When Google failed to supply an answer about one of the city’s late great politicians, Jon Griffin reached for a trusty old friend, the Birmingham Post Year Book. He looks back fondly at the region’s go-to directory in an age before the internet.
It began as a quick look back through the archives – and became a glorious sepia-tinted journey to a distant world.
One of Birmingham’s post-war political giants, Sir Neville Bosworth, had died, and I needed to check the facts of his astonishing 46-year career at Birmingham City Council.
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For once, Google was unable to fill in all the gaps of an extraordinary political odyssey – so I dusted off a faithful friend which had lain unloved and ignored on a bookshelf for far too long.
The 1979-80 Birmingham Post Year Book and Who’s Who contained more than 40 lines on the rich detail of Sir Neville’s extraordinary career, and even displayed the great man’s home telephone number at his address in Four Oaks.
In the foreword to the 31st Year Book, then Lord Mayor George Canning says of the mighty tome: “I have always found the Birmingham Post Year Book and Who’s Who so invaluable, that it is difficult to envisage how one would cope in public life without such a useful publication.” He wasn’t joking.
This newspaper’s Year Book may be no more – but it’s difficult to envisage a more comprehensive guide for an unashamed exercise in nostalgia for anybody looking for a glimpse of what life was like here in Birmingham over 30 years ago.
Entirely at random, I was able to glean an astonishing variety of facts and figures....
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Under the ‘Association Football’ section, Aston Villa’s president was listed as AT Gill, the manager was R Saunders (soon to win the old First Division), the secretary’s job was vacant and the Outer Circle buses, 39, 6 and 7a would get you to the ground.
Birmingham City (founded 1875 as Small Heath Alliance) included the aforementioned Mr Bosworth among its directors, along with C Coombs, J Wiseman and H Dare, and the manager was Jim Smith (no mention of his famed Bald Eagle epithet).
In the Cricket pages, the president of Warwickshire CC is Brigadier Sir Richard H Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, BT, CBE, LLD, DL, JP. The chairman is Cyril Goodway, captain John Whitehouse and general secretary Alan Smith.
Ordinary membership for an under 65 resident within 15 miles of Edgbaston cost £13 whilst the same category for over 65s (or 60 in the case of ladies) amounted to £6.50.
Even more exotically, but still in the sports section under Yachting and Water Sports, we are told: “You don’t have to be a member of a sailing club to enjoy dinghy sailing in Birmingham. Provided you have a dinghy, 75 pence and a life jacket, the wearing of which is compulsory, you can now enjoy a day’s sailing on the half-mile long pool in Brookvale Park, Erdington.” (courtesy of the council’s Amenities and Recreation Department).
We learn that more than 1,000 fishing clubs were affiliated to the Birmingham Anglers Association, the largest organisation of its type in the country, with a total membership exceeding 60,000.
“The annual contest on the River Severn, the River Avon and local canals, attracts the biggest entry of its kind in the world.”
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The Radio and Television section describes BBC Pebble Mill as the ‘most prolific production base for BBC programmes outside London......the evergreen Come Dancing, Farming, Gardener’s World, the New Life programmes for the Asian community are part of the output....Top Gear is a special programme for road users....Basil Brush has his place at Pebble Mill too.”
Rivals ATV boasted an audience of more than eight and a half million people, with an output which included Crossroads, with an estimated nightly audience of 15 million, New Faces, ATV Today, Star Soccer, Angling Today, TISWAS and Gardening Today.
There are six pages devoted to firms ‘in business for a century,’ including such names as Alldays, Peacock and Co, Thomas Newey Ltd, Rabone, Petersen and Co, PJ Willcox Ltd, Vaughtons Ltd, The Scholefield Goodman Group, Hindes Ltd, Davenports Brewery, The Stock Exchange (Midlands and Western Unit), Metro Cammell, Britannic Assurance, Chad Valley Co Ltd and many others.
Restaurants ‘open on Sundays’ included the Albany Hotel, the Cobden Hotel, the Delphi Kebab House, the Strathallan Hotel, Rosco’s, Gino’s Pizza Bar and the Sylvania Chinese Restaurant. There’s a section on Birmingham’s weather in 1978, which recalls ‘a very cold spell in mid-February’ and ‘an extreme cold spell which set in on December 31st.’
It adds: “The coldest April since 1922 was recorded....the summer was dull and rather cool, in fact the dullest since 1968....by contrast the autumn was the warmest since 1959.”
It cost 11p to park for an hour at Birmingham Airport or £1.75 for up to 24 hours and ‘fast electric trains run half-hourly between Birmingham New Street and London Euston for most of the day, taking 95 minutes.’
Major events in Birmingham parks included the City of Birmingham Show, the Highland Gathering, the Tulip Festival and the City of Birmingham Angling Festival.
Clubs included the Arnold Club, founded in 1869 for headmasters, the Calthorpe Women’s Luncheon Club, the Radio Industries Club of the Midlands and the Grand Junction Club, which met twice a year on the second Friday of March and November.
There’s a treasure trove of names from the past, including the Birmingam Who’s Who at the back of the volume.
Pebble Mill’s head of network production was Phil Sidey, network editor, television was Peter Cairns, the manager of BBC Radio Birmingham was Jack Johnston and Midlands news editor was Gordon Randall.
The president of ATV was Lord Grade, the chairman Jack Gill, managing director Lord Windlesham, Programme Controller Charles Denton, and Head of Sport was former England football captain Billy Wright.
The chairman of BRMB was John Parkinson and managing director David Pinnell, with Brian Sheppard News Editor. The director of the Alexandra Theatre was Michael Bullock, manager of the Hippodrome Barry Hopson and theatre director of the Birmingham Repertory Clive Perry.
The general manager of Midland Red was JA Birks, the chairman of the Birmingham Botanical and Horticultural Society was BJ Clatworthy and RL Hart of Streetly was hon secretary of the Midland Backgammon Association.
The Birmingham Post Year Book and Who’s Who started in 1949 and ran for more than 50 years, before being consigned to history with the onset of the digital age in the mid-1990s.
But it left an indelible mark on the city during its many years of publication.