Hi Ian,
How old are the houses from the Toby Jug down to the white house on the Chester Rd ? I presume the White house was the last house of the row with Smiths wood school playing behind them ? i recall someone mentioning the architect who designed those houses lived in the end house ?
Hi Tony,
The houses from the shop, (which was Scotfords Groceries), to the white house were built in the 1930s. My parents rented, and later bought, number 547 where I was born in 1941. The Price family lived in the white house and my brother and I played with their children. Colin was the father and he told me that his father built the houses and gave him the last one which is the only detached one in the row. My wife and I used to visit Colin occasionally until he died approximately 10 years ago having lived all his married life in that house.
In 1953, we moved from 547 to 551 because the houses from Scotfords to 547 had a downstairs bathroom and outside toilet whereas, from 549 to the white house, they all had an upstairs bathroom and toilet. No doubt, the others have all been modified now.
I always tell my friends that growing up in that row of houses on the side of the busy Chester Road was like living in a straight line village where all the children played out together, we knew the names of all the residents and were surrounded by fields until Kingshurst, Chelmsley and Smith's Wood were built.
The houses from the Toby Jug up to the shop, (which I believe is now a motor factors), were built in the 1950s with Burton's Farm estate behind where my sister-in-law grew up and also where actress Lindsay Duncan lived as a teenager.