Longford (inc. The Red Hills)

Thank you so much Dutchman

I've just spoken to an historian who goes to meetings on Longford, the Concrete works was at the side of the canal in Grindle Road where I put the last photo, there was another yard where NormK stated but it wasn't connected to the one in Grindle Road, the brick factory was where I said it was on the corner of Oban Road which back then didn't exist, you would have had to cut through to Grindle Road from Union Place. The hole in Deans picture of the brick works is where the lorry park is now and that was the clay pit, the brick works was called Longford Brick & Tile company, he said if you lift any quarry tile and turn it over it will have the name Longford Brick & Tile company on it. The gentleman also said there is going to be a book written on Longford by his friend and is seeking any old Longford photos especially on Sydnall Road. He also has a postcard which would probably interest Philip from his mother on Lockhurst Lane railway crossing gates but that is a different subject I know.

Hello Morgana, maybe I have this all wrong but I seem to remember a builder's yard situated just past the Engine Pub on the same side as you come over the Longford Bridge, from recollection I think it was also called "Longford Concrete" all they sold were concrete slabs. During my time as a BT engineer I remember installing a private wire from this site to the site in Sydnall Road, I have a feeling they were the same company but not too sure? Colin

Yes Radfordkid there was the concrete yard with slabs you talk about was there when I moved back to Longford that is 16 years ago now it's Dovedales wood yard. The concrete one Grindle Road asked about to start with was before Oban Road was built. I was told there was no connection with either concrete place. This gentleman lives local, he is from Warwick Uni, also attends all the meetings for Longford area.

From the top here I turn left to go down the hill onto the canal for home The trees on the side right are part of the Red Hills for any one not knowing this route. The very steep hill in front which the motor bikes scramble up.

Surely, Morgana, you - you of the Secret Garden and all - are essaying some or other subterfuge, aimed at misleading this Wild Colonial Boy, for the photographs you have submitted, the photographs purporting to be of the Red Hills, are, in truth, someone's trick photography notion of the Elysian Fields of old, as defined in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, definition two; specifically: "a place or state of ideal happiness". Where is the detritus - the rubbish - that Longford people were wont to deposit in the Red Hills when of no further use, the detritus that the dustmen wouldn't sully themselves by removing? And how did THE BROOK (known only as that, in my time, and - perhaps - now boasting a name, begin babbling, for babble it does - if only figuratively - in the photograph, where all it did when I was a pup was mutter incoherently? I am what we once would have called agog, but what we now might describe as gobsmacked, at everything revealed in your photographs. Having written as much, I should confess that I have not seen the Meeting Fields/the Red Hills since the mid-fifties. At that time, particularly mid-week, if a person were dodging school or such (not myself, of course, but a list of such miscreants could be provided - please submit a S.A.E. - plain manila preferred - for details), hours could be spent down there without ever meeting a soul that might communicate hot intelligence to mam/dad/teachers, for - truth be told - any interloper also was up to no good being in the Red Hills at that time. Young as I was, I knew - all Longford knew - it was the favoured spot, snogging for the use of, and - I imagine - much more. The photographs I suppose I would have wished to have seen would have been photographs of an unchanged place, probably because most changed places have changed for the worse, but certainly that was not so with what your photographs revealed. Thank you so much for sharing them with me, sharing them with all of us who offer memories on this Forum. My appreciation of what you and your fellows in Longford have made of what once was a rather dreary place now knows no bounds. To you and to all, congratulations for re-making the village into a thing of beauty, and a joy for as long as you keep up the effort, and I trust that you will keep up that effort! From Toronto, waiting more evidence of the spring to follow the worst winter - according to the records - since 1954. The first snow fell on Remembrance Day - very early for this neck of the Canadian shield - and the temperatures were lower than minus 20 degrees for more days than since 1954, when I was still messing around in the Red Hills.

Thank for the photos Morgana. I am not familiar with Longford but it is always nice to see what you find for us. My title for that would be a Ramble in the Bramble, but it seems Longford Lad had other ideas in his youth. It looks a great place to exercise the pooches.

You're welcome Dreamtime, yes wonderful place for walks with Charlie

Thank you Longford Lad. I wasn't sure which photos you wanted to see on the Red Hills so I chose these for you. Yes it's a lovely area to explore, my grandsons go in the babbling brook, shoes and all. It is now a nature reserve walk at the rear of where I live, as they have now built a new small estate where The Croft was and on to Lady Lane prior to Canal Rd which you can just about see the houses in the photo with the spire of St Thomas. They have just dug out for the brook which is the river Sowe like an overspill and added another small footbridge from The Croft.

Your views of the Red Hills were superb. My, but so much had happened to the landscape since I wuz a lad. Congratulations/commendations to all who continued with the project, as some of us (including myself) bailed-out in favour of fresh fields abroad. Keep on "keeping on" is what I suggest.

Thank you Longford Lad yes it's not as I remember the landscape either from the early 70s when you could cut through the little jetty side of Salem Baptist church across the Redhills across the canal bridge then across railway bridge which hasn't changed but the cut through to Gypsy site then Hales the bone yard by the scrap yards to the railway bridge in Holbrooks has changed even though you can still cut through to Holbrooks.

When I was in my early teens my pals and I would cycle from Bell Green to somewhere up Longford / Beduth way to watch motorbike scrambling. Would this have been at Redhills? It is such a long time ago and my local geography was limited to say the least. They were properly organised events with some well known riders, Arthur Lampkin for instance. There used to be many areas of unadopted or owner unknown "common land" where people would play, waste time, go courting and so on. There was a craze in the late fifties / early sixties for cycle speedway and groups of lads formed teams, digging out oval tracks on waste ground, Coventry Eagles comes to mind. Everywhere has an owner and a value now. Very dull.

yes Walrus it sounds the same place we were watching side of the canal on the Red Hills the kids about two years ago were doing the exact same thing digging out to make different area for a track the teenagers still scramble over the Red Hills on their bikes. Yes Beduth is just up the road easily walkable from here

There was cycle speedway a-plenty on the Redhills of yore. There were organized events (how well-organized, I have no idea), and the local team was, as I recall, the Longford Dominoes. "Home" matches were scheduled for Friday evenings throughout the summer, each match drawing to a close when the available light became unavailable. Like motorcycle speedway, the matches were set in heats, two riders from each team, "home" and "visitors", around an oval track, similar to the Brandon track but on a smaller scale, four laps for each match-up. Just like their motorized brethren, the lads would spurt along - pedalling, of course - down the straight, and lean into the curve, foot down on the dirt - in their case, the reddish dirt of the Redhills. The teams wore uniform tops, and took the matter very seriously. It seemed to me at the time that - as in professional sports - the individual riders were not necessarily local, though I think that if transfer fees between teams were involved, they would not have amounted to much more that a stick of rhubarb and a bag o' sugar. All participants were old enough - some barely - to retire to the Saracen's Head for pints after the event. There were accidents, the most common caused by a rider's attempt to get in one more pedal before/at the turn, the pedal making contact with the ground, the bike spinning around the axis of the pedal, throwing the rider from the bike. In a closely-contested race - all bikes hitting the corning at more-or-less the same time - one such pedal could result in all riders losing their seats. Ah, but did the spectators wish for a collision like this? Of course, else why attend!? Motor cycle scrambling involved a much larger field. In the case of the Exhall site, the Scramble site Walrus probably has in mind, the track also was oval, but cross country. There was a track of course, but a not a dirt track, carefully-tended; rather, lots of up-hills and down-dales, the threat of being thrown omnipresent. The thrill of witnessing men on flimsy motor-bikes going at 80 mph around a 440 yard contained track was more to my liking, if only for one season. Walrus, the Exhall site, while looking like a bunch of slag heaps cobbled-together for scramble-bike purposes, but probably natural as opposed to man-made, is - suggest - the right place (near Bed'orth, and all) for your recollections of scrambling days, but the Redhills - as Morgana of the Secret Garden testified - would have been your cycle speedway location.

My Dad used to ride in these races under the name of Herbie King, most of the riders used false names because the sport wasn't licensed and a professional rider could lose his license if he was caught. The attraction was that the races were run for cash prizes, and if you won it paid better than speedway or scrambling. They were usually marked out with pit props and wire cables, in itself a major hazard.