• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Then & Now

Thanks Mike, I can locate them now, probably about 70 yds further along the lane than my 'now' pic but the house styles are the same.
 
Phil

This photo according to the date with it was taken in 1962, only some 12 months after your photo. Though there have been quite a few changes and it looks like the cottages are no longer in use at this time.

Harborne Metchley Lane 1962.JPG
 
Thanks Phil, your photo is 10 years later than D.J.Norton's photo of 1952. Looks like they have gone upmarket and become Vauxhall Agents.
 
Are Lisle's new owners? The earlier photo shown no ownership name. The newer photo has upgraded petrol pumps and the large Regent sign. However, the spark plug makers large clock is still there. The house with bay window now has tv (an aerial anyway)..
 
Lisles were Vauxhall dealers in the fifties when the new Americanised 'F' model Vauxhall Victors came out, they had a large delivery of cars parked on the bombed site car park (Gas Board) in Broad Street, vandals damaged a lot of them by running across the roofs.
 
Phil

Either my math has gone to pot or I'm going senile, one year between 1951 and 1962. Mind you it has one good side in that I must be younger than I thought or is it older?
 
Can you find Lisles Garages showroom in Broad Street, I'm pretty sure they were one of the fourteen or so showrooms there in the fifties.
 
Eric

As far as I can work it out Lisles Garage on Broad Street was at number 19 which was on the corner of Baskerville Place (gone now) see the attached map. In the photo the building is upper middle adjacent to the Colonnade.

lisle garage 19 broad street.JPGCity Broad St Municipal Bank .jpg
 
A 1962 pic showing a builder's yard between houses in Northfield Rd, Harborne, and a lorry from Liverpool has backed in to unload wood.
NorthfieldRd1962.jpg

Today a builder's yard is still there and a much larger lorry (unable to back in) loads materials.
NorthfieldRdHarborne1962.jpg
 
Many differences in those two photos (Post # 460). Apart from the larger lorry notable is no manhandling needed of load. Gas heating in some homes, the house on the right seemed to have replaced a hedge and picket fence with a cheap fence panel and they have a newer door. I wonder what the object high up the wall is?
The yard has got changed ownership, now E.H. Smith which means the rickety looking sign has gone.
The house to the left has a new windows but it is no longer a shop.
 
Bristol Road, Selly Oak, in 1961 looking southwest with Oak Tree Lane on the left.
Selly Oak__1961.jpg

Today most buildings are still there and lots more street furniture.
Oak_TreeLaneNow.jpg
 
Last edited:
Busy photos (Post # 463). In the old road furniture was less but of use to everyone, not just motorists. I see three red 'phone boxes, the ornate, tall direction post and a nice Albion lorry of Geo. Ward.
The present day photo is full of urban blight, signs everywhere, but no 'phone boxes anymore. Good to see the ornate direction sign is still there. Maybe a local amenity society had some say in that.
 
Three good old fashioned pubs throughout their lives, sadly the only one to remain standing today is the Gunmakers Arms.

The first images are of the Shepherds Rest at the junction of Bradford Street and Moseley Road. Secondly we have the Ship Inn at Camp Hill and last is The gunmakers Arms at the junction of Little Shadwell Street and Bath Street.
 

Attachments

  • shepherds rest bradford street - moseley road.jpg
    shepherds rest bradford street - moseley road.jpg
    215.1 KB · Views: 63
  • Camp Hill The Ship.jpg
    Camp Hill The Ship.jpg
    223.6 KB · Views: 73
  • Gunmakers Arms bath street - little shadwell street.jpg
    Gunmakers Arms bath street - little shadwell street.jpg
    187.9 KB · Views: 69
1544025779607.png
A good photo of the Ship Hotel, Camp Hill. This one is taken from the Old Street pics as is one posted by Lyn (Astoness).
I always like the look of the place when passing it. There is quite a bit about it in the other thread.
 
Alan

I do have better photos of "The Ship" than I posted, but I try to get all the photos looking from the same angle and position as best I can, which sometimes means using an inferior photo.

Camp Hill Stratford Place - Sandy Lane.JPG

The Ship Camp Hill .jpg
 
The 1925 photo of Robin Hood Lane was before my time and I guess most on BHF. I do remember riding on a bus (29A) and cycling down the road which always - and still seems to be quite pleasant as shown by the more recent photograph

Phil, yes, I am aware - and pleased :D - that you have an impressive photograph collection and gladly share it with us here.
I have been looking for a photograph which shows the tram track that passed through the small island that was there and that illustrates in particular the tracks that led into the tramcar sidings in Camp Hill railway freight depot.
I know the Stratford Road thread (and maybe others) show the island and Ship Hotel, but photos of the tracks that I refer to are elusive.
 
Radiorails,

Are these the sort of thing you are looking for, the first one I believe is photographed during the war years and the second one has to be pre 1937 when tram services along Stratford Road ceased.

Camp Hill.jpgCamp Hill The Ship.jpg
 
I find it thought provoking that I watched these flats being built on the Kellett Road estate in Nechells in the late 1950's. Now less than some 60 years later they are gone and it's as if they never existed not even having half the life span of the slum hovels that they were built to replace. What did they do but replace one slum with another only to replace that with something that looks to me well on the way to being another slum.

blank.jpg
 
Thanks Phil for those two photographs. The top one is a WW2 photo, the bus roofs and white markings suggest that. The second picture is pre ww2 if the street lighting is anything to go by. The trams from Hal Green, Acocks Green bth finished in 1937......but....the trams could be from Kyotts Lake Road depot as there are no passengers. What the photo does show very well is the glass doors. both decks, with the Municipal Bank key advert.
I have seen these two photos before and neither show the tracks to the railway yard. I do believe that they were before the island - heading in to town - well, it was some sixty years ago when I last saw them. :eek: (that's my excuse anyway).
 
Coventry Road by Small Heath Park. A city bound tram must be approaching as they push into the road ready to board it.
CovOld.jpg

The place today and buildings on right are still there
CovRdNow.jpg
 
Phil said:
Bernard


Glad that you like them, here are a couple more, I think All of us who have ever visited Cannon Hill park will have no difficulty in placing these two. For thos who have never had the pleasure, the one photo is the tea rooms on the main drive and the other is of the rock that was deposited by a once glacier that passed through Birmingham on its way from the Arenig mountains in Wales some 18000 years ago. I understand that it was removed from the area of the lake when it was being excavated in the 19th century.
Click to expand...

Oh it's a GLACIAL boulder! That makes much more sense. My cousin told me when we were about 12 that it was a meteorite, and I always wondered how it had fallen to earth so undamaged!
 
dwinnera said:
Oh it's a GLACIAL boulder! That makes much more sense. My cousin told me when we were about 12 that it was a meteorite, and I always wondered how it had fallen to earth so undamaged!
Click to expand...


We were also told that story, that it was a meteorite and the lake was the crater formed when it hit but, I think the same as yourself had that been so given the size of the rock I would imagine the crater to be much bigger. Anyway there used to be a much smaller rock alongside that one, do meteorites fall in pairs?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top