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Lye
Lye maps
Historic maps of Lye and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Lye maps
Lye area books
Displaying 1 of 7 books about Lye and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Lye
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Lye.
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Ragamuffins Growing Up!
My name was Betty Knowles, my family and I also lived in Hayes Lane at number 48, and my grandfarther lived next door, his name was Wilfred Poole. I remember the ash bank over the road where we use to put jacket potatoes in the ash at night where the fires used to glow at night. What a sight we must have been when we got home. My mother married twice so another name for us is Pearson - we were a BIG family, 8 girls and 1 boy. We moved from Hayes Lane to Waste Bank, later to become Hill Bank. I met a girl at Valley Road School, her name was Janice Edwards who lived with her grandmother, her name was Mrs Walsh. I've lost contact with Janice and would love to get in touch with her again, can anybody help me? I remember that her nan and grandad owned a old-fashioned bike shop, I can't think of the name of the road but "Golfars", a... Read more
Finding an Old Friend in Lye
I wonder if anyone can help me? I'm looking for a girl I grew up with - Mary Brettel was her maiden name, she lived in Stourvale Road off Hayes Lane where I lived. Mary left there in about 1958 when she was 13 or 14 years old and moved to High Park Avenue in Norton. Her father Ben and his brother Stan and his son David owned a holloware factory in Lye, BRETTLE BROTHERS, opposite the Station pub. I last saw and spoke to Mary in the late 1960s
at Lye Labour Club. I would love to find her again after all these years and talk over old times, I do hope someone can help.
Keith Shaw.
Memories of Lye in The 1950s
I too remember the Clifton Cinema and the temp. cinema, also the Salvation Army. There was 'Thornley' who sold veggies from his horse and cart, also 'Kitson' who sold bread from his horse drawn van with his brother, 'Wacaden' milk, the knife grinder who came round on his bike and coverted it into a grinder, gas lamps in the street, and where I lived at 19 Hayes Lane, gas and electric was in the house, Lye church when it had a steeple, the water tank opposite the Clifton from which my father Josh saved a small boy from drowning. Orchard Lane Infants School, also the Juniors and Valley Road Secondary Modern, where Jeramiah Harper was the headmaster.
Just a few of my memories, I've hundreds more...
Keith Shaw
Nan's House
Mr grandparents lived at 80 Dudley Road. This property was many years earlier a public house (I think it was called the Raven or the Blackbird). It was next to the railway line. To this day it has helped to give me a love of steam engines.
I remember the Christmas tree was at the top end of the high street (later it was moved to the Cross). The Clifton cinema had been converted to a toy store, it was like an Aladdin's cave. John Webb and his pony and trap were a regular sight.
Later I would work in Lye, first with the parks department of the council, later for Annabel's florist. I love the humour and warmth of Lye people, my immediate family have all at some time felt the love of Lye people.
Like all places, Lye has changed, and I don't think for the better. Ok, the slum housing has gone, but what has replaced it, yet more (modern) back to backs. I remember the... Read more
West Midlands memories
Quarry Bank
To me the first eleven years of my life, growing up in Quarry Bank, was the most enjoyable. I was born Kenneth Graham Sewell, on the 26th January 1947, at 59 Saltwells Road, now renamed White City, and the whole country was in the grip of the worst snows for years. I can remember from when I was eight months old and can recall being held in my mother's arms, watching our new council house being built. Number 3 Montgomery Crescent was to become a wonderful place for me, with my dad Joe, mom Lily, and my sister Janet. And later at number nine, a boy named Danny Priest was to become my life-long friend. One fine memory I have is of the Queen's coronation in 1953. The government doubled the sugar ration so as our mothers could bake cakes for the celebrations. Chairs and tables were lined up all down our streets and they were festooned with red white and blue. And that day was the best day... Read more
WESCO Not TESCO - The First Ever Supermarket in The UK?
I have so many wonderful memories of growing up in Quarry Bank - from moving into the brand new 'fashion houses' when I was 3; four of us on a motorbike, with me wedged between mum and dad (Wes Archer) as he negotiated the roads before they were finished (my 7 year old sister, Jenny, on the back!); the proud opening of the shop in Lawnsdown Road - it was actually called W.E.S. & Co and became the social focus of the estate - only recently did we realise that dad was way ahead of his time with the name of the grocery-cum-sweet shop that my mother, Hilda, ran cheerfully for several years. She sold just about everything Dad brought back from an Aladdin's cave beyond Dudley. And every day I was allowed 2 custard tarts and a Mars bar before I did my homework. No wonder I have so many fillings! In the early days we often played 'armies' in the 'oods behind the houses, made... Read more
SUMMER DAYS IN MARY STEVENS PARK
As a young boy from 1943 to 1960, I lived in Heath Lane, Stourbridge and I think I spent almost all my free time playing in Mary Stevens Park.
The area where the playground still stands would be where all the children would meet up, then decide what the game for that particular day would be. Quite often it would involve a ball. Coats or jumpers would be thrown down for goal posts if we played football, or one of the trees became the wicket if cricket was decided on.
Whatever the game we all had great fun.
When it snowed we would take our sledges to the top of the hill, near the Love Lane entrance and all speed downhill as fast as possible until the snow disappeared.
As very young children we fished in the lake for 'tiddlers' with homemade nets and a jam jar to carry home our catch. As we got older we'd fish 'illegally' with rod and line in the hope of... Read more
