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They Were Caught In Our Old Street Pics...

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When i moved to Leicester,from Birmingham in 1979, i used to travel to Loughborough of a Saturday evening,for some months, to play snooker.
The snooker hall there was also above a Burtons.
 
1954 in Brum at the Corporation St/Bull St junction and a chap cycling in town had spotted his girlfriend (maybe) and stopped for a chat on the right by the shoe shop. Another cyclist having to look as cars approach on his left ... pedestrians had to be alert ... and if you had a car you could park it in Bull St with no problem ...
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Surprised my mums not in the photo staring in at the Dolcis shoe shop on the right. She liked their shoes. Well she liked shoes full stop. My dad liked Dunns clothes, but you'd be unlikely to spot him emerging from the shop on the left as he rarely bought clothes. His approach to shopping was buy expensive and last for years. Viv.
 
I think my Mom had the same idea. When I moved to secondary school I had a new expensive blazer - very baggy with sleeves down to my knuckles. When I left 7 years later I still had the same blazer but buttons not quite able to be done up and sleeves now above my wrist. I was not alone as lots of other girls had done the same.
 
If we can identify the "first part of the first section" of the inner ring road, maybe that might give clues as to which part of the inner ring road this photo was taken in 1958. Viv.
 
My first thought when I saw the picture was Smallbrook Street. There is a photo somewhere on the internet actually showing the work starting. As a I recall it the Smallbrook cinema was on the right. I remember my mother taking me to that cinema about 1958/59 when we saw the road starting to be dug up. I think the film was a Black and White Walt Disney about a Shaggy Dog. I remember I did not like it very much.
 
Janice. I agree with you. the building on the right is the old Scala cinema. That would make the church on the left St Judes.
 
When I was a lad I'm sure, well fairly sure, that the Warwick Rd bus was a No.44 and the No37 was the Stratford Rd bus. When did this change?
 
Definitely right Jim. I left Birmingham in 1967 and up until then the 37 would go all along the Stratford Road terminating at the Birmingham boundary in Hall Green. It went past the Warwick Road at the Mermaid but did not join it. Dave.
 
Bundy clocks were useful for leaning on as I noticed 4 years ago ....
oldMohawk said:
Trying to identify the uniform in post #414, I came across this pic and wondered, did they always stand like that in Maypole ? :rolleyes:
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and now here is another being leaned on ... and there's probably more ...:)
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It's a damp murky day in 1934 and a trolley bus has stopped at the junction of Cattell Rd and Coventry Rd. The driver is in his cab, an inspector stands and looks, a bloke in uniform peers from behind a pole, and even the conductor is looking. Maybe it had stopped just for a photo to be taken but they could have picked a better day. When I was very young I often saw trolley buses but never travelled on one.
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Hi All,
Bear in mind that this junction is only about 100 yards from the Coventry Road bus despot. Perhaps there was something there attracting the attention of the bus employees. Mohawk when we were bombed out of Small Heath we went to live with my sister in Marcot Road, South Yardley. I travelled to school and later work on the trolley bus. Very similar to the ordinary buses but a lot differnt from Trams.
Old Boy
oldMohawk said:
It's a damp murky day in 1934 and a trolley bus has stopped at the junction of Cattell Rd and Coventry Rd. The driver is in his cab, an inspector stands and looks, a bloke in uniform peers from behind a pole, and even the conductor is looking. Maybe it had stopped just for a photo to be taken but they could have picked a better day. When I was very young I often saw trolley buses but never travelled on one.
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A day of that description just might be 7th. January, 1934. That was the day that the Yardley route trolleybuses started. It might explain the number of 'inspectors' who seem to be at that junction. The bus, 35, was one of 50 which started the services and continued until abandonment. These buses were the last BCT buses to receive two letter registrations i.e. OC, Daimler engined buses for the city, also delivered in 1935, were registered AOB.
 
At first glance it seems a man with a walking stick is standing in the middle of Moor Street wondering what the tram is doing. A closer look shows his 'walking stick' is a points changing key and he has set the points to allow the tram to cross over to the other track. The overhead pole above the tram has already been changed over. I wonder if he had noticed that a £ was worth 24/- in the Moor Street Warehouse !
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Amazing the things you can find out about a photo by looking a the little details. Thanks Phil. Viv.
 
I suggest car 682 is one of the Miller Street allocation which was withdrawn from service after the cessation of tram services in the city in 1953. That was the end for the Erdington, Short Heath, Pype Hayes routes which were replaced by buses on routes 64, 65 and 66 respectively.
On 4th. July 1953, in the early evening, twenty four tramcars were relocated from Miller Street to Kyotts Lake Road, the destination of the car a DEPOT ONLY I suggest confirms this. To reach The Lake, as it was known, they had to travel through the city centre. From High Street, the trams descended Carrs Lane by gravity as the overhead wiring had been removed on a previous occasion. Most made it into Moor Street but one or two, it is reported need a gentle push by a BCT towing vehicle (a former bus adapted for towing purposes). Carrs Lane was the inbound track for 84 Stechford trams (abandoned October 1948) and the 44 Acocks Green and 17 and 19 Hall Green services (both abandoned January 1937) when they were operational. This most likely explains why car 682, in the picture, is on the left hand track with its trolley pole on the outer line. It will soon move on to the other track. The gentleman operating the track switch is in working attire rather than uniformed. In general circumstances a uniformed person would have carried out the track switching duties.
Incidentally, to the left of the tram, there is one of those metal power supply boxes (discussed previously on this Forum), but this one in Moor Street is not ornate. A control box is mounted on the overhead support pole and the electrical feeders are quite plain to see.

PS: Routes I overlooked in what I mentioned above were the Coventry Road services. They were replaced in January 1934 by trolleybuses. The services that started in Station Street joined those from Albert Street at Rea Street, Digbeth.
 
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oldMohawk said:
Bundy clocks were useful for leaning on as I noticed 4 years ago ....

and now here is another being leaned on ... and there's probably more ...:)
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It was known as "waiting to peg the clock". I was a bus driver 1970-73 and well remember waiting like this at the terminus. Actually, that clock, outside the Arden Oak pub together with the Cranes Park Rd clock were the clocks I "pegged" myself when I drove on the 58 & 60 route out of Coventry Road Garage. The clock in the photo was later moved further up the road when the dual carriageway was built around 1971.
 
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oldMohawk said:
I've been looking at this pic from the recently mentioned Erdington Video and I'm surprised to see the David Cameron apparently playing bowls in Pype Hayes Park. He is ready to bowl just behind the man bowling.
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If that's David Cameron then that could be Harold Wilson striding towards him from the right.
 
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