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Street Baked Potato & Chestnut Sellers

postie

postie

The buck stops here
Staff member
When I was about 7 years old, 2 of my older brothers decided to take me to town one Saturday afternoon. :)
I was informed that if I behaved, I could have a special treat. ::)
Well I must have been good because they said I could have either, hot potatoes or hot chestnuts from a man with a barrow by the Bull Ring Market. ;D
Now I had eaten baked spuds before, but never chestnuts, so they are what I chose. The man handed me a bag of them and put them in my pocket and I picked them out, one at a time and ate them. ^-^
When I got home my Mom asked if I had enjoyed myself and I told her all about it, including the chestnuts. She asked me if I enjoyed them and I said not really because they were too crunchy and hurt my throat when I swallowed them. :(
My brothers fell about laughing and my Mom informed me that chestnuts should be shelled before eating. :-[ :uglystupid2:
 
:angel:  Well when I visited Brum in 1986  :coolsmiley:, I went to the fruit shop and bought my sister's family some KIWI Fruit as a treat (couldn't believe the price though ::)). My nephew, wouldn't have any at first as it seems the people they know never peeled them and ate the skin ???. Now here in NZ most people either peel them or scoop the flesh out with a tea spoon 8), only weird folk eat the skin an'all :idiot2:.
KIWI FRUIT YUM
Chris  :angel:
 
I always peel the skin off kiwi fruit, Pom. However, I went to a party not too long ago and I was helping in the kitchen prepare the food for the evening. I started peeling the Kiwi's and the hostess was horrified...everything in the kitchen came to a standstill. The peel has to stay on said she.
I think it's a personal preference really. I did make comments along these lines but she
was adamant that is how it should be. Skin on!!!!! Bye the way, we grow Kiwis here in the middle of the province of British Columbia where the summers are extremely hot and dry.
 
:angel: Well next time jennyann, you tell her that if Kiwi fruit is to be served with the skin on, to supply a spoon or a special scoop (given free in many of the shops here) so one can remove the flesh to eat it.  8) The KIWI way is the only corrrect way to eat KIWI FRUIT   :2funny: :2funny:

Chris  :angel:
 
Do You remember the Baked potato's wagon next to the Midland Hotel but put me right it was on the corner and the road sloped down towards the station :-\
 
Arrrrrrrghhhhh!... >:( :tickedoff: I bet some of these colonial type BRAwimmin :crazy2: don't eat the skins on their baked taters either... because that's where the vitamin C's stored, the best part of anything is the skin... remember beauty is only skin deep! :uglystupid2:!
 
I eat my baked tater skins. And everbody els's 8)

Do you think you could keep your text still Oisin. It aint easy to read when it's running across the page
 
Di
I also eat the Skins after :coolsmiley:
Yes OISIN can't read if you are insulting anyone :tickedoff:
How do I put the e-mail envelope on my page :(
 
Nice one Pommie CHRIS :-* you just got OISIN buddy,,,"ticked off" :2funny:

Now all we need is a little box to put him in :DNow theresrs an "hot potato, :coolsmiley:" ;D
 
Unsure if this has been posted before, but I found this old photograph of a Baked Spud man, and this looks very much like the man that stood on the corner of New Street, opposite The Midland Hotel back in the day. If it has been posted before, then sorry, please remove or put in the correct place. Thanks everyone. GerryBirmingham Spud Seller.jpg
 
nickcc101 said:
Yes the little triangular bag with a few tatty spuds and loads of salt, oh happy days.
Click to expand...
I used to work at BARROWS Stores, and before running for my bus outside the Odeon ( I used to detour especially) I would get my little bag of tiny potatoes and, as you said, loads of salt. No butter, or fancy fillings in those days eh! The funny thing is, ironic really, years later, I also used to sell Baked PotatA BARNABY RUDGE BIG BEN MACHINE..jpgoes! Only I sold them from my Big Ben Oven (pictured) This was built in Lichfield, in 1988. I still have it, if anyone is interested, stored under cover.
 
I'm pretty sure all these photos have been aired on the forum previously, but as has been said they can be removed or added to another thread if that is correct. The first one looks to be in Edgbaston Street in the 50's but I have no idea of where and when for the second one

Baked potato man[1].jpgCity Potato Cart .jpg
 
The photo in post 1 features in the Stephenson Place thread, post 45, along with other photos.
There is mention of the Snow Hill seller in another thread.
The modern type oven does not give the fumes that the coke ones did and I guess that was part of the charisma. I did not see the modern ovens in Birmingham, presumably some other large town I have visited. Roasted chestnuts were also available, but probably more around Christmas time. I had bought potatoes but not chestnuts.
 
i think it was the burnt spuds.and the taste of burnt coke.that made them so good:laughing:a couple of bags and sit in the station waiting room by the fire eating them.watching the locos arriving.there ..has been a lot of copy's but i think the one in stephens place is best remember'd
 
When I worked for Marsh & Baxters(just of Dale End) in the garage from 1954-60.Across the road in the arches they kept the baked spud cookers,and every morning the tatter men used to come and light the fires ,and in the afternoon take them into the town centre.Used to have some for my dinner sometimes.
 
Always remember the one outside the News Theater.After the Villa games& Blues used to buy some while walking up Bull St to catch the 14 bus home.
 
The one I remember the most was the one outside the Aston Hippodrome. If we bunked in the Globe Cinema, we could spend the money on baked spuds.
Dave A
 
Back in 1950 when I was 13 my Mom and Dad used to give me a "Saturday sixpence" each for doing errands and things, which funded me to take the 32 bus into town from Hall Green to go to the News Theatre at the bottom of Bull Street to watch their programme of cartoons, short interest films and serials. One serial was called "The Scarlet Horseman" which ran for 13 episodes, and toward the end of these episodes the lady on the ticket machine recognised me as a regular, and let me in for nothing. What overwhelming joy to have 10d to spend!! (with inflation, it would now seem like a win on the lottery)!

After the show I made a beeline to the corner of New Street and Stevenson's Place and squandered thruppence of my immense wealth on a bag of baked potatoes, before ambling down the Bull Ring to join in the congregation of soap-box speakers and enjoy the Brummie wit of the hecklers!

I'm 86 now, and the trappings of our present society, wealth and possessions pale into insignificance when I recall all those precious memories of growing up in old Birmingham. What price driving around in the latest electric car when you could go up the lickeys for three happence on the number 70 tram? And would an ocean cruise today really compare with a childhood outing and a rowing boat in Cannon Hill Park? Is it little wonder then that the voice of blind Polly calling out 'andy carrier in the Bull Ring still echoes to me down the years!

I did'nt have a ride in a car until I was 14 - yet now if I wanted to return to where I was born in Summer lane I'd have to pay a conjeston charge.

And you call that progress?
 
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Sten Thomas said:
Back in 1950 when I was 13 my Mom and Dad used to give me a "Saturday sixpence" each for doing errands and things, which funded me to take the 32 bus into town from Hall Green to go to the News Theatre at the bottom of Bull Street to watch their programme of cartoons, short interest films and serials. One serial was called "The Scarlet Horseman" which ran for 13 episodes, and toward the end of these episodes the lady on the ticket machine recognised me as a regular, and let me in for nothing. What overwhelming joy to have 10d to spend!! (with inflation, it would now seem like a win on the lottery)!

After the show I made a beeline to the corner of New Street and Stevenson's Place and squandered thruppence of my immense wealth on a bag of baked potatoes, before ambling down the Bull Ring to join in the congregation of soap-box speakers and enjoy the Brummie wit of the hecklers!

I'm 86 now, and the trappings of our present society, wealth and possessions pale into insignificance when I recall all those precious memories of growing up in old Birmingham. What price driving around in the latest electric car when you could go up the lickeys for threpence happeny on the number 70 tram? And would an ocean cruise today really compare with a childhood outing and a rowing boat in Cannon Hill Park?

I did'nt have a ride in a car until I was 14 - yet now if I wanted to return to where I was born in Summer lane I'd have to pay a conjeston charge.

And you call that progress?
Click to expand...
Hi, I relived that story with you. I too came into Brum to sit in the News Theatre, and watch the cartoons and the shorts, (Three Stooges/Laurel & Hardy/Charlie Chaplin and others) plus the serials. Lovely days. never to come again. What a gentler time we lived in, and my....how I wish it would come again.
 
Sten, totally agree with you sentiments. Wonderful memories !!! None of our great /granchildren, will have such memories when they get to our age
 
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