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Stratford Road Schools

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Ok , archie7 and robroy I think I have it sorted. Is it that Christ Church School either moved or opened an annex in an area between Braithwaite Rd and Claremont Rd and you could cross Stratford Rd, walk up Farm Rd and the turn left through a laneway into Claremont Rd. In such an event we as kids would have called it Farm Rd School.
Smiths Coaches were on the cnr. of Stratford Rd and Farm Rd.
I had an Aunt who used to write and she used Smiths until they closed and I think the premises were demolished, maybe to make a better vista.
I had a surprise when I saw on Google how many of the houses and shops were demolished in Ladypool Rd and Beech St apparently to give a better prospect to to Stratford Rd School.

Viv I think the school referred to as Ladypool Rd School was up by the Balsall Heath Park area as it was/is used as an annex by Dennis Rd School. Dont know for sure, just a thought.
Cheers to all, Tim.
 
robroy said:
Hi.Tim..The rear entrance to Christ Church School was off Farm Road via Clarmont Road....The front entrance was in Braithwaite Road I enjoyed my time there the Headmasters name was A B Craggs.
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Hi, Roy. I went to Christ Church School in the latter half of the 1950s and have very good cause to remember Mr Craggs. On my first day there, I waited outside his office with my mother, I suppose so he could introduce himself and take me to the class, though I don't recall exactly. What I recall very clearly was the screaming of a distraught boy coming from behind his door interspersed with threatening shouts from Craggs. At the same time, the boy's mother was banging on the door pleading to be let in. I have no idea what had happened or exactly what was being done to the boy in question. I vaguely remember the door being finally opened and then a smiling Craggs greeting mother and me. It was hardly a pleasant introduction to school life, though I doubt that even occurred to the formidable headmaster. I remember a teacher called Miss Parry with more fondness, and I must have had a crush on her because I felt sad when she got married! Then there was the older Miss Carter whose face I seem to remember bore pock marks, so perhaps she suffered smallpox as a child.

Ray T.
 
This 1905 photo of St John's School on the Stratford Road (left) is that described in post #29 (school #4). Viv.
image.jpeg
 
The main entrance to College Road School, Springfield, was in College Road itself but part of it, I'm certain, did border onto the Stratford Road. Maurice (Sospiri) may be able to confirm. I don't know whether the name has changed. Dave.
 
farmerdave said:
The main entrance to College Road School, Springfield, was in College Road itself but part of it, I'm certain, did border onto the Stratford Road. Maurice (Sospiri) may be able to confirm. I don't know whether the name has changed. Dave.
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I seem to recall that a corner area of the school did border onto the Stratford Road.
As you say Dave, Maurice should be able to confirm. I mainly remember the Springfield Ballroom, which was almost opposite.

Eddie
 
Hi Dave & Eddie,

Spot on, I went to College Road Infants & Juniors before going on to Moseley Grammar in 1947. The headmster of the Junior School at that time was Mr Shakespeare and the entrance was, as you say, in College Road, more or less opposite the Springfield Cinema, though that building was requisitioned by the Ministry of Food during WW2.

Maurice
 
Thanks Eddie and Maurice. I looked on Google Earth, Street-View, and quite a bit of the College Road School grounds do border onto the Stratford Road. We are looking at 912-4 Stratford Road. As I mentioned before, the name of the school may have changed. We perhaps need Ell Brown to take one of his famous pictures from the top-deck of a number 6 bus, as he does with his photos of Sparkhill Swimming Baths. Dave.
 
Dave,

I don't know about a name change, it is certainly quite likely. As you looked at the buildings from College Road, the left hand side of the block was the Infants and the right hand side the Juniors, and both departments had separate entrances. Just to help you, I'm including a picture of the Springfield Cinema (actually taken in 1914 I believe, but essentially the same in my day, courtesy of the Acocks Green history site).

Maurice
 

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sospiri said:
Dave,

I don't know about a name change, it is certainly quite likely. As you looked at the buildings from College Road, the left hand side of the block was the Infants and the right hand side the Juniors, and both departments had separate entrances. Just to help you, I'm including a picture of the Springfield Cinema (actually taken in 1914 I believe, but essentially the same in my day, courtesy of the Acocks Green history site).

Maurice
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Nice one Maurice, with lots of memories for many of us. Interestingly, it must have shown early silent movies, and would have been a very early Birmingham cinema.

Eddie
 
Eddie,

The Springfield Cinema opened on 25 April 1914 and I've tried to trace the opening performance on the IMDB without success. There's always the possibility that the opening performance was not a film, but some sort of show. But I got to know the front of house quite well during the 1940s. It was requisitioned by the Ministry of Food, stripped of all seating and used to store sugar during the rationing period.

The back door backed onto my back garden gate, so whenever some wag hacksawed the padlock off, we were amongst the first to know and we and all the neighbours helped ourselves to a free supply of sugar until the police became aware and informed the Ministry of Food, who came and replaced the padlock.

Sometime after the end of the war, the sugar was removed, and whilst there was nothing to steal, the padlocks were still removed from time to time and the place was used as a free roller skating rink by the local kids! Now there was only about six or seven feet between the screen and the front of the stage, so I hardly think there was space to stage a musical show of any kind.

We moved to Kings Heath in 1950 so I wasn't there to see it reopen as a cinema again, but only for a short period. Since then, various businesses have occupied it and changed the frontage somewhat.

You are aware of the Springfield Ballroom just inside Solihull Road next door to the cinema. Behind that building, German bombs flattened five houses in Knowle Road and that bombsite became our playground. A plentiful supply of bricks and other materials with which to build dens - we had a whale of a time!

Maurice
 
Many thanks, Viv - a bit before my time but the buildings have changed very little.

Maurice
 
These are the details of the College Road schools from the British History online site. Viv.

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Some views from Google Maps Street View that I would either see from the no 1 or no 6 bus routes (also sometimes the no 31).

On Solihull Road near the Sparkhill / Hall Green border. What is now Grand Occasions Banqueting Suite.

solihull rd springfield.jpg


Springfield Primary School as seen from College Road (the no 1 bus route)

springfield primary school.jpg
 
Ell,

Thanks for those. The Primary School hasn't changed much from the 1940s - same railings, same brickwork, same hedge around the playground. The only things that immediately stand out as new are the yellow lines (what are those?) and the style of the street lights.

When it comes to what was once the Springfield Ballroom, during the 1940s that was just good fairly quality red bricks. The ballroom itself was on the top floor only and viewed from the back was quite a plain square building with a row of windows across the top floor. That view is not possible now because they've replaced the the five bombed houses, 205-213 Knowle Road - it was just a levelled bombsite in my time. The TV aerial is new too.

The side wall of the house on the left (original) has been waterproofed with a sort of black bitumastic paint that was common before the war. Anyone know what it was called?

Maurice :-) :-)

Of course, the front has been tarted up a bit and a row of concrete posts installed - no cars on the front in my day!
 
There is much here about structure paints mainly used for camouflage. Given that severe restrictions were placed on many manufacturing processes I might suggest that the black paints referred to here might be used to waterproof exposed walls after bomb damage. There were restrictions on paint shades and some photos in the transport sections show tramcars and buses painted in overall grey colour due to the restrictions.

https://patrickbaty.co.uk/2011/10/05/wartime-camouflage-colours/
 
Thank you, Alan, I'll take a look at that. I'm not planning to buy or use any, it's just that I remember it on the wall of the building that backed onto my grandfather's house in Bartons Bank, against which he grew a huge grapevine. Many pre-war house walls were waterproofed with it too as in Ell's picture above. As grandfather died in 1920, it has obviously been around a long long time! I like the signature by the way. :-)

Maurice
 
Alan,

Looks like the correct description should be bituminous emulsion. We learn something new every day. Thanks.

Maurice
 
The double yellow lines remark was a bit tongue in cheek, Ell, we have them in Crete too, not that anyone takes much notice of them here! I suppose the one-way up College Road stops traffic coming down from turning across the main Stratford Road traffic if going towards Hall Green, but there's always a trade-off somewhere, such as the bottom of Springfield Road!

Maurice
 
There's always traffic when vehicles on Springfield Road try to turn onto the Stratford Road, especially if you are on the no 1 bus (before it heads up Shaftmoor Lane towards Fox Hollies and Acocks Green).
 
I remember Springfield Road as a very pleasant sort of road. I guess it was due to the allotments - which Google says are still there - which gave a transition from suburbia to inner city. The very tight roundabout, Stratford Road end, much have been a real pain to bus and heavy goods drivers.
 
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Alan,

I well remember that small roundabout and how leafy it was around there. I've just taken a drive around that area on Google - the roundabout is the same size, but the corners of all the roads except College Road have been obliterated so that the traffic lanes themselves could be widened. Most of the old houses in College Road still exist, but we now have a mini-roundabout at the junction with Wake Green Road. That was the point at which we all jumped from the back platform of the 1A bus to save walking back an extra 100 yards!

Big changes in the Moseley School area of Wake Green Road, of course, with a service road and lots of newer houses, the appearance of large houses opposite the school, and the development of Windermere Road, the subject of another Forum thread. The line of trees leading from College Road junction to the school entrance is still there under which the ice cream van used to park at lunch time. The cheapest item was a Walls "Frutie". Happy days!

Maurice
 
College Road looking very neat and tidy. Sorry no date given but could be about 1900/10. Viv.

image.jpeg
 
College Stores at 31 College Road. Seen from the no 1 bus on College Road. It's on the corner of Springfield Road and opposite Springfield Primary School. Was a bit of traffic queuing up to go down Springfield Road (to the left of here)



Had the top deck to myself on Springfield Road






Springfield Primary School seen from the no 1 bus on College Road.



One way system on College Road, bike lane near the school.



 
Thanks for the pics, Ell, but the buses look strange to me. I only remember the old BCT ones with brown patterned upholstery seats for two and stainless steel rails!

Maurice
 
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