Thanks ever so much for your reply John. Hoping I can clear a couple of things up for you.
Yes, 93 is almost opposite the school. I guess the Co-op store is long gone now. I certainly don’t remember it (know Garnet Street well though). I do remember there being a small shop at the end of Wolseley Street. Itโs shown on one of your photographs, signed up Jeffries & Sons. Can’t remember what’s there now. Perhaps itโs still Jeffries, as your photograph seems quite recent. I used to go to the shop at the end of the street with my Nan regularly and she would buy me sweets. I have huge memories of my Nan and the little house she lived in, 93 Wolseley Street! She left us in 1979, and I would have only been around 4 then, having been born in Jan 1975. Apparently I spent a lot of time with her, probably why I remember her so well. No memories of my granddad disappointedly.
So, back to Wolseley Street & area. I have attached a map.
Itโs not a great copy, so hoping you can make it out. The church you mention, St. Saviours, is at the end of Wolseley Street (marked A on my map), and, if you can picture it, almost directly opposite the church is a small site of 3 blocks of flats, one in front of another, separated with car parks and an alleyway. The block furthest away from the church (and we are probably only talking about twenty steps away), is the block of flats that I used to live in, Cranford Mews (marked Z). I’m thinking the row of terrace houses that you talk about may have been knocked down and replaced with these 3 blocks of flats? Dad might remember. He always joked that my place was situated on an island, suppose it was really, with the way the round went around.
Take the alleyway behind Cranford Mews and you get onto Berkeley Avenue, cross Berkeley Avenue, walk up St. Saviours Road and youโre on the Rec, so very much like you remember. Garage on the corner – yes, I think you are right there. There was a garage on the corner, or more a used car centre when I lived there (between Feb 04 and Jan 08), now itโs an area where they hand wash cars while you wait I believe. C & D on my map – Coley Rec & Hewens Garage at the other end of Wolseley Street where dad worked.
I’m seeing dad on Sunday and I can’t wait to tell him about your website and if he can remember you John. I’ll also ask about his memories of Coley PS and if he has any photos or anything that can give us more of an insight into life in Coley in the 1940’s.
PS. I forgot to mention yesterday. Dads uncle, (brother of his mother, my Nan), Alf Atkinson, lived at No. 61 Wolseley Street. He was born in that house and lived there until his death in 2013. His wife was Ethel (I remember them both well) and they had the one son, Kenny. Not sure how old Kenny is, but a lot younger than dad I think… Dad and I went to Alf’s funeral in 2013. He was 97. Shame we have lost him, as can you imagine the memories he would have, having lived on the same street for nearly 100 years!
Kind Regards
Rachel