Does any one remember Kershaw's Korner ?
It was in Bromsgove Street on the left hand side heading towards Digbeth, on the corner with Pershore Street, and painted red.
As a schoolboy I worked there part time for a couple years from 1954 to the summer of 1956.
For radio hams and enthusiasts it was a treasure trove of government surplus electronic equipment.
The shop was owned by a bluff character called Sam Kershaw, of which many stories can be told, he was killed in a car crash about July 1956.
Around the corner in Hurst Street was a radio component and surplus shop, Norman H Field, initially on the same side of the road as The Diskery, but later moved across the road a little lower down. This was where I first used to buy my radio stuff when I was about 13 years old.
I believe it still exists as an audio store, and Normans son, also named Norman, is a fine jazz clarinetist.
Tom Field, brother to Norman Field had a surplus store either down the Parade, or Soho Road. I should be able to remember as I also worked there for a short while. He moved to Hurst Street too, across the road from Norman H Field.
I was only there about 2 months and turned up about 15 minutes late one Saturday morning, to be immediately sacked for being late. So I went back to Kershaws.
Another lad also worked part time for Kershaw, Brian Whitehead. We had many high jinks, as only 17 year olds can, including nearly burning down Kershaws warehouse located down Pershore Street towards Sherlock Street.
We had been told to burn rubbish in the yard, it all got out of hand, and sacks of components stacked to the top of the outer wall caught fire, the flames could be seen from up at the shop. Fortunately the sacks contained ceramic insulators which cascaded down and virtually extinguished the fire.