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Memories : Essence Of The 50s And 60s

Big Gee said:
Another aspect of travel I remember well from those days was going to London down the M1 on a Midland Red single-decker. Their boast was Birmingham to London in less than 90 minutes, and they could do it! No speed limit on the motorways in those days, so these buses would get to well over 100 mph, and being non-stop were generally faster than the trains! They were also the first buses I travelled on to have a toilet. I don't recall any serious accident with them (the buses, not the toilets) but I wonder if the technology of the day would permit an emergency stop at 115 mph, fully-loaded.... Back then I used to go to London quite frequently, and always used the bus as it was cheaper than the train.

G
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My brother Allen did some of the trial runs on those 100mph buses when the M1 opened, he said that after each London return journey they had to replace all the brake pads.
 
I remember going up to Brum on my Triumph Tiger Cub (my first motor bike). I had moved to Sussex at this time and this was going to be my first visit using my own transportation. The occasion was the opening of the M1....I was there when, I believe Ernie Marples cut the ribbon. I was one of the first on there and it was such a thrill to be able to go flat out and not have to worry about oncoming traffic. Got to Brum in record time!
Dave A
 
The worst part of the bus journey to London was the Midland Red bus-station in Digbeth. It was an embarrassment, to put it blunty, and the bus-station near Euston at the other end wasn't much better.

On one fine day in the mid-1960's I was heading to London on the M1 with some pals to go to a model aircraft competition, very early one Sunday morning. We were packed into a Singer Vogue Estate, a car that didn't hang about, and the driver got it up to almost the ton. Suddenly, there was a double 'whoosh' and a roar as two racing cars passed us, and were gone before we hardly saw them. I read later that it was Jackie Stewart and Jackie Ickx out testing cars for a racing-team the name of which I've forgotten, and as they'd been clocked by the police at nearly 220 mph there was a call for them to be pinched. But for what? There was still no speed limit on the motorways at the time. I think they got a stern warning, though.

G
 
Dave, flat out on a Tiger Cub, 60 mph. You may have been the first motorbike after the official opening!
I had a BSA Bantam a little slower, lucky to reach 60 mph. Mind most vehicles of that era were a little inaccurate at the top end, the needle fluctuated + or - 10 mph.
 
Elmdon Boy said:
Dave, flat out on a Tiger Cub, 60 mph. You may have been the first motorbike after the official opening!
I had a BSA Bantam a little slower, lucky to reach 60 mph. Mind most vehicles of that era were a little inaccurate at the top end, the needle fluctuated + or - 10 mph.
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True...60 mph was about it, however, I found that once I got on the M1, it would get closer to 70...still nothing by today's standards.
Dave A
 
A 1950s holiday drive to North Devon was always something to remember ... would our car get us there !

Down the Bristol Road in a holiday mood, car packed full and a roof rack, all we had to do was follow the A38 to Bridgewater. After Worcester, Tewksbury, and Gloucester we approached Bristol with holiday mood fading slightly. Can't remember the route through Bristol but we did go under the Clifton Suspension Bridge. At Bridgewater we took the A39 towards North Devon and started to think about the dreaded Porlock Hill.

A nice run along the coast past Minehead and then Porlock Hill, how steep and long it looked. We started the climb but half way up a slight burning smell and squealing noise signaled possible clutch trouble but we made it to the top where we stopped to give the old car a breather and the radiator needed a top-up.

Onwards along a twisty road near Lynton then past Parracombe and Blackmoor Gate until high up we saw Combe Martin bay in the distance. Lovely North Devon, it had taken us 7 hours to get there but long distance car travel was often an adventure in those far off days.
 
Back in the mid 1970's, I went to a gift fair trade show in Bristol. I did not take my car but went in a Rover 2000 with a colleague. Towards the fairs closing time we were invited to a manufacturers home where there were drinks and eats. Leaving the underground car park there was a set of traffic lights and a coin machine for parking charges. I shouted to my colleague "watch those lights" (can't print what I actually said :oops:), but it was too late, a steel ramp rose up which damaged the vehicle radiator. I had to put in 50p, to enable the ramp to go down so the car could be pushed back into the car park. As a result of this mishap we were taken to the beano in other cars.
Being almost tee total I opted for coffee. My colleague overdid the drinks part a little and when it was time to leave for Devon, he was loaned an Audi car. We set off to a nearby filling station. As I watched in horror as my colleague attempted to locate a key into the filler cap, my heart sank. I thought have to go over 100 miles with this guy in the state he is in. My Guardian Angel turned up just then, when my colleague said "I think you ought to drive Al". You can imagine how relieved I was at that suggestion.
The journey home was fine, although I became a little concerned in that every time I looked at the speedometer it said 90 mph. I was not worried about the speed I was doing, but what did concern me was being stopped by police. "Is this your car sir?" No, would have been the reply. "What is the registration mark?" Another blank would drawn as I had no idea; I never thought of looking at it when at the filling station. "Whose car is it?" Reply. "It belongs to a Mr. T******* in Bristol". "Where does he live? Sorry officer I was there earlier but being unfamiliar with Bristol I don't actually know where it was".
Fortunately I was not stopped; so avoiding a night in the cells, whilst it was all sorted out. :eek:
Our friends in Bristol arranged for the damaged car to be repaired and after two days my colleague returned to Bristol to take back the loaned Audi and collect - and pay - for his car.
I have to be honest the Audi was a lovely car to drive - even if fast - and the next day I did look at the registration, (a Bristol *AE***L ) which I still remember.:D
 
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OM, you probably took a right at Filton. Before the M5 got further south than Gloucestershire, when travelling to the West and North Midlands and vice versa, I always travelled overnight and broke my journey in central Bristol, by a main bus depot. It was well lit, safe and had toilets and refreshments near by.
 
pjmburns said:
I remember Mom doing the same with the electric oven - no gas in our house as Dad was an electrical engineer!
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Astoness said:
i think all the starlings have fled to the one stop shopping centre perry barr...loads of them there but yes i can remember all the birds that used to be up town...one thing that sticks in my mind is the tremendous noise they made...that was the city i knew and loved....have plenty of sparrows in my garden and a flock of about 30 starlings decend from time to time:) does not take long before i have to get back out and top up the feeders...

lyn
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I remember
Ray T said:
I remember playing as a boy in the tiny garden at the front of our back-to-back that was down an entry in Sparkbrook's Long St of a Sunday morning, when there'd come the shout of, "Wakey, wakey!", from the radio inside as the Billy Cotton band show started. By then, my mother would be cooking father's breakfast and the smell of bacon, eggs, tomatoes and sausage would be wafting from the little kitchen (if one could call it that) window that was barred and without glass. My sister and me only got cereals and milk and my mouth used to water at the aroma of the fry-up. At the top of the entry was Mrs Spencer's little shop with its tin advertising signs outside for Brasso, Park Drive, R White's Lemonade, and the like. Worth a few pounds to collectors nowadays. I'd sometimes be sent in to buy loose cigarettes two or three at a time for my mother. When we wanted salt, Mrs Spencer would chip fragments from a large block and weigh them off on her old balance scales. Opposite us lived Mrs Lucas, a dear old soul who used to make us a currant cake with her own baking, which she'd give to us once a week or so and which was devoured gleefully. Such was community life down a typical Birmingham entry in the 1950s.

Regards, Ray T.
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Ray your old man must have had a good life , my memory brings back Billy Cotton starting at 1.00pm after Family Favourites which started at noon . 2.00pm the comedies were on such as The Cltheroe Kid etc . If he was having breakfast at one, did he get down the pub because they closed at two , what time did he have dinner ?
 
Alan
About 5 days after I got my first car, an Austin A40, I was transporting a group of friends and WAS stopped by the police for a routine check, and was unable to tell them the number of the car. Someone in the back told me what it was !!. Surprisingly he seemed to accept that, though di insist on seeing my licence
 
Radiorails said:
OM, you probably took a right at Filton. Before the M5 got further south than Gloucestershire, when travelling to the West and North Midlands and vice versa, I always travelled overnight and broke my journey in central Bristol, by a main bus depot. It was well lit, safe and had toilets and refreshments near by.
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I've driven that way a few times since and it was a right turn off the A38 in Bridgewater onto the A39 towards Cannington, Williton, and Minehead. Later I usually turned left at Dunster and drove across Exmoor towards my favourite holiday place in the UK ... Woolacombe ... one place which has it's own thread on the BHF !
:)
 
Bob Davis said:
Al Martino, Here in my Heart, the first hit parade No 1, Frankie Laine with Jezebel, Guy Mitchell and the Cry boy himself Johnnie Ray. Those Sunday Afternoon Radio programmes, that was when music stopped being the property of your Mum and Dad and their ballroom dancing and the 50s teenager took over, remember Jack Jackson and his wonderful programme and by the late fifties, the Creep, the Cha Cha Cha and jive/bop had taken over. At both the Palace Erdington and the Carlton as well as the Crib, Kingstanding and the Plaza, the Cha Cha was always done to the Joe Loss number Wheels Cha Cha Cha which in the six degrees theory brings me round to the muscle man. I have evens on someone now posting a you tube extract of it.....Counting and out.
Bob
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Bob just come across your post I haven't got a you tube clip but the blokes name was Tony Holland
 
Stan. H said:
Is it just me that remembers "Uncle Holly" badges which we were given was kids when we went to see Santa at Lewis's?
Another thing haha.... why do banks insist on telling me that it has ALWAYS taked 5 working days to clear a cheque. back in the 60's/70's it took 3 working days, i'm sure of it...... aren't I???? haha
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I visited Uncle Holly and then on to Father Christmas had my photo took with FC , that was at Lewis's 1953 mislaid the photo in the late 90's
 
Vivienne14 said:
Now that brings some tasty memories back. I remember slab fruit cake like that. We often had it. Next to it is Swiss roll. Underneath the display cabinet are Cadbury's half-covered biscuits in a tin/box. Seem to remember biscuits in large cube tins with a see-through lid, but don't think these are of that type. I liked the ones with the chocolate ridges on one side. Also there's salad cream in the cabinet - still love that (on a sandwich on its own). Absolutely detested fish paste - and still do.

"Pearks"(Edit) shops - not heard of them before. Viv.
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Viv you can't beat a sandwich of Shippams salmon and shrimp paste after you've just washed your hands with carbolic soap
that was a regular when I was a nipper . I could just do with one now
 
Morturn said:
Funny looking at the images in #166. Workmen always erected those canvas tents when digging the street up. No street worksite would be complete with it the coke brazier and black iron kettle. Tea made on a coke brazier well boiled with milk and sugar already in, what's not to love.
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I and a mate used to sit for hours by the fire with a watchman in Communication Row just of Bath Row just talking nonsense while keeping dry if it was raining . that would be after school or on school holidays
 
Who remembers the baked potato man and the hot chestnuts at the corner of Stephenson's place and New Street. And the big tin of salt. Great when you'd just come out of the cinema and it was snowing.
Bryan
 
landcrab9 said:
Who remembers the baked potato man and the hot chestnuts at the corner of Stephenson's place and New Street. And the big tin of salt. Great when you'd just come out of the cinema and it was snowing.
Bryan
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I remember that one and also the one that used to be opposite Woolworths in New St . I think he was parked at the bottom of Bennets Hill , I used him quite frequently
 
Here’s a seasonal one : hot roasting chestnuts from a street vender. Still love them. Viv.
 
Carbolic soap is a classic, almost like washing in paint stripper. A block would last for years, it was too big to swirl it around in your hands to get the lather going.

Another classic was Izal toilet roll….
 
Big Gee said:
The worst part of the bus journey to London was the Midland Red bus-station in Digbeth. It was an embarrassment, to put it blunty, and the bus-station near Euston at the other end wasn't much better.

On one fine day in the mid-1960's I was heading to London on the M1 with some pals to go to a model aircraft competition, very early one Sunday morning. We were packed into a Singer Vogue Estate, a car that didn't hang about, and the driver got it up to almost the ton. Suddenly, there was a double 'whoosh' and a roar as two racing cars passed us, and were gone before we hardly saw them. I read later that it was Jackie Stewart and Jackie Ickx out testing cars for a racing-team the name of which I've forgotten, and as they'd been clocked by the police at nearly 220 mph there was a call for them to be pinched. But for what? There was still no speed limit on the motorways at the time. I think they got a stern warning, though.

G
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I had a Singer Vogue estate,(2nd hand), in the early 70s. Lovely looking car but it developed terminal rust around the headlights.
 
maypolebaz said:
I had a Singer Vogue estate,(2nd hand), in the early 70s. Lovely looking car but it developed terminal rust around the headlights.
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I had a Triumph 2000 in the 70`s. A very powerful car but like most British made cars was not always reliable. The overdrive solenoid would often stop working, & you had to be very careful putting the car in reverse otherwise the gear stick would come adrift but was fairly easy to slot back in. It`s no wonder the British car industry slowly died.:(
 
A friend bought (used) a Skoda Octavia around 1967, and apart from the mickey-taking it was a good car. Noisy and not too comfortable, but solid as a rock. One afternoon when he was on Kingstanding Road a van pulled out, and he couldn't avoid it. The van was a virtual write-off, but the Skoda just had a few dents. I once read that the first post-war Skoda cars were built using sheet metal left over from the War, when they manufactured vehicles for the Wehrmacht. Could be.
 
maypolebaz said:
I had a Singer Vogue estate,(2nd hand), in the early 70s. Lovely looking car but it developed terminal rust around the headlights.[/QUOTE

I had a 1965 Automatic version. Ideal for carting kids and dogs also towing
 
Back to my adventures in my lovely little 1954 Moggie Minor.
I was driving along Wake Green Rd Moseley towards Mathew Boulton College, then on the Bristol Rd in 1968. It was pouring with rain and had my trannie on the back seat listening to Tony Blackburn. Traffic was heavy, the usual stop start crawl. I had only recently passed my test, early morning and still half asleep. I used to burn the candle both ends in those days. Aware off the traffic moving ahead I moved off, didn't notice it had stopped again, BANG into the rear of an almost brand new Cortina. The driver of Cortina got out quite calmly to exchange details. Probably a company car. I was distraught the front grill staved in pushing the radiator into the water pup fan, steam bellowing up. Couldn't drive it any further. The Cortina driver laughed at my sorry state and said "well that's a write off "and drove off with slight dent in his bumper.
Well he wasn't aware of my resilience. Got it towed home, and at the weekend me and my mate got to work on it. Pulled the grill back using his car and some rope. Second hand radiator from the scrap yard and some painting. Put on a couple off spotlights also from the scrapyard to hide and distract from the slight wrinkles in the grill. Job done, back on the road on the Monday.
Car looked even better. Up yours Cortina man.
Went on using the Moggie for the next 2 years.
How many teenagers could do that these days? Mind they drive newer cars now and rely on the bank of M & D to get it repaired.
 
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