Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 12:15:25 GMT
If you was a youngster and you entered Sutton Park by the Town Gate then the first place you headed for was the fair. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2015 14:20:04 GMT
Does anybody reading this remember the Lido at Keepers Pool and the raft in the middle of the pool that was there to swim out to. I see they removed it in later years and stopped people from swimming in the pool itself and you were restricted to the Lido only. Attachments:
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2015 7:50:20 GMT
Just adjacent to the fairground in the park were two other attractions, the midlands version of the Crystal Palace and a miniature railway. I have to say that by the time I started visiting the park all these features were in the decline and the Crystal Palace was fenced off and not open to the public and the fairground was about half the size it was originally and by 1962 all three attractions had disappeared and not long after that so did the Lido at Keepers Pool. Attachments:
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2015 19:44:54 GMT
Moving on now to Small Heath Park opened in 1879 after being gifted to the people of Birmingham in 1876 by Louisa Ryland who had also gifted Cannon Park some three years earlier. The park was renamed Victoria Park some eight years later when Queen Victoria visited Birmingham. The name soon fell out of use when locals still referred to it as Small Heath Park. It is still know by that name today. Small Heath Park is bounded by Coventry Rd, Wordsworth Rd, Waverley Rd & Tennyson rd. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2015 18:10:15 GMT
In 1883 an open air swimming pool was opened on the Tennyson Road side of the park and although it was updated and improved through the years it closed down in 1938 because it didn't come up the health & safety standards of the day. In 1955 a children's paddling pool was built on the site of the old lido |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Apr 10, 2016 16:57:26 GMT
 cannonhill park in the winter the park keeper was a bit upset about the fact we was one the ice he did say it was thin ice  |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2016 19:10:57 GMT
In 1903 the widow of the then owner of Ward End House a Frederick Gwyther an Electro Plate Manufacturer sold the house to Birmingham Council who laid it out as a park. The park opened in 1904 and then later during the winter of 1908 / 1909 the boating pool was dug out, this was done mostly to give the local unemployed work. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2016 14:58:14 GMT
The Lickey Hills
The Lickey Hills was a royal hunting reserve owned by Bromsgrove Manor until 1888. Then Rednal Hill was bought by the Birmingham Society for the Preservation of Open Space. They presented it to the City of Birmingham in trust, Pinfield Wood and Bilberry Hill were then leased at a nominal rent. Beacon Hill was bought by Edward, George and Henry Cadbury in 1907 and then given to the City of Birmingham. Cofton Hill, Lickey Warren and Pinfield Wood were bought in 1920. The final stage in restoring public access to the area was the purchase of the Rose Hill Estate from the Cadbury family in 1923.
My memories of the Lickey's would be more or less the same as anybody else's of my age, and that was Bank Holidays on either the Sunday or Monday would head into town and catch the tram from navigation street to the Lickey's. An easy enough thing to do, except for the fact everybody in Birmingham would have had the same thought or so it looked. We would often have to wait in the queue for the third or fourth tram before we could start our journey. After about the longest tram ride it was possible toi take in those days we would arrive at the Lickey terminus with our picnic lunch ready for our Bank Holiday adventure.
The attached photos show a common starting and ending place for most family trips to the Lickey's back in the 50's, that is of course after reaching the start point from their individual homes. The two points are the Navigation Street terminus in the city and the Rednal terminal at the Lickeys.
Attachments:
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2016 9:21:07 GMT
As kids we were quite happy just to roam over the 500 odd acres of hills trees and brush land when we got hungry we would find a suitable place to have our picnic lunch and drink our tea from flasks or our pop from their glass bottles and eat out fish paste or jam sandwiches. Very often if our parents could afford it we would head toward the fairground on Bilberry Hill to end our day. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2016 12:43:36 GMT
Another alternative end to the day would have been a quick dash across Rose Hill Golf Course in between tee offs and a climb up Beacon Hill to the Toposcope at the top with it's magnificent views across Birmingham then a short stroll down Monument Lane to the Monument dedicated to the 6th Earl of Plymouth who's family owned most of Bromsgrove which contains the Lickey Hill for over 250 years. Ten it a journey back to the tram terminus with a trip on the way through the Crown gardens at the front of the golf course. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2016 12:25:00 GMT
No matter which way the day ended it would conclude with a long wait in the queue for the tram that would take us back home. Though if we were very lucky before joining the queue we might get sixpence or even a shilling to spend in the arcade as the last treat of the day. Attachments:
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2017 15:13:10 GMT
Handsworth Victoria Park, now never having set foot inside this park the sum total of my knowledge is printed here, so if anybody wants to add anything, please be my guest enrol in the forum and lets hear what you know.
The park lies between Grove Lane (see photo 1) and Hamstead Road (see photo 2). The park was opened in 3 sections the last one being the Hamstead Rd section in 1898 (see photo 3). |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2017 10:56:59 GMT
Some early images of the lake at Handsworth Park. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2018 11:44:28 GMT
Hi Admin,
Although it's hardly big enough to see it's quite a way from Cannon Hill Park and even Birmingham. It's Duke Gardens Durham just adjacent to Duke University.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2018 14:50:50 GMT
Pype Hayes Hall & Park another Birmingham Park, that I have no personal knowledge of, never haven even trod on a blade of grass there. The total of my knowledge he park comes from passing by on the Chester Road and occasionally stopping on that road at the Transport cafe opposite the park. Apparently the hall was the home of the second son of the 1st Baronet Sir Hervey Bagot who lived there for some 15 years before falling at the battle of Naseby in the civil war in 1645 where he served as a Royalist colonel. The Bagot's continued to live at the hall until sometime in the 1880's when a lot of the land was sold off to Birmingham Tame & Rea Drainage Board and the hall was rented out to tenants. Eventually around 1920 Birmingham Council purchased the hall and grounds and the grounds were turned over to public recreational use and the hall has been used for many purposes right up to today and today has a Grade II listed status. Attachments:
|
|
