[BBB]

BBB, do you mean the Ford garage called Meteor?
Number 63 WGR was virtually opposite St Agnes Road and next but one to Belle Walk. They were huge houses that were converted into flats. They were demolished eventually and are now blocks of flats. Club on the way to the ring ? Whats that all about BBB? And, what year about were you there?

Spot on BaggieMan it was Meteor. I supplied them with my vehicle bulbs that I started called Lynx Bulbs - you may remember see thru packaging with the bulbs in them. It was a night club - haha. Great looking girls went there.

[Dingle-Dingle]

CALLING BAGGIE BOMBER...

Bomber, you mentioed in your post "the stone archway" on the M5 roundabout...  I have often seen that and wondered what it was all about. Do you know the history of it at all. I suspect it may have perhaps been an entrance to an old building or something.

The area east from Roebuck Lane to the borough boundary has been developed mainly in recent years and as an industrial estate. An ancient tree known as the Three Mile Oak formerly stood on the north side of the main road near the boundary; by the 1830s it had disappeared, but the name was preserved by the near-by inn and toll-gate. (fn. 172) Street House at the corner of Halford's Lane and the Birmingham road occurs from 1661. In 1818 it was the home of Joseph Halford, who later moved to Charlemont Hall. Between c. 1833 and c. 1846 Henry Halford, an iron merchant, was living there. It was rebuilt about that time and by the 1850s was known as the Hawthorns. It was made into the Hawthorns Hotel in 1903 to serve the patrons of the Hawthorns football ground on the opposite side of Halford's Lane. (fn. 173) The ground had become the home of West Bromwich Albion Football Club in 1900. (fn. 174) Halford's Lane takes its name from the Halford family, being earlier known variously as Street House Lane, Bowling Alley Lane, and Brasshouse Lane. (fn. 175) There is a motorway access point where the M5 passes under Birmingham Road; the classical stone gateway of Arch Lodge, formerly an entrance to Sandwell Park, has been preserved on the roundabout. A new road was opened from the roundabout to the southern part of Roebuck Lane in Smethwick as part of the southern ring road. The borough boundary with Smethwick was altered in 1966 when the Albion area on either side of Halford's Lane, until then in Smethwick, was taken into West Bromwich instead of becoming part of the new borough of Warley; the railway line then became the boundary. (fn. 176) A small area including a stretch of the M5 motorway and a portion of the ring road around the junction with Roebuck Lane was transferred to Warley. (fn. 177)

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/sta...l17/pp4-11

DD

[Bournemouth Baggie]

Thought so

---

Well done the Saddlers ! Absolutely delighted for them.

My Father was born in West Brom
My Grandfather was born in Handsworth which was then Staffordshire
I was born in Moseley, lived there and then Hall Green and for the last 40 years in North Staffs Moorlands

So, Oi dunna surpose oim a Black Country lad ay oi .....?

Dad and Mum grew up in Shirley and Earlswood, had family in Solihull, Shirley and Hall Green (Delamere Crescent?)

[BaggyBomber]

TheBaggieMan,

Further to DD's information, the archway was the entrance to Sandwell Park, an estate owned by the Earl of Dartmouth.  Upon the estate stood Sandwell Hall, demolished in 1928.  The arch would have been about 200 yards from the Hall.  Close by where the Hall would have stood are the remains of Sandwell Priory, a 12th century Benedictine monastery.  The Sand Well still rises at the site of the remains and runs out of the ground, cool and clear, at the side of the priory remains.  Presumably the spring was a main reason for the siting of the priory and for the origin of the name of Sandwell.

The arch, pre-motorway, was actually on the left-hand side of the A41 Birmingham Road as you approached The Shrine from West Brom town.  It was, I believe, intended to be demolished in the motorway construction but it was decided to build around it.  Someone obviously had a bit of soul.  Again, pre-motorway, the arch became the main entrance to Sandwell Park Golf Club developed on the estate, presumably after the Hall's hey-day.

The golf course, which still thrives, is private. The entrance to the course is now on the Brummie Road at the far side West Bromwich Dartmouth Cricket Club which is behind the large, old brick wall running along the main road after the roundabout.

In my school days, the arch stood directly across the Brummie Road from my school playing fields.  We would start our cross-country runs in the archway and run down over the golf course and, what is now named, Sandwell Valley and back.  Errgh!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandwell_Va...untry_Park  

[BBB]

Some very interesting replies, some I had no idea about. There must be hundreds of BC Baggies who could contribute to this thread, we want to hear from you wherever you are. Keep it coming, as I am sure the younger members or the ones who have moved away, as I have, would be interested.

BBB

[talkSAFT]

All I can say, BBB, is that I was brought up a mile from the ground in Handsworth, and never had to venture into the Black Country.
I was only 8 on my 1st match, but I thought the Black Country people were Away fans! I couldn't understand a word they were saying, and they probably only lived 2 miles away! Absolutely true.
Still can't understand Cradley, or Kingswinford, etc!

[BaggyBomber]

All I can say, BBB, is that I was brought up a mile from the ground in Handsworth, and never had to venture into the Black Country.
I was only 8 on my 1st match, but I thought the Black Country people were Away fans! I couldn't understand a word they were saying, and they probably only lived 2 miles away! Absolutely true.
Still can't understand Cradley, or Kingswinford, etc!

'course yow con understond, cor ya, talkSAFT? 

[talkSAFT]

I still cor understond 'em, Bomber. They'm all yampy up yower end.
(If yow cor bate 'em jine 'em).

[BBB]

I still cor understond 'em, Bomber. They'm all yampy up yower end.
(If yow cor bate 'em jine 'em).

Oh you talk so dirty ! More of that if yow will.

[BaggyBomber]

Seems like I'm one of the few West Brom people who contribute.  I didn't realise Baggies attracted such international support!

I was born in WB and lived there, close to the old town centre, until I married in '66.  Since then I've lived in the Dudley area.  Growing up, my family and friends were all Baggies and the Club was etched into my my brain from my first consciousness, I feel.  My father talked of them continually as I grew up.  Oh, how he loved that '31 team that won FA Cup and promotion in the same season.

Both my schools were near WB town centre but the secondary school's sports field now lies under the M5, by the motorway roundabout that bears the stone archway on the Brummie road, a couple of hundred yards from The Shrine.  I've played a lot of football close to the Hawthorns, unfortunately only once on it!

I walk my daughter's dog most weekdays in Sandwell Valley which stretches up to within a Tony Brown shot of the ground.

Albion till I die.

Could have written that myself Bomber,almost identical upbringing! Only difference now is that I walk the dog in Sutton Park,not Sandwell Valley,so I have obviously gone up in the world!!!!  

pieandbovril,

Just re-reading and sorry I missed your comment.  Sutton Park, eh?  Yow am posh now, ay ya?

All the best!  

BB