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New Oscott Cemetery
- Thread starter sheronb
- Start date
ColinB
gone but not forgotten
barrie
master brummie
Yes. It is a Roman Catholic cemetery, it is next door to the New Oscott College, where priests are trained. I believe the road it is off is called Fosse Drive, or something like that.
edited to add. Fosse Drive is off Court Lane, my mom used to live in the flats opposite, they are all knocked down now.
barrie
edited to add. Fosse Drive is off Court Lane, my mom used to live in the flats opposite, they are all knocked down now.
barrie
Does anyone know if it has a web site?
Kevkonk
master brummie
We used to live in Perry Common and in the late 60's early 70's as youngsters used to play in the grass on the corner of Hurstwood Rd and Witton Lodge Rd.( This was directly opposite a telephone kiosk on Witton Lodge Rd) This tall grass (corn?) towered above us once we entered it and we became 'soldiers in the jungle, hacking our way upwards:Woodcutter: onwards'. This large expanse of field extended all the way up to the cemetery it was very hilly going up. Hurstwood Rd was full of prefabs then, with loads of alleyways and ratruns, ideal for tracking, scrumping and the nearby brook made this area a magnet for us kids then.
'Hacking our way through the jungle', we would eventually reach the end, where we emerged onto a grassy ridge which had a few bushes scattered among it. Over this ridge was usually a very damp, slushy muddy surface, (our jungle swamp of sorts) which led to a huge mountain of flowers all squashed together with that dead flower smell, that rotten flower smell seemed to put you into a mind of a kind of down to earth feeling, of a forewarning of where we we playing and I think we stopped playing and became onlookers of the dark side of life. We would probably see the odd lorry being loaded with these flowery remains by one or two men with shovels and being driven away.
Behind the flower area was the cemetery itself and we would walk around it reading the headstones in sequence, sort of respectfully looking and being interested by what was written on each one. On one occasion I had the shock of my life, I read my own name!!!!!! :shocked:It frightened me and I got scared suddenly of the whole place, but I had to wait until the rest of our gang were ready to leave so they did not think I was spooked as such. But soon we went back, passing by the flowers, over the humped ridge brushing by the bushes, and charging into the giant grass and back downhill towards Hurstwood Rd, sometimes retracing the beaten trodden down grass then zig zagging into the solid untouched golden grass.
'Hacking our way through the jungle', we would eventually reach the end, where we emerged onto a grassy ridge which had a few bushes scattered among it. Over this ridge was usually a very damp, slushy muddy surface, (our jungle swamp of sorts) which led to a huge mountain of flowers all squashed together with that dead flower smell, that rotten flower smell seemed to put you into a mind of a kind of down to earth feeling, of a forewarning of where we we playing and I think we stopped playing and became onlookers of the dark side of life. We would probably see the odd lorry being loaded with these flowery remains by one or two men with shovels and being driven away.
Behind the flower area was the cemetery itself and we would walk around it reading the headstones in sequence, sort of respectfully looking and being interested by what was written on each one. On one occasion I had the shock of my life, I read my own name!!!!!! :shocked:It frightened me and I got scared suddenly of the whole place, but I had to wait until the rest of our gang were ready to leave so they did not think I was spooked as such. But soon we went back, passing by the flowers, over the humped ridge brushing by the bushes, and charging into the giant grass and back downhill towards Hurstwood Rd, sometimes retracing the beaten trodden down grass then zig zagging into the solid untouched golden grass.
Bob Davis
Bob Davis
I was born and lived in Court Lane until 1959. I was born on the Sutton Coldfield side which was the left hand side coming down from Chester Road but moved over the road into Birmingham in 1939. New Oscott Cemetery was behind our house, so as a child I had the cemetery at the back and the RC College up the road with those tall spooky trees which were always more threatening after The Man in Black had finished (illicitly listened to in bed). Rumour had it that one night a UXB was dropped there, discovered by the ARP Warden and dealt with by the army. The entrance to the cemetery was actually in Sutton Coldfield as where the last house finished so did the boundary. The boundary was supposed to run up the building line, but I was too young and disinterested to take any notice or enquire about this. It was one of the area's of Birmingham that was served by the Midland Red. The S67 and the S76 both going to Six Ways Erdington, one via Court Lane and one via Goosemoor Lane. A trip to Birmingham (do they still call the city trip 'up to town' and to Erdington 'down to the village'?) was either down the road to the 5a or walk up Chester Road, pay the dearer fare but travel quicker on a Midland Red 107, 109 or 113.
Now I visit occasionally from the sunny south west.
Now I visit occasionally from the sunny south west.