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Oak Pub ..Selly Oak

  • Thread starter Thread starter O.C.
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O.C.

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Photo of the Oak Pub taken in 1908 and the oak tree being chopped down in 1909 the tree was planted by John Rodway in 1830…lot of bull about this old tree as a lot of folk think it gave its name to Selly Oak ….Not so ….
 

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I don't think the Oak pub was there - these were all private houses in Oak Tree Road. The old triangle used to have several pubs and I think The Oak was situated there - eitehr that or it was on the Bristol Road.
 
My gt gt gt grandfather was John rodway of selly oak - the tree was dendrodated to the mid 1700's I think.
John didn't move to northfield till 1800, when he purchased selly oak house. True it was on his land, but he did not plant it.

Archie
 
Archierod,thanks for putting the record straight on this one.:)
 
the oak pub was where sainsburys supermarket stands it was opposite selly oak police station where I was stationed in the late 60s we used to put on old macs or overcoats which used to be kept in the locker room and have our break standing in the passage you only sat in the back room if you were off duty the Oak cinamar was at the other end of the triangle as was the white horse where you could get a drink early on a sunday morn I cant clearly remember but there was an out door opposite then the Prince of Wales and the Plough. happy days if you didnt want a drink we used to go and stand at the back of the cinema and watch a bit of the film
 
Tiny (John), I had the pleasure of having a drink with your Dad in the Oak pub in the middle 60`s? this was one night when i met your Mom at the house in Oxford Rd, may i ask when you joined the Police?, i thought you always worked at Timken Len.
 
Hi, I was a barman in the great Oak which was right next door to Sainsburys. They bought the land and turned it into a car park. If you look carefully you can see an oak tree etched into the brick work of Sainsburys, Visible from the Bristol road looking towards the city centre.
 
here it remains to this day, bearing a brass plaque that reads "Butt of Old Oak Tree from which the name of Selly Oak was derived. Removed from Oak Tree Lane, Selly Oak 1909"Hi Paul i remember the cafe,i think from what i have been told that there is a chippy there,but here,s one you may recall.before
and now,fingers crossed not so good at this,
The stone is where the original tree was,or to remember it by
The Oak that stood here was finally felled in May 1909 amid fears about its safety, due to damage to its roots caused by the building of the nearby houses. The tree was cut-up and the stump removed to Selly Oak Park,
28228_131975966812851_100000013464391_370072_1852088_n.jpg
Where it remains to this day, bearing a brass plaque that reads "Butt of Old Oak Tree from which the name of Selly Oak was derived. Removed from Oak Tree Lane, Selly Oak 1909"
 
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hi, the tree in the brickwork wasnt etched it was built into the wall with a different colour brick. it was built as an extention to the existing sainsburys in about 1994. i was to do the brickwork but a couple of old boys got the job instead and did a fine job. i was also at a wedding reception upstairs in the oak in around 1980. pretty rough it was then. also at the picture house to see elvis the movie( got dragged there) with kurt russel in at around the same time.
 
We were banned from using the Bournbrook when I trained in the 80's, used the Country Girl mostly - closest - and also Gun Barrels - with the ambulance staff - and the Railway, where my friend had her wedding reception!
Sue
 
I don't know from the 1980's Sue, but in the late 50's early 60's the Bournbrooke was a real rough house on a Friday /Saturday nights.
paul
 
must have kept its reputation then I guess, went in it later, when we didn't listen to everything we were told and it seemed pretty ok!!
Sue
 
I used to go to the dances upstairs at the then named Station Inn, now the Bristol Pear, which is on the corner of Heeley Road and Bristol Road in Selly Oak in the 60s with friends from the Weoley Castle, Northfield, Bartley Green areas I also used to go to the Alamo café with my boyfriend (now hubby of 40 years) on his motorbike and meet up with our friends there.

Unfortunately we were knocked off our bike by a motorist who came out of a side road, he said he didn’t see us, which resulted in a fractured femur for me and several months on traction in D1 of Selly Oak Hospital from November 1968 until February 1969, not an ideal Christmas and New Year for a 19 year old, but it could have been much worse.

We used to go to the Ajanta and the Chamon Indian restaurants. I even celebrated my 21[SUP]st[/SUP] birthday party on the first floor of the Chamon, Indian cuisine was relatively unusual then but the older members really enjoyed the food (much to their surprise).
 
Have been reading with interest about the Oak pub and its surrounding area. Does anyone remember the old horse water trough situated on the triangle situated almost infront of the Oak.pub. The triangle filtered traffic into Oaktree Lane from the Bristol Rd, On this same triangle there were gents and ladies lavatories below ground. Both of these were removed just after the 2nd WW. During my shopping trips . with my mother , in the 1940s I used to love and watch the blacksmith in his smithy shoeing horses Thjs small smithy was situated adjacent to the canal bridge directly opposiye the Birmingham Battery.

Would there be any photographs of these placed?
 
Yes, pollypops that is the triangle. What a superb photograph, as applies to all the others on the page I spent many days catching the Outer Cicle bus there in the early 1950s to Handsworth technical school. Perhaps your late father found that direct colour printing from film was catching up with him, overtaking transparencies and all involved with them.
With my own digital photographs I print all, set them in appropriate albums with headings. When showing the pictures to the less inspired I can obtain them quickly and easily flick through those that could be boring to the viewer.!!! Like your late father, I took many photographs during the same period but sadly they were consumed by fire when my son's house roof was burnt down. I am sure your father would be proud of your efforts to continue compiling a very useful catalogue.
 
anvil man, Just to clear up any confusion - the website and photos are not mine and DJ Norton was not my father it is just a website that I frequently look at and I posted the link to it as I thought you would enjoy looking at it too. There are further pictures of Selly Oak here: https://www.photobydjnorton.com/GTC/SellyOak.html

I am sorry to hear your own photos were destroyed by fire - a great loss to yourself and to history lovers.
 
pollypops What a fantastic set of photos. Thank you so much for spending time colating them for me. I used to go to Raddlebarn school and cycle round all those Selly Oak roads. Then strangely you have shown pictures of Barns Hill and California. This was part of my cycle route to Birmetals. Not content with that, you have shown me Broad Meadow Garage, ny late father as a teenager lived in a cottage on Broard Meadow Farm. How about that then for intuition!!!
 
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