• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Midland Red Early Days

Lloyd said:
A very long shot. I'll ask the relevant people is all I can offer. ... Back in Midland Red land,this article by the late Peter Hardy ...
Click to expand...

I quite understand, and actually can think of better things for The Transport Museum to do with their hard-earned funds. In any case, Birmingham Maglev cars are "preserved" at Railword (Peterborough) and the National Railway Museum (York), so we shouldn't shed too many tears. Its just that the Maglev car is there at the Airport, going begging (and rusty!). I wish the Airport itself would realise the significance of its "storage shed" and look after it properly. (They could start a museum of their own!)

Thanks for that Peter Hardy article, Lloyd! There are many familiar friends there, and all presented from a Yardley perspective. Which is very interesting for me, having lived there (a LONG time ago).
 
Aidan said:
Not sure if I can remove the veil yet, but hopefully raise the skirt a little ...
Click to expand...

Thanks, Aidan, for staying on the case of that mysterious little Birmingham Motor Omnibus Co bus. Perhaps we have a glimpse of an ankle! There's certainly a striking similarity in the way the shots are posed, the chain drive, the wheels ... Suggestive, and yet ...

Incidentally, LD is a north-west London registration mark.

[What's happened to your avatar? I hope you're not back on the smokes again mate. ;)]
 
No, thankfully - just living vicariously (as usual).

From what I can make out or rather surmise, the great furniture partnership of Waring & Gillow came together in 1897. Their flagship store on Oxford St was open in 1905, I assume on the original plot or nearby to Gillow's 1764 base at 176 Oxford Road. By 1909 it was advertising as Warings.

Comparing the two vehicles I note what I assume to be a battery box underneath (similar to milk floats). What I assumed to be a radiator or "flash boiler" at the front of the carriage is I think a tool box or front boot and I think there is a handle to the top of it discernible.
 
As we have established the Birmingham Corporaton took over early Midland Red buses I thought we might just include this photo, shown in last Saturdays Carl Chinn article in the Birmingham Mail.
Although no Midland Red in evidence this is a nice shot of Five Ways with plenty going on. The bus drawn up on the pavement on the right appears to have run out of petrol, or from the number of cans shown, was this an in service refuelling point possibly inherited from Midland Red? Note also the sideways on Bundy Clock in Islington Row.
 
Last edited:
Nice one but unrecognisable to me - is it looking down Broad Street, I assume it is from your description - there is a lively thread called Broad St Pics that would probably like to see it also. What happened to the clock and statues?
 
Here's a familiar looking joke picture of "knifeboard" seating. It is engraved by Frederick Grosse (1828-1894), and appeared in Melbourne Punch (1855). Definitely off topic, but if we compare with post #912 we can see where the artist got the idea from! ;)
 
Thylacine said:
Tantalising picture, Mike! Do we have a date for it?
Click to expand...

Sorry, don't have a date but consider it may well be c.1916. The bus going down Broad Street is on the 1 route introduced that year to replace the 1914 aquired BMMO route 9 from New Street to College Road via Moseley. Corporation buses then do not appear to have carried side adverts so as the bus on the right is doing so it is possible both are taken over BMMO Tilling Stevens TTA2's with advertising contracts to be honoured and kept on their original route. That the only alternative buses owned by the Corporation at that time were operating on the Bristol Road lends weight to this theory. Perhaps someone can confirm?
 
As Mike correctly states, route 1 operated from 1/3/1916 as:
New Street (Worcester Street) via Paradise St, Broad St, Calthorpe Rd, Church Rd, Priory Rd, Edgbaston Rd, Salisbury Rd, St Mary’s Row and Wake Green Rd to Billesley Lane. This was the ex-BMMO route 9, taken over from 5/10/1914 and extended from the original terminus at Moseley Railway Station.
The route was suspended 1/5/1917 – 1/8/1917 due to a wartime petrol shortage, resuming as a weekday-only service until Sunday running was reinstated from 6/5/1923.
Other Birmingham Corporation omnibus services running at that time were:
2) Hagley Rd (Ivy Bush) via Monument Rd, Icknield St, Soho Hill, Hamstead Road and Handsworth Wood Rd to Browne’s Green (Friary Rd), ex BMMO route 10;
3) New Street (Worcester Street) via Paradise St, Broad St, Harborne Rd, High St Harborne, Lordswood Rd, Court Oak Rd to Queens Park Rd, also ex BMMO;
4) New Street - Harborne (Duke of York), a short working of route 3 once again ex BMMO;
5) Selly Oak (Tram Terminus) to Rednal via Bristol Road;
6) Selly Oak (Tram Terminus) to Rubery via Bristol Road;
Both of these last two were feeders to the Bristol Rd electric trams, and the inner terminii were moved as the tramway was extended - to Northfield from 1/10/1923 and again to Longbridge from 17/12/1923. Route 5 was abandoned on the extention of the tramway to the city boundary on 14/4/1924, likewise route 6 on 8/2/1926.
 
Trolling around the Digital Ladywood site, I noticed an interesting colourised view of the pic in post-475 https://www.search.digital-ladywood...direction=2&pointer=5960&text=0&resource=7976 with the chocolate brown livery - again. It suggests the location is the Ivy Bush. The caption on the card indicates that a motor bus was at this time something worth noting.

ALso I found this view of the Plough and Harrow area interesting https://www.search.digital-ladywood...direction=2&pointer=5960&text=0&resource=7967

All the pics have a "zoomify" function to magnify but I still can't make out the cart's inscription but you can make out "hazards of horse-drawn transport"
 
Thanks for remembering poor old neglected MRED, Aidan! Couple of good pictures there! I'm not sure how much faith we can have in the "chocolate" Milnes-Daimler livery, but in the absence of other evidence, it's all we have to go on. The sign on the back of the cart says "[something] Son & Nephew [something] Birmingham". (My eyes!). Does the Ivy Bush still exist and can you find a Google Maps "modern view"?
 
Nice old building though - I would like to know what it used to be, but perhaps I'd better "get a thread"
 
Aidan
In 1973 no 64 was the Birmingham & Midland Limbless Ex-Servicemen's Association and 64 Ofrex Limited, office supplies and Ofrex visual aids.For most of its life it was a private residence with various owners
Mike
 
Thanks Mike

Sorry for that steamy interlude - I don't know what came over me. Best cut down on the cress I think.
 
Nice piece of Foosball.

I don't like modern gum - only the natural gum of the Mexican Manilkara Chicle tree for me. I have been known to spout a little Nahuatl (usually after a shot of Mezcal, natch, or breakfasting on Peyote con teonanácatl) and I say its etymology is from "tziktli" which can be translated as "sticky stuff". This is hotly debated with gum buffs though who cite the Mayan word, "tsicte" or Aztec or something...Wrigley's really lost their way in the 1960s when they converted to using a synthetic rubber known as polyisobutylene, which is a non-vulcanisable form of the butyl rubber (isoprene-isobutylene) used for inner tubes or to line tubeless tires!
 
I was about to blow me Midland Red Acme "Thunderer" whistle and give you all a "Red" card, but me chewing gum got stuck in the mouthpiece. Anyway I'm off to Bedfordhire (in a C1) so I'll see you all tomorrow. zzz
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top