You are here:
Hockley
Hockley maps
Historic maps of Hockley and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Hockley maps
Hockley photos
We have no photos of Hockley, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Edgbaston| Birmingham| Harborne| Moseley| West Bromwich| Bournville| Yardley| Acocks Green| Streetly| Northfield| Kings Norton| Olton| Wednesbury| Sutton Coldfield| Solihull
Hockley area books
Displaying 1 of 7 books about Hockley and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Hockley
No memories of Hockley have been shared yet - be the first!
Add your memory of Hockley
or of a photo of Hockley.
West Midlands memories
My Home For 22 Years
I was born 21st august 1943 at 60 Bellefield Road, a house that is still standing, only a blue brick terraced house with a cold tap and an outside loo. This was quite posh because some people had to share their toilets with 2, 3 or even 4 families. Two doors away lived Nan and Grandad Parsons and across the road at 51 Cuthbert Road lived my aunt, uncle and cousin Alan Jones. Bellefield Road was on the edge of Winson Green, just off Dudley Road and opposite Summerfield Park where we would play for most of the summer days, cricket, football or on the giant swings, witch's hat, or roundabout where we would try to injure ourselves, there was no Health and Safety in those days. After playing we would return via Winson Green Road to get a Jubbly from the newsagents' sweet shop. Winson Green was like a village in those days, you could buy anything, if you had the money, from the top at Dudley Road to the bottom at... Read more
Childhood Days
My mom, my brother and myself lived in Heath Street off Winson Green. I remember we had no hot water and no bathroom, so we had the tin bath in front of the fire. I remember the old washhouse where Monday was always washing day whatever the weather, many a time I had my fingers in the old mangle. When we got older Mom used to take us once a week to the public baths down Heath Street for a good scrub. We only had one outside toilet shared with the neighbours. The house overlooked the railway and canal so in the winter it was freezing. Does anyone remember Challingsworths Iron Foundry down Heath Street? It belonged to my grandad's family. I remember the Shakespeare pub on the corner of Heath Street and Winson Green where my grandad used to send me over with a jug to the outdoor to fetch his beer. I still keep in touch with my friends from Heath Street who I grew up with and... Read more
A Young Girls Memories Of WW1.
When my Mother passed away in 1999 I had the unhappy task of clearing out her Warden Controlled little flat. Amongst her possessions I came across an old history project I had done at school in the 1970s for which I recall I got very good marks. Mom must have been proud of it I think for she kept it along with various other momentos. Contained in my history project was a word for word account I had obtained from my Grandmother,Nel Holloway about the projects theme,world war one. Nanny Nel had been born in 1902 in Handsworth and was living there when hostilities began in the late summer of 1914.
"It had been a hot summer,we spent much of it outdoors,I went to my grandfathers farm over Kingswinford for a few weeks. I remember the grown ups all talking about 'The Kaiser' and 'The Serbs' and saying 'The French wont allow it'.It all meant nothing much to me at all. One night Mother sent me to get some... Read more
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... Read more
Mother's Pride Bakery
I used to work at Wilsons bakery, Greatbarr Street in the early 1970s, prior to that I used to help a Mother's Pride baker in Northfield on Saturdays and before I went to school. I still remember the round to this day, also the van reg 974 KOA, a Morris J2 type, those were good days like the milk disappearing slowly, the Tascos dairy in Stirchley, the old Austin FG truck, oh also Hawleys bakery in Moseley, now its all British Bakeries where bread is just rubbish, gone the hot delivered bread to your door, oh well no worries, I had my days.
Happy Days
Living not far from Aston Park we would often walk to the park to play and enjoy the fresh air. Aston Hall held a fascination for me and I was forever asking to go inside for a tour. I would go in when ever I could and I never tired of it. When I grew older and moved away I never forgot it and I have always kept happy memories of it in a special place in my heart. I suppose it is a nostalgic feeling, reminding me of happy times during my childhood. Years later I was to begin working in Birmingham and would pass this wonderful hall every day. One day a colleague and I visited the hall in our lunch break it brought back wonderful memories for me.
CHEF'S 1948 to 1960
I was a young trainee chef at the then posh Pattisons Restaurant, Corporation Street, after national service in the far east. Who remembers the Worcester Street restaurant with then Mrs Burgess, today's site the Rotunda. I cooked a lot of meals here then the Mikado Cafe at the top of Martinu Street, then the now closed Union Club in Colmore Row. I cooked for some very important people during my stay in this lovely building, now a building society.
