RE: Nechells - 4

It would have been the ideal place for Tyseley Steam Museum to move to. I don't thing they even moved the sidings until Parcel Force moved in there. I know we laid some hard core surfaces there in the 80's just after they removed some tracks.

Phil

Colin

You should have no trouble remembering these cleaning sheds along side your old house in Dollman St. Wish I had a £1 coin for everytime I was chased out of there.

Phil

Yep sure do my hose was the fist one right behind those sheds.
When they demolished those sheds they told us as the local PW gang to stip all BR items. So as usaul i got nothing but my best mate got the original clocking on machine.
But that area was my playground for years.

Colin,

Do you remember the wooden staircase at the entrance to the sheds in Duddeston Mill Rd. It was so high it used to scare me when I was a youngster.

I was down vauxhall today, I had to take the son to the new fire service headquarters where the old Co op Dairy used to be. It's been two years since I was last down that way . I see the new building in place of the Ashted Hamlet is a resource centre (whatever that is?) The pub that used to be The Train,The Rocket and The Winning Post is now a Mosque and resource centre. This resource thing looks like a growing industry.

Phil

Hi Phil i remember that wooden stairway . I was seven when i first went in there and yer it really was scary. I always thought it was going collapse.
What is a resourse centre it will always be the rocket site to me . when i was young sitting out side there with my gut fawkes. Them blokes who used it were a rough bunch . But when they were runk we got loadsa money from them. They used put there hand in there pocket to get out a penny and drop all there change on the floor. They would blur something O ******* T . Then say o you pick it up and keep it. My favorite place them inkerman bullies seen i was minting it and pushed me of.
I could have been a penny millionare now.
colin

I haven't a clue what a Resource Centre is. Perhaps we could have done with some of them when we lived in Nechells.

Phil

Now just for our resident signwriter & photographer. A few photos of his old stomping grounds. I have no doubt he has seen them before, but I just wanted to let the other members see what sort of a background he came from. So that they will know to keep an eye on him.

Phil

Phil,
Only just seen these, I would doubt the 3rd one being Cromwell Street, unless it's one of the many courts.
You are still being very cheeky, we wouldn't go down your area without a copper with us.

Yes Phil, and here's a photo of our house, 80, Cromwell Street, bet you wished you'd lived next door to a pub.

Now I know your area was rough. At least we didn't need any Courts. SB

John

You see these posh people have no idea what a court was, those that do only wish some of them were as nice as a Law Court.

John I think the photo you mention must be a back court or similar as I can't see how it was Cromwell St itself.

I like yourself lived in a street facing house in Francis St, though it still was only 1 down and 2 up. It wasn't until we moved to Inkerman St that we lived in a back court, but at least we had 3 up and 3 down there and a front garden and rear yard.

Phil

I know what a court was. I met some poor people once. SB

SB

It must have been one of the days when you went slumming. It certainly wouldn't have been up where you lived. We weren't allowed up there.

Phil

Hey John

I know it's not strictly Nechells but Gosta Green is on the edge of it. I was just wondering if you had seen these two snaps before. One is of Coleshill St taken from outside the Gaiety cinema and the other is Stafford St.

Phil

Phil, yes I've seen those before, I must have looked at those views a million times up to the age of 21.
The shop in Stafford St.,with the wills star sign over is where we got our tea and milk from, run by a little old lady.
I can never remember what Telemite did, I think it was something either withe electric motors or car related.
A couple of doors to the right with the signboard at first floor level was Leo Maturi knife sharpener, and at the extreme right the big red brick building was Gilmans drysalters, where we used to get all the ingredients to make our own paint, varnish, shellac, ect., a wonderful palace of nooks and crannies and hundreds of drawers behind the counter,all containing a myriad of things, most of which I can't even remember.
They were one of the first to go when the demolition started, re-locating to Lower Loveday street which meant a much longer walk for me when we needed anything, seems like only yesterday, but it was 54 years ago.