In the family's Bartholomew's Pocket Atlas and Guide to Birmingham 1933 Price Two Shillings and Sixpence Net |
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Moseley & Me A collection of recollections by Hugh Gibbons in 2020 who was on the spot, ahem,1939-58 Reminiscing the Reddings Reconstructing No71 - et al Who Was/Is My Neighbour? |
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NB iPad and other IOS Users Sometimes only the first page of the PDF may display when the images on the right are clicked - and small. It should be OK if you keep your finger pressed on the image and select Open in New Tab or New Page. The full document will appear - and full size to fill the screen. |
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Welcome (wherever you're coming from) |
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Yes, that's me in
September 1943 on my first day at school:
today's Moseley CofE Primary, then still in its 1828
location at the north end of School Road. The
apprehension is understandable. I'd not long
been blitzed out of No 71 up the road. We still
had to practise horrid horrid gas masks which
are not like today's PPE. And, jeez, the toilets
were outside, next to the air raid shelters.
By contrast, that's me and Anne on the left, way
south in
Bracknell during lockdown in 2020. Like us,
primary school children
today will have good stories of their times to air and share
right down the century. "Well, in my day we..."
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Reminiscing the Reddings | ||
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Download the PDF for easy wandering on a tablet or laptop Whether you’re way into rugby, a distant onlooker like me, or anyone with an eye for fun with its sleeves rolled up, you should get some smiles in browsing these self-contained topic pages. And surprises. You may find yourself saying: I didn’t know that – whether about Birmingham pubs, that Irishman’s underpants, a war memorial in a 1963 phone book, or the jinks of The Commissar. For well over a century, The Reddings was the home of Moseley Football Club, one of the leading rugby clubs in the country. The ground also hosted many other games including county championship, youth internationals, England trials, and invitation and touring sides. In 2000, the ground was sold and redeveloped into today's Twickenham and Harlequins Drives, and The Reddings play area. Reminiscing the Reddings explores the history around the ground, the club, the people - and a lot more beside. The account is packed with stories, surprises, and laughs, drawing on personal memories, official census information, war memorials, rugby club and other websites, and press reports. It's been meticulously checked for authenticity, btw. In a set of self-contained topic pages for easy reading, it's available as a PDF for easy reading on a tablet or laptop, or passing around. |
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Reconconstructing No71 - et al | ||
Download the PDF for easy wandering
through on a
tablet or laptop In November 1940, the Gibbons' household at 71 School Road was reconfigured by an aerial mine dropped short of Birmingham's industrial area. Mum Gibbons and children Paul, Bunny and Hugh were safe in the cellar; while Dad was away near Coventry that night. The story was written up years later by Bunny as part of her detailed family history. It makes an unusually lively and informative story of the Moseley area at that time. And it goes far beyond - exploring her life as a wartime law student and as one of the elite boat crew in the WRNS. There's also the story of two other families - in Oxford Road and Olomouc, and accounts of life in Old Bilton and Rugby, Dad's Army, the weeks before WW2 and the one after Dunkirk, plus going bananas on VE Day! To add to Bunny's personal write-up, information from family memorabilia links with official records of previous occupants and neighbours. The story is as a PDF for easy browsing on-screen or on paper. |
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Who Was/Is My Neighbour? | ||
A spin-off of
Reconstructing No71, this is a very unusual set
of stories - or miniparables. Its focus is the poignant story of our neighbours - the family living next door at No73 in 1939. Coming from Manchester, Dr David Halpern, wife Judith and baby Peta age 1 must have met the Gibbons family in No71 - including me. David was killed while serving with the RAMC in Italy in 1944. The account explores their families' heritages, Manchester's medical school, treatment of aliens, the Holocaust, military medicine, and the uplifting story of the people of Assisi and its cyclists in 1943-4. The account constantly gives examples of people being good neighbours - including HM The Queen with sponsoring leper children, the firemen of neutral Ireland crossing the order to help Belfast, and a priest's brave stand against inhumanity. And the story has quite a twist. If you think Peta was an unusual name for our neighbour in Birmingham, how about Peto in Dublin... Download the PDF for easy wandering on a tablet or laptop |
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On the way | Saturday Morning Shoot-outs at the Kingsway | |
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Before TV
came along, the
Kingsway
Cinema was an important part of people's
entertainment in the King Heath and Moseley
area. Opened in 1925, with over a thousand
seats it was one of the many found right across
Birmingham.
And on Saturday morning in the 1940s and early '50s, the Children's Club was packed for a cheerily mixed programme: cartoons, documentaries, comics, Westerns and the weekly serial. Cinema-going at any time and day was very different from now. This account compares and contrasts it as a little contribution to social and local history - and fun. The account is almost ready, and will be available as a PDF for easy browsing. |
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