Hi everybody, I moved to Shard End in 1950/51 aged three or four into Pithall Road, into a three story block at the end of the road facing what became Norman chamberlain much later. As there was no catholic school in the area we were bussed to the Abbey Erdington until the Guardian Angels was built around 1956, which I then attended as the oldest pupils taught by Mr Cronin, the Headmaster was Mr Dwyer and the school caretaker was a no nonsense man Mr Murphy. Some of my classmates were Antony Griffiths, Eddie Nash, Paddy Traynor, and Maurice Carey who all played in the football team with me coached by Mr Dugdale.
At first to attend mass we went to the out buildings at the Bradford Pub, before the priest were bought a house in Hurst Lane and we attended mass in the garage there. The priest names were Father Whittle and Father Callaghan, he was an ex missionary from China who had been imprisoned for his faith and had suffered physically for his beliefs, he rode everywhere on an old bike with his beret jammed on his head. Father Whittle was a much different character who had a car ( a westminster I believe0 he smoked a pipe and had a dog called Shot. I have many happy memories about growing up in the building site called Shard End.
Regards Jim