Author Topic: Druids Heath and The Maypole  (Read 55483 times)

Terrapin

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Re: Druids Heath and The Maypole
« Reply #33 on: November 28, 2014, 12:37:12 PM »
I was born at 10, Oatlands Rd on Bells Lane prefab estate and lived there until they were demolished. It was a wonderful place to grow up, playing in surrounding fields, the greenwood or down the brook. Everyone seemed to know each other and everyone friendly. I have many happy memories.

hansmart

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Re: Druids Heath and The Maypole
« Reply #34 on: December 21, 2014, 08:19:53 PM »
Hi Guys - my son is a singer/songwriter and he wrote a song recently about the Maypole. It's called This Town. You can see it on You Tube by typing in 'Dale Hanson This Town' He performed it at the Adam and Eve in Bradford Street. He spent the first 22 years of his life at the Maypole - we lived in Sladepool Farm Road. I have posted the lyrics underneath. 8)   The public house that once stood talloverlooking B14was a haven for the unemployedand battle weary OAP's
Every picture tells a storybut this picture's changing every dayand I feel as I'm getting olderthat the time has come to make a start
To stop looking back over my shoulderthis town's not mine no morethere's no going back it's lost it's heart and soulit's not the place that I remember anymore
The flat roofed houses on the other sideof the road have succumbedto a high street behemothit's nothing less than what we should expect

hansmart

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Re: Druids Heath and The Maypole
« Reply #35 on: December 21, 2014, 08:20:57 PM »
sorry guys the lyrics have gone all skuif but I hope you can read them ok

hansmart

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Re: Druids Heath and The Maypole
« Reply #36 on: December 22, 2014, 09:33:57 PM »
Maypole cinema - Am I right in it was located by where Barclays Banks is and did it survive into the 1960's? O0

ads1066

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Re: Druids Heath and The Maypole
« Reply #37 on: December 23, 2014, 08:48:39 AM »
Hi there,
              Yes the old Maypole Cinema was located where the Barclays Bank is today. It was opened in August 1st 1937, and the first movie shown was a George Formby picture-"Keep Your Seats Please". The Maypole Cinema was closed on 26th January 1961 with Michael Rennie in “The Lost World”.  It was demolished and shops were built on the site. afterward most folk flocked down to the Kingsway Cinema King's Heath.

I hope this has been of some use to you  O0

Best Wishes.

planetmalc

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Re: Druids Heath and The Maypole
« Reply #38 on: December 23, 2014, 02:39:18 PM »
.......... afterward most folk flocked down to the Kingsway Cinema King's Heath.
 
A sorry sight today............ :'(
There's no B/S on Planet Malc.

hansmart

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Re: Druids Heath and The Maypole
« Reply #39 on: December 23, 2014, 07:53:02 PM »
thanks for that info ;)

victor chatwin

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Re: Druids Heath and The Maypole
« Reply #40 on: January 07, 2015, 01:38:10 PM »
Lived in Maypole Lane from 1946 to 1973, remember the Maypole Cinema, Saturday morning picture club, long gone and the prefabs in Bells Lane, now a large estate, don't have any pictures of olden times, but I don't like what they have done to the area now.




Phil

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Re: Druids Heath and The Maypole
« Reply #41 on: January 07, 2015, 01:52:05 PM »
Hi Victor

I don't think there are many of us over a certain age that like what they have done to parts of Birmingham over the years. Though having lived in a slum area I have to say that I'm glad that they got rid of those, but slums were never a problem out the Maypole way were they, though I'm not sure that it can be said today.

Perhaps the areas that everyone wanted to be, are going to be the slums of tomorrow, I have a lot of family that moved out to the Maypole, Warstock and Wythall way. My grandparents on my mothers side died there so did a couple of Aunts, I have the one uncle who still lives in Wythall after years of refusing to move from Sparkbrook who is just about settling in after 8 years.
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

victor chatwin

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Re: Druids Heath and The Maypole
« Reply #42 on: January 07, 2015, 08:59:53 PM »
Maypole lane when it rained heavy used to flood by the allotments, between Henlow road and Denver road in the dip, the Midland Red bus drivers never slowed down so us kids would get a soaking, that wouldn't happen nowadays, there were not any houses on the southside back in the early 50s it was all fields, then the builders moved in and we lost our play fields, the fields became a large housing estate. The Junction of Maypole Lane and Highters Heath lane was an accident black spot, there was never an island there and collisions were a regular happening, they tell me theres an island there now. I loved the Maypole, but now its nothing like it used to be. Remember waiting outside the CO-OP with Mom to get our rations, my that car park was cold and drafty and the queue was always long.

victor chatwin

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Re: Druids Heath and The Maypole
« Reply #43 on: February 15, 2015, 07:55:02 PM »
E57 club, snooker on a Sunday evening along with several points of Ansells Mild and then into the big room to see the turns, way back in the early 60s, used to roll out of there at closing time and we would stagger home as happy as could be. Good times had in the E57 club.


 

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