Farm Street, Hockley

[Peg Monkey]

Villa Street School should really have been the name for Farm Street School, that was the road where the main entrance to the school was and it would have left the way clear for neighbouring Burbury Street School to be more accurately called Farm Street School. In the planner's defense they probably didn't know when naming Farm Street School (opened 1873) that Burbury Street School would be opened later in 1891.
So what's this got to do with the price of fish? Nothing really, except that poor old Burbury Street School was given a name it had absolutely no geographical connection to.
Anyway (if you are still awake) I attended Farm Street School 1954 - 1960, it was there I got my big acting break as Doppy in the School's 1956 Production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Many said I was perfect for the part, I though I was mis-cast.
Peg.
P.S. I got the cane only once from Headmaster Mr Smith, needless to say it was a bum rap.
P.P.S. Moderators - Not sure if I should have created a new Farm Street School Thread.

[Peg Monkey]

Friends Hall, Farm Street. Hi Folks, I attended Farm St School from 1954-60, does anyone know if Friends Hall on Farm St. is still there? It served as an over-spill classroom for my final year at Farm St School because there wasn't room for my class on the main school site. Mr Eggerton was our teacher and he taught the full range of subjects. From there I went to Harry Lucas Secondary School, almost opposite on the other side of the road.
Peg.

[Peg Monkey]

Farm St School - I'm guessing the school has long gone, can someone confirm? As I recall the school was on a number of levels to cope with the fact it sloped from the top of the site on Bridge St West down to Farm St (Main entrance being on Villa St which was a bit confusing).
St Saviour's (in Villa St) was the School's local Church and I attended many a Carol Service, Harvest Festival, Easter Service, etc there.
Although I could ill-afford to lose time from lessons somehow I became a dinner monitor - each day helping the Dinner Ladies to erect the benches and tables in the lower hall where the meal servery was - if I remember correctly there was no kitchen, meals were delivered in huge tins from the city's central catering unit - but they were still very good.
The School also had an upper hall which served as the gym, it's where the Symphony Orchestra performed on their regular visits (always ending their performance with The Teddy Bear's Picnic) and where plays were performed.
Ah! Happy Days!
Peg.

[Peg Monkey]

Farm St School opened in 1873 and closed in 1974 (so it lived for 101 years), curiously it closed between 1941-1949, one obvious reason for this may be a reduction in the need for school places due to a dip in the local birthrate during the Second World War, it's also puzzling that Burbury St School only a few minutes distant was built so close (opened 1891).
National Archives record that a former Head Mistress Mrs D. P. Gower lodged information with them, it's unclear if Mrs Gower was the last headteacher at the school but it seems likely.
Peg.

[Peg Monkey]

Provident Clinic - Corner of Farm St and Villa St was built in 1881 (I think it's still there, or at least it was up until a year ago), the clinic predated the NHS (started 1948) so I'm guessing people paid for their treatment like the old provident cheques (my mother borrowed £30 for clothes for me when I was about aged 7 and paid the money back weekly, I guess the interest was pretty steep but not as bad as the current pay-day loans).
(Come to think of it £30 in 1956 was a lot of money, I don't think it could have all been spent on me.)
I doubt the photo below can be dated, but the date the building was constructed is clear.
Peg.

[astoness]

Farm St School opened in 1873 and closed in 1974 (so it lived for 101 years), curiously it closed between 1941-1949, one obvious reason for this may be a reduction in the need for school places due to a dip in the local birthrate during the Second World War, it's also puzzling that Burbury St School only a few minutes distant was built so close (opened 1891).
National Archives record that a former Head Mistress Mrs D. P. Gower lodged information with them, it's unclear if Mrs Gower was the last headteacher at the school but it seems likely.
Peg.

farm st school closed during the war years as it was used for what was called a british restaurant that served lunches for the work force of surrounding factories that played a major part in the war effort..non less than joseph lucas gks...

[Peg Monkey]

School Artefacts - Anyone know what happens to a school's important artefacts when it finally closes its doors? As far as Farm Street Shool is concerned it had a set of paintings (originals I think) in the lower (dining) hall depicting nursery rhymes, one in particular I remember: Jack Spratt Could Eat No Fat. The paintings, I guess 5 in total, about 4ft wide x  3ft high were treasured items, each school shutdown the caretaker was tasked with carefully boarding them up.
Peg.

[Peg Monkey]

Inter-school Sportsday - It was one fine day and a series of selection trials were being carried out in the lower playground at Farm St School for the forthcoming inter-school sportsday. Running, and the like competitvely, wasn't one of my strengths (still trying to find out if I've got one) but I did my best and low and behold I left everbody for dead in the hoop-race (I still think it was a stroke of luck), anyway I got selected to represent the school and do you know what? I came last (or very near) Ah Well! That's life.
Peg.

[Peg Monkey]

Vehicle Breakers. Don't know if it's there now but in the late fifties there was a large vehicle breakers yard on the left at the end of Farm St as you looked in the direction of Hockley Brook. Now I'm probably about 8 or 9  and have been building go-carts for a little while (always a challenge when you are working with a budget of nil - so there was a lot of begging and re-cycling (especially wheels)) Anyway I looked at my cart one day and thought Do know what? Technology has moved on and I must do the same - speficially how the cart was steered.
Until then I had always adopted the tried and trusted (the 1956 Heaton St Go-cart Crash excepted) cord and feet method but I wanted to take my carts into the next century with steeringwheel steering.
I hadn't worked out the technicalities at that time but I thought a good place to start was getting hold of a steering wheel, all well and good but what if you've got no money?
I managed to get a few pennies together and made a trip to the breakers yard, a friendly guy met me at the gate and asked What can I do for you John? (Everybody was called John in those days) I explained I needed a steering wheel and he smiled, asked me to wait and disappeared into the yard, he returned a few minutes later with a steering wheel, I cautiously asked how much and he replied nothing you can have it for free.
I know what you are thinking, I bet he was delighted. Not quite.
The wheel was massive - nearly as big as I was, the breakers yard only dealt in lorries and buses and they pre-dated power assisted steering so all steering wheels on commercial vehicles were out of neccessity huge.
I didn't like to refuse the gift as he had gone to such trouble, so I took it and left, but when I go home I was forced to conclude things were not going to work out when the steering wheel is bigger than the cart.
As it happens I had a friend who lived next door to the breakers yard, so when the yard had closed I took the wheel back and dropped it over the wall.
I made a number of attempts to move to hi-tech steering without success, I could do it now, but it's nearly 60 years too late.
Peg.

[Peg Monkey]

Old Farm St. - The following link http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18&lat=52.4959&lon=-1.9081&layers=176&b=6 takes you to a mapsite which will be useful if you fancy taking a stroll along old Farm St (or anywhere in Birmingham for that matter). The map with the scale I find convenient is OS 25inch, 1892-1914.
Credit: Astoness Lyn brought this site to my attention.
Peg.

[Peg Monkey]

I was at Farm St School and about aged 9 when my career as a carol singer really took off.
It all started just before Christmas 1958 (my best guess) when my cousin. a few years older than me, invited me to join him and Jim (can't remember his real name) to form a trio of carol singers, Jim was a fantastic spoon player and I have to say even at aged 9 I thought  the plan to have the spoons as a musical accompaniment to Silent Night and the like was fundamentally flawed.
Anyway my cousin said it was tried and tested so I agreed.
When I saw Jim on the night of our first performance I felt really sorry for him, his family was very poor, wich was reflected in the state of his clothing, he was cross eyed and wore NHS wire-rimmed specs (yes I know John Lennon turned these into a fashion ikon but that was much later).
Anyway I thought we were just going door to door singing our carols but my cousin pointed out we would be much more productive if we sang at pub doors, which we did, all over Hockley.
Jim played his spoons like a demon, completetely drowning  out the dulcet tones of me and my cousin, which was just as well.
After a few bars we sent Jim in to take the collection, the sight of poor Jim brought tears to most people's eyes and this was reflected in their contributions, we made a packet.
Ah! Happy Days,
Peg.

Pubs on Farm St. - A historical question, but still one of considerable importance: Does anyone remember how many pubs there were on Farm St in the late 50's? My elder cousin, Ray, King of the Spoons, Jim, and myself were the gang of 3 carol singers who had their maiden gig at The Duke of Cambridge, late 50's. Ray chose the venue and I have to say looking back it was not an obvious choice. I don't remember there being many, if any, other pubs in Farm St at that time. We all lived near The Flat so a much better choice would have been to have that as the centre of operations, then the world would have been our oyster: The Bulls Head, The Brown Lion, The Abbey Vaults, The Great Western and The Hydraulic (don't know precisely where that was).
Peg.