Wednesday, 23 February 2011

Ye Olde Bearwood





Having learnt at the weekend that Charlie Chaplin was probably born in Smethwick it made me wonder if he ever came to Bearwood and what he would have seen.

Thanks to the interweb I've been able to find this lovely picture of Bearwood High Street.

The photo was taken circa 1909 so Charlie Chaplin would have been 10 years old! If he was still living in the gyspsy caravan where he was born this could have been his local high street. Imagine life without Neelams, all the charity shops, Heron Foods and the No 11 bus and you could almost be there!

At welovebearwood we would love to hear your stories about how Bearwood looked in the past and if you've got any photos please email them to welovebearwood@gmail.com

Check out another blogpost on Charlie Chaplin: Sandwell MBC Leader's blog 
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5 comments:

  1. sallyinbearwood23 February 2011 at 17:10

    Love it! see the comments on the ilovebearwood post - fancy setting up a welovebearwood Twitter account together as well? I'll try and put up my memories of Lightwoods document somewhere. Not sure how good blogspot is for uploading files...

    Imagine if all the shops had to have those gorgeous awnings out front, a bit of uniformity wouldn't be bad for the high street at the moment...

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  2. Bob Piper23 February 2011 at 20:55

    Sally, really nice site (although I think I would make the title three separate words which you can do in blogger).

    Also, your link to Brum Notes has got too many http://'s in it so it won't link.

    Minor points anyway. I've given it a plug on the Bearwwod Blog and I'll add a link.

    Bob

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  3. Anonymous7 March 2013 at 19:14

    Joe Russell (Dec'd) took umpteen photos of Bearwood & Smethwick, often before & after demolition & building. The archive was held at Thimblemill Library & some more at Smethwick Library, High Street. He had some published in a book - "Joe Russell's Smethwick" in conjunction with Alton Douglas.
    (ISBN No.0-9508455-5-8). He was an active member of the local photographic society.

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  4. Mrs B8 March 2013 at 13:54

    Wow! Never know that - will have to check Joe Russell's photos out. Thanks for the tip!

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  5. Anonymous31 March 2016 at 16:56

    RE BEARWOOD HIGH STREET ?

    AS FAR AS I CAN RECALL THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A HIGH STREET IN BEARWOOD ITS ALWAYS BEEN KNOWN AS BEARWOOD ROAD IT STARTS AT ADKINS LANE TO WATERY LANE THEN THE HIGH STREET COMMENCES SO ANNOYING THESE SIMPLE MISTAKES DOES NOBODY EVER CHECK THESE ITEMS BEFORE GOING TO PRINT EG PROOFREADER MAKES YOU THINK DOES IT NOT ?

    J T JONES BORN IN SMETHWICK 76YRS AGO

    ReplyDelete

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