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Old street pics..

I was always surprised about Skefco Ball Bearings having a shop in a main shopping street. Difficult to remember today but the area both sides of Broad Street did have factories
 
SKF were major suppliers of bearings and steel balls to the motor industry, this I imagine was a base to look after the customers, their logo can be seen on the upstairs office and also above Block and Anderson
 
Yes - I used them at work when I first started teaching. Always remember the smell of the spirit used to make the copies.
Janice
 
At school, our end of term exam papers were duplicated either on a spirit duplicator which always smelled or on a Gestetner which had a stencil on which the questions were either typed or handwritten with a stylus. When I started work I remember the draughtsmen's drawings and material lists were copied using some other form of spirit duplicator.
 
DavidGrain said:
The tower block in the centre of the photo linked in Richie's post I remember being built and watched it being demolished

Paul the statue would be John Sturge, manufacturing chemist and benefactor whose factory was in Wheelys Road
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john & e sturge also had a chemical plant in lifford lane kings Norton. the wheelys rd site became offices and sturge automation I believe in the 60s. I worked for the company from 1979 until 2012 the company kept changing hands bohringer,rtz,rhone polenc and is currently owned by an American company specialty minerals, hope this info is usefull
 
I do hope this is relevant and not off topic, as it is Coventry, but, in our local butcher's shop, John Taylor, there is a professional photographic mural of pictures of the family corner shop going back over the years and well before the war, like some of the lovely old pictures on here, and they are blurred at the edges to interlace with each other, one showing him as a little boy on the shop step, a lady in tweeds on a delivery bicycle, the washing hanging out and someone leading a bull. The butcher's window so different from today, with hanging trussed poultry in rows, legs dangling, completely filling the window and meat displayed in the other.
 
Astoness said:
gt hampton st hockley with the gothic pub just showing on the right..dated 1964

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a court off high park st nechells dated 1966

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rear of lawence st gosta green dated..1967

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bridge st west/wheeler st dated 1965

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lichfield road aston

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Walpamur, Nan called Walpamar. Isit some sort of wallpaper?
 
I was going to take a photo of the murals in the butcher's shop and post them. I won't then as they are not really ghosts signs.
Maybe some of your Birmingha, shops do this it is a great talking point for the customers.
 
Nico, When I said "out of our area", I was referring to a picture on the website that I posted the link to. I am sorry if my words caused a misunderstanding. That picture showed a ghost sign in the London area that was relevant to your question on Walpamur. David
 
devonjim said:
Anyone else old enough to remember "Banda" duplicators. Sold by Block and Anderson.
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Yes I used to type up on Banda sheets back in the late 50s/early 60s. I worked as a temp and was sent to most of the big firms in the area. I mostly remember using the Banda sheets at GKN in Smethwick where I went to regularly. The sheets made your fingers purple.
 
Hi Judy,

Ah, I remember those, and how office procedures and materials have moved on. Yet despite the proliferation of emails and digital files, we seem to be using more paper than ever. Paperless Revolution - don't make me laugh! Add to that the vast increase in packaging and advertising thrust through people's doors - yes we even get it here too - and no wonder the world is in a mess.

Maurice
 
sospiri said:
Hi Judy,

Ah, I remember those, and how office procedures and materials have moved on. Yet despite the proliferation of emails and digital files, we seem to be using more paper than ever. Paperless Revolution - don't make me laugh! Add to that the vast increase in packaging and advertising thrust through people's doors - yes we even get it here too - and no wonder the world is in a mess.

Maurice
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Hi Mo,

Yes indeed, it's another world now. When I look back at how long it used to take typing on those Banda sheets -
"Two different types of paper were needed to make a master. The top sheet was the master onto which you would type, write or draw. Below this was the dark coloured sheet, which faced upward and was coated with a layer of wax impregnated with colourant. The pressure of writing, typing or drawing on the top sheet transferred the coloured wax from the lower sheet to the shiny underside of the master, producing a mirror image of what was to be duplicated." This waxed sheet was then put on the duplicator and copies made. Then we moved on to the Gestetner where the stencil was cut out by typing straight on to it . Again it was then put on the machine and copies rolled off. I remember the pink correcting fluid that we had to use for mistakes. When we progressed to computers things were so much easier and made correcting documents so simple and so much faster. Although I have to agree with you about the use of paper. Today we must use reams of it and more than ever before.

Judy
 
Jayell said:
Yes I used to type up on Banda sheets back in the late 50s/early 60s. I worked as a temp and was sent to most of the big firms in the area. I mostly remember using the Banda sheets at GKN in Smethwick where I went to regularly. The sheets made your fingers purple.
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I used to produce letters on the banda and gestetner machines that the secretaries had typed I always thought the banda fluid might be nice with tonic and a slice of lemon. I expect it was poisonous. I also often messed them up and a nice secretary from the 'top floor' would come and rescue me, the layers had to be aligned and I often got them crinkled up. I noticed they used pink correction fluid on them. I used to jam the franking machine too and get red ink all over me and red and black changing typewriter ribbons.
The newspaper bundles used to be tied with twine then not the dangerous unbreakable plastic they brought in. One of the secretaries broke her arm catching her foot in it.
 
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Astoness said:
what a smashing photo carolina...just look at the good old no 8 lol looks to me as though its just heading away from the tunnel as we used to call it..not seen this one before:)

lyn
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I can hear the bottles rattling, over cobbles. Don't hear that anymore. You knew the milkman was coming.
 
We've still got a local milkman who delivers bottled milk............from his Mitsubishi truck, he delivers to my next door neighbour, mine is also still delivered but in the same containers you get in the supermarkets.
 
Eric Gibson said:
We've still got a local milkman who delivers bottled milk............from his Mitsubishi truck, he delivers to my next door neighbour, mine is also still delivered but in the same containers you get in the supermarkets.
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No shake, bottle rattle and roll then?
 
Astoness said:
hi folks time for a few more from me...

would love to know where abouts in unett st newtown this shop was and who the 2 ladies and the little girl are..
buying and selling war saving certs at a general store dated 1940View attachment 86773
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This is the first photo of Unett Street that I've seen - thank you.
It may not be the exact location, but very good to see.

My g-g-grandfather Edwin Forester, lived at 39 Unett Street in 1851 with the Cattle family, after he arrived from Shrewsbury.
 
Was Unett Street named after someone or somewhere? I ask as I I knew someone with that surname. They thought their name to be of foreign origin and I have never heard of it since. They pronounced it unit like a shop unit.
 
Col. Thomas Unett b.1800. at 6, The Square ie. by what was Lewis's. Served in Crimean War. His father was a landowner around Hockley and Aston. I think it was the father John Wilkes Unett who had the road named after him. Is there a connection with the John Wilkes Booth who had a plaque in the Old Square underpass, with regard to assassination of President Lincoln.
 
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devonjim said:
Col. Thomas Unett b1800 6, The Square ie. by what was Lewis's. Served in Crimean War. His father was a landowner around Hockley and Aston. I think it was the father John Wilkes Unett who had the road named after him. Is there a connection with the John Wilkes Booth who had a plaque in the Old Square underpass, with regard to assassination of President Lincoln.
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Thankyou
 
There was a solicitor called John Wilkes Unett who had lived in Birmingham and Smethwick. He owned lots of land in Smethwick so I presume the streets were named after him.
 
St Phillips Cathedral Colmore Row, The Unett Memorial.

City St Philips Unett Memorial.jpg

The memorial inscription reads,

ALMA

INKERMANN

SEBASTOPOL

THOMAS UNETT, C. B.
LIEUTENANT COLONEL OF THE 19TH FOOT
BORN IN BIRMINGHAM
ON THE 12TH OF NOVEMBER 1800
WAS MORTALLY WOUNDED
AT THE SIEGE OF SEBASTOPOL
WHILE LEADNG THE BRITISH COLUMN
TO THE FINAL ASSAULT ON THE REDAN
ON THE 8TH OF SEPTEMBER 1855.
HIS FRIENDS AND FELLOW TOWNSMEN
DEDICATE THIS OBELISK
TO HIS MEMORY
AS A RECORD OF THE NOBLE EXAMPLE
OF ONE WHO CHOSE THE FOREMOST PLACE
IN THE PATH OF DUTY
AND MET DEATH
WITH THE CALM UNDAUNTED SPIRIT
OF A CHRISTIAN SOLDIER

Reproduced from The Victorian Wars Forum.
 
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