See Birmingham by Post Card

[Phil]

Can I make a suggestion here, when posting photos it would be an advantage if the poster made a brief description of each attachment so that in the event that we should ever lose the images again they will be easier to replace.

 

[mikejee]

Going through some old letters etc in a box I found some old postcards that I did not realise i had. some I am pretty sure have not been on, others, I'm not sure.
1. Art Gallery,

2. Colmore Row, card sent 1924.

3. St Phillips, card sent 1908

4. Handsworth church, card sent christmas 1904

 

[mikejee]

And the last three:

Princess Alice's orphanage , card sent 1909

Church Hill , Sutton Coldfield, card written, but not posted 1912

The last one is unknown. It may not be Birmingham, but could well be. However there were also a number of old Stourport cards, and a few from other places, but does anyone recognise the school or the railway(?) bridge in the distance.

 

[Astoness]

some nice ones there mike...i like the sutton coldfield one..the mystery one rings no bells at the min...
lyn

 

[Maria Magenta]

I worked for a while in the 1980s at an Age Concern day centre in Princess Alice Drive, which I presume is where the orphanage was. We were in a different building, a sort of large house.

 

[paul stacey]

I wonder which church, the Handsworth Church is.Paul

 

[Phil]

Nice cards Mike, I thought at first the school one might be Clifton Road in Balsall Heath because of the bridge a little way further up the road, but on closer inspection although very similar it's not the school.

How about this one The Council House Victoria Square, this building has put in quite a few appearances on this thread, but it what the given name is on this postcard. I don't think it was ever called Connal House and it must therefore be an error by the printer.

 

[sidwho]

paul looks like st marys church on the hamsted road kind reguards sidwho

 

[A Sparks]

Yes, looks like it to me too, taken from just inside Handsworth Park.

 

[paul stacey]

Thank you sidwho, thought it may have been the one on the Soho Road, near Vicarage Rd where my nan lived. Paul

 

[cookie273uk]

the unknown pic in post #1688 looks like Aston Hall road school which I attended 1943 to 1944 and there was a railway bridge looking in the direction of the Aston Tavern pub and Aston church, could be wrong of course, was 70 years ago !! Eric

 

[Jayell]

No that church was St Michaels on St Michaels Hill/Vicarage Road/Soho Avenue Paul

 

[Phil]

Jayell

It's St Mary's in the photo, St Michaels has a steeple on top of it's tower and St Mary's doesn't.

 

[paul stacey]

Thanks Jayell, I do believe you actually told me this before, Paul

 

[mikejee]

Thanks for the suggestion Eric, but looking at the map, the school buildings were at an angle to the road leading to the bridge ( and the same on earlier maps) and the school on the picture looks like it is not at an angle

 

[cookie273uk]

mikegee, yes your map proves my assumption wrong, well, as I said, it was 70 years ago and it looks very much like Aston Hall Road school as I remember it. Eric

 

[mikejee]

That is good though Eric, as It is an indication that it might be in Birmingham, if it is like the Aston Hall road school

 

[Phil]

Looking through some of the postcards posted on this thread I've often thought that some of the subject matter used in some of the cards very strange. Take this photo of the Women's Sanatorium at East Birmingham. Would this have been the type of postcard you would have been happy to receive in the post?

 

[sospiri]

Only from a patient, Phil, and they were the most likely buyers. A minimum run of 5000 would last quite a long time. Even more difficult to envisage sales for would be some of the more obscure residential roads. When I was trading postcards some years ago, I picked one up of Bromyard Road near the College Arms - as a view it was as boring as hell. But these minimum run postcards are rare and fetch a good price on resale. Unlike Birmingham GPO in Victoria Square of which millions must have been printed - the resale price is still rock bottom!

Maurice

 

[mikejee]

I agree Phil. Someone produced a book about boring postcards (https://whenonearth.net/martin-parr-boring-postcards/ ) and I think that one would fit in the book well. mind you , the one of thr typical hospital room in the link is probably worse

 

[paul stacey]

I should imagine at that time TB was endemic and thousands would have been incarcerated, in one of these establishments, so maybe it was very common practice then, everyone would have known someone who had been a patient or nurse.Paul

 

[sospiri]

Paul,

My own wife was in there. She got polio at 18 months old and went into a long stay hospital (I've visited it about 20 years ago, but can't remember its name) run by nuns. There they inserted radium needles into her leg and stretched the shorter one on a wooden rack - a bit like a medieval torture. However, she said that cleanliness was the last thing on their minds and that these racks were infested with bugs. It was whilst in this hospital that she caught TB and was moved to the one shown on the postcard, being returned to the original hospital some months later. Because she'd had TB, but was well clear of it before we even met, all of our children had to have BCG injections at birth.

 

[paul stacey]

Hello sospiri, nice to hear from you, I like your wife got an infection very early in my life, 6 months old or so, my sister Jane both got Whooping Cough in the 1947 epidemic, I survived and sadly she died.It must have been a very trying experience for her, when a boy I knew a couple of children who caught Polio in the 50's epidemic, in Birmingham luckily they survived due to the prompt treatment they received in Birmingham's hospitals, which I believe were very good. Regards Paul

 

[sospiri]

Paul,

My only serious childhood complaint was diptheria and that resulted in six weeks or so in Little Bromwich, part of that time in a straitjacket! No, I'm not mad, but the kid in the next bed to me dropped some coloured pencils. The beds were very high and against the rules I climbed out to pick them up and got caught. I didn't like that place one little bit!

Maurice

 

[Phil]

Mike

I have a book entitled Birmingham Hospitals (on old picture postcards) by Mary Harding, it is a bit unsettling to see that books like that can find a publisher, yet you with your marvellous collection of photos of Birmingham cannot.

 

[Jayell]

Paul, I too had whooping cough when I was a little girl. I didn't know there was an epidemic of this in 1947, but would guess it would be around this time that I had it. I stayed at home but remember having to stay in bed for 8 weeks, and during that time I was quite delirious at times and remember well the whoop that came with the cough. I went to dancing school on Soho Road, and remember my tap shoes arriving when I was in bed and I had to wait until I was strong enough to use them. They were red with big bows on them. Funny the things that stick in your mind.

 

[paul stacey]

I know Jayell, do you know that I have always had this mysterious smoky type memory too, of a dim light bulb far away and high up with darkness all around, and years later Mom told me that the ward in the children's hospital had such a light , she would spend nights sitting with me in the ward, yet I was so very young. I believe the epidemic was caused by the very cold winter of 1947, Dad told me stories of wading through snow drifts 20 foot high to visit me in Hospital. Paul

 

[sospiri]

Paul,

I was ten years old in 1947 and remember the snow up above the windowsill in our backyard in Sparkhill. It was certainly a horrendous winter and I haven't seen one as bad during the rest of my life and never want to again.

Maurice

 

[Phil]

Just a little example of one of the cheats used by postcard manufacturers. I wondered why someone had been allowed in Cannon Hill Park after sunset let alone been allowed on the lake.

 

[mikejee]

Phil
I think the daylight one has been messed about with also. I reckon it was hand tinted to colour it