Hi ya oldmowhawk
Yes I can recall it very vividly indeed the street the red of both ways as I lived down the block born and bred there
5/92 Lichfield road we the kids of the area used to challenge each other for racing up around the block
The kids of other terraces close to Cromwell terrace where I lived up
There was twenty family's living up there all family's our was the biggest yard and the biggest family
And this is the period you are speaking about other family's of kids we used to race around the block of back to back terraces
Was the sargents from the gully ,gaskins , and fishers Newman's brants cradocks sharps and many more
Always on a Sunday morning or an afternoon pendi g on the weather
Our start line was Aston,s the cake shop right next to the gaskins house on the bottom of the terrace
Run down Lichfield road. To Taylors toy shop around the corner up Victoria road passing Pugh road passing the barbers
And the Victoria road police station up to the junction I could have said the traffic lights but. At that period there was never
Ever traffic lights in those days but a couple of years later I recall them being I stalled
The one picture astoness showed the junction with the shop on the far corner. With the weighing scales out side
The shop. Was of course Buckingham's the chemist which was smartened up and remoderenised
But prior to that it was a very small and old fashioniond chemist with alsorts of mystery objects and all old tradional
Dark. Green and dark blue bottles on all the. Shelfs it was like jekel and Hyde out fit
Then when they put the traffic lights in on the junction about three months later they modernised the shop with bright lights
And larger windows and more up market goods in there windows they never had lights in the windows before
Modernisation and that old penny weigh machine was just inside the shop but it was a very old machine not like the one on display
So on that corner of the four lights so to speak you had Buckingham's the chemist across to the corner of Victoria road was the grocery
And across from there on the oppersite corner was there big sweet shop and cross back over oppersite buchinghams side
Was a pub so if you can get my drift on this set up you would be actually walking in a square
Or if you ain't to sure what I mean there shop was on the second one back from the junction because the last shop to them was a fruit and veg a large shop
Just like there's which was park road and Victoria road it took the corner
Continue a crossing the park rd you would have had the grocery shop on the corner
Cross back to your left to the other side of park road you had Buckingham's which is the other corner of Victoria red and park road
And when you came out of Buckingham's start to cross the road back to the ansells. Brewery there was a pub in white tiles
At the moment I just cannot think of its name but that would have been facing directly your relies shop
And yes its true what they said about the sweets the mints they had more than the other sweets they sold I and my friends used to buy our sweets from there
When we was kids and my oldest brother used to do his paper round for half a crown for the news agent next to the pub
I used to help him but he never shared is half crown,
And may I had just yards from there shop walking back to an sells there was a big church in white stone I cannot recall that name at the moment
But it was an active church every Sunday morning and evening and at week days things went on there
There front entrance e was on park road and the church building stretched right around onto upper Portland street where there was a batch of police houses
Which belonged to the Victoria red police station they had there rear entrance there on upper Portland street
To bring in prisoners and police vehicles plus they had there police horses stabled in there I used to stand and watch through the arch entrance they had
It was a massive grounds and a police station and just down and around the corner from there was the an sells brewery shire horses stables I used to follow them up
From the brewery gates at the end of there shifts
Incidently mowhawk I have to finish on the note to say getting back to the beginning of my story of the racing around the block
And to tell you I was the fasted kid on the block in beatable and that came about me as a tot watching roger banister breaking the four minute mile
Sitting on the floor in Cromwell terrace I emediately took it up as an athlete and I took up the sport of running all my life
And done the competitive racing all over the country best wishes astonian,,,