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Streetly
Streetly maps
Historic maps of Streetly and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Streetly maps
Streetly area books
Displaying 1 of 9 books about Streetly and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Streetly
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Streetly.
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The Village Shops
Lovely to see the old pictures of the village, they almost made me cry. Does anyone remember some of the old shops and their owners? Ted Shelley in the newsagents where I went with my pocket money to buy my weekly comic, also a very spooky antique shop run by the equally antique couple who used to scare me silly as a young girl. It was an old curiosity shop with a musty smell, quite dark inside as well. How about Horsleys the grocers, the last of the old family grocers in the days when supermarkets were in their infancy, I would go in with the red book with the weekly shopping order and a man in a brown overall coat would go round collecting the provisions and marking them off with a pencil that he occasionally licked before lodging it behind his ear. The Post Office, devoid of modern technology, with a post mistress who had regulation glasses on the end of her nose and hand writing of artistic... Read more
West Midlands memories
ODEON PICTURE HOUSE
I remember the Odeon on Kingstanding Circle. We used to wait for my dad to come home with his wages and then mum would take my sister and myself to the Odeon. We used to queue for ages to get in the shillings! and always had to stand for the National Anthem at the end of the film. We could choose on the night whether to have an ice cream at the cinema or buy threepence worth of chips when we came out at the chip shop which was opposite the Odeon.
Later on we used to do all our courting in the back row, and I had the first kiss off my husband in the Odeon 48 years ago!
Childhood
Funny how seeing Memories of Kingstanding title, it brought back so many thoughts of living there in childhood to my 20s. The Geman plane that dropped its bomb on a house in Hurlingham Road, hiding under stairs at school as the planes went over it, causing the building to shake with flying over it so low. The German POW's repairing the Kingstanding Road by the Settlement and my mother making me walk past them very quickly so I would be unable to speak to them. The Barrage Balloon landing on a house in Dulwich Road and all us kids running there to see it. My dad did firewatching at his works all through the war so our mom had to make sure we were in the shelter on her own, it must have been a hell for her as she had 4 of us to cope with. My youngest brother at that time was born in 1941 so he had a Mickie Mouse gas mask, I hated my... Read more
Working For ICI in Witton
My first job was at ICI in Witton in the offices as junior. I spent 5 years working at this company, very happy memories working my way up to a typist. The proudest moment was when I picked up my first months money to take home and share with my mother to help out with the family of three brothers and a sister. This was my first memory of independence. I was the eldest of five children. Happy times were had then as I was growing up in Kingstanding. My dad worked at the Co-op Dairy in Kingstanding Road. Next door to the dairy was the Drill Hall where my dad was a member as he was in the army most of his life. Then we moved to College Road.
Princess Alice Home And Orphanage 1941-1955
I too, was in Copley House with my sister Sheila. Our surname was Youngs (the sister in charge of the house was Sister Ada Fitzjohn). I was at first, in the nursery school on Chester Road until I was five and went up to the 'big' home. Many happy memories of Sutton Park, the lakes, the trees and the heather. We sometimes played truant from Sunday school, and went to the park but often found out and were punished - polishing floors, getting the strap, or missing tea. I attended Sutton Coldfield High School, but I hated the high school, as most of the girls were snobs. There were a few nice girls, and some specially nice teachers; Mrs Appleby, Hilary Andrade - Thomas, Miss Hinton, Miss Bowie. I was the only 'home' girl at the high school for many years. I went to school at slightly different times to the other children at the home, and had a different colour uniform to the others at the home. I was... Read more
Walking to School
I lived in Goldieslie Road (from 1966 - 1979) and went to the Town County Primary School (juniors). I used to walk to school past the Driffold every day (unless I took the 107 bus!) Sometimes I walked up through the gardens. I had a friend called Michelle who lived in the Driffold and I used to call for her. We used to dawdle our way to school via the top road and down past the "Cup". I've tried to find her again after all these years, because we lost touch when she went to the Girls Grammar school and I went to John Wilmott. My memories are of the beautiful flower beds in the Driffold gardens and a particular one of sitting there once with my grandma when I was very young. I haven't been to Sutton for a few years now, but have recently discovered my third cousins who lived there as well. Our grandmothers were cousins. Nostalgia rules ok!
The Driffold
I lived in no. 3 The Driffold. I attended Town County Primary and then John Willmott Grammar School. I have the happiest memories of living there with Sutton Park just down the road. We used to play near the duck pond identifying all the ducks and fishing- trying to catch pike. We cycled everywhere. In the summer we'd cycle to the outdoor swimming pool and spend all day there swimming in the pool and the lake. Our mother would wheel the pushchair with the latest baby and a picnic lunch there later. Such wonderful happy times. I sang in the choir at Holy Trinity. It was my whole life. Three weddings on a Satuday with the red carpet equalled 7/6d which was a lot of money then. I loved Sutton Coldfield. The best days of my life. Now living in Newmarket. Lovely but very different. The best years were spent in Sutton. Very nostalgic!. We had such fun as children. The Guides every Thursday night in a corrugated iron shed,... Read more
