Author Topic: Aston Cross  (Read 10835 times)

Peg Monkey

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Aston Cross
« on: October 18, 2018, 01:47:49 AM »
Aston Cross holds a special place in my heart, moreso when I was coming home from school - it was the half-way mark on my commute from Harry Lucas School, Hockley to the Lyndhurst Estate, Erdington. Looking back it seems an odd decision not to move school when my family was re-homed from Heaton St, Hockley c1959. There is something interesting about this pic, (Clue: Ansell's),  I'll post later what it is. Both bus and tram visible - the pic was taken some years before I started senior school so I would not have known trams were running along Lichfield Rd at that time, they had stopped by the time my commuting had started. Homeward bound: I got the Inner Circle 8 from by Farm St School to Aston Cross and then the 64 to Erdington.
Peg.
Link to map: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18&lat=52.4986&lon=-1.8832&layers=168&b=6
 
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Peg Monkey

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Re: Aston Cross
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2018, 07:57:28 PM »
What's the Ansell's mystery? - Looks like the building is having a major make-over including taking the sign down, right? No. Ansell's has been present in Aston since 1853 and construction of the building we know started mid 1930s but work was interrupted by WW2 and was not finished for some 20 years later (1950s) so the photo shows the building still under construction, the landmark sign not yet erected.
I'm still not sure how you would describe the combined fragrance of Ansell's Mild and HP Sauce being brewed, that assailed me as I waited for the 64.
Peg.
P.S. Anybody know what HP stands for?


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vamann

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Re: Aston Cross
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2018, 07:25:05 PM »
Houses of Parliament.  Google was my friend.

Peg Monkey

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Re: Aston Cross
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2018, 01:04:58 AM »
Houses of Parliament.  Google was my friend.


 O0
Peg
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Peg Monkey

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Re: Aston Cross
« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2018, 01:18:47 AM »
Early 60s, homeward bound: The Inner Circle 8 that had brought me from Harry Lucas School, Hockley stopped at the junction of Park Lane and Lichfield Rd and just where I got off the bus was a butchers who sold the best steak and kidney pies in the universe. By 4.30 I was ravenous and most of the time I could only look through the butcher's window at the hot cupboard full of pies and salivate, I suppose they must have been the equivalent of about £2 each so with a paper round that only yielded 7/6d a week it was only on rare occasions I could afford one.
Peg.
P.S. I think the shop was Thompsons - anybody remember it?
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Peg Monkey

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Re: Aston Cross
« Reply #5 on: October 21, 2018, 04:38:43 AM »
When my family was re-homed (1959) from Heaton St., Hockley to a flat on the Lyndhurst Estate, Erdington instead of moving school to be nearer home I continued to attend school in Hockley - 5 years of all that time and expense commuting via Aston Cross, my parents should have insisted I move to Moor End Lane Senior School - their decision would, initially, have been unpopular with me but I would soon have seen it was the sensible one. They did attempt to get the council to pay for the bus fares but they refused on the grounds there was a place at a school near home.
Peg.

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Peg Monkey

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Re: Aston Cross
« Reply #6 on: October 22, 2018, 04:57:45 PM »
The photo in my opening post shows a Black's ad. on the tram - there was a Black's next door to the Aston Hip - camping products, I think.
Peg.
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lenbrum

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Re: Aston Cross
« Reply #7 on: October 30, 2018, 04:16:16 PM »
went to upper Thomas street school behind hp sauce and ansells we had both smells everyday depending which way the wind blew.This was in the early 60,s.Thompson the butcher had 2 shops in aston one at aston cross and one in Lichfield road were they killed the pigs. My dad worked at hp until his death in 1979.We lived in Victoria road from 1941 till 1967 surname shaw.

Colin27

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Re: Aston Cross
« Reply #8 on: October 31, 2018, 08:21:04 AM »
I walked to school from Nechells to Frederick Road, Aston, up Park Road between HP and Ansells every morning for 5 years and never got used to those smells. There was a sort of toxic mixture of the two but could have one overpowering the other dependant on the wind direction. Great times though and as I left school in 1971 the area and route to school was changing as the Aston Expressway and Spaghetti Junction were under construction I think.
Was there a shop called Birds at Aston Cross?
Does anyone remember the chip shop just into Park Lane, my older brother and I would always call in walking home from watching the Villa armed with a transistor radio listening to Sports Report on Saturdays at least, each having a shillings worth of chips each to sustain us to have tea that Mom was cooking....happy times with great lasting memories.

Peg Monkey

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Re: Aston Cross
« Reply #9 on: December 31, 2018, 10:14:46 PM »
I wonder if The Royal George was an Ansell's House?
Peg.
P.S. I was 3 when this pic was taken, so long before my time at senior school, I'm guessing the waiting tram would have negotiated a route along the Lichfield Rd, passed Salford Bridge Sports Stadium, up Gravelly Hill and terminating at 6 Ways Erdington, a similar route to the 64 bus I got 1960-65 but which went to the Chester Rd, where I got off for the Lyndhurst Estate.
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Boz

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Re: Aston Cross
« Reply #10 on: January 03, 2019, 01:15:46 PM »
The number 2 tram terminated at the Yenton/Chester Road terminus, which was the city boundary with Sutton.


 

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