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Witton Lane Aston
- Thread starter Astoness
- Start date
Pedrocut
Master Barmmie
My Gran n Grandad lived just round the corner in Manor Road.
well i will go to the foot of our stairs dave
it just goes to show that these photos are worth posting..never know what is going to turn up...lyn
Dave M
Pheasey Born Bumper
Going to pass them on to Family Thanks to you lynwell i will go to the foot of our stairs dave
lyn
Great pix again, Lyn! Memories come flooding back.... The timber gate to the right of the wire gate in Photo 3, between the long brick wall and the old bus-garage, led up to what was a Territorial Army premises back in the 1950's. I think I've got the location correct. I delivered papers for a short time, for a newsagent on Witton Road (forgotten the name of the shop, but a Mr Allen was the manager) and had to deliver to the TA place. One morning I opened the side gate, got half way up the path, when a huge dog appeared and came for me - I dropped the paper, legged it, and just managed to close the gate. And fled. Whoever lived in the TA place complained to Mr Allen who fired me! However, for just five bob a week and the risk of being savaged, it wasn't worth it!
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The white painted brick building on the left of the sixth picture is where I started my first job - as a trainee with Harborne & Grove Architects who occupied the upper floor. (In that photo the entrance door looks to have been bricked up). That was August 1966 or 67. My take home pay was £3 a week. The upper window on the front was Mr Harborne's office. Our Drawing Office window looked down into the cobbled yard of an engineering works (John Maddocks was boss there) which is just off the left of that picture but shows on the fifth picture. The old tramshed beyond was at that time a showroom for the Ford dealer Hanger Motors. A thick pane of glass from one of the trams was the surface on which we trimmed prints of drawings, using a razor blade. Miss Murray was the elderly secretary/typist. I was there about 2 years before moving to an architect in Redditch
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The photo of the rear of the Tenpin Bowling Alley brought back memories...the main entrance was on Trinity Road, between the Holte End and the Holte pub. For about a year during the mid-1960's this is where I spent most Saturday afternoons, and I did get a bit good, to the extent that I was once asked if I fancied joining one of their teams. Well, not really...I took girl-friends there, that was my main reason for going! I wonder why tenpin fell out of fashion - it certainly wasn't expensive to play, although the refreshments they sold certainly were. Does anyone know when the Villa bowling-alley closed?
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brummy-lad
master brummie
Pedrocut
Master Barmmie
A picture posted by our old friend old Mohawk from the 1970s showing the top end of Witton Lane. On the right of the picture is the Aston Social Club which was 10, Witton Lane. Previously back in 1915 it was the Labour Exchange, situated at the start of Hallmoor Villas: Looking back a little earlier from 1885 it was Read's and later Renald's Cocoa House..
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Richard Dye
master brummie
I remember that intersection so very well!
Just beyond the bellicia beacon in that photo was Sid's cafe. His wife Pauline ran a toy shop beyond the opposite side of the roundabout on Witton Road. And next door to Sid's was the Municipal Bank where I lodged my first ever pay cheque. The teller was Pat Creswell (later Pat Moore) who I had been at school with 7 years earlier at Erdington Abbey Primary (Miss Kilmartin's 11+ class, 1959)
lmr3103
master brummie
When was the Aston Social Club demolished?
thats a good question lynn it would have been on the right corner of todays view below and it looks like quite a few houses to the left of the old social club were also demolished
lyn
lyn
does not help us with when the old aston social club was demolished but it was just waste land in 2009
it was still there in 1981..this from planning and it was still there in 1983
| A0483303 | The Tobacco Club (At Present Nightingale Club) 10-12 Witton Lane Aston Birmingham | Scheme A internally Illuminated Double-Sided Projecting Box Sign 36 High x 24 Projecting Scheme B Internally Illuminated Single Sided Sign 36 High x 24 MD E Box Depth | Final Decision | 08-09-1981 | Approve subject to Conditio |
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lynn i did not even know about that club until you mentioned it...always learning something new
lyn