Acocks Green
Acocks Green photos (10 available)
Acocks Green maps (2 available)
Map of West Midlands
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Acocks Green books (9 available)
- 2 photos on Acocks Green appear in 1 Frith books - View photos of Acocks Green
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Acocks Green and West Midlands
Acocks Green memories
Read and share memories of Acocks Green and West Midlands inspired by Frith photos
The shops on Yardley Road
I remember when all shopping was done by visiting independant local shops. The shops I remember going to with my mother on Yardley Road were Alldays butchers, Timms greengrocers, The Bargain Shop, Terry Lovetts Sports, The Iceberg (drinks store), The Chocolate Box, Washland and many more I can picture but cannot remember the names of. This was well before people had heard of supermarkets!
Contributed by Kev Whelan
Rag & Bone man
We lived at 1, Northanger Road, which was at right angles to Olton Boulevard East and we have had views down both directions of the Boulevard. I remember the regular visits of the rag and bone man. Cars were becoming common-place, but a horse and cart seemed very old fashioned. The horse manure was soon collected up by the keen gardeners in the area. It was a good way of getting rid of the unwanted articles, as the rag and bone man seemed to take all we gave him.
Contributed by Maurice Adshead
West Midlands memories
The shops on Yardley Road
I remember when all shopping was done by visiting independant local shops. The shops I remember going to with my mother on Yardley Road were Alldays butchers, Timms greengrocers, The Bargain Shop, Terry Lovetts Sports, The Iceberg (drinks store), The Chocolate Box, Washland and many more I can picture but cannot remember the names of. This was well before people had heard of supermarkets!
A memory of Acocks Green contributed by Kev Whelan
Rag & Bone man
We lived at 1, Northanger Road, which was at right angles to Olton Boulevard East and we have had views down both directions of the Boulevard. I remember the regular visits of the rag and bone man. Cars were becoming common-place, but a horse and cart seemed very old fashioned. The horse manure was soon collected up by the keen gardeners in the area. It was a good way of getting rid of the unwanted articles, as the rag and bone man seemed to take all we gave him.
A memory of Acocks Green contributed by Maurice Adshead
Extracts From Acocks Green & West Midlands books
Both Acock’s Green and Olton were once residential areas favoured by
the wealthier inhabitants of Birmingham, but they became progressively
industrialized as factories opened along the route of the railway. The
Birmingham Mail in November 1903 reported that Acock’s Green’s
genteeler residents were moving further out: ‘Like the Arab, they are
folding their tents and stealing away in the direction of Knowle and
Solihull, where the octopus tentacles of expanding Birmingham are as
yet in the distance’.
An extract from from"West Midlands Pocket Album".
Clifton House occupies the corner of Fox Hollies Road and
Olton Boulevard East, and had probably been only recently
completed when the photograph was taken. It remains
unchanged today, but the shapely elm tree in the background
has gone, presumably a victim of Dutch elm disease. However,
the spindly cherry trees on the roundabout look a lot more
substantial now.
An extract from from"West Midlands Living Memories".
This view of the parade is taken from the junction with Fox Hollies Road, at the opposite end to photograph No
A136028. George Mason’s (the first of the mock-Tudor buildings) is now a Spar, but essentially little has changed
since 1965, except that traffic would dominate any picture taken today. A modern supermarket now stands on the
right (behind the bus).
An extract from from"West Midlands Living Memories".
It is strange to think that until the 1830s Acock’s Green was a rural village. In 1839 the estate was sold to developers,
but it was 1911 before it became part of Birmingham. Olton Boulevard East was created from former country lanes in
1928, to serve a vast municipal housing estate reckoned to be a model of its kind.
An extract from from"West Midlands Living Memories".
A farm called Atte Hollies was recorded in 1275 in what later became Hall Green. By 1626 it had been acquired by the Fox
family, and was known as Foxholleys. It subsequently belonged to Zaccheus Walker, who rebuilt the house in grand style,
calling it The Hollies. It was the most imposing mansion in the neighbourhood, but it was demolished in 1937.
An extract from from"West Midlands Living Memories".