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Sandwell
Sandwell maps
Historic maps of Sandwell and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Sandwell maps
Sandwell photos
We have no photos of Sandwell, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
West Bromwich| Edgbaston| Harborne| Birmingham| Wednesbury| Bournville| Moseley| Dudley| Streetly| Bilston| Sutton Coldfield| Willenhall| Acocks Green
Sandwell area books
Displaying 1 of 9 books about Sandwell and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Sandwell
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West Midlands memories
Mitchells And Butlers Playing Fields
As I lived in Raglan Road at the time my memories are:
Of heading over the road to Mitchells and Butlers playing fields, a green strip that ran alongside of the brewery, and lying in the grass. I thought it was great, a green space all to myself, as Victoria Park and the Sandpark were a fair distance away to a 5 year old. Then came the snow of 1947 and my sister and I going to the canal wharf to fill up the old pram with coke, trudging back home in the snow, it was great. Then there was the lady that lived in Wills Street ,she always went on holiday and came back with apples and made toffee apples, they were great too. We may have had few mod cons, but we were happy.
When Dad Came Home
There was a knock at the door, and there he was, this tall man wearing a bush hat who grabbed my mom, giving her a great big smacker of a kiss. Of course I wasn't having this strange man doing this to my mom, so I promptly got the broom and hit him with it, he may have been fighting a war in Burma but he hadn't met his bad-tempered stroppy daughter yet. Even though there was the odd photo around, this man was a complete stranger to me, but that would change. Sadly mom died 5 years later, when she was 34 years old, of malignant hypertention. My younger sister was living with my aunt, she had lived there from birth, and my sister and I were sent to live with my gran in 1951 so even after the war there were still casualie, but then it wasn't proper for Aunt to be lumbered with 3 daughters. We stayed with Gran who insisted on being called Nan for the... Read more
Mitchell And Butlers Brewery
I was born and bred in Smethwick, my nan lived on Windmill Lane where i spent most of my time as my mum was a barmaid at the Cape of Good Hope pub opposite the Mitchell and Butlers Brewery, it's now a Macdonalds. Whilst working there she was spotted by the bosses from the brewery, who drank in there, and was asked to do an advert for TV. She went onto become Miss Brew X! She appeared on TV about 8 times a night, delivering a pint over the bar to a voiceover of 'Brew X - a pint of the Midlands!'. Does anyone remember this advert from the late 1960s or early 1970s? I remember Mrs Ingram's shop on Windmill Lane and the circus every year in Victoria Park. We moved to Bearwood to run the New Talbot pub, it was the 'in place' in the early 1970s, does anyone remember going to the Chalet on a Friday night? Happy days... I live in Warwickshire now but often... Read more
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
Handsworth 1956 - 1970
I worked at Avery's in Foundry Lane. The Avery's "bull" used to blow for start of work and lunch time and could be heard for miles. Soho Road was full of great shops including Woolworths, Tibbits, Pendries, Wilkinsons, The little red shop, The fish and chip shop (opposite Murdock Road). The best one was the Chicken Inn though a bit further up past the police station. On Murdock Road, my mom remembered when the houses had name plates and used to be polished regularly, she told me. Newsagents were Darlingtons or Withers. Parks at Black Patch (witches hat) and Handsworth Park (where me and Dad sometimes fished for tiddlers. It had a boating lake and the flower show where you could win a goldfish by throwing a hoop over it. And the scouts rally each year. Also it had a band stand where the brass bands played on special days and stored their instruments under the band stand. Opened my first bank account at the old Municipal Bank, Soho Rd where we had... 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
