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Then & Now

Phil said:
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.

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I was looking for some facts about BCT buses and I spotted the cover of the book I was using (Birmingham Buses At Work Pt.1 by David Harvey). The same photo also features on page 97 of the book. It shows the track to the goods yard which peel off to the left some 50 or so feet before the island. (The photo is credited to the Birmingham Central Reference Library).
 
Wasn't there two mega-meteorites in the disaster movie 'Deep Impact'? Hundreds of millions of people die, but Birmingham is unscathed
 
This is the only image I have that shows the two boulders but to my certain knowledge the smaller one was still there in the 50's but it was a lot closer to the larger one. Apparently they were brought down from Wales some 16,000 years ago in a glacier and they were dug out when the lake was excavated. It's a wonder the Welsh haven't demanded they be returned. Perhaps that's where the smaller one has gone.

1900-erratic.jpg
 
Beeches Road, Great Barr in wartime 1941. They painted white stripes on the kerbs and white rings on lamp posts to help folks find their way around in the blackout. Zoom in and see a crowd waiting at the bus terminus for the 188 Midland Red bus standing opposite outside the Cottage Stores.
Beeches__rd_1941.jpg
Today from Google's wide angle camera. Travel down the road and you will come to the M6 motorway.
Image1.jpg
https://goo.gl/maps/FTdFxBgMSnz
 
It was a principal road and a bus route; lesser places had fewer markings - if any. However, folks were far more used to coping with darkness and of course moonlight was a great boon. The blackout meant that house and building lights were no help as they could not shine out.
Bus route 188 and 189 became BCT 52 and 51 in 1957/8.
 
Beeches Road, Great Barr at the junction with Thornbridge Avenue. When I was young I used the 188 bus every day to go to school ... I might have even travelled on the bus in the pic.
188_ThornbridgeAve.JPG

The scene today and a Petrol Station is still there but in the distance between the trees is the M6 motorway bridge crossing Beeches Road. The motorway was built in the early 1970s and shattered the peace on the quiet Beeches Estate. Luckily I had left by then.
Now188gone.jpg
 
Cole Bank Lane as it was then, and Cole Bank Road as it is now. A section of it between Stratford Road and Sarehole Road.

Colebank.jpg
 
Phil said:
This is the only image I have that shows the two boulders but to my certain knowledge the smaller one was still there in the 50's but it was a lot closer to the larger one. Apparently they were brought down from Wales some 16,000 years ago in a glacier and they were dug out when the lake was excavated. It's a wonder the Welsh haven't demanded they be returned. Perhaps that's where the smaller one has gone.

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please sir can we have our stone back.

allwn ni gael ein cerrig yn ôl
 
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Smallbrook Street / Ringway from Holloway Circus, images from the mid 1950's up to date.

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oldMohawk said:
Beeches Road, Great Barr at the junction with Thornbridge Avenue. When I was young I used the 188 bus every day to go to school ... I might have even travelled on the bus in the pic.
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The scene today and a Petrol Station is still there but in the distance between the trees is the M6 motorway bridge crossing Beeches Road. The motorway was built in the early 1970s and shattered the peace on the quiet Beeches Estate. Luckily I had left by then.
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Hi! I went to Beeches Road School, and remember these buses well. I walked to school though, from Calshot Road, along Turnberry Road and then past the shop up to the school. The head master was Mr. Waterton. That was in the early 1940's.
 
oldMohawk said:
There is a thread about it ...
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...ry-beeches-secondary-school.17713/post-139300
If you went there in the 1940s we must have seen each other.
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Hi! I went to the Infants, in those sheds at the front of the school first, and my teacher was MISS or MRS BAKER. Then I went up to the big school, under Mr Waterton's headship. My friends that I recall were: MICHAEL BUTTS, MARY BAKER, FREDDIE JONES, ANN BOLTON, TONY BUCKLEY, FRANKIE SCOTT, NORMAN TAYLOR, and many others. Mr. Edge was at that time at Aldridge Road school.
 
We used to call them 'the huts' and they lasted a long time as information in the school thread shows. The 1941 pic below is from post #12 in the school thread.
The_Huts_Beeches_Rd__School_WW2.jpg
 
A photo taken from the Green, Kings Norton, c1908, looking towards Wharf Road with the Navigation Inn behind the horse drawn cart. Pershore Road to the left and Masshouse Lane to the right. The 'Windmill' immediately right offers teas and beds.
WharfRoad.jpg

The view today and the Navigation Inn was boarded up at the date of this pic
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Just showing that graffiti is not a modern disease and that there were as many idiots about before the war as there are now, and I don't just mean the graffiti I include the message.

Bournville Lane.jpg
 
The present day photo looks far better than the old version, which I believe is pre ww2. (the graffiti suggests that).
I notice traffic signals are now controlling the narrow road beneath the bridge, the gas lamp has gone and the plethora of advertising hoardings presumably consigned to a bonfire.
A Cadbury Bros. mechanical horse completes the older scene.
 
Sherbourne Road, Acocks Green and the station can be seen in the distance. Unfortunately no date.
SherbourneRdThen.jpg

Sherbourne Road today and the station is still open.
SherbourneNow.jpg
 
Merritts Brook sometime in the 1920's looking toward Bell Holloway and again today from the Bottom of Vineyard Road.

Merritts Brook Lane.jpg
 
Three different colour buses on the hill leading up to St Martins Church on a rainy day in 1970.
1970Digbeth.jpg

Today all the buildings in the 1970 image are still there but different. A new building by the white vans. I prefer the rainy pic.
DigbethNow.jpg
 
Some major changes in the photos (Post 501#). Roadway altered, and a reversal of traffic flow. Building occupants have also changed.
 
Ashted Row approaching Great Francis Street in what looks like the early 1960's shortly before demolition and again later when those wonderful Georgian houses were replaced by the large box that is called Hildred Road today. I really am ashamed to say that I worked on that block of flats in the mid 60's when it was being erected, but at least I wasn't responsible for demolishing the houses.

Ashted Row - Hildred Road.jpg
 
The first photo, I can recall as my dad had one of those think it was a Riley. I would have been about 3 at the time so you never know I may have been on the back seat. LOL.
 
Hattie said:
The first photo, I can recall as my dad had one of those think it was a Riley. I would have been about 3 at the time so you never know I may have been on the back seat. LOL.
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welcome hattie...hope you enjoy the forum

lyn
 
Thanks Astoness. I cant reply to a lot as I was not born until 67 and most of your members remember a lot more than me. I enjoy reading through the forum and will contribute whenever possible.
 
hi hattie look forward to your posts...if you are interested in the history of birmingham in general this is the place to be as you will learn a lot....enjoy

lyn
 
Hattie said:
Thanks Astoness. I cant reply to a lot as I was not born until 67 and most of your members remember a lot more than me. I enjoy reading through the forum and will contribute whenever possible.
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Hattie, are you saying were all old timers! Come to think about it perhaps your right ;)
Were all young at heart though.
Welcome to the forum
 
Not at all Elmdon Boy, in a way its lovely that you can remember the past when you were a kid. I can only remember things from the 70s.
 
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