Solihull Online would like to hear your memories of growing up in Solihull during the 80's. If you would like to add to this page, we would love to hear from you. Click on the links below to view memories of that period 1930's | 1940's | 1950's | 1960's | 1970's | 1980's | 1990's This page was last updated on 05 May 2008

Posted Monday, May 5, 2008
Heavens above, Andrew Humphries, Leo with twin! The Snooty Fox (Paul and Zoe swanning around like a couple of racehorses), The Masons Arms (Fred and Doreen - bless), The Captain's Locker, The Count,The Black Red Rose Room....The Woolworths Job mmmmn say no more.....assorted electrical goods and 17 Mars Bars as I recall Your Honour. Tut, tut.  I remember those days, we were all of 17. No wonder I fled to The Colonies and the tropical climes of Port Douglas. Where is Ken?
Benson (Susan) Bryan

Posted Monday, May 5, 2008
I now live in Australia so to read these e-mails is great!  I went to Alderbrook School, left in 1985, really love to hear from anyone who was around then.  I came back to Solihull for a visit a couple of years ago and thought what a shame it was that the 'village' has shifted away from the square to Touchwood Shopping Centre.  Remember when you used to be able to dangle your feet into the water and hang around and check out the boys! 
Rachel Staggs (Horton)

Posted Wednesday, April 23, 2008
I remember when the McDonalds opened and I ate 12 hamburgers and was sick all down my jumper!  I remember the skinheads smoking by the climbing wall at Lode Heath and I was always getting "posted" by the 3rd year kids!  You were either a Mod or a Rocker too, happy days!!
Kevin Oakes

Posted Tuesday, April 22, 2008
It's quite sobering to see all the other accounts of solihull from the 80's & it brings back a lot of memories. For me the memory of working in The Snooty Fox 1980 to '82 was a non stop laugh. The manager at the time was a tall blonde haired man called Paul & the d.j. was a character called Paul Beech and this was when the snooty was the place to be! The high street was open to traffic and the original 'new' shopping centre was built on a piece of wasteland next to woolworths. Safeways did not exist in the town centre (that too was wasteland/muddy car park) & the road on which the police station is situated was full of inhabited luxury houses, not offices. As with most things time moves on and town centres are re-developed but i'm glad to see many other people have positive memories of solihull a few years ago!
Andrew Humphries

Posted Monday, December 10, 2007
Does anyone know Martin Handy lived in castle brom dad died cpl years ago.
get in touch x
Michelle

Posted Monday, November 19, 2007
My fondest memory is the swinging monkey (or monik as I called it when I was a kid) in the shoe shop window on the High St.  My sis and me would love to watch that little fella and a visit to Solihull was not complete without him.  I believe he's still there but looking a little worn with time, much like us all!
Greg Hayes

Posted Monday, September 24, 2007
I remember when Mell Square would be covered in a mass of white foam when a box of fairy was thrown into the fountains (happened most nights).  I also remember my  dad who would  drive round and round Mell Square on a Saturday  waiting to find a parking bay. I just thought' you  could still get a bus then outside the picture house without having walk down the high street. People seemed to talk to each other back then too. i always remember being in Woolworths on Christmas Eve and it started to snow the injuries suffered stampeding outside through great big metal and glass doors were not worth it as it never lasted.
Where my mum's horse field was its now a hotel the one across from the carpark entrance to Touchwood. The court house is built on where she had stables in Herbert Road. They used to store the round tables Father Christmas float in one of the stables. One of  best things about summer was when Bob Wilson's fair turned up in Tudor Grange park. And the all the carnival floats would end up at the park. Always went on one as a kid. People would chuck money at you and you try catching it with your bucket. It really hurt if it got you in the face or head. My dad used to use his works lorry for a float .  I remember when widney manor train station was just a  glass bus stop on a deserted platform and the M42 Ended (or started) at the Stratford Road island. 
I remember dumping rubbish with my dad at Hay Lane tip where now its just houses waiting to blow up from decades of rotting rubbish beneath them producing gas. Now that's a sobering thought.  The lido who can forget that with its multi coloured changing room doors  all around the edge of the pool and if you felt brave the water slide. And the shop down the far end. You could leave your things lying about then on your towel and they would still be there when you got  back to them. Those really were great times. Walking under the white painted arch type building down the narrow road just off the end of park avenue and going through the  green wooden door into the pool area back when summers were summers . It seems a life time ago. And I was only just 11 in 1980
Robin Turrell

Posted Wednesday, August 15, 2007
I used to live in a big red bricked house next to Malvern Lido in Park avenue, my dad was the pool engineer and I spent every waking hour in the summer holidays in that pool, along with my two brothers ( who went to Malvern Hall School. I went to St. Peters School because when it was time for me to go to senior school, Malvern Hall had closed down).  I also remember the "Swiss Alps" or "Swiss Cottage"? restaurant on the high street, it did fantastic hot chocolate!!  Does anyone remember "Smarties" clothes store on the corner of Poplar Way?  it did a great line in pedal pushers and rara skirts.  My very fave shop was next to Peters book shop called "Paraphinaelia" not sure of the spelling!, it sold rolls of stickers that you could buy just one of and coloured sheets of writing paper.  I probably sound like a nutter now, but once you think about it, loads of funny memories come back to you.  Blimey I could go on all day. I loved growing up in Solihull in the 70's, and my saddest feeling is that my old infant school ( St Augustines) is now a car park.  I live in Cornwall now and haven't been back for a good few years, but if anyone remembers me ( Becky Bishop, long white blonde hair then, running around the lido in next to nothing - like I said it was the innocent 70's,) send me a mail, its good fun talking about a shared past.
Rebecca Louise Bishop

Posted Monday, July 9, 2007
I remember going to see rock bands at 'The Lair', the old lounge of 'The Golden Lion', and being overcome by smoke in 'The Captain Locker' when the ventilators weren't working. After the pubs shut it was off to 'Scandals' or 'The Aero Club' (if you could get in) and if you weren't dressed up for the occasion, then it was off to 'The House of Orchid' (or 'Our Kid') for a chinese meal. Shops include 'Simpsons' the fishmongers, 'RS McColl' newsagents and 'Rowleys' butchers. The open air disco's at the various rugby clubs always seemed to be a good laugh as was sitting around the Mell Square fountains waiting for the pubs to open at 5pm. Good times!
Ivan Szrejder

Posted Tuesday, March 6, 2007
This is a great site it's just a shame not more people link to it. I was a regular visitor to the Solihull pub scene between 1983 - 1988. Many a good night spent at The Snooty Fox and then on to Scandals. There was Lady's night on a  Wednesday when all drinks were 50p (happy days). Who remembers Valentinos at the back of 'the Boat' on Hampton Lane? 'The Business' night club at the Boot, Honiley. It we really felt adventurous then it was off to 'The Swan' at Yardley now office buildings. Happy days
Steve Edgington

Posted Monday, January 29, 2007
I remember when it was 2 pence to go anywhere on the bus so me and my friends used to alternate between 'the big W' in the woods at Hobs Moat, and Solihull town centre (or Solihull village as my mum still calls it).  We used to walk through Poplar Way and buy a blue Slush Puppie from Menzies (where M&S is now).  There used to be a Braggs (now Greggs) on the High Street where you could go upstairs to their cafe.  I saw ET at the pictures and pretended that I was the only one of my six friends that didn't cry when he died!  I remember John Taylor from Duran Duran being spotted in a shop by Beatties, when it was still a windy alley, and us trying to get to Solihull before he disappeared.  We failed...
Happy Days!!
Bev

Posted Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Having read these I felt compelled to answer some of the questions asked. The cafe in Windy Alley, still exists and is still windy! The record shop on the corner where Howard Jones appeared in '83 was Discovery Records (now Fat Face Clothing). The indoor market was always temporary as the Touchwood project was always going to happen and re-structure the entire centre. All the pubs are still in there but generally all are re-named apart from the Barley Mow, Saddlers Arm's and Mason's Arm's which generally still look the same today. Scandals night club, the place to be, went years ago and was 'modernised' in various designs but is current called 'Reflex' and you've guessed it, play 80's revival music? How times change......
Jools

Posted Friday, June 16, 2006
Does anyone remember Byrons and Shades about 20 years ago 1986/87? Frequented both on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.  Fond memories of smoke filled bars, waiting 20 minutes to be served and tons of really good looking fellas.  White stilletos, tight jeans and big hair were standard uniform.  Sometimes used to go to Scandals night club afterwards - fab times.
Leah Francis

Posted Monday, June 12, 2006
Well, I must be really old!  Solihull was referred to as 'the village,' when I was young.  I worked in the Bon-Bon on the high street serving Henley ice cream to the long queues on a Sunday afternoon.  By the way, I was paid 10p an hour!  Wrensons and Masons grocery shops were there selling sugar in blue fold up bags as was the greengrocers (Co-op I think) whose fruit & veg counters spilled over onto the pavement.  Later on Frescos the coffee bar was the place to be seen on a Saturday afternoon which was located where Yates Wine Lodge is now.  I spent many happy hours at the Lido, getting changed in the wooden dressing rooms. On Monday night it was the jazz club at the back of the Masons Arms and on Thursday was the 'Twist' Club!  Happy days, where has the time gone?
Susan Minchew (nee Fogarty)

Posted Sunday, May 14, 2006
I am not from Solihull but I met and married my first husband, Steve Harwood, in Solihull in 1979. We met at a disco above a pub in the High Street but I cant remember its name now. We then lived in a flat at Water Orton but I longed to live in Solihull. Steve worked for Hobart just up the road from Small Heath and I worked for Acas in Alpha Tower and then in job centres in Small Heath and Washwood Heath. Steve's mum and dad used to work at Solihull School. He and his elder brother Tim both went to Lode Heath and Tim still lives in Olton. I met him through a friend of mine called Gillian Rowledge aka Gill Reynolds who used to work at the Rover works and had a little house off of Lode Lane and then a bigger one in a group of houses that formed a complete circle at the back of Hobs Moat. She married a guy called Bob Glen. I am coming back to Solihull on 27/5 for the first time since I moved back south in 1981 and I will be staying at the Wheatsheaf for the weekend. It will be very very strange to return and it will bring back a lot of happy memories. By the way does anyone know of a good hairdresser in Sheldon where I can have my hair done before the wedding??
Janette Crisp

Posted Monday, November 14, 2005
I had such fun growing up in Solihull. I remember Friday night discos in the Civic Hall, all totally innocent then, no booze involved! also the fair in June in Solihull Park, all mates together, Toody, Elaine, Alison, Dawn and Jackie. living in Ireland now but always think of the girls x x x 
Marie Farrell (nee Lynch)

Posted Monday, November 14, 2005
I just came across this website looking for 1980's clothes for my work party how bizarre. Everybody seems to remember the old cinema which used to cost about a £1 to get in. Had to move out of Solihull because the cost of the houses but my family still live there.
Chris

Posted Thursday, October 13, 2005
I remember being at the cinema to see ET and caught the bus home with my sister and the bus driver asked if i was ok cause I had been crying (well it was a sad film!!) The cinema was where the royal bank of Scotland is now. those were the days!!
Tracy

Posted Monday, June 13, 2005
I didn't see "the temple of doom" but I did see "the last crusade" there. Does anyone know why they didn't just let you buy the tickets before-hand, rather than making everyone queue down the road?  Also, I remember when there was a KFC as well as a McDonalds. Back then we had a choice about our fast food. It didn't last long though, did it?
Ben

Posted Monday, May 9, 2005
Glad to see a lot of shared experiences ! i remember standing in the huge queue for Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom stretching into Drury Lane (?); hours spent at WH Smith which had switched from one side of Mell Square to the other in about 1980; the well -stocked Beatties toy department and seemingly huge toy store at Barnabys where i got a 10% store discount from kindly staff; waiting with my brother and sister at the fountain for my mum to return to our car parked opposite (or waiting at the bigger Pay & Display car park near Solihull library); ordering books at Peter's bookshop; the material shop run by an Asian gent next to one of the first Kwik save stores; dad buying one of the first microwave ovens (a Tapan) at Bejam; buying a Nike tee shirt and Galleni body warmer at Burtons to go with my first pair of jeans (grey) brought at M&S; i think the record store was an Our Price...
Erum

Posted Monday, April 11, 2005
I remember going into Barnabys toy shop, at the back of Beatties, going upstairs past all of the glass cabinets full of toys.
Mark

Posted Monday, April 4, 2005
I have lived in the U.S. for the past 40 years but I grew up in Solihull and remember going to Solihull Lido all through the summer Holidays, I have such fond memories of that time.
Barbara Rickaby DeSantis

Posted Wednesday, June 9, 2004
Sorry - the guy who did all the games at Hatchford Brook YC was Pete not Rob - my memory is definitely getting worse with age!!
Jane

Posted Saturday, June 5, 2004
I was in that queue to see Grease - dressed in 1950's circle skirt and ankle socks.  My friends and I took it in turns to go into the shop over the road - Paraphernalia - to sit down on the sofas for a rest.  We always went to the cafe on the top floor of Beatties and I clearly remember McDonalds opening - we went in our lunch hour from Tec.  Spent most of my Friday night's in the Captain's Locker.  My fondest memories though are of Hatchford Brook Youth Club - Dave Coombs who was the main man there and Rob who used to do all the sporty things - the pool room was excellent and monthly discos, fantastic!  I remember doing a 24 hour sponsored disco dance there where you weren't allowed to stop dancing except to go to the loo - what a great time.
Jane

Posted Monday, April 19, 2004
Ah, sitting round the fountains in summer with your mates watching the posers in their cars drive round! Everyone at some point went in that fountain - from choice or not! We all jumped in it the day we left school in 1984. The Captain Locker, Snooty Fox and Scandals were the places to be at the weekend. What was the record shop on the corner? We wagged the afternoon off school to get signed photos of Howard Jones when he visited in about 1983. Good days, I have to say I hate Solihull centre now, especially Touchwood. Traffic is a nightmare all round the vicinity and parking is a joke.
S Jay

Posted Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Gosh, I grew up just on the outskirts of Solihull in the 80's. I remember the Indoor Market, and Barretts, going shopping there with my best mate without parental assistance!
Juliet Dowling

Posted Tuesday, February 17, 2004
I didn't think I was old until I read all this lot.. I can remember dad parking right in the middle of Mell Square. I remember queuing for Rocky at the old cinema. Fosters on the High Street - bad grey fleck trousers were in at the time. As I lived in Prospect Lane - can anyone remember the old Lucas Playing field. My dad (Phil) was a good footballer and played for the Marshall Lake Road team, I still remember it, this I reckon is one of my earliest childhood memories! Solihull is such a top place.
Rob Hall

Posted Friday, December 12, 2003
Me and my friends lining up for 6 hours just to be the first in the Cinema on the high street to see Return of the Jedi in 1983.....
Andy Wagstaff

The Clark's shoe shop in the High Street with the swinging monkey in the front window -- bubbles in the fountain at Mell Square -- Beatties when it was a real department store not just a poor man's copy of Debenhams -- being pecked by the geese in Brueton Park -- My nan asking the staff at McDonalds for cutlery & plates -- first snogs in Tudor Grange park -- the school uniform shop where we were measured for new school kit and then still given clothes 4 sizes too big - the list goes on and on! I live in Manchester now but still come home to Dorridge often. Solihull has changed loads - Touchwood and the markets in the High street are nice but when I was a kid I thought Solihull was the largest town in the world and it's sad to see how small it really is (there again, wagon wheels were the size of dustbin lids & Curlywhirly's were a metre long!!)
Kate Upton

I remember the carnival going down the high street, we always used to stand by the old cinema. Also remember the cafe on the high street.
Chris Jones

I remember McDonalds opening in Solihull, it was a really big thing, we lined up for ages just to get our first taste of a Big Mac and a triple thick milkshake. My kids think that must have been in the Victorian times, and when I try to explain how Solihull used to look when i was a kid, they look at me as if I am speaking a different language.
Rachael Dakin

I too remember the toy shop opposite the old Mothercare (now MKone) and distinctively remember my mom buying me a small wind up boat for in the bath!
I also remember seeing the Disney film, Aristocrats, in the old cinema on Solihull High Street.
Julie

I have lived away from England for almost 19 years and left shortly after qualifying as a Nursery Nurse at Solihull technical college and I have wonderful memories of my time there. I have just found this web site, it was so nice to see photos of Solihull after so much time.
Debbie Jackson

I remember Mell Square when you could drive into it and park outside Sainsbury's (where WH Smiths and Boots are now located). I remember when the Mell Square shopping centre when it first opened, and getting Trevor Francis' autograph when Lewis' the news agents opened opposite. I went to Tudor Grange 1983-1988, and did Commerce where we had to write a questionnaire about a proposed new shopping centre to be built near the library - 20+ years later Touchwood is a reality! I remember in 1979 queuing at the cinema to see Grease on the opening day, the queue went round past the car park where Thomas Cooks used to be. I also remember parking in the Beaties car park and going to the restaurant on the top floor with my Mum for a milkshake. Does the small cafe above the shops in Windy Ally still exist - near the Early Learning centre? If anyone knows of ex-Tudor Grange/Hockley Heath pupils 1976-1988 please email me!!
Jonathan Bryant



Tudor Grange when it was just a swimming pool, no squash courts, no slides, no sports centre. Mell Square when the fountains were working. The toy shop Barnaby's (?) opposite Mothercare. Barratts (horsey shop) when it was near St. Alphage.
The cinema. Last but not least something that is still there, Poplar Multi Storey.
I can vaguely remember the 'old' Mell Square with the large fountain in the middle where the cafe bar is now. Sainsburys used to be, I think, where WH Smith is now - and my Mum, Joan Sherfield, who sadly died last year, worked there and was the checkout manager - the uniform used to be blue checked 'apron' coats, if I remember rightly.
Liz Sherfield

I remember going shopping with my parents and parking outside Mell Square where that centre cafe is now. It was a proper town then before it was all pedestrianized.  
Paul

For the gentleman who went to St. James the Great 'the red one' was Galahad.  I too went there but that was 1979-1983 when Mrs Ransen was in charge.  I recently met an old teacher from the school, Mrs Hipwell, she was teaching my daughter at nursery and recognised me immediately.  I also had Mr Morgan for my last year there.  Incidentally I was in Lancelot.
Hazel Braddish

Unfortunately I am still quite young. I do remember going shopping with my parents in Solihull, and always getting shouted at for running into the High Street which was always busy with cars and lorries on Saturdays. That's it I'm afraid, but its been wonderful hearing all of the other stories. Emma

During 1985 Bob Geldof's Live Aid made millions of pounds for the starving in Ethiopia The world's rock elite got together for a mammoth intercontinental charity concert. Dire Straits, U2, Queen, David Bowie, Madonna, and Status Quo were just a few of the stars who took part and The event became the prototype for just about every Telethon and live charity event afterwards. Live Aid is announced

Sinclair ZX81
New, improved specification Z80A micro-processor - new faster version of the famous Z80 chip, widely recognised as the best ever made, a new powerful 8K BASIC ROM, 1K-byte RAM, unique `one-touch' key word entry: the ZX81 eliminates a great deal of tiresome typing. Key words (RUN, LIST, PRINT, etc.). Kit or built - it's up to you! 1K-byte RAM expandable to 16K bytes with Sinclair RAM pack.

Now it's your turn?
What are your fondest memories of childhood? Some will be personal to you but others will be shared by many of us.

WANTED copyright free pictures of Solihull in the 80's
Click Here to post a photograph on this page

Get in touch with lost friends or family. Would you like to make contact with Old School Friends, Work Colleagues or Family from the Solihull area? Maybe even arrange a Reunion.

Geoffrey Dean has allowed Solihull Online to display a collection of Old Postcards of Solihull from his huge collection.

Do you have any old photographs of Solihull?
Why not display some of them on this website.
Thanks to Tony Aitken for his pictures, and to Dilly Forth for her photos of Earlswood

A Ghost Story from Catherine de Barnes. Read Dave Cuby's strange encounter

Do you remember Betamax Videos, Live Aid, Mouse Trap, CB Radio and Rubik Cubes?

TV Programes
The A-Team
Bagpuss
Battlestar Galactica
The Banana Splits
The Clangers
Dastardly & Muttley
Dempsey and Makepeace
The Double Deckers
Fireman Sam
Grange Hil
Hi-De-Hi
Inspector Gadget
Knight Rider
Miami Vice
Not the Nine O'clock News
Postman Pat
Rentaghost
Spitting Image
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles
Thomas The Tank Engine
Tiswas
Worzel Gummidge

Crowds packed the streets and millions watched worldwide on television when Charles and Diana were married in St. Paul's Cathedral 29th July  1981


The Falklands War
1st April - 14th June 1982