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RIP OLD MOWHAWK (phil)

Astoness

Astoness

TRUE BRUMMIE MODERATOR
Staff member
it is with great sadness that we inform members that our good friend phil passed away peacefully on the 11th of august aged 88..phil had been a member since 2007 and had supported this forum with his many contributions...he was always happy to help fellow members and nothing was too much trouble..may we also extend our sincere condolences to phils family and friends...he will be missed by many

another brummie star now lights up the sky...

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Very sorry to hear that, I enjoyed his contributions to this forum. Condolences to his friends and family.
 
Very sad news. Phil's contributions and help to other members has been invaluable. Rest in peace oldmohawk you will be missed by many. Condolences to Phil's family.

Viv.
 
Astoness said:
it is with great sadness that we inform members that our good friend phil passed away on the 8th of august..phil had been a member since 2007 and had supported this forum with his many contributions...he was always happy to help fellow members and nothing was too much trouble..may we also extend our sincere condolences to phils family and friends...he will be missed by many

another brummie star now lights up the sky...

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I enjoyed help from Phil many times on BH Forum. We realised that we had both worked for GKN Birfield Companies for many years. RIP.
 
Phil leaves with many happy memories oh his frequent and interesting posts; he will be sadly missed here. Rest in peace, Phil.

Here is Phil's first post on BHF, from The Spring Hill Ice Rink thread. His next post shows him and some of his comrades.
Came across this Site, thought I'd try a reply
I used to race for the Mohawks in the 50's and 60's against teams such as Aldwych, Nottingham, and others.
We had many good away trips to race Aldwych at Richmond Ice Rink.
My speed skates are still in the loft !
I have quite a few photos of the full Mohawks club with many of the members named.
If anyone wants to see what their now elderly relatives looked like at the rink then I could email or post copies.
I remember the manager Cecil Woodward shouting 'slowdown' to those of us speeding in the general sessions.
Three catches and you were barred for two weeks, so off to Nottingham for those weeks.
One night, parts of the inner roof started to fall in and they had to close for two weeks to remove it.
New Years Eve nights at the rink were great.
I think the owner of the rink was James Easton, he used to park his Bentley near the front entrance.
Sometimes, with our skates still on, we used to sneak across the road to the pub !
I remember skating on the car park one icy winter.
I always thought the rink was in Summer Hill rather than Spring Hill.
When the rink closed I never really liked the move to the Silver Blades Rink in central Birmingham.
It was a nice rink but lacked atmosphere. It did have the Heartbeat club upstairs.
Solihull had a nice ice rink, is it still there ?
Eventually I got married and had to concentrate on a career so the skating stopped.
My last skating experience was in Ilfracombe in the 70's , where some small theater had a plastic 'ice' surface.
I showed-off my speed skating ability to my son and some of the locals !
Piccies

Hi Bigland,
I'm sorting out my Mohawk pics, here are two of them as I get used posting. The 1st pic is of the full club on a Sunday morn, I'm far right 1st row. The 2nd (not so clear) is a cup win on snowy ice. I saw your photo - takes me back to the 50's.
I've attempted to send the photos, hope it works ! Now reposted with new system Oct 2011
MOHAWKS_mid__1950_s.jpg


Mohawks_Cup Win.jpg



Regards
oldMohawk
 
Phil was chief engineer and technical designer at Birfield Extrusions, part of the GKN group, he virtually designed the bells and tulips, part of automotive transmissions, he was the GKN leading expert in these matters. He knew most of technical needs for the extrusion presses used in the UK, USA and Europe. A really nice guy, who didn't get involved with finger pointing if there were a problem.
 
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