluebell woods in Chelmsley. I also remember there were one or two large wooden huts adjacent to the farmhouse where we used to see "soldiers" with rifles and military equipment. Now I assume that they were a unit of the Territorial Army. Could the huts have been used by the Home Guard unit during the war and then taken over by the T.A.?
They were still there in the 60s when as teenagers we sometimes used to call into the clubhouse on a weekend and munch on a bacon sandwich and mug of tea.
 
gary_m_walton said:
Hello everyone, I attended Tile Cross Primary School from about 1965 to early 70's when I went to Sir Wilfrid Martineau. I became an avid photographer from about the mid 70's until now. I took many photos of Marston Green around the back of the airport which I scanned in a couple of years back. I lived in Shrewley Crescent so I have a number of photo's from around there also. Not enough, sadly. I probably have the only known photos of Tile Cross Primary school in existence. I read in the Evening Mail they were knocking it down and I took my camera around. Sadly, I only got some 20 photos and my regret is that I didn't take 120. Oh well. Anyway, if anyone has any interest, I can pop these on a Google drive. Anyway, it was nice to hear some of these stories. All the best, Gary Walton
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hi gary not sure what a google drive is but if you could post some of your photos on this thread that would be great...

many thanks

lyn
 
thanks for the info gary and thanks for that lovely photo...just for moment i thought it was the no 14 terminus just round from the shops in bell lane but i see its not...my aunt and nan both lived in bell lane for many years...look forward to anymore photos you can share with us

lyn...
 
really good photos gary...nice and clear...i am sure some of our members will be able to date some of them with looks ups of registrations

thanks

lyn
 
gary_m_walton said:
Two shots of where I used to plane spot as a kid. This is off Elmdon Lane - Possibly Newlands Lane?
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This picture reminds me very much of the path we used walk up to Marston Green from the estate in the background where you can see the 6 storey flats (Greenvale Avenue) before the runway extension was started. It used to come out just by the Farmhouse and the Army huts. Just about where the runway is there was a brook and and a fresh water spring that bubbled up from the ground. Kids being what they were then we used to drink from the spring, lovely and cold and refreshing. Wouldn't do it now though!
 
jmadone said:
This picture reminds me very much of the path we used walk up to Marston Green from the estate in the background where you can see the 6 storey flats (Greenvale Avenue) before the runway extension was started. It used to come out just by the Farmhouse and the Army huts. Just about where the runway is there was a brook and and a fresh water spring that bubbled up from the ground. Kids being what they were then we used to drink from the spring, lovely and cold and refreshing. Wouldn't do it now though!
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Hi Jmadone, that's very interesting. It could be a view, then, from Newlands Lane although that looks to too far to the one side but can't see what else it could be. Yes, I spent many hours in the late 60's over that area and it was nice with the airfield being a provincial one (Elmdon airport). Way too busy for me now and spoilt. I remember the brook (Hatchford??) Happy days back then! I'll post some more pics of the back of the airfield in the next couple of days as I do worry they'll be lost if I check out. G
 
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