Author Topic: Nechells, Vauxhall, Duddeston & Saltley, 40's, 50's & 60's.  (Read 1745379 times)

Phil

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Re: Nechells, Vauxhall, Duddeston & Saltley, 40's, 50's & 60's.
« Reply #3652 on: July 03, 2017, 05:31:43 PM »
Bobrob

I've sorted these two out for you, the black & white one I had all along so it's probably the one that is on the forum somewhere already but I found the coloured one while doing a search of the net.
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

Keith Belcher

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Re: Nechells, Vauxhall, Duddeston & Saltley, 40's, 50's & 60's.
« Reply #3653 on: July 17, 2017, 06:02:06 PM »
Please forgive me butting in. Buy I thought readers might like to read some memories I recently posted on Facebook of Nechells. I'm sure you will tell me off if inappropriate here:
 Remembering my Nan and Granddad in Cranbury Street, Nechells, Birmingham. 1950’s.
My Nan Maud was a typical Birmingham lass. Born in 1900 of local stock she worked from the age of 12 in a laundry [pictured, centre at the back], got married to Joe in 1923 and bore my father the next year. She worked until nearly 60 but retired due to ill health in the 1950’s. They lived in a front, back to back house in the slums of Nechells, Birmingham. When I see pictures of this time, they are nearly all black and white, which is just as I remember it. Very little colour, everything dark, dank, dirty and covered in a kind of black soot. Those lines of back to back houses looked so sad, but they housed Brummies with big hearts, who were the salt of the earth in a city that had powered through the industrial revolution. You could say that Brummies made modern Britain.
I remember:
Them having a piano in that tiny front room. Must have cost them a fortune in years gone by. I think some bought them as a status symbol and for their young to learn the upper crust pastime of piano playing. Nan showing me how to carefully light a gas lamp without touching the mantle. Fitting a new mantle without touching it [they lasted longer]. Being excited when the coal man arrived with his horse & cart and watching him chuck three hundredweight sacks down through the grating under the front window directly into the cellar, running inside to watch the last sack fall onto the floor in that cellar. Walking down the road with Nan carrying the accumulator for the radio to get it exchanged for a charged one from the shop in Bloomsbury Street. My surprise when we went out the door and her just pulling the door shut, not locking it. Me saying “Aren’t you going lock the door Nan?” Her replying “No son, we haven’t got anything anyone would want to pinch!” Nan always wearing her wrap over pinny. Going down the entry clutching the toilet key on a piece of string with a cotton reel. Going to that loo in the freezing cold and finding newspaper on a string for loo roll. While granddad went down the pub, Nan sitting with me on the sofa, in the back of my “car”, me pretending driving the sofa with a big metal plate for a steering wheel. Sitting on that sofa with a long fork toasting bread on the roaring fire, Nan spreading dripping with a sprinkle of salt…..Heavenly tasting. Going to the shops with Nan, her buying an ox’s tail, her cutting it up and watching her making delicious oxtail soup on that Aga type range. I’ve never tasted anything so good again. The clink of the milkman’s bottles early in the morning and the clip clop and occasional neigh from his horse. The smell of Nan frying bacon, eggs & tomato on the range when descending those steep stairs in the morning. The funny sound of car tyres travelling over the cobbled street. The movement of window netting in other houses when you went out and slammed the doors. Our Nan saying “Her is a nosey bu**er at number ?X?
Nan on her hands and knees scrubbing the front step. The wall paper peeling off because of the damp. Granddad staggering home from the pub singing “I’ll take you home again Kathleen”. Him grabbing Nan in a bear hug slurring “Give us a kiss Maud”. Saturday evening him saying “Our Keith, nip down the shop and fetch me a Sports Argus will ya?” How cold and frightening it was going to bed in my dad’s old bed in the attic. Listening to my dad’s headphones “cats whisker” radio, still sat on the bedside table, still there from the 1930’s.
A holiday for that generation was a day out in a charabanc [motor coach] or the train to the seaside or a picturesque UK town. They used to love going on the train with me in tow, to Evesham [a long way in the 50’s] where Nan had family. She would pack a lunch, sarnies and a flask of tea. In a 3rd class carriage with no corridor, you made sure you went to the loo before going! She used to say to me “Our Keith can you hear the train? It’s talking to you! Listen. Tiddley pom, tiddley pom.” We would spend the day visiting relatives and going to the park and sit by the river. We would be all dressed in our Sunday best and coats even in blazing sunshine. Them still wearing hats, they didn’t have any summer clothes.
I recall Nan crying with joy the day they had electric installed and my dad buying them a new electric radio. When we moved into a new council house in Nearmoor Road, Shard End, her visiting us and saying with a tear in her eye “Oooh our Ken you have done well ‘ere. Electricity, yer own indoor lav and a bathtub, yer own back garden, a proper kitchen with a gas cooker for our Olive. I never thought I would see the day”.
Sadly she never lived in a modern property, she passed in 1963. The first time I ever saw my dad cry, we all cried that day. My Granddad Joe realised he had lost his rock. He had drunk all his life and sometimes had mistreated Nan. He swore the day of the funeral that he would never touch alcohol again. He never did.
 That radio dad bought them sits on my shelf today, it still works! It reminds me of Nan & Granddad.[/font]

Phil

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Re: Nechells, Vauxhall, Duddeston & Saltley, 40's, 50's & 60's.
« Reply #3654 on: August 10, 2017, 12:11:44 PM »
Garden Gerald

Some images of St James The Lesser on Barrack Street in Nechells, if you had looked through this thread you would have most likely have found them all. Could you please in future either send me a message, or request whatever you want on the appropriate thread as I will always try to help but I will only answer on the appropriate thread. I will delete your query and my answer on the other thread when you indicate you have seen these images.

Phil died in 2020. RIP.

GardenGerald

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Re: Nechells, Vauxhall, Duddeston & Saltley, 40's, 50's & 60's.
« Reply #3655 on: August 10, 2017, 12:33:38 PM »
Hello Phil
Thank you for your help.
Do you know when it was bombed and where would I find a copy of the Christening register.
Again thanks for your help.
Best wishes
Gerald.

Phil

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Re: Nechells, Vauxhall, Duddeston & Saltley, 40's, 50's & 60's.
« Reply #3656 on: August 10, 2017, 01:14:59 PM »
I believe all records that are available for St James The Less are now held at Aston Parish Church, St Peter & St Pauls on Witton Lane Aston. I've also been told that they can be viewed at Birmingham Central Library and on Ancestry Co.
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

Edmund Fifield

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Re: Nechells, Vauxhall, Duddeston & Saltley, 40's, 50's & 60's.
« Reply #3657 on: August 12, 2017, 01:00:47 PM »
Gerald do you remember Claude Billinghams wife her name was MINNIE .she went to live at Stockland Green,used to take my mother to her house it was on the No11bus route
Make every day a day to remember
Because this ain't no rehearsal
And you ain't coming back

GardenGerald

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Re: Nechells, Vauxhall, Duddeston & Saltley, 40's, 50's & 60's.
« Reply #3658 on: August 12, 2017, 01:24:58 PM »
Hello Edmund
I do remember them very well. Claude had a workshop in Duddeston Mill Road where he did wonderful work with coloured
glass windows. Minnies Dad had the printers in Great Francis Street at the junction with Pitney Street. The Dad use to do some
bookmaking and would get carted off to Bloomsbury Street Police Station. In court he would be fined a £1 and next day
back to bookmaking. The Police always went and told him what day they would pick him up.
I did all my schooling with Claude and Minnies son Steve, we were good pals. Steve took over the printing business and
moved it to Small Heath. If I was over that way I would call in to say hello.
Steve had some bad fortune, one weekend a group of Vauxhall Lads went to Ward End Park to play about on he Putting Green.
Steve swung a Golf Club round and it took Tommy Byrns eye out.
Tommy Byrnes was great at football and had some clubs interested, he was related to the Manchester United player. Everyone
I'm pleased to say remained good pals after the accident.
Do you remember Twiggs Radio and Television Repair shop next to RTP Crisps.
Take care and keep steady on the crutches.
Gerald.

Edmund Fifield

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Re: Nechells, Vauxhall, Duddeston & Saltley, 40's, 50's & 60's.
« Reply #3659 on: August 12, 2017, 08:29:47 PM »
Hi Gerald,my dad used to work for Claude doing the Leaded Lights as they were called ,I used to help out at weekends keeping the place tidy and cutting my hands a few times with the glass .Asked me to work for him when I left school but was told it was a dying trade(I was a fool).As for Twiggy his shop was up by the railway bridge in Saltley Rd, RTP was down next to the pub on the corner of Cato St.My uncle was good friends with Twiggy ,he bought us our first telling when we got married in 63.Take care I'm now trying a walking stick
Make every day a day to remember
Because this ain't no rehearsal
And you ain't coming back

GardenGerald

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Re: Nechells, Vauxhall, Duddeston & Saltley, 40's, 50's & 60's.
« Reply #3660 on: August 12, 2017, 09:17:12 PM »
Hello Edmund
Across the road was a Newsagents run by Mrs Parish and further along was a shop that sold bikes and motor bikes. The
makes that had no springs. My first Motor Bike ride was on a 125 BSA from the garage on the corner of Devon Street.
Do remember Ernie Harris the Blacksmith, he used to repair the Railway wagon springs.
On your Walking Stick put a 3 pad rubber foot, much safer for us young lads than a single rubber one.
Is it right that you and I will be in Strictly Come Dancing this year.
Keep light on your toes and the bottle.
Gerald

Edmund Fifield

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Re: Nechells, Vauxhall, Duddeston & Saltley, 40's, 50's & 60's.
« Reply #3661 on: August 12, 2017, 11:47:21 PM »
Been signed up for strictley,going to give Bruce a run for his money
Make every day a day to remember
Because this ain't no rehearsal
And you ain't coming back

Whitty

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Re: Nechells, Vauxhall, Duddeston & Saltley, 40's, 50's & 60's.
« Reply #3662 on: August 14, 2017, 03:56:23 PM »
Edmund , don't think Bruce is up to running
Don't think he is up to a slow waltz either  ;D
If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours.


 

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