• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Sparkhill park

C

caggyken

master brummie
Hi all
can anyone remember wnen birmingham parks had thier own x factor.in the late 1940s some of the city parks put up a large tent and held weekly talent shows.the winner was the one who received
the loudest applause .no phone in to select the winner.
I used to go to the one in sparkhill park .two of the acts i remember were alad named billy ??
Who used to do a whistling act who used to live around baker street and another act was ayoung
girl who did acrobatics .i believe she was the daughter of mr powell who owned the cycle shop half
way down percey road in sparkhill .any one also remember these days
 
Caggyken I remember the band stand but was to young and used to paddle in the grotty dirty lake next to it.

I do have very fond memories of playing Football 70 a side and showing of to the girls whom used to sit on a wall I recall, Circa 60/61.

The swings and picking ground nuts that grew in the park, happy days!! ANY PHOTOS ABOUT?
 
Graham and my self used to sail our boats on the pool and if i can remember right we could walk across a think seperating the pool into two to the island in the middle, and we have kicked a ball about in the park it mite have been with your gang Bob.
 
Hi I well remember these games of70 a side & a chap called Norman who was older than us but very keen, also people like Tony Moran & Mick Brownsea(not sure about surname but he was a goalie)
you couldn't take a long throw in because the ball never went out for one!!!! Coats for posts how many others on the list remember these games.
Cheers
Dave
 
Dave I do remember Norman, small guy with Monk type haircut, lived in Durham Road. I was always a bit worried about him. There were some great players came out of Sparkhill Park and a few made professionals. One Irish man played for the Blues but his name escapes me, Midfielder with fair hair in the late 50's and early 60's. I think he also played for the Villa.

Bob
 
I can't remember the talent shows, but I remember the fairs very well. They always played the Andrews Sisters' song "Money is the root of all evil" which was published in 1946, so that dates my recollections to the late 1940s. We moved from Aston to a bomb-damaged house at 215 Knowle Road in 1943. The railings around Sparkhill Park had already been cut down, so I guess that happened at the beginning of the war.

Maurice
 
Hi maurice
ialso remember the fairs.sometimes doring the war they were held in large tents because of the lights.
All park railings were removed for the war effort.you did not live far from me.i lived at 139 formans rd
next to claytons fish shop oposite bromyard rd
ken harris
 
Hi Ken,

Well far enough - Number 215 backed onto the Springfield Cinema on Startford Road, used for storing sugar during the war. People lived in very small communities in those days and the other end of Knowle Road was almost like another country! Our only meeting with the kids at the Formans Road end was for a 'banger war' on Guy Fawkes night.

We did, however, walk through the allotments alongside the River Cole and then go down into the claypits of the brickyard on Formans Road, catching newts and generally covering our shoes and clothes with red clay, for which we really got into trouble when we got home! Sadly, I don't think you can even walk through the allotments now without a key to the now-locked gate in Knowle Road. A sign of the current criminal times, but at least we must be grateful that they haven't been built on.

Maurice
 
Hi maurice
so it was you and your gang who nicked our newts.i used to go to greet school before formans rd and sometimes cut through the brickyard to
warwick rd tosave the long trip down percy rd.which school did you go to and when??
Ken
 
There seemed to be plenty of newts for everyone! We took them home, put them in an old Butler sink in the garden with a few bits of water weed from the river and they seemed quite happy.

I was at College Road Infants and Juniors and then Moseley Grammar along with a chap called Ronnie Harris - no relation I suppose? I met up with him on the internet a few years ago - he'd spent his career in the insurance industry and was into microlight or hanggliding or something like that.

Maurice
 
Hi maurice
ronnie harris not a relation. My sister janet went to college rd .also friends maureen bamford and jeanette thorn .
Would you know them she started in 1946.
 
Hi Ken,

The names don't ring a bell - I was there from 1942 to 1946 at the same time as Ronnie Harris, David Morcom, Margaret Bunn and Margaret Holmes, the latter living at 227 Knowle Road. Also there was a Barry Gould, a tall kid who lived at 30 Bromyard Road, but I think that's about the extent of my memory!

Maurice
 
Hi maurice
my sister does not remember any of those names.she would just have started there as you left and 5 years gap was quite large then.
I suppose the nearest i came to your house was the nights iwent to the b. B. At the church on stratford rd by the river cole .
Do you remember the chimney sweep who lived in knowle rd he had a small horse and cart.his name was mr fuel realy.what year
did you leave sparkhill???

Ken
 
Hi Ken,

I remember the BB parades at the Congregational Church, which, I'm told by someone on the Forum, is in the process of being refurbished. Next to it used to be the prefabs, but they've all gone now. Opposite was a sort of scrapyard that used to also sell logs.

I believe we moved to Albert Road, Kings Heath, in late 1950. Certainly we had moved by the time my father suddenly died in February 1952.

The Stratford Road bridge over the River Cole was opened in 1930 according to various sources on the internet, but I'd love to see a photograph of the bridge it replaced. But we're moving well away from Sparkhill Park, so we'd better drift back towards the original topic before we get a moderator's ruler across our knuckles :-)

Maurice
 
Hi maurice
the scrapyard was owned by a family called jackson.the bridge was proberbly built up the same time as the one in formans rd to enable them to run the
bus service further. In the early days formans rd was known as formans lane untill they built the bridge .up till then there was only a foot bridge
over the river according to my dad who lived in formans rd from 1908-1970.hope this information helps

ken
 
Ken:

That makes sense, though I've never seen a picture of the old bridge. Perhaps because no one considered it worth photographing! So when was the College Arms built? The houses in Knowle Road were built in 1905, and Bromyard Road a little later I would imagine.

EDIT: This section of the area on Old Maps in 1905 - https://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html?txtXCoord=409953&txtYCoord=282800 - shows Knowle Road with hardly any houses, the previous map of 1904 clearly shows the tram line terminating level with the bottom of Knowle Road, and the tram depot standing roughly were the church & prefabs are/were. The map of 1919-21 shows houses in Knowle Road and the tramway situation unchanged. By 1937-38, the tramways deport has been replaced with the Congregational Church and area of the bridge is much wider.

Maurice
 
Hi maurice
i willfind out about college arms.you were right about 1905.the houses in formans rd dad lived in built in 1907.bromyard,leominster,runnymead,and
tetley were built at alatter date and were posher.closing now off to sisters xmas day in earlswood back boxing day.will be in touch re college arms

ken
 
hi there,
i can,t believe that someone other than me can remember the marquee that used to be put up in sparkhill park-i have asked numerous people over the years & no-one has any memories of it.
The marquee,s used to go up in lots of parks all over b,ham & it was for a talent show run by b,ham council - you applied for an entrance form from the council about 2 months before the marquee was erected-that was filled in with name,address,age,type of act & preferance to which park you wanted to perform in-sparkhill,small heath,handsworth,pype hayes,ladywood were some of them but there were about 10/12 in all - handsworth always held the finals,in the first rounds the 1st prize was £1, 2nd was 10shilling, 3rd was 5shilling & there was a consolation prize of 2/6d - if you won the final the 1st prize was £10.the marquees were huge & the seating was canvas captain type chairs,possibly about 200 of them arranged with an aisle up the middle - at one end was the stage & at the other end was a long trestle table with tea urn on that served refreshments during the interval - i can,t remember the price of admission but it was always packed with people standing down both sides - i can still remember the smell of the moist grass inside - there were 3 judges & an m/c. my mom entered me each year for a few years -(dancing & acrobats) usually solo but once in a duet - i managed a prize each time & twice got to the finals - only the £1 winner went through to the finals - the years i am talking about would be roughly 1954/59 - so many happy memories - i lived in solihull rd from about 1949-1964,my parents remained there until they passed away 1980
 
Swanny:

I can vaguely remember marquees in Sparkhill Park, but probably assumed they were for a circus, in which I had no interest. I lived at 215 Knowle Road from 1943 to around 1950, so didn't visit the park often, except when the fair was there. My main playground was the River Cole, either between Stratford Road bridge and Green Road ford or the length between Knowle Road through the allotments towards Greet.

We boys all stuck together, generally shunned the girls, and would have had no interest in cissy things such as talent contests!

Maurice
 
Hi Swanney
your prays are answered i can come to your rescue yes i most certainly did remember those years of the tents going up in those years
for competions and his the god s truth no lies at all we used to come down there ous selves a gang of us i am not allowed to put there names on here
but guys swanney is correct now he mentioned the years at first reading other members threads about the forties i thought no they was not it would have been the years i was thinking of 59 60 and bingo i said to myself yes thats the years i remember from 1940 to 1950 s that was going on in aston park on the big grass area as you walked into and long the pathe from albert rd end when they put big tents up for competions and enterainments for the kids
on the day in question of seeing that first time in spark hill park i thought to myself well thats an old idea we used to that in aston park in he 50s then i also
thought about it and i said to myself are the counsel trying to bring the commuties together bearing in mind spark hill was not that heavy populated as today
my mate dermot used to run the colledge arm s in the eightyies and because of our expenditures we was alond then the new area manger told drmott off so it
got out of hand and he resigned an set up a office furnishing shop on stratford rd by the garretts family second hand bussiness
nice one swanney for remembering it and guys my statement is true on this its was only for short time this went on and not a really regular thing it was a couple of weeks only
have a nice day every body remember laugh and the world will laugh with you but cry and you will cry alone astonian
 
Hi swanney
glad you remember the old parks entertainment.my memory goes back a little
further to 1948. I then started my national service in 1954. I lived at 139
formans rd next to claytons fish shop opposite bromyard rd.i lived there
from 1935-1961.after marriage i moved north to great barr till4 years
ago when i moved to burnham on sea.

Ken
 
This is a very old thread, but maybe we can re-start it with some old photos to jog memories. This is my favourite which came with a date of 1955. I lived in Thornhill Road as a lad and spent a large part of my childhood in Sparkhill Park. I remember that tree in the foreground …. it was a conker tree, and an obvious magnet for boys in the autumn.Sparkhill Park 1955.jpg
 
And here's a couple more. I'm surprised to see a swan in the pool …. I always remember it as a large paddling pool for kids, rather than a "wildlife" pond that other parks had.Sparkhill Park 5.jpgSparkhill Park 1914.jpg
 
Great pictures, Geoff, but I can't remember ever paddling in the pond, as we kids called it. I certainly recall that bandstand - is it still there? I didn't visit it often, but apart from when the fair visited, I can't recollect seeing many people there.

Maurice
 
It's a while since I was in the park, but I believe the bandstand is still there. The pond was filled in and landscaped many years ago. During the sixties the park was very well used by local children …. football in winter, cricket in summer, tennis in the hard courts, smaller kids on the swings/roundabout, messing about in the brook etc. I well remember having to climb out over the wall into Stratford Road after staying in past the bell (closing time) …. having evaded the dreaded Parkie !
Here's another much published photo of the bandstand (which seems to have lost the top part of its roof) …. which came with a date of 1952.Sparkhill Park 1952.jpg
 
On picture 3 can the date be interpreted as 3/4/17?

Maybe someone had taken the card to send back home to Sparkhill.
 
Great photos Two.
I can't picture which part of the park is shown in #5 …. but it was a long time before my 1960's park-playing days. Any ideas ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top