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Rivers: River Cole

Hi Alberta,

I remember the farm at Bacons End, we used to walk up there to catch the bus to Coleshill Lido, They had horses in the field that overlooked Cooks Lane,
I still bear the scar on my elbow when one of the ponies got to impatient with me , I was not quick enough getting the apples out my mom's shopping bag.

I also remembr the "garage" and the two petrol pumps, and further down the hill was a path that took you straight into the woods, there was always hundreds of bluebells and we as kids used to spend hours there.

Then there was Kingshurst Park, kids used to travel miles to get there, that was another day out armed with our jam sandwiches and bottle of pop.


Dianne
 
The Cole went under the Stratford Rd at Sparkbrook if memory serves me the bridge was next to the bus stops for the No 1 and the 31 0r 32 not sure which one. I can remember most of the time it was just a stream but was soon a raging torrent after heavy rain.
John
 
I remember the Farm at Bacons End as well and yes it had loads of pigs, we used to sneak in and look at the little ones and get chased by the Sows. I do not remember the Garage, but I do remember the Police Station, which is now a Vets Practice and the one Copper I remembered was PC Groucott We used to catch the 168 Midland Red to Coleshill, from Scotsfords Stores, which is now a Motor Factors, Coleshill was the place for the Local Shopping, there was a CO-OP oposite the Bank where the Stocks are, it had that overhead wire thing for your change and Divi, and in the bad winters the 161 Midland Red used to go up and Down the hill backwards as one winter 1963 I think one went down normal missed the Bridge and ended up in the Cole.
 
Hi Bobbyb

Scotsfords Stores - well I had forgot about that shop, can see it now, top of the road past the Mountford Pub, past the church (St Barnabos), onto the Chester Rd, turn left and Scotsfords was on opposite side just before the Toby Jug . I can't remember getting a bus to Coleshill from there, we always walked to Bacons End and got the bus from there, but perhaps before moving to Kingshurst we lived by the White Hart so probably Mom and Dad only knew of that bus stop.

Which school did you go to - I went to Yorkswood and my school pals were .. Lynne Bennett (killed in 1974) , Josephine Haynes, Lynne Cartwright, Sheila Osbourne, Sylvia Swann, .. boys were.. Peter Cosford, Keith Clayton, Derek Swann, Joey Mallison .. just a few names cos I cannot remember anymore

I later went to Kingshurst High School for Girls (cooks Lane) from 1967 to 1971
 
Lovely on the banks this morning,a bit damp after last night but the birds are in full song and the Heron is sitting proudly,just so long as he stays over there and leaves my pond alone.
 
About 30 years ago my Mate Chad and I canoed along the Tame from Castle Bromwich Bridge all the way to the Humber, took us about two weeks camping out along the banks and just by Hams Hall the Cole entered the Tame, the Cole had better water quality as just upstream the Blythe joined the Cole and it wasnt till you got to Tamworth that the water became tricky, took us two hours and three pints to pluck up the courage to go over the weir, easy peesy the only tricky part was at Alrewas when the Tame joined the Trent, then we had to man handle the canoes overland passed the weir, the lock part had gates and no keys, couldnt open them and we remembered the time some Soldiers drowned there trying to go over the weir, after that it was plain paddling all the way to the Humber, which we crossed and arrived in Hull and my brother picked us up for home. My only regret is that we didnt even think about taking a Camera.
 
To get back on thread.
At Babbs Mill lived Thomas Townsend and he was the Brother to Wally and regually their Sister would be driving her Pony and Trap along the byways around there and they had another Brother Peter, who lived in the Cottages next to the Harliquin Pub, Peter was our road sweeper and he used a Horse and Cart to do his work, I forget the horses name but he/she was a big white Shire, we all loved to feed and pat the horse.
 
I have had some posts removed due to comments of a political nature, and I accept that this was done. If I have caused any offence to anyone I would like to sincerely apologise.

This thread matters to me a great deal and I would like to see it run like the River Cole itself.
 
lddav said:
There was some weird arrangement that, although the Wood was in Warwickshire, the housing stock was in Brum, this is discussed in other threads here. I distinctly remember the Warwickshire crest (bear chained to log) on my primary scoolbooks in the early 70's. The tory government of ...I think, 1974 removed Chelmbo (solidy Labour) from Brum, and brought Sutton Coldfield (solid tory) to make the city politically more marginal. Didn't work, and the Sutton snobs no more consider themselves Brummies than chelmbo considers itself Solihull.

I no longer live there but even when I did I was a Brummie in exile, as is all of Chelmbo I believe.
Click to expand...

Yes, We are all exiles from the 1960s/70s clearances in inner city Birmingham. As you say, it's a strange arrangement, as CW has never been in Birmingham, but Birmingham purchased the land in the 1960s
for rehousing. Rent in the early days was paid to Birmingham, and the
rates to Warwickshire. I can't remember when CW went into Solihull MBC,
I think it must have been after 1979, though, as I bought my house
from Birmingham Council in that year. The N. Warwicks border is now I
understand in the middle of the M6!! One strange anomaly, however, - we still vote for the Meriden MP!!

Dave
 
Another fact is that if you bought your council house it was freehold but the people who bought a private house built in Chelmsley it was leasehold and residents paid, and some still pay, their ground rent to Birmingham city council,and if your children were born here in the 70s they were registered as having been born in Meriden.

I have lived in Chelmsley wood for over 40 years (never heard anyone ever say Chelmbo iddav,often referred to as 'the wood') and have seen many changes ,none so dramatic as the regeneration taking place today.

Back to the River Cole it is getting healthier every year and wildlife is flourishing,people fish it in the summer.
 
I was born in Marston Green maternity hospital (biggest in the U.K at the time) in 1966 and my birth certificate states I was born in Warwickshire. I am sure Chelmbo was given to Solihull in the 1974 boundary changes.

As far as the the name Chelmbo is concerned it was all the rage with us teenagers back at the start of the Eighties.
 
Back to the bridge on Stratford Road, Sparkhill, I used to live in Knowle Road in the late 1940s and spent many happy hours playing on the banks of the Cole and paddling in it. It was fairly clean then with lots of frogs and fish. If my memory serves me correctly, that bridge was erected in 1930 and there is a marking on there to that effect somewhere.

Has anyone seen or, better still, got a photograph of the previous bridge? And around what date was the highish waterfall built? I certainly remember the little estate of pre-fabs being created (Colgreave Avenue) next to the church shortly after the end of the war. I've never been able to swim and hate deep water, but find this thread fascinating! :)

Regards,

Maurice
 
Hmm - I stand corrected according an entry I found on the Web. It seems it was built in 1913. But what was there before - another bridge or a ford. I seem to remember that the houses nearby in Knowle Road were built in 1905, so more likely a bridge of some sort.

Maurice
 
sospiri said:
Back to the bridge on Stratford Road, Sparkhill, I used to live in Knowle Road in the late 1940s and spent many happy hours playing on the banks of the Cole and paddling in it. It was fairly clean then with lots of frogs and fish. If my memory serves me correctly, that bridge was erected in 1930 and there is a marking on there to that effect somewhere.

Has anyone seen or, better still, got a photograph of the previous bridge? And around what date was the highish waterfall built? I certainly remember the little estate of pre-fabs being created (Colgreave Avenue) next to the church shortly after the end of the war. I've never been able to swim and hate deep water, but find this thread fascinating! :)

Regards,

Maurice
Click to expand...

Do you remember the DIY shop in Knowle Road ( Askey's ) ?, My brother married there daughter, I was born opposite the clock on Sparkhill.
 
Louis:

I only remember two small shops at the Stratford Road end of Knowle Road - Carter's and Birch's. On the Stratford Road corners were a chemists on the Cole side and a sort of scrap yard (maybe called Cox's?) on the other. The latter also sold logs. Just up from the scrapyard was Carter's - a small general store.

Birch's was just past the entry to the allotments on the opposite side of the road and sold mainly sweets and penny bottles of pop. They popped a tablet in the bottle and filled it up with soda water from a machine! :)

We lived at number 215 next to a bombsite, which after we moved to Kings Heath, had the houses rebuilt. At 197 lived a family called Amott. John Amott now lives in Bermuda and his younger brother Dickie and their mother (now in her 90s) are in Weymouth.

But I can't remember a DIY shop. I was there from about 1943 to 1950 or thereabouts.

Regards,

Maurice
 
sospiri said:
Louis:

I only remember two small shops at the Stratford Road end of Knowle Road - Carter's and Birch's. On the Stratford Road corners were a chemists on the Cole side and a sort of scrap yard (maybe called Cox's?) on the other. The latter also sold logs. Just up from the scrapyard was Carter's - a small general store.

Birch's was just past the entry to the allotments on the opposite side of the road and sold mainly sweets and penny bottles of pop. They popped a tablet in the bottle and filled it up with soda water from a machine! :)

We lived at number 215 next to a bombsite, which after we moved to Kings Heath, had the houses rebuilt. At 197 lived a family called Amott. John Amott now lives in Bermuda and his younger brother Dickie and their mother (now in her 90s) are in Weymouth.

But I can't remember a DIY shop. I was there from about 1943 to 1950 or thereabouts.

Regards,

Maurice
Click to expand...

May be it was just around the corner in Foremans Road, I know they sold Wood etc.
 
Ah, you're probably talking about the opposite end of Knowle Road (Foremans Road) to my end (Stratford Road). :P

Maurice
 
Hanco i remember the river cole and the sewage plant that was next to it. I used to live in Lea Hall Road and if the wind was in the wrong direction what a whiff!!. also the noise of the bailey bridge when the cars went over it. your bringing back memories
 
What memories of the River Cole,when I was young the House we lived in was in Sarehole Rd,and our back gardens overlooked this River.
At the bottom of the Garden was a fence,then an entry,then Railings backing on to a field,which the River Cole ran through.
In the Summers of the 40s/50s, all of us kids played on there,cricket.rounders & Tin Can Tommy to name a few.
We used to paddle & fish there,catching tiddlers,redbreast ,frogs & Newts.
The River came from the Ford in Sarehole Road & went under the Bridge on Stratford Road.
Between the entry & the river some folks had allotments.
In the Winter when we used to have a lot of snow,and it melted the River would swell over the field & sometimes reach our Back Gardens.
Oh what Happy Memories.

Jemina
 
Jemima:

In my paddling days, the ford in Green Road was covered with soft green water weed - lovely feeling on your feet! When I last had a look at it about 4 years ago, the weed was all gone and the river looked dead. :(

They'd even replaced the old straight wooden footbridge with a steel framed one with a kink in it. There used to be a chain across the river on the opposite side to the bridge and I don't think that's there any longer. From a very countrified spot in the middle on a residential area, it had somehow become urbanised and I no longer had the urge to paddle in it.

But I shouldn't complain - at least there were no ugly tower blocks! :D

Despite all that, I'd still like to walk/scramble both banks of that river from Stratford Road bridge towards the ford - or is that no longer possible?

Maurice :cool:
 
back in the fifties we used to go to coleshill and picnic by the river or stream,the place used to full of picnickers,there was a concrete bridge.
could anyone tell me were exactly were this place was
 
Sospiri do you remember,at the other side of the ford an old house or cottage dilapidated,on the lane as you walked up to I think Gracewell Lane.
Well we kids used to think it was Haunted,and used to run like blazes to go past it.
 
I live in Conway Road , Chelmsley Wood which backs on to the River Cole and I walk down towards Coleshill with my 2 dogs every day all weathers. Last year I twice saw an otter (might have been the same one) the other side of the river by the stepping stones which Solihull council kindly provided. Also see breeding Herons, rabbits by the dozen, its like being in the heart of country. Plus Canada geese, Coots, Mallards and I once saw a King Fisher, the first and only time. Have attached a watercolour Sketch of the stepping stones, which disappear when we have heavy rain and the water rises. Eric
 
Jemima:

I can't recollect that and it looks as if Gracewell Lane has disappeared under new housing, though I well remember the name

Louis:

I've just checked 1949 Kellys, both Knowle Road and business names and there's no Askey DIY shop in Brum. Maybe a little later perhaps and I moved to Kings Hath in 1950.

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri, the watercolour is of the stretch of river between Chelmsley Wood and the M6 motorway, the motorway is about 400 yards father on. The only drawback is at weekends when motorbikes appear, although the local police do have off road motor bikes and occassionally catch one or two, the offenders bikes are then crushed. Eric
 
The Hobmoor pub ended its days in Millhouse Rd due to the Council making a corner at Hobmoor Rd/Millhouse Rd instead of a sweeping bend where the pub was, it is now demolished and apartments built on the site. Len.
 
hi.back before the cole was clean and shard had the new estate.we would ride our motor bikes up the river cole.and the old sewer farm.going home smelling of yer well. The only water otter i ever saw in there was made by swanbrand:D pete
 
Lovely picture Eric, need I say anymore....vicbucknall, you are talking about the bottom of Coleshill High Street, where on the right is Station Road and what used to be the Wheatsheaf pub, now I think a Harvester, then on the left hand side is the small park, with the river running through and the bridges, there used to be a windmill many many moons ago within the area. Coming from the High Street towards Station Road you cross over the river and the bridge is a single line traffic bridge, apparantly there is a walk along the river towards where Hams Hall once stood, now there is a nature park there, I haven't yet done that walk, and from what I've read on the web the nature park seems to be appointment only.....how I don't know. I used to sneak into the nature park years and years ago by the back door (when they were first starting it up) :)
 
Vic buckball, If you go down Maxstoke lane off the High street,at the bottom by the bend there are 2 cottages, Cuttle Cottages.
There is a right of way to the River and there is a concrete bridge.
there was a wide grass bank going from the river in the direction of Coleshill and could be accessed from the churchyard,
My husband tells me that his family used to picnic by the River there along with dozens of others and in the fifties there was a tiny cafe there.
There is a wide shallow section behind the cottages and children used to bathe there,this is now privately owned by the Cottage.
The river is now very overgrown,this upsets my husband who was a very keen angler and spent many hours fishing down there.
The banks are leased to private clubs but they seem to have let the state of the pegs deteriate.
 
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