Bell Lane c1955, Northfield

Old Northfield

Bell Lane c1955
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The stretch of road we see is called Bell Lane.  Bell Lane curves back to Bristol Rd. The big house partly seen in the distance is Bell House which has quite a history.To it's left goes Bell Holloway (still fairly unaltered) and to it's right Bell Hill where I was born in an old cottage in 1927. It is now a double twin carriageway through to Harborne. In a cluster were a farm, two cottages, and a  bungalow, .This small area was then known as Paradise and our cottage Paradise Cottage.
Coming back to the photograph the shop was Hewitt's which had a bakery and sold sweets. Bell House 'partly seen ' had five false windows on the wall looking over Bell Holloway which were due to the 'window tax' that existed at some point in it's life. Our cottage and the one next door feature in photographs that appear in the Archive Photographs series of Birmingham compiled by Pauline Caswell.