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Wartime Yardley

A

Ann B

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I've been scanning photographs for my sister in law, Mary Weston. This is a photo of her mother and sister, Beatrice and Pauline Weston, taken in Vera Rd. Yardley, early 1940's. How incongruous is that..deck chairs and a crazy paved air shelter? With that attitude we had to win the war.
 
Anne,
Agreed nice photographs. The garden scene beggars my thought of what does that garden look like now after some sixty odd years. Does the shed and the greenhouse still stand. Guarantee no one thought of keeping the shelter to grow mushrooms in;) Will.
 
Glad you liked them Wendy.
Willoughby, I checked with my sister in law and she thinks her dad did indeed grow mushrooms in the shelter! After the war he grew Grapes in the greenhouse as you can see from the photo.
 
When our Anderson shelter arrived my two older Brothers worked Sat & Sunday digging out the hole of the recommending depth and bolting it together, we only lived in a terrace house and it nearly took up our whole garden there was about 1.5yds (1.5 mtrs ) between it and our neighbours fence, my Dad grew tomatos, cucumbers & marrows on top of it and we spent many nights in it during the Blitz.
 
Len,
I wish you had a photo of your shelter, loved to have seen it.

Thanks for that link. I didn't realise there so many casualties in Yardley. I've got a book from the Library 'Around Sheldon' and that has a photo of bomb damage in Ivydale Avenue.

Ann
 
Ann, The only reason i can think of for the bombing in Yardley, Stuarts Rd, Lily Rd & Ivydale Ave and the other roads around is that were close to the Oaklands Recreation Park which had a Royal Artillery Battery of four 3.7in calibre Anti-Aircraft Guns, and the German Bombers were trying to put it out of action also there was a RA Searchlight in a field off Yew Tree Lane, the Gunners billets were at the Church Rd entrance the Rec, i was told that one of the Guns was hit and there were casualtys but i don`t know if it was true, i don`t think we ever thought of taking a photo of Dad`s grow you own veggie efforts! we enjoyed eating them, my older Bro 14yrs and me 11yrs would shovel up the horse droppings and put them in open topped 5 gallon container half filled with water, it was covered and left until Dad decided the liquid was ready to be used as fertilizer for his veggies. PS I have sent you a PM Ann.
 
Anne what a good photo of what a garden was like in the war . I was born in 1956 so only know of what my mother told me .
As an aside I wonder if any of my relations are related to you . My mums uncle (on her mothers side )was named Joseph Weston and in his family was a guy called Chaney Weston He was a bare fist fighterr champion of brum . I wonder if he is in yiour family line ?
best wishes Jean
 
In "Heroes of the Birmingham Blitz" by Michael Minton there is a brief mention of one Yardley incident, on the night of 14/15th August 1940 when nine high explosive bombs dropped near to the Yardley Trust Almshouses in Church Road, some of them reported as unexploded. About 30 ARP wardens and citizens, organised by Police Sgt. Harold Wood, searched for these and also arranged the evacuation of the distressed and elderly residents to Yardley Schools where they were looked after and comforted as the raid continued.

Chris
 
I read somewhere that there were guns also on Cockshutt Hill. My husband was living in Hollyhurst Grove Yardley during the war, and he recalls the searchlights and barrage balloons (dumbos) and he thinks they were on the Gilberstone Recreation ground. He also did his stint collecting 'orse muck' for his dad, and so did my dad. I'll have to see if Sheldon Library have any books that include Yardley and Sheldon during the war years. My nan's house in Warwick Rd. Greet took a hit. All the family were out, but their dog Spot 'bought it'.

Jean,

It is my sister in law who is a Weston. I've been doing her tree, but can't find a Joseph of Chaney. Her Weston's were originally from Barford Warwickshire and moved to Birmingham about early 1900's.

Ann
 
Thanks for replying so quick Anne Ill ask my mum when I ring her .. She is 76 and loves to talk about old times .. I will ring her tonight and tell her that I have joined the forum . Its a warm freindly place just like Birmingham itself it has a big heart :)
Thanks Anne
 
Great photo Len. A bit cramped. How did large families cope? Did they get an extra shelter?

Ann
 
No Ann you only got one shelter, you just did`nt have bunks, there were 6 people in our shelter and we had a bench each side seating 3 persons but Dad would out in the roads fire watching, we lived in Charles Edward Rd the last road on your left before the Swan island, our house is under the Coventry Rd now, later on they built part way up in the shelter and that formed the seat of the bench, re the bunks i would not have liked to be in one because condensation formed on the corrugated iron and your bedclothes would soon became wet
 
Len,

I know where your house would have been.
I was thinking of all the large families then. My dad was one of many. But, of course, all the sons were away fighting. My husband was born in '39, so he can only recall so much. I wished I'd listened more to my dad and mom's stories. But, I suppose, we all think that after they've gone.

Ann
 
Ann B said:
And the V.E. Day party in Patrick Rd. Yardley
Click to expand...
My friend's parents who were called Whit and Joan Norgrove lived at No 61 Patrick Road... and she showed me photos of the bombed house in Patrick Road.... not sure what number the bombed house was. Georgie.
 
Georgie,

I expect the Norgroves would have known people on the V.E. Day photos then.

Ann
 
Hi Ann,
Sadly my school friend died a year ago just before she was 60 and her parents died a few years before her and they were in their mid 80's... Georgie
 
Hi Ann, Talking to my older Brother this morning about the number of people shareing our shelter he said there were 13 people in there one night and our Dad had gone into the house to make some coffee it was away for sometime because he used J.Lyons ground coffee and he was very methodical in how he made it, he took it out to the shelter pulled open the door, the sight he saw was everybody unconscious they had used up all the oxygen in there, the fresh air revived us all, if our Dad had been away any longer there would have been the 13 tragic deaths, i don`t remember this but my Brother who was 15 yrs old at the time does and is nearly 83yrs young now, so we are lucky to be still alive. I was way out with my 6 people!.
 
Len,
Sounds like you were packed in like sardines! Thank goodness your dad came back when he did! But large families were the order of the day, so there must have been many uncomfortable nights for families cramped into those shelters.
It's useful having an older brother isn't it? I hope yours enjoyed the recollections. Mine is only two years older than me, but that extra two years helps when I'm trying to remember our nan.

Ann
 
They would certainly have been packed in.

Anderson shelters were designed to accommodate up to six people. The main principle of protection was based on curved and straight galvanised corrugated steel panels. Six curved panels were bolted together at the top, so forming the main body of the shelter, three straight sheets on either side, and two more straight panels were fixed to each end, one containing the door — a total of fourteen panels. A small drainage sump was often incorporated in the floor to collect rainwater seeping into the shelter. The shelters were 6 ft (1.8 m) high, 4 ft 6 in (1.4 m) wide, and 6 ft 6 in (2 m) long. They were buried 4 ft (1.2 m) deep in the soil and then covered with a minimum of 15 in (0.4 m) of soil above the roof. .
 
In postings of this thread there are mentions of collecting horse droppings for the garden, this is a photo from 1903 of horse droppings being cleaned up in Paradise St, in the background is being consructed what was later known as "Galloways Corner". I wonder whose garden got this lot!.
 
Workmen constructing the air raid shelter outside the bank in Church Rd just down from the school, on the other side of the road in Oaklands Rec were the huts of the RA Anti-Aircraft unit.Len.
 
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