Edgbaston, Hagley Road 1949

My Teenage Years

Living in Bearwood (posh end of Smethwick) I pushed my bike then Lambreta Scooter up and down the Hagley Road between 1956-62 as I served out my engineering apprenticeship at Bellis & Morcom, Ledsam Street, Edgbaston.  Good days, went on to join the Merchant Navy 1961-66 as a sea going engineer sailing round and see the world ... changed my life for ever.

Edgbaston was just as the picture shows in 1949 still relatively quiet from today's traffic.  Edgbaston became special to me, not only did I meet my wife at the Tower Ballroom in 1957 (still together and now living in Weybridge, Surrey) where we bibbed and bobbed every Tuesday and Saturday night.  It was also known that I drank the odd pint of beer in the Holly Bush Pub to loosen me up before striding off down to the Tower.

Some years later we spent our wedding night at the Norfolk Hotel on the Hagley Road (1962) before flying out to Jersey, it was the first time we had flown ... wow.

My other pleasure was watching county cricket at Edgbaston and if lucky catching an overseas touring side, remember Eric Hollis and all that.

At that age, you went to work, if lucky you went to college during your working time and hopefully made something of your life.
Terry King

1939 ONWARDS I Remember

I was born in 1939, the year war started, and remember being lifted out of bed in the middle of the night and the barrage balloons looked like big elephants in the sky. I also remember the table shelter in the lounge which I was put in with my brother, and my Mickey Mouse gas mask, reddish with a tongue and green on the bottom, it smelt funny. I remember going out and picking up silver paper that had dropped from planes, and also the sweet tins, black, with malted milk tablets, which were given to us by Uncle Bill in the Army - these were given to the soldiers. And I remember cod liver oil, and malt, and ration books - the clothing one was pink.

I lived at 428 Harborne Park Road, next to the gully which led to Woodleigh Avenue. I walked to school each day to the junior school in York Road. I walked four times a day up Metchley Lane because I did not like the school dinners. In winter it was deep snow and very cold.

My friend Anne and I and her mum would go the Royalty cinema. We would walk back down Harborne Park Road on the green bank. I remember Woods the sweet shop before you came to the Golden Cross pub. Mrs Wood always gave an extra teacake sweet, which was round and flat with coconut sprinkled on top, and chewy. I remember the Queen opening Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and waiting by the Golden Cross and waving to her, she was with Princess Margaret and the Queen Mum. I remember my dad ran the YMCA in War Lane.

I used to have my hair permed in Harborne Lane by Mrs Withers. My head was covered in big clips then attached to plugs on a machine that fried my hair into tight curls which were unmovable for months. Mum thought it looked great but I wanted long hair, plaited like my friend Anne.

At Christmas, I remember a big coal fire burning in the front room and it had a nice smell. My Christmas tree sat in the window on a table with nothing but a couple of paper chains across it which I made at school. On Christmas night I  would stay awake and Mum would come in and put my bag of presents next to my bed. I would  get a colouring book nicely coloured by morning. Once I got a wooden monkey in between two sticks, you squeezed it and it turned over.  

My grandad moved in to live with us, he was widowed and he fell and broke his leg. He would make me toys, including a doll's cot and a dolls' house. I felt so proud and lucky. Puppy dogs were always running around our house, as our little dog Trixie was always getting out and having pups. I cried when my favourite puppy Fatty was taken to sell at John Lewis pets corner.

The day came when Grandad decided to sell his house and Mum and Dad ours and we moved to number 12, Court Oak Road, Harborne. Life in Court Oak Road was different, my dad and grandad later died. My trip to the Harborne Library was nice, I enjoyed picking my Enid Blyton Famous Five books. I used a shilling pocket money and would cross the road by the horse trough and go to Woolworth and buy a little bottle of Evening In Paris scent or California Poppy. I sometimes bought sweets from Baugns near the Duke of York pub. I remember the Laurel and Hardy plate outside this shop. I went for walks to Queens Park on a Sunday and in the week paid a visit to the institute for the blind with Mum that was just up the road. I used to visit my uncle who worked at the bus station in Lonsdale Road, and we would buy a cake from Wimbushes on the corner and he would go in the Duke of York pub leaving me by the door, it smelt of stale beer and toilets. Just down the road near Pramland there was a toilet, Mum went in to use it once and got her dress caught in her knickers and she walked up the road showing them. Two boys shouted 'Hey Mrs, you'r eshowing your knickers!'. Mum just said 'Oh gosh' and replaced her skirt and said 'Well, they are clean'. I used to go to the cinema a lot and get someone to take me in if it was showing A AND U or  DOUBLE A. I never had to pay, someone would take pity on me and sit me down and even buy me an ice cream. I always offered the money. Ballroom dances at the YMCA were fun also. I would stay up late those nights. I was allowed lipstick and a nice dress. My silver peep toe shoes were in fashion. My dress was 10 bob from the C & A sale rack, but I felt like a queen.

I used to love the old shops in Vivian Road, I would go for a penny, pop up the steps and I would buy these strange root sticks to chew. I remember also going in with a school friend and putting our hand in the font of St Mary's church, it was silent and and we thought it creepy and dared each other to go in and do that and really believed we would die very soon for doing so. Feeling we were lucky we would often do this stupid prank.

St John's Sunday School was a place where I met my friend Pat, and we went to a fete in the Vicarage gardens in Wentworth Road. I remember Stoddards the butcher, we went in each Saturday, my mum and I, and the Old Harborne Cinema in Serpentine Road called the Bug House. I remember hot summers and I dropped my china headed doll after a bee stung me. My doll's head was in a dozen pieces, and I cried for ages until gran got it replaced at the dolls' hospital. But I hated her new face. Somehow it looked very sad now.

Rednal, Lickey Hills

Mum said she was 2 weeks overdue and it was the worst winter, and all she could think of was to go for a walk up the steps of the Lickey Hills hoping that would bring me into the world! Don't blame me for wanting to keep warm in her womb as long as I could! Re: Selly Oak village, Burton's snooker hall - I will ask my dad what he knows of it as I know the Higgins lads, including my Grandad Albert Higgins, was a noted Snooker champ in his day.

The Rone Clarke Family, Rose Cottage, Bristol Road, Bournbrook, Birmingham

My great-great-grandfather was CHARLES RONE CLARKE born 6 March 1837 at 13 Court, Smallbrook Street, Birmingham. He was a master woodturner and sixth great-grandson of Henry Clarke. He married my great-great-grandmother EMMA SOPHIA BABBINGTON, born 11th September 1841 at 100 Lancaster Street in the district of St Mary, Birmingham. She married CHARLES RONE CLARKE at St Philip's Church, Birmingham on December 12 1859. It is said she was a very dominant woman who ruled both her family and the wood-turning business at Rose Cottage, Bristol Road, Bournbrook with an iron hand after the death of her husband Charles in 1893. She travelled everywhere in her pony and trap driven by one of her sons. EMMA SOPHIA RONE CLARKE (nee BABBINGTON) died on March 12 1912. The History of Rose Cottage goes as follows. In 1865 Charles set up his wood-turning business on land behind the cottage and there he taught his sons the trade. The workshop with all its wonderful machinery also had several glass houses and a breakers yard, and also a greengrocers shop and several pigsties at the bottom of the garden which backed on to Coronation Road. There was also a newsagents at the front facing the Bristol Road which the family rented out. The River Bourne, which often flooded, ran through the property and the families pet horse Dobbin was found drowned one morning in the early 1900s. The old grey horse's death was a great loss to Charles and Emma, especially as their grandchildren loved to ride and play with him. Handwritten notes in the family Bible state that CHARLES RONE CLARKE was born 6 March 1837 at 5 minutes to 6 in the morning, he died of a brain tumour on March 17 1893 at 5 minutes to 6 in the morning. He was interred in the family grave on 23 March 1893 with his son Francis Samuel Rone Clarke. Family history states that Charles was a very generous man who even gave a friend the money to buy his house. In his later years he became very sad after the death of his son Francis, aged only 3. In her will when EMMA SOPHIA RONE CLARKE passed away she stated that the land, Rose Cottage and the wood-turning business were to be sold and the money divided up between her ten living children and her daughter-in-law ELIZABETH Rone Clarke (nee Pritchard). Her sons however had very different plans and the conditions were altered. A new agreement was drawn up wherby Charles and his wife Elizabeth and sister Maude lived in the cottage. Edward and Charles ran the wood-turning business and they, Harry, James and Benjamin, Jack and Maude had equal shares in the profits. Their children were: SARAH RONE CLARKE born October 26 1862 Back of 117 Irving Streeet, St Thomas, Birmingham, died June 23 1919 at 69 Raddlebarn Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham. CAROLINE RONE CLARKE born November 1862 St Thomas, Birmingham died Healey Road, Bournbrook, Birmingham. JACK RONE CLARKE born 1864 died 24 December 1919 Back 13 Healey Road, Bournbrook, Birmingham. Jack suffered from asthma, he worked at the Battery Co. JAMES RONE CLARKE (JIM) born 1866, died 1970 Swanbrook Cottage, Rubery, Birmingham, he was quite a character and owned Regent Garage at Rubery. CHARLES RONE CLARKE (my great-grandfather) born 12 December 1859, Birmingham, died August 1954 at Rose Cottage, Bournbrook, when I was 4 years old. MILLIE STONE RONE CLARKE born 1872, died The Forge, Inkberrow, Worcestershire. EDWARD RONE CLARKE (Ted) born 19 March 1875 at Longmoor Street, Balsall Heath, Birmngham, died 15 November 1959 at 12 North Road, Bournbrook, Birmingam, where he lived with his daughter Lizzie and her husband and daughter Linda. MAUDE MARY RONE CLARKE born 1878 Birmingham, died 1950 Evesham Infirmary, Worcestershire. FRANCIS RONE CLARKE died age 3. I have researched the family and have lots of photos and also details of the BABBINGTON FAMILY. (Emma's father owned a brass foundry in Birmingham.) I thought this might help if anyone is looking for the history of RONE CLARKE family as it is such an unusual name. I have researched the family back to 1679, if anyone is interested I will be very happy to help them.