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Then & Now

Great Barr Hall and St Margaret's Mental Hospital.
An aerial view dated 1950, Great Barr Hall marked with red spot.
StMargAll.jpg
A recent view below and again Great Barr Hall marked with a red spot.
StMarg_Now_iOS.jpg
An enlarged view below of the hall taken from the first 1950 pic with the hall partially visible behind the trees.
GtBarrHall1950.JPG
The layout of the hospital was spacious and the grounds and pools magnificent. As kids we occasionally sneaked over the fence to look around. The pools feed into a brook which ran through the Beeches Estate into the reservoir in Perry Barr park and then to the River Tame. A lot of algae visible in the pool in 1950 and still there today. The hospital began to close in phases from the late 1980s and was eventually replaced by Nether Hall Park a new residential housing development. In the top right of both pics, Beacon Road and Old Hall Lane are visible with fields in 1950, but housing and Barr Beacon School had been built before the date of the later pic.
There are recent posts about Great Barr Hall here https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/great-barr-hall.40289/page-2#post-599163
images from 'britainfromabove' and 'Apple Maps'
 
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I've had time to read all about the hall now and I now know that Great Barr Hall replaced Nether Hall on the same site but the original hall (which I didn't know about until I read the link from Viv, thanks Viv) was called Old Hall or High House. I think it was nearer to the church which makes sense - if I've got my bearings correct. Very extensive pleasure grounds at the present hall - no wonder they ran out of money.
 
Looking at these images of Corporation Street through the years, the thing that strikes me the most even though it looks more cleaner and sanitised now, is how less busy it seems to have become.

Corporation St (2).jpg
 
phil i think the reason for the streets being a lot quieter is due to so many shops being under cover such as the bull ring shopping centre and the massive john lewis grand central shopping centre....the city centre is certainly nothing like it used to be...
 
Coleshill Road in the 1950s, the decade of my youth, I feel nostalgic just looking at it. Two kids in the bus shelter and a close look at their mom suggests she is smoking a ciggy but that was thought ok back then. A young girl by the shops getting up to speed on her scooter, a women outside a van with the open door and parked one wheel on the kerb ...
ColeshillRoad1950s.jpg
And today, the Beaufort Cinema and the island have gone but the Fox & Goose pub and shops are still there. A mobility scooter on the left starting to cross the road, but crossing is not so direct as it used to be, although probably safer. Five adverts put up for Stechford Funfair, someone's been busy.
BeaufortGone.JPG
 
Phil,

I don't know this area at all well - probably been along this particular road twice in my life - but those bus shelters gave us kids hours of free fun on their crossbars! Probably need to take out a subscription to a gym to get the same thing nowadays. And that's a Vauxhall Cresta car in front of the Morris Minor on the left, if I'm not mistaken. Full of atmosphere that old picture, but the second one is a bit soulless, I'm afraid.

Maurice
 
sospiri said:
Phil,

I don't know this area at all well - probably been along this particular road twice in my life - but those bus shelters gave us kids hours of free fun on their crossbars! Probably need to take out a subscription to a gym to get the same thing nowadays. And that's a Vauxhall Cresta car in front of the Morris Minor on the left, if I'm not mistaken. Full of atmosphere that old picture, but the second one is a bit soulless, I'm afraid.

Maurice
Click to expand...
hello Maurice, I have to agree about the second picture being soulless, but this is where the difference in attitudes comes to the fore. Your lifes memories and mine are reflected somewhat by the first image. The same can be said about younger people and the second image. I know which era I would prefer to live through again.
 
The generation gap, Stitcher, my late mother's memories of Aston in the early 1900s were considerably different to mine nigh on 40 years later. Just a shame that the old film cameras weren't so prevalent then as the digital ones are today.

Maurice
 
sospiri said:
Phil,

I don't know this area at all well - probably been along this particular road twice in my life - but those bus shelters gave us kids hours of free fun on their crossbars! Probably need to take out a subscription to a gym to get the same thing nowadays. And that's a Vauxhall Cresta car in front of the Morris Minor on the left, if I'm not mistaken. Full of atmosphere that old picture, but the second one is a bit soulless, I'm afraid.

Maurice
Click to expand...
Hi Maurice,
Thanks for reminding me about playing on bus shelter crossbars. I can now remember that we could sit on them holding on and fall backwards ending up standing behind the bar.
Phil
 
How about looking in the other direction from almost the same spot, just up on the left past the shops is the playing that we used every week when I was a pupil at St Vincents School in Vauxhall in the 50's.

Washwood Heath Coleshill Rd.jpg
 
Remember this area well living in Hodge Hill, lovely walk through the common along to the Fox & Goose or as i got older cycling up there, used the mens barbas at the back of the Beaufort cinema think it was run by a father and son in the 60´s, what was the fish and chip shop called ¿ the Lighthouse ¿, bus drivers on the 56, used to stop there to get there food and eat it at the terminus at Clock Garage. There was a coffee shop where the Indian Resturant is now can´t remember the name of it but they had another one in Erdinghton, lovely Milk Shakes
 
Incidentally the bus shelters in posts 306 and 311 are Midland Red ones. I believe the posts were the same, maybe provided by, the cities buses but had their own circular stop plates.
 
Alan,

I spent the best part of ten years swinging on the shelter for the number 37 from Hall Green into the city and opposite the end of Knowle Road and it was exactly like that. A few yards further into town was the number 1A stop, but that didn't have the luxury of a shelter, only a Bundy clock! The Midland Red, once inside the city boundary, seemed to be a limited stop service on the way from Shirley, Monkspath, etc., and I don't remember it stopping there. Happy days! :)

Maurice
 
Yes, certainly not a BCT plate, Alan. What are those two tall structures outside the Beaufort?

Maurice
 
Remember hand burn from swinging on those bars. Any place in the street where there were metal bars was an instant attraction and offered much entertainment. Had forgotten about the bars on bus shelters. Played a lot on those. And took a lot of risks. Viv.
 
The Coleshill Road - Stechford Lane area in 1935, large sports field and the Beaufort Cinema in the view.
Image3.jpg
image from 'britainfromabove'
The same area today and the sports field remains but a supermarket has replaced the cinema.
Image3_iOS.jpg
image from Apple Maps
 
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Thanks Phil, yes Gardners now i remember up the road was Teddy Haynes green grocers if i remember who had a shop in Chipperfield road,around the corner where i lived Millinghton Road across the road from Gardners was a pet shop and arond the corner in Bromford road was a Wallpaper shop and next door was a Motor bike/ pushbike shop, going off tred a bit as a Saturday day job i worked at Dewhursrt´s in Washwood heath road. just down from the old Midland bank., then Pitt´s the Butchers down Stechford road, happy days, when us kids had saturday jobs, kids don´t do these anymore do they ¿ also worked at Blackmans or Blackmors fish stall in the old indoor market. Love to know where you people source these old pics from would not know where to start, any clues please ¿
 
sospiri said:
Phil,

I don't know this area at all well - probably been along this particular road twice in my life - but those bus shelters gave us kids hours of free fun on their crossbars! Probably need to take out a subscription to a gym to get the same thing nowadays. And that's a Vauxhall Cresta car in front of the Morris Minor on the left, if I'm not mistaken. Full of atmosphere that old picture, but the second one is a bit soulless, I'm afraid.

Maurice
Click to expand...
Maurice
The Vauxhall is a Velox, I understand they were prone to rust problems, my father in law stopped me buying one when my Standard Vanguard gave up the ghost, I had bought it for £30.00
and sold for £15.00 in part exchange not for the Velox but for a Jowett Javelin, which cost £45.00, £30.00 after the part ex. That was in 1965, the Jowett was a 1949 model.
Bob
 
Castalla,

You could start at your local library (if you are lucky enough to still have one) look through the local history shelf. Or just search on Google. Though this forum has a pretty extensive photo library now and most searches will just bring you back here.
 
sospiri said:
Yes, certainly not a BCT plate, Alan. What are those two tall structures outside the Beaufort?

Maurice
Click to expand...

They looks as though they might be floodlights for the front of the cinema Maurice, I thought at first maybe police phones but they're to tall and why two.
 
The Cattell Rd / Coventry Rd junction in 1934 and behind the trolleybus is a pub.
index.php

forum image from https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...ur-old-street-pics.41947/page-116#post-601348
A similar (almost) today's view is shown below ... the pub has gone.
Cattell_Rd.JPG
 
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