Mike Byrne
21 Oct 2019
There was a great deal of bombing of Acocks Green, partly because of the Rover Shadow Factory making part for aircraft beside the canal. It had been visited in March 1938 by King George VI. Unlike those in Germany, such shadow factories were not hidden away in woods, but were opened in towns to save transporting staff and to demonstrate that Britain was rearming before the war started. The shadow factory was a new building replacing a market gardening business and it was not demolished until 1975.
Maps of Birmingham covering 1940-43 showed the number of high explosive (blue dots) and incendiary bombs (red dots) which landed. The incendiary bombs were small, often thrown many at a time in baskets, and could be slow to start a fire. In 1942 a new, larger type was brought into use and these had an explosive charge, so were much more dangerous. Stirrup pumps, needing two men to operate them, were issued to Fire, and Air Raid Precaution Wardens to put out the fires. All householders were asked to leave gates and doors open (even though this made a house very cold)so that firefighters could access fire quickly. The contrast between the number of bombs that fell on Acocks Green, and other parts of Birmingham, compared with Solihull was most marked. Only one fire appliance was stationed at Alexander Road, but Tyseley had a larger Fire Station.
The largest air raids on Birmingham were in late 1940 into 1941. Amongst these were the nights of 15/26 August when 46 Cottesbrook Road was destroyed and two people killed. On 24/25 August four were killed when 14 Wildfell Road was destroyed, and elsewhere another house was bombed and work began to find the bodies. But the woman with her children had gone to visit her sister for the night and returned the following morning to find she had no home and digging was continuing. On 22/23 November three large water mains were fractured leaving the city 60% short of water; had there been another raid the following night nothing could have stopped the fires and gas explosions. Also in November the Hockley Bus Depot was badly damaged and many buses destroyed. Those that remained were dispersed and some were parked in Fox Hollies Road – with heaters to prevent their engines from freezing. On 10 December St Mary’s Church at Acocks Green was badly bombed. Over the following months services were held in the cinema until being resumed in a side aisle at Easter 1941.
The church school had been bombed on 18 October. 89 children were evacuated to East Retford (Notts) in January 1941, but 192 remained. Many individual children were sent out of the city: their experiences of living – sometimes over three years – with strange families varied, but some had unpleasant times. In 1942 a Day Nursery for 65 children opened in Flint Green Road which freed women to go to work. There were many fine posters to attract women into the forces, factories, the land army and many other occupations. Dame Laura Knight, RA, painted a woman working at her lathe in a factory. Women now had some money and enjoyed a social life with dance halls and cinemas doing good business during the war. When the end came and the trade union movement insisted ‘all women out, none can stay’ to allow men back into their jobs, there was much resentment.
Food rationing started in 1940 but never included bread or potatoes. The weekly allowance was 4oz lard, 2oz margarine, 2oz cheese, 2 pints milk, 1 egg, a tin of corned beef, and a pork/lamb chop. Clothes rationing was introduced in 1941 with an allowance of 68 coupons per person per year, reduced to 42 in 1948. A woman’s jacket was 11 coupons, skirt & blouse 7, shoes 5, knickers 4 and a bra 3. Each person was issued with a gasmask.
There were several different types of pre-fabricated houses, all detached, erected in Acocks Green. Some were on bombed sites, others on spare land. Many of those that survive are hidden by a faceing of brick, others were demolished, and a few – given to their occupants on condition that they removed them – were moved away to become holiday homes. There were allotments in Fox Hollies Road on land formerly belonging to Colonel Walker of Fox Hollies Hall.