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This comes from Jennifer Venville Nicol (Venville being her maiden name), now living in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, who lived in Hidson Road very close to Stockland Green, Erdington in the years following World War II.
Tucked around the corner in Marsh Lane very close to the Plaza was the esteemed local Co-operative Store, but I'm not sure which number it was. This was a large grocery store and had the overhead wires accounting system that was popular in those days.
With one or two persons handling the cash from the hanging tubes, which flew into their office on the overhead wires. They made the change from the enclosed bill and money and sent it flying back to the counters.
Fascinating indeed for children in those times. It had an in-store butchers shop as well. I believe there was also an adjoining chemist at this site. This was one of the first Co-ops in the area to become self serve in the early l950's.
Wire baskets appeared and very modern tills were used, a unique concept for those times. The flying wires, etc. all disappeared. What a shame.
Round the corner next to the Plaza Cinema in Streetley Road was a shop called the Fondella. It was a sweets, ice cream and toy shop. Mainly people went in there to buy sweets and chocolates to eat in the cinema.
They also sold cigarettes and pop. It was open on Sundays sometimes too. A friendly shop, you could also join their Christmas Club around Christmas time since they had more toys in for sale at that time.
Right across the road at almost the end of our tour of Stockland Green.....was the Stockland Inn. It is now called the Stockland Hotel. It is an amazing building built in the1930's, very much like a Cotswold manor house.
It had a beautiful bowling green in years gone by. There was a large dual carriageway all the way up Marsh Hill when the area was developed and so the Stockland sort of sat in its own grounds.
It is very little changed inside which is a good thing in this day and age when they change pubs so much. This was the 'local' for so many people. The next pub was quite a walk away in several directions.
Finally, at the end of the swing around the 'Green' was the Stockland Garage. Owned for many years by the McLoughlin family they ran coach trips to the various seaside places on tours.
I expect they were called charabancs in the earlier days. They ran evening Mystery Tours also, usually to places like Stratford and surrounding destinations. The coaches always stopped at the local pub on the way back and, of course, a collection was taken up for the driver.
I often wondered why that has become a custom in Britain. Eventually, they opened a small car showroom and sold new cars. Many local people bought their first car from the Stockland Garage, including my father.
My brother worked there cleaning coaches when he was at Grammar School. It was a dirty job but the Grammar School boys loved staying up all night cleaning the coaches. It was a bit of an adventure. The boss wanted the coaches clean so that they could go out fresh again the next day.
So ends my tour of Stockland Green, from a commercial point of view, in the years during and after World War II. Sadly, none of the businesses survive although I believe there is a hardware store on the site of Lucas's
in Slade Road, and the Victoria Wine shop is still there.
An institution on Stockland Green these days is Bank's clothing store. Mrs. Banks bought a couple of Victorian houses and opened a clothing store with children's and ladies' clothes in the late l950's.
I believe that that is still in operation, selling lots of uniforms for the local schools too. One of the Victorian houses close to the original Bank's also became a hairdressers in the late l950's. The name escapes me but it was a very modern and popular place. Eventually that house was bought by Bank's.
Jennifer Nicol, British Columbia, Canada, 2001
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