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Witton lakes park

I grew up in and around Witton Lakes, and would spend hours and hours over playing a young lad. There were quite a lot of organised events there in the past, a model yacht club, the radio controlled boats, rowing boats and a café.

There was a permanent park keeper who had a hut not far form the café, he would ride one of those water cooled motorbikes.
 
What about the paddle boats, anyone remember them? We played so much at the woolmore road gate end, the grass was worn away, just a brown patch.
 
That's the old gauging weir by Gypsy Lane, spent a few hours there. We used to walk up the tunnel, but were always too afraid to go all the way along.
 
Back in the 1960' and 70's,my grandad was the Park Keeper at Witton Lakes and a few others. His Name was William (Bill) Bradbury. He loved the job and
we'd look forward to visiting him when he was at work.Even better,we'd get a free 'go' on the boats sometimes.
 
I remember Bill the park keeper at Witton lakes well. He was a very kind and friendly man and drove on of those water cooled Velocette motorbikes. All of the park keepers wore uniforms in those days.
 
Morturn said:
I remember Bill the park keeper at Witton lakes well. He was a very kind and friendly man and drove on of those water cooled Velocette motorbikes. All of the park keepers wore uniforms in those days.
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I worked on the Parks Patrol in the early 70's we wore navy blue uniforms and drove mini vans doing a mobile security patrol of the parks and cemeteries. Park keepers, known to us as park attendants wore green uniforms and swept up and picked litter in the mornings and patrolled their parks in the afternoons. We had complaints from the park attendant at Witton Lakes once , that a car was turning up from time to time and driving around on one of the pools. It was an Amphicar and eventually we caught the driver and he was told to stop doing it. The Parks Patrol worked mainly from 3pm to midnight and we can all recount strange things seen in the parks after dark. And that was in the days when all parks were locked up at night.
 
My grandad started off wearing the navy blue uniform,with a whistle,then changed to the green uniform,he was very tall,wore glasses and had a Lancashire accent.Also remember the Veloset ?? motorbike he had in the 1960's.
 
judy-b said:
My grandad started off wearing the navy blue uniform,with a whistle,then changed to the green uniform,he was very tall,wore glasses and had a Lancashire accent.Also remember the Veloset ?? motorbike he had in the 1960's.
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The Velocette water cooled motorcycles (known by most of us as 'Noddy bikes' ) went out of use before I started on the Parks Patrol, but I saw a load of them inside the maintenance garage where they used to service vans and mowers etc.
 
I lived close by to Witton Lakes Park-the Woolmore Entrance. I spent so many days in the Park in all seasons over the years and knew just about every aspect of it. So many memories of fishing, playing games, watching my brother play cricket, the fairs that came from time to time, the model sailing boats, the boat house and small cafe, the park keepers house and sledging down the hill almost landing in the lake. Last time I visited was five years ago and the park is mostly unchanged. I have some photos that I took a few years ago. I will look a couple out and post them.
 
We used to go in from Bleak hill road and on Sunday mornings on the large field where you first enter there used to be American baseball games.
 
Years ago I used to go to the house in Witton Lakes Park with my mother I cant remember the park keepers name but his wife was called Lillian he used to also be a grave digger at Witton cemetery we used to go every week they had pigs and geese
 
Vivienne14 said:
A competition held at the Lake organised by the Birmingham Model Yacht Club. Viv.

View attachment 171354
Source: British Newspaper Archive
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My dad was a member of this club. They had an old, corrugated Nissan hut style building not too far from the café as the clubhouse and storage for the model yachts. He built his own boats, I recall he had about three of them.
 
I used to walk through the park, to and from school fifty years ago. Memories of running around it doing cross country, playing football (blazers for goal posts) and my first day walking (like I was on stilts;)) to school in Oxford bags and platform shoes (which suddenly added a couple of inches to my height). It was a nice enough walk, back then.
1656417234874.png 1656417766690.png 1656417929055.png
 
I would guess that the photograph @ #21 may have been taken a couple of years either side of 1960 Morturn. These were great photographs, that your late uncle took Pedrocut.
 
We have combined thread for Brookvale and Witton Lakes and a few pictures if I recall…

Brookvale Park & Witton Lakes

My wife lived in the houses of both Brookvale, and Witton lakes parks as a child. We spent many hours courting in both parks. Brens dad worked for the Parks Dept and as a result they lived in the tied houses. Alf Tarplee my wifes father, worked as a gardener for Birmingham City Parks Dept, I...
birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
From the thread it seems baseball was being played at Witton Lakes in 1957.
[Seems it was also played there in 1949.]
 
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