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.
A WALK UP THE CHESTER ROAD
(1944)
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
Added April
2022
**********
SUMMER EVENINGS AT THE AVION, ALDRIDGE
(1940-45)
(Click to
read memoir)
Added 30 March 2024
**********
MY YANK, BOB
(1944-45)
(Click to
read memoir)
Added 30 April 2022
**********
DAD'S ARMOURY (1940-1974)
(Click to
read memoir)
Added 1 May 2022
**********
A THIRTY SECOND MEMORY
(1943/1944)
(Click to
read memoir)
Added 4 May 2022
**********
THE PARISH HALL,
STREETLY (1940-1950)
(Click to
read memoir)
Added 7 January 23
**********
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 November 2022
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
MONDAY, 7th MAY 1945
-
PEACE
Added 8 May 23
(to be continued, please
see below)
**********
A TEENAGER'S MEMORIES
(1940-1946)
(Click to
read memoir)
Added 4 June 2022
**********
A MAP OF STREETLY
(1920/1940)
(Click to
read memoir)
Added 1 July 2022
**********
TOBOGGANING
ON THE CHESTER ROAD
(1947)
Click to read memoir)
Added 16 Dec 2022
**********
THE HOME GUARD IN STREETLY AND LITTLE ASTON
(1940-44)
Links
to pages in the Home Guard of Great Britain website
**********
THE HOME GUARD
VE-DAY BONFIRE
(1945)
Click to read memoir)
Added 10 May 2023
**********
......and also to follow
at a later date......
A SMALL BOY'S DIARY
(1943-1945)
(continued)
3rd May 1944; 7th June 1944; 9th
September 1944; 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.
A WEEKEND AT THE SEASIDE (May 1940)
THE EVACUEES (August 1941)
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
L8
April 2022 and reguarly added to thereafter
