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Sutton Park History

  • Thread starter Thread starter O.C.
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Hey Cromwell, Sutton Park belonged to me and I marked it as mine in the usual way. How did you get into the place without me knowing? I walked every nook and cranny, the foxes knew of my visits and the rabbits stepped aside when I crept through the woods with my bow and arrow. There is even a secret place where adders glide in company with grass snakes. Newts in ponds, swimming at bracebridge to the little island. Boating at Blackroot, the slide at Keepers. Thanks son, as the wild parrots fly overhead and the kangaroos look for water, methinks I hear a nightingale calling me home. Kindest regards, David Weaver.
cromwell said:
To a Brummie growing up in the 30.‚.’s till the 50.‚.’s Sutton Park was a magical place...............it was another World..............
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Dreams die hard in today’s World David so one should never go back to re-live their memories as you will find the outcome not what you expected…
Perhaps I was the enemy who was hiding from you or even hunting …I might even have walked along side of you, without you knowing………. You see with countless others I was the original Robin Hood hidden in the oaks with his band of ragged men, tied up and shot, a prisoner of the Sioux who escaped many times to be Davy Crockett again and ride the golden gorse..
Our World has gone never to be replaced but I hope the Park will be used for what it was intended for ..........to be enjoyed and cherished by all who use it ......
a special place where memories are made...and dreams are born
 
We're all part of a long line, people. Here's an earlier mother and child, long before digital cameras but made immortal in oils. "The Gravel Pit, Four Oaks". Does anyone recognise the location?

Chris
 
Lovely post Cromwell and oh so right...memories live for ever, I was so privileged to live so close to this wonderful place!
 
I was always tied to a tree or made to lie down dead, guess the boys didn't want me around, but my brothers had to look after me. When i got a little older i was allowed to have a bow and arrow and at times a wooden sword. It's so sad that children today are not allowed to run wild in the playing fields of their imaginary lives for fear of that stranger...Cat:)
 
When I was a youngster on any given Saturday or Sunday you could take yourself down to Vauxhall and Duddeston railway station with your mates and pay your few pence for a ticket to SuttonTown station. You would climb down the stairs to the always crowded platform where you would find a place as near to the platform edge as possible, but always making sure your feet were behind the painted white line.

There you would stand and wait until the engine towing its line of carriages chugged in from New st station. As soon as the train pulled to a halt, it was one mad dash to get on and get a seat before they were all taken. Once you were on and settled there was little to do but watch all the places as they whizzed past the window, Erdington and Wylde Green places that sounded so exotic then, but now are commonplace to the ear. You would look at all the houses and think they have got a front door and a back door and a garden, they must be rich.

Upon reaching Sutton station everybody piled out, leaving only those few people travelling on to far flung places such as Lichfield. A quick run down the hill to the Town gate, pay your few pence entrance fee and you were in.

The first thing you might do if it was a hot day was have a paddle in the brook for a while, but you would soon tire of that and you would be off to better things, spend a few coppers in the fair, then go for a swim in the lido at Keepers pool. Afterwards you would spend he rest of the day being whatever you imagined you were that week, whatever it was it was it was a certainty it was nothing to do with computers. When you got hungry you sat and ate your packed lunch, a jam sandwich or maybe fish paste or even egg and swilled down with a bottle of lemonade or tizer. Whatever it was your parents had managed to pack for you, it tasted like the food of the gods, and nothing we eat today can even come close to matching the taste. There again I would not eat any of it today, how things change over the years.

The day soon went, and too soon the time for return to the dingy back streets of Nechells. After a quick check to make sure you were still in possession of the return half of your rail ticket with a heavy heart you made your way back to the station for your return journey.

Pmc1947
 
Just had these pic handed to me today by My old Pal, Art Hambidge EX Bham Mohawk Speed Skater & Bham Baron Ice Hockey Player.
They of the ICE HOCKEY CLUB having fun on Wyndley Pool back in the 1950s.Any one remember those good old day when you could hope for that winter to be as it should be "COLD" & any one remember these pics did you go out on that ice. Photos taken by the BIRMINHAM GAZETTE & DESPATCH LTD.
ASTON
 
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I remember it Aston as I actually went through the ice one Sunday afternoon after being taken there by a neighbour who had a car. You had to walk over some wooden planks to get to the "serious " ice and someone wobbled the planks and in I went. So freezing cold. I never got to walk out on the ice
as I should have done. I wasn't popular with my brother and his two friends
whose Dad's car we all went in. I had to be whisked home as fast as possible.
Every time I visit and we drive down past the Wyndley Sports Centre and further down to where the entrance to Wyndley Pool is I think of that experience all those decades ago.
 
I loved skating on the ice on Blackroot pool. It was free and I didn't have to travel to Brum. I used to go with my friend Rosalind.
 
Happy day's. I used to play badminton at Wyndley Sorts Centre, and before that i used to do my sledding at the lakes...Cat:)
 
Cat. I worked at Wyndley for 18 years full time in the pool teaching little darlings how to swim and did coaching with the clubs. I used to play badminton in my spare with Sally Westwood. Not very good though. Found these photo's of picnics in the park when I was very young. I always remember my dad cutting my oranges up for me. They don't seem to taste as nice these days. Bye for now. Jean.
 
Jean you probably taught my children to swim, my youngest son would only swim under water, i did know a couple of lifeguards one male one female, my children thought they where wonderful, they lived around the corner from us in Sutton Coldfield. I will ask my sons their names she was quite a striking tall blonde, can't remember what he was like, apart from he was handsome...Cat
 
Cat there were loads of them. Most were lovely to work with. Both my twin boys were supervisers there at sometime and assistant managers. Which schools did they go to?. First middle and senior?. You woud be surprised how many I can remember. Jean.
 
Wendy said:
I loved skating on the ice on Blackroot pool. It was free and I didn't have to travel to Brum. I used to go with my friend Rosalind.
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My older brother took me to Bracebridge pool and we broke the ice to have a swim, quite mad, so I suggested we run together and leap in. We set off like idiots but I stopped at the bank and he didn't. I've never seen anyone turn blue quite so fast. Needless to say I ran home as fast as I could. David Weaver
 
Jean my children were taught privately on a saturday morning, I wanted them to learn how to swim at an early age because i had a mishap when i was young...Cat
 
more fond memories - we used to go to Sutton park every sunday on the bus. I remember the bus stop home was near a pet shop and we used to admire the tortoises in the window ( never realising how cruel that was)
Also spent many a saturday at silver blades ice rink learning to skate. My memory must be failing because I can't remember the name of the street silver blades was in or the name of the road in Sutton Coldfield we used to catch the bus . We used to catch it near the Scott Arms pub, Great Barr - it went via Kingstanding and then a small walk to the gates once getting to Sutton Coldfield. This was back 1970-80ish I even trained at Good Hope 1980-83 but still have a mental block on those names -must be a senior moment or too much lead from living under spaghetti junction. Take my advice don't get old!!!
 
The picnic in thee park with mum and dad. How simple our pleasures were when we were young, Jean. Here's your picture revitalised, memories of a happy day.
 
I used to play in Sutton Park with my friends all the time, it was a short walk from where I lived. The best time was when I had a bike and could explore further afield. Summers were spent either swimming at Keepers Pool and when pocket money ran out it was swimming in Bracebridge. Such lovely memories.
 
nursesue said:
I remember the bus stop home was near a pet shop and we used to admire the tortoises in the window ( never realising how cruel that was)
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Sue,

Unless there was more than one in Sutton, this may well have been the little pet shop in Station Street. In the 1950s it was owned by Miss Molly Badham before she went on to Twycross Zoo and fame with her Typhoo Tea chimps.

The tortoise trade was indeed cruel and the vast majority of the creatures died either in transit or not long afterwards due to the ignorance of their well-meaning new owners. So none have been imported for many years although one can still buy home-grown babies at enormous cost.

One or two of the tortoises did however strike lucky. Mr. Tort was bought for five bob or 7/6 from Molly Badham in about 1954. Here he is, greeting members of the forum half an hour ago, 54 years on.

(He’d just told me that as he is a living and breathing example of Birmingham and neighbourhood history, he felt he should have his own thread. He may well be right but you can’t admit that to a reptile, can you? So I told him to mind his own flippin’ business and start worrying about where the next dandelion flower is coming from).

Chris
 
Great post ChrisM and a super photo of Mr. Tort. 54 years old that's amazing. We have a few owners of special tortoises on the forum now.
Thanks for the info about tortoises.
 
How lovely Chris. Mr Tort must be among the oldest in England. My sister and me had one, we kept him on apiece of string, dad put a hole in his shell, because we lost him so often, and found him in neighbours gardens. I don't recall his going, he was still at home when I left.
 
Chris M I remember that pet shop well I had a hamster from there in 1960. My friend went to help at Molly's first zoo which was run in the grounds of her bungalow in Hints. One of the chimps bit the end of her finger off but she always said it was her own fault. Mr Tort looks lovely, I have always had a soft spot for tortoises and I am very pleased they have stopped importing them. I have friends who now live in Mollies bungalow at Hints and it was a real memory trip when I visited them. She was an amazing lady!
 
ChrisM I'm in love with Mr Tort ....
A tortoise was a pet I aways wanted, but we never had a garden when I was a child so it was out of the question.
Now that I have such a large garden here in NZ, they are not allowed to be imported.
Life can be so unfair at times, coz a tortoise really would have a good home with me and my family.

Pom
 
He asks me to thank you, ladies, for all the adulation. But at the same time mutters, as would most blokes in their cynical sixties, that he suspects that is all just words, words.

Below is about as much company and excitement as he gets, or so he tells me.

Chris
 
Now he’s safely offline and gone for a post-cucumber kip, I should tell you that you should not fall for his sob story. In fact he gets a lot of attention and has a wide circle of local admirers. Some of them even bring their families to see him. His reaction is to grumble that they eat all of his food and then leave his loo in a terrible mess.

Chris
 
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