Part of the
www.staffshomeguard.co.uk website

THE HOME GUARD OF GREAT BRITAIN WEBSITE - MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION PAGES  

STREETLY MEMORIES

1936 - 1961

by Chris Myers
 


This and associated pages are hosted by the staffshomeguard website (whose subject is the Home Guard of Great Britain, 1940-44).  They bring together various memories of Streetly, Staffordshire (as it was then called), and life in it during the period 1936 - 1961,  recalled by Chris Myers in old age.

The family home was "Windyridge", 101 Chester Road, Streetly.  The mother and father (Freda and Harry Myers - both b. 1899) moved in, in 1931, shortly after it had been built, together with their two children, Graham (b. 1922) and Sheila (b. 1927). They had previously lived at 97 Croydon Road, Erdington and the purchase of this new house in August 1931 represented a move out of suburbia into the rural calm and tranquillity and open spaces of Streetly.  The well-established family unit was disrupted in April 1936 by the arrival of a third child, Christopher, better known as "the cuckoo in the nest".

The family presence in Streetly started to wane in 1948 with Sheila's marriage, then in 1949 with Graham's and finally Chris's in 1961. Harry died in 1974 and Freda lived on alone at Windyridge until 1979, when she sold the property, moved in with her daughter and family in Herefordshire and then,  for the next 15 years up until her death in 1995, undertook regular Royal Progressions to Devonshire and Shropshire for extended stays with her other two children.

These Streetly memories concentrate to a large extent on the, to the author, most significant part of the period from 1936 to 1961: that from 1939 when he became conscious of the world around him and then the war years followed by those of the immediate post-war period. They are personal, detailed, long-winded and no doubt, in the main, excruciatingly boring. But it is hoped that, here and there, there might be something buried within them which is of a bit of interest to whomever stumbles upon it - especially those whose experience of Streetly is limited to the late 20th and early 21st centuries.  
 
 

INDEX OF CONTENTS

 

A MAP OF STREETLY (1920/1940)
(Click to read memoir)
Added 1 July 2022

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A WEEKEND AT THE SEASIDE (1940)
(Click to read memoir)
Added 16 June 2024

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THE PARISH HALL, STREETLY (1940-1950)
(Click to read memoir)
Added 7 January 23

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SUMMER EVENINGS AT THE AVION, ALDRIDGE (1940-45)
(Click to read memoir)

Added 30 March 2024

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DAD'S ARMOURY (1940-1974)
(Click to read memoir)
Added 1 May 2022

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A TEENAGER'S MEMORIES (1940-1945)
by John Broomhead

(Click to read memoir)
Added 4 June 2022

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THE EVACUEES (August 1941)
(Click to read memoir)
Added 7 Sept 2024

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A MEMORY OF NEW STREET, BIRMINGHAM (Winter 1942/1943)
(Click to read memoir)

Added 28 June 2024

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A THIRTY SECOND MEMORY (1943/1944)
(Click to read memoir)
Added 4 May 2022

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A SMALL BOY'S DIARY (1943-1945)

SATURDAY, 31st JANUARY 1943 - A HOUSE IN MIDDLETON ROAD Added 26 January 23
SATURDAY, 6th FEBRUARY 1943 -
THE VISITOR Added 27 May 2022 
MONDAY, 15th MARCH 1943 - NO NEWS
Added 1 June 2022

THURSDAY, 18th MARCH 1943 - NO NEWS...but then..    Added 8 Nov 22
MONDAY, 29th MARCH 1943 - LIFE GOES ON Added 25 November 2022 
FRIDAY, 2nd APRIL 1943 -
MY BIG SISTER  Added 2 April 23
THURSDAY, 8th APRIL 1943 -
THE STREETLY SOLDIER Added 8 April 23
TUESDAY, 20th JULY 1943 -
MY BIRTHDAY, THE CIRCUS and THE NO. 113 BUS Added 20 July 23
SUNDAY 1st AUGUST 1943 -
THE BIRTHDAY CARD Added 31 July 23
THURSDAY, 23rd DECEMBER 1943 -
THE HOME GUARD CHRISTMAS PARTY
Updated 21 Dec 23
THURSDAY, 9th APRIL 1944
-
ANOTHER BIRTHDAY Added 9 April 24
WEDNESDAY, 7th JUNE 1944
-
TINTERN, NORMANDY AND ROME Added 7 June 24
SATURDAY, 9th SEPTEMBER 1944 - A NEW SCHOOL
Added 9 Sept 2024
WEDNESDAY, 19th SEPTEMBER 1944 - DAD AND HIS GARDEN
Added 19 Sept 2024
MONDAY, 7th MAY 1945 - PEACE Added 8 May 23

(to be continued, please see below)


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A WALK UP THE CHESTER ROAD (1944)
Added April 2022, updated November 2024
1. Where we live
2.
The Parson & Clerk
3. The Queslett Road Crossroads and the Americans
4. On Along the Chester Road and Chester Road Traffic
5. Up to the Brow of the Hill and More about the Traffic
6. On to Manor Road and Bridle Lane and Back to Home



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MY YANK, BOB (1944-45)
(Click to read memoir)
Added 30 April 2022

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THE HOME GUARD VE-DAY BONFIRE (1945)
Click to read memoir)
Added 10 May 2023

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TOBOGGANING ON THE CHESTER ROAD (1947)
Click to read memoir)
Added 16 Dec 2022

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THE HOME GUARD IN STREETLY AND LITTLE ASTON (1940-44)
Links to pages in the Home Guard of Great Britain website

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......and also to follow at a later date......

A SMALL BOY'S DIARY (1943-1945)
(continued)
4th December 1944; 21st December 1944; 24th January 1945; 7th August 1945; 9th August 1945; 11th August 1945; 13th August 1945; 14th August 1945; 16th August 1945.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and SOURCES
Almost all of the images which appear on these pages are part of the Myers Family archive and belong to various family members. The main exceptions are those showing views of Streetly, including Chester Road traffic and Home Guard activities, during the war years; the latter are included through the generosity of their owner, Kate Cutler, to whom grateful acknowledgement is made. Specific mention of their ownership, and that of any other source, is made on the pages where they appear.

This family and local history page is hosted by www.staffshomeguard.co.uk
The Home Guard of Great Britain, 1940-1944
All text and images are, unless otherwise stated, © The Myers Family 2022-2023

INDEX
Home Guard of Great Britain website


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L8 April 2022 and regularly added to thereafter
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