On 31st Jan 2017 2:33pm, steve r said:
You can still see the original gates to Canley Cars in Canley Rd opposite the gun shop.
Those gates have been rusting away merrily for decades. The site was completely taken over by Homebase, but they left the old drive and gates in situ, most likely as they had no use for them.
But they weren't always rusty. CCD had them repainted, and they looked lovely in their new British Racing Green coat. That situation didn't last long, less than 24 hours I believe. One dark evening, after the gates had been locked and the site was empty, one of our gang, who was fearless, got a firework, a Standard Spitfire (no, not a car!), out of his pocket and said "I'm going to put my name on the gates". Now the Spitfire was quite a ferocious firework, with a wooden spike, designed to be fixed into the ground. The instructions were stand well away, DANGER - NOT TO BE HELD etc. There was no reasoning with Paul. "I ain't scared. Keep a lookout." Canley Road was then a busy road, as this was before they closed the Riddings off, and passing vehicles, including police cars, regularly came past. Paul held the firework horizontally in his gloved hand, lit it, and used it as a blowtorch to strip off the new paint down to bare steel. The result was PAUL in letters about 18" high. Whilst he was torching the gates, the whole area was brightly illuminated. Oddly, whilst this was going on, not a single vehicle came past.
We expected that this blatant vandalism would be painted out, as the council had done with the writing about Pendleton on the Spon End bridge, but nothing was ever done. I suppose the name Paul was less offensive than "Pendleton the ****** wants ****** police, do you?" PAUL was still on the gates years later, and is probably still there, but no longer visible now that the gates have completely been overtaken by rust, trees, weeds, nature and suchlike. But that was in the good old days when kids like us had a proper upbringing! 
