Author Topic: Elmdon  (Read 8304 times)

Phil

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Re: Elmdon
« Reply #22 on: December 09, 2019, 08:41:37 PM »
Hi William


Elmdon Hall was demolished in 1956, and although I have no idea of what the bunker you mention was used for it has been mentioned on the forum before.
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

WILLIAMARNOLD

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Re: Elmdon
« Reply #23 on: December 10, 2019, 01:12:00 PM »
My post was incomplete as i had not mastered the way this forum works .I came across this forum accidentally when i googled Elmdon defences to see if i could find confirmation of my suspicion that the strange mounds in sheldon park at the west end of Elmdon Airport might have been Gun emplacements .As regards the bunker as of yesterday it is very much still there is is most categorically an example of a battle field control/command centre which were located close to many airfields the purpose was to act as a centre for controlling the defence of the airfields should they be invaded by airborne troops or gliders .

JudithM

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Re: Elmdon
« Reply #24 on: December 10, 2019, 01:29:51 PM »
My post was incomplete as i had not mastered the way this forum works .I came across this forum accidentally when i googled Elmdon defences to see if i could find confirmation of my suspicion that the strange mounds in sheldon park at the west end of Elmdon Airport might have been Gun emplacements .As regards the bunker as of yesterday it is very much still there is is most categorically an example of a battle field control/command centre which were located close to many airfields the purpose was to act as a centre for controlling the defence of the airfields should they be invaded by airborne troops or gliders .

Interesting.

I grew up on the Damson Lane side of Elmdon Park & we used the park regularly.  There was evidence of WWII defences still visible as I was growing up in that area, but I wasn't aware of the gun emplacements/control centres.  Makes sense though as the airport was an obvious target (as were the nearby gasworks).  There were certainly water filled bomb craters in the woods & farm fields & I remember some fields being very bumpy, having been ploughed into mounds to make them impossible to land on (so I was told).
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RoyMcC

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Re: Elmdon
« Reply #25 on: December 10, 2019, 01:38:31 PM »
Interesting.

I grew up on the Damson Lane side of Elmdon Park & we used the park regularly.  There was evidence of WWII defences still visible as I was growing up in that area, but I wasn't aware of the gun emplacements/control centres.  Makes sense though as the airport was an obvious target (as were the nearby gasworks).  There were certainly water filled bomb craters in the woods & farm fields & I remember some fields being very bumpy, having been ploughed into mounds to make them impossible to land on (so I was told).

That's interesting about the ploughing into mounds, Judith. I suppose it made some sort of sense then. As to the bombings, there were certainly people killed at Jillcot Rd and Rangoon Rd, so no doubt a few landed a little further along.

WILLIAMARNOLD

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Re: Elmdon
« Reply #26 on: December 10, 2019, 01:53:28 PM »
Interesting.

I grew up on the Damson Lane side of Elmdon Park & we used the park regularly.  There was evidence of WWII defences still visible as I was growing up in that area, but I wasn't aware of the gun emplacements/control centres.  Makes sense though as the airport was an obvious target (as were the nearby gasworks).  There were certainly water filled bomb craters in the woods & farm fields & I remember some fields being very bumpy, having been ploughed into mounds to make them impossible to land on (so I was told).
At the west end of the airport in Sheldon park by the landing lights there are still a number of odd mounds that resemble what i imagine Gun emplacements  to look like i have posted them on the Airfield research group forum whose members are wise in such matters to see what they have to say.

JudithM

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Re: Elmdon
« Reply #27 on: December 11, 2019, 01:19:24 PM »
That's interesting about the ploughing into mounds, Judith. I suppose it made some sort of sense then. As to the bombings, there were certainly people killed at Jillcot Rd and Rangoon Rd, so no doubt a few landed a little further along.
There were people killed in Alston Road & Cornyx Lane too, which would be the result of gas works bombs missing their target rather than bombs aimed towards the airport (though the 2 are very close together) -

https://www.solihull.gov.uk/Resident/Libraries/Local-family-history/bombingsinsolihull/ww2casualties4

Certainly playing over the woods in the late 60's/early 70's there were a couple of water-filled bomb craters still apparent (in Hampton Coppice).

Elmdon Hall seems to have been in decline before the Home Guard took over use of it, shame it was demolished though, but it would appear to have been too expensive to repair & I don't suppose there was a use for it with no family wanting to take it on.  The rectory survives though, and the gate house (which, as a child, I wanted to live in).

There is a great book, if you can track down a copy, called Damson By The Pound by Stanley Beavan who grew up around the Damson Lane/Lugtrout Lane area who had an uncle that was a grounds keeper at Elmdon Hall. 
"I know tomorrow's gonna taste like cake"

RoyMcC

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Re: Elmdon
« Reply #28 on: December 11, 2019, 01:30:10 PM »
There were people killed in Alston Road & Cornyx Lane too, which would be the result of gas works bombs missing their target rather than bombs aimed towards the airport (though the 2 are very close together) -

https://www.solihull.gov.uk/Resident/Libraries/Local-family-history/bombingsinsolihull/ww2casualties4

Certainly playing over the woods in the late 60's/early 70's there were a couple of water-filled bomb craters still apparent (in Hampton Coppice).

Elmdon Hall seems to have been in decline before the Home Guard took over use of it, shame it was demolished though, but it would appear to have been too expensive to repair & I don't suppose there was a use for it with no family wanting to take it on.  The rectory survives though, and the gate house (which, as a child, I wanted to live in).

There is a great book, if you can track down a copy, called Damson By The Pound by Stanley Beavan who grew up around the Damson Lane/Lugtrout Lane area who had an uncle that was a grounds keeper at Elmdon Hall.

I'll try and track that book down. Though I don't know Elmdon/Bickenhill as well as you I used to wander down that way a lot in the 70s. Watching the Blues training was one (dubious) attraction, but also the park and the church area always interested me. Sadly, Elmdon Hall was gone before my time.

The Clock pub has, of course, long since been swept away. I recall, on a rare visit back to Brum, being refused service there for wearing jeans :-(

mike mancott

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Re: Elmdon
« Reply #29 on: December 11, 2019, 07:18:48 PM »

I went with my parents in the late 1940s I think on a Sunday day out, and had my first flight there in a DH Rapide, a two engined biplane with about six or eight seats and although I didn't fly again until I was posted on National Service to Egypt in 1954, that first flight was magical and convinced me air travel was my preferred method of travel.


My first flight also was in a DH Rapide, from Elmdon. This would be 1952/3, and I paid 15/- (75p).

RoyMcC

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Re: Elmdon
« Reply #30 on: December 11, 2019, 07:21:43 PM »

My first flight also was in a DH Rapide, from Elmdon. This would be 1952/3, and I paid 15/- (75p).

I was a latecomer to flying - about 1961 Birmingham-Cork on a Derby Aviation Dakota. Hated it, still hate flying.

frederick

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Re: Elmdon
« Reply #31 on: December 12, 2019, 11:35:45 AM »
In 1967 we flew to Italy and back on holiday from Elmdon in  DC 9 a four prop engined job.
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dave1954

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Re: Elmdon
« Reply #32 on: December 12, 2019, 11:45:56 AM »
Sorry Frederick A DC 9 was a jet engine ::)  it had no props  :P :P


 

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