Sutton Park History

[Phil]

Viv

A few more photos of Keepers pool lido from it's earliest days when it looks like it was nothing more than a steel tank to just before it was closed down. Why it was closed I'm afraid remains a mystery to me as I'm sure it was well used up to the end. It has to be noted that it wasn't until Birmingham Council took over it's upkeep that it closed.

 

[Bob Davis]

Went to Vesey in the late 40s & 50s and we always had our swimming sports at Keepers, I think as well they sometimes went there for swimming lessons - cold and dark and deep. I think that in Bracebridge you could swim in the pool iself

 

[ChrisM]

On a sadder note there was an outbreak of polio in Sutton in the mid/late 1940s and two of my friends at BVGS contracted it, one fairly mildly and one seriously. Swimming at Keepers was rumoured at the time to have been the cause. I think that the lido was closed for a while as a result.

(What a scourge that was, in the days before innoculation wiped it out. Now almost forgotten. The fear of it was widespread and the prospect of landing up in an iron lung was the subject of childhood nightmares).

Chris

 

[oldMohawk]

Yes Chris, someone I read about at the time had been swimming in Keepers Pool and later went down with polio and died. It cause a great scare at the time and I remember standing in a long queue at the Birmingham Health Department near the Museum waiting to have a polio jab. Swimming in the pool did stop after that.
oldmohawk

 

[paul stacey]

I remember the Polio epidemic in "Brum" very well. Paul

 

[Vivienne14]

Very, very sad for those affected. Polio was still around when I was young and I'd forgotten about the iron lung. I remember kids with braces on their legs as a result of polio. They'd have been lucky to survive at that time then. No surprise the pool was closed down if it was the cause of polio.


Quite honestly the idea of swimming in a natural pool gave me the creeps when I was young (bit of a sissy), much preferred a purpose built swimming pool where I could see my feet. Was OK with paddling though, as long as my feet were on the ground. Viv.

 

[A Sparks]

It's possible it was closed for the Health and Safety reason that it would now be required to have a full time attendant to supervise/ life save if necessary?

 

[Dave M]

Barr Beacon in the distance from sutton Park

 

[Dave M]

​Sutton Park from Streetly Gate, 2nd Nov 2015


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Du20Y8g-8

 

[Dave M]

Wyndley Pool 2nd Nov 2015




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0K2dxUBeoc

 

[Dave M]

Again



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOIZiBHLO_o

 

[badpenny]

Great stuff, when my parents used to take me and my sister to the park i was always on the miniature railway.

i don't remember anything else about the place.

 

[oldMohawk]

Wyndley Pool 2nd Nov 2015

Thanks Dave my favourite pool in the park

Great stuff, when my parents used to take me and my sister to the park i was always on the miniature railway. i don't remember anything else about the place.

Hi badpenny - Some photos of the miniature railway in the link below. I also enjoyed rides on it.
https://www.sutton-coldfield.net/minirailway.html

 

[Dave M]

Great stuff, when my parents used to take me and my sister to the park i was always on the miniature railway.

i don't remember anything else about the place.

Remember the railway well

 

[Astonian]

HI DAVEM
For one thing dave for sure i most certainy remember it and it was my aunty maud smart bless her cotton socks died many years back now
we lived at 5\ 92 lichfield road she was my dads sister and she took aload of us there that year even a couple of our play mates
we got the train from Aston station lichfield rd she took us all on that min train around the park and also there was some motor boats
with a steering wheel on i never went on thou the older ones did aunty and my oldest sister went on whilst we waited on the pathe
and we played up to go on that train ; it was fantasic as kids Astonian;;

 

[G G Jean]

Alan I am sure I knew your aunty Maud Smart!!. Sorry if I have gone off topic but had to answer Alan. Maud was my moms closest friend in Holte road later in life. She moved from Lichfield road to Holte road.

 

[Dave M]

Near Little Bracebridge Pool today 10th Nov 2014, 14 in all

 

[Dave M]

Pics and video`s from today 10th Nov 2015


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXHUR6HngH4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9bRSYyng4s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHx3XvS_oz0

 

[Dave M]

​Good job being done

 

[Pedrocut]

Some pictures from the Birmingham Mail, first quarter of 1939

 

[Pedrocut]

August 1939

 

[Dave M]

Busy at Wyndley Pool 20th Sept 2016

 

[oldMohawk]

That spot by Wyndley Pool is one of my favourites and Keith Berry took a photo there in the 1970s and commented ...

 

[carolina]

Crystal Palace Sutton Park

 

[carolina]

Sutton Park

 

[Pedrocut]

What? A dog track in Sutton Park! August 1927

 

[Pedrocut]

Bank Holiday April 1914 at the Crystal Palace, Sutton Park.

 

[Bob Davis]

Are there ANY of the OLD racing cyclist that remember racing at Sutton park? If my memory serves me Sutton park had ONE pretty stiff hill on the circuit. I did take 2nd in one race there in the early 50s. John Crump OldBrit, Parker. Colorado USA

Yes, was at one or two. I see a later correspondent has reminded me of Tommy Godwin, Bob Maitland I remember well. Do you remember we had to be off the main roads by 1000hrs

 

[Eric Gibson]

I remember going to the Pat Collins fair many times, I used to love the big dipper, it was supposed to be the biggest wooden dipper in the country.
It was later dismantled and relocated at the Battersea Funfair, I wonder if it still survives somewhere.

 

[carolina]

Funfair at Sutton Park