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Stratford Road

I have mentioned the shop Bernard Coopers on this thread before but here is his logo. It was a retailer of men's clothes situated on the Stratford Road just near the entrance to Hall Green Station. Definitely there during the 1950s and early 60s and perhaps earlier. It seems that he also had a shop in Northfield. Dave.
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I well remember the shop front collapse in 1955/6 as I was working for Tom Whitecross in his hardware shop on Camp Hill. whilst I was waiting on being called up for National Service.
Whilst I was paid a fair sort of wage Tom had a deal with me that if I sold a roll of wallpaper at the full price I could charge say 6p a roll to trim the edges. For a new door key so much for the blank plus my little fee , cutting glass was one shilling per square foot for clear window glass and 1/6 for pebble dash for Tom and a bit for me for cutting it.
When this bloke turned up and asked us to supply panes of glass for his DIY shop conversion Tom agreed on his usual terms," Cash on The Nail".
For a few days someone would pop up with the order plus cash and wait whilst I cut the glass, if I was flat out (not often) they would pop over to Tom's Café on the cnr of Camp Hill and Ravenshurst St. for a cup of tea.
I wasn't making a fortune but I was getting used to the extra few bob a day that was coming my way.
Unfortunately the job was not being done to proper building codes and the wooden window framing could not support the brick wall of the two storeys above and the face of the building just literally slipped onto the pavement.
To my knowledge no one was injured but I have wondered if any legal action was taken against the owner.
 
Managed to find an advert and photo for Eric Willmont, Sports Outfitter, based at 1049, Stratford Road, Hall Green. They were situated on the corner of Cubley Road and Stratford Road, on the opposite side to Hall Green Parade. The advert dates from the mid-1950s but the photo is much later, approximately 1980. I wonder if Mikegee could kindly find when they started and finished retailing there? Dave.
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Eric Willmot's shop was at 1047-1049 Stratford Road Hall Green, which puts it at the junction of Cubley Road and Stratford Rd on the opposite corner of Cubley Rd to the Co-op milk depot at that time.
 
Approaching the junction of Robin Hood Lane with Highfield Road, on the left hand side travelling towards the city was a off-licence. Just after WW2 I recall queuing there with my Nanny to get a bottle of wine (of some description) for Christmas. Just imagine queuing for wine today when everywhere seems to have shelves loaded with all forms of alcoholic products from all parts of the world.

** I have amended this post due to initially posting an incorrect location. I had thought it was relevant to Stratford Road, but I realize that the post in fact relates to Robin Hood Lane, which is close to the Stratford Road of course. :redface:
 
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Originally it was just 1049 Stratford Road.No 1049 was Marsh the butchers. Eric Willmot seem to have been a sports outfitter there since sometime between the 1946 and 1949 Kellys. However before that he was a toy dealer at that address. The 1933 Kellys does not list no 1049, though it does 1047 (Marsh's). The 1936 edition does, as does the 1935 electoral roll at that address. Therefore the shop has been there since sometime between 1933 and 1935, but was only a sports dealer from between 1945-1948 (allowing for delay in Kellys). He was probably the first occupant of the building
 
I remember being taken to Willmot's to buy my first hockey stick (1964) for secondary school. It lasted well as I used it all through school and afterwards as I continued playing hockey until the 1980s.

Janice
 
Thanks Mikejee, Phil and History-Fan for further information on Eric Willmont's shop. It looks as if the shop was there for a very long time. I believe that Eric ran the shop for many, many years but it was eventually run by a son of his. I bought my rugby gear from there for Camp Hill GS, and also remember buying a foil (fencing sword) as I had dreams of being good at fencing. As Phil mentions, on the other side of Cubley Road was the Co-op Dairy. Certainly in the late 1940s there was a stable there for the horse-pulled milk vehicles. Dave.
 
(Please note I have edited the title of this thread (originally "Stratford Road in the 1940s") as it covers more than that period in its history.

A couple of Stratford Road, Sparkhill images. They look to be early 1900s. Viv.

image.jpeg image.jpeg
 
And this one is labelled Stratford Road Sparkbrook in 1908. Maybe someone out there can define the Stratford Road boundaries between Sparkbrook and Sparkhill please. A simple map would be helpful. Viv.

image.jpeg
 
Not sure about the exact border between Sparkhill and Sparkbrook but roughly north of the Warwick Rd is Sparkbrook and south of the Warwick Rd is Sparkhill.
ps just found a map that shows the border as Stoney Lane/Walford Rd
Screenshot (111).png
 
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To me the bit between Walford Rd and Warwick Rd was a kind of no-mans land. A friend of the family who lived in Evelyn Rd. Sparkhill told how there was a Toll Gate on Stratford Rd at The Mermaid Pub when her mother was a young girl which I think would have been pre WW1.
Maybe this is why I had that feeling.
Cheers Tim.
 
If you're on the bus on the Stratford Road, when you see the ALDI you know you are in Sparkbrook. It ends around the railway bridge for the Camp Hill line near Camp Hill Circus.

Sparkhill goes all the way after the College Arms to the junction with the roads mentioned above (including Springfield).
 
I lived in Sparkbrook for almost the first twenty four years of my life. Never thought of the area between Walford Road/Warwick Road as 'No Mans Land'. In fact Golden Hillock Road School was in Sparkbrook, and roads around that area were also addressed as Sparkbrook, and I delivered newspapers around the area. The dividing line that we always accepted was the Warwick Road.
I am talking about the 30/40/50's era. I left Birmingham so have no idea of the current postal areas.

Never knew anything about a tollgate around the Mermaid Hotel area.

That would have been well pre WW1. Possibly 18th/19th century. If so, it should be on record somewhere.

Eddie

P.S Lovely photographs Viv.
 
Hi Eddie, I didn't mean that the area wasn't officially Sparkbrook just that I felt Sparkhill began when you had to start walking up the hill.
I too lived in Sparkbrook, born there 1938 and left 1961.Also had a paper round and went to Golden Hillock Rd. School for a couple of years.
Seem to remember seeing a building that could have been the toll gate in a picture of the old Mermaid or the like somewhere on one of the forums, but it would have been well before our days (seems to be more like daze in my case .
Cheers Tim
 
Re the tollgate and the Mermaid pub references above.

Extracts from Bill Dargue's site (https://billdargue.jimdo.com/placenames-gazetteer-a-to-y/places-s/sparkbrook/)

"The Stratford Turnpike was set up in 1726 with tollgates locally at Camp Hill, Ladypool Road and at the River Cole bridge near Shaftmoor Lane".

"At the Warwick Road junction The Mermaid was a also a coaching inn. Built c1740, it was completely rebuilt in the 1880s when the Tivoli Gardens to the rear were an attraction for town-dwellers who could now take the tram. The corner towers were destroyed by German bombs during the Second World War and not replaced; however, the old carved sign was restored and reset. The pub is now a restaurant. A weighbridge was set up at the Mermaid to check the weight of heavy wagons before they were allowed to cross the hump-backed bridges over the streams and rivers. In 1752 and 1759 horses were drowned while fording the River Cole. Subsequently the Worcestershire county authorities built a bridge over the river here".

So maybe people confuse the Mermaid weigh bridge for a tollgate position?

Viv.
 
devonjim said:
Not sure about the exact border between Sparkhill and Sparkbrook but roughly north of the Warwick Rd is Sparkbrook and south of the Warwick Rd is Sparkhill.
ps just found a map that shows the border as Stoney Lane/Walford Rd
View attachment 114206
Click to expand...
Well, that fits the description of the places i.e. Sparkhill is up the hill and Sparkbrook at the bottom. :D Not sure where the brook is now, probably culverted many years ago.
ALDI was founded by the Albrecht family in 1913 so I guess they were at school before anyone here. Incidentally they became some of the richest men in the world.
In the distant past there were definite geographical identities regarding where one district started and another finished. However 20th.century developments have blurred these distinctions all over the UK.
 
From the bus, you can see a Sparkbrook sign just before the ALDI supermarket.

You will also noticed the Stratford Road lined with loads of Asian women's clothes shops. Also take away's etc.

aldi sparkbrook.jpg
 
Does anyone have any old photos of Hall Green Parade? I believe that Hall Green bordered Sparkhill/Springfield on the Stratford Road at the River Cole Bridge. Dave.
 
This is a similar view as that in post #83 but taken in the 1964. And there are many changes since that time. St Agatha's church on the left is much the same, but the shops have pretty well all gone on that side, including the Ansells pub. The right-hand side of the road has fared a little better with many older shops still lining the road, but Stratford Road Baptist church has lost its spire. Viv.

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A lot more traffic in the 1964 picture, looks school time - going or leaving - and I also notice a clock above the awning on the left. A Leyland bus (1689) heading to town from Warstock, another heading that way in the distance and maybe an Inner Circle or Yardley Wood route bus heading west.
 
The clock was over a Jewlers, think the name was Parkers, they had a clock on the wall outside that was claimed to be as accurate as the one at The Greenwich Observatory. My parents bought me a signet ring there for my 13th birthday which would have been 1951. Don't think that was a pub on the corner of Stoney Lane but an offlicence /tobacconist, bought a couple of packs of Camels to impress my peers. There was a tailors a couple of doors further up where I bought a couple of bespoke Teddyboy type suits, paid 2 quid extra for the deluxe finish, that was hand stitched collar and quilted silk lining to the jacket. Bought a shorty raincoat there, petrol blue with Royal Stuart tartan lining.
I shudder now but I was a style leader (. ) fill in appropriate words.
Could go on all

night but you get the picture!
Cheers Tim
Ps Thanks for the memories Viv.
 
I am sure that amidst those shops there was a Bata shoe shop. Bata was originally founded towards the end of the 19th. century in what is now the Czech republic but is presently head quartered in Lausanne, Switzerland.
There is a Bata Shoe Museum in Ontario, Canada.
 
Agreed, Viv, the Sparkhill / Hall Green boundary was the River Cole. Certainly the people who lived in Sarehole Road and the Stratford Road end of Bromyard Road regarded themselves as living in Hall Green. But when I lived in Knowle Road in the 1940s, we regarded Hall Green as starting at the College Arms, just to take 'em down a peg or two!

Similarly, we didn't regard the whole of College Road as being in Moseley - you were still in Sparkhill until you'd passed over Springfield Road.

The boundaries between Sparkhill and Sparkbrook & Greet always seemed much more difficult to define.

And just for the benefit of any new members, has anyone got any photographs or sketches of the River Cole bridges that preceded the current one on Stratford Road that was opened in 1915 please?

Maurice
 
Vivienne14 said:
This is a similar view as that in post #83 but taken in the 1964. And there are many changes since that time. St Agatha's church on the left is much the same, but the shops have pretty well all gone on that side, including the Ansells pub. The right-hand side of the road has fared a little better with many older shops still lining the road, but Stratford Road Baptist church has lost its spire. Viv.

View attachment 114451
Click to expand...

Viv, I think that that's St John's Church on the right with a spire. Near St John's Road and Durham Road.

https://goo.gl/maps/EXKhG5Txdmm
 
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