Oak Tree Lane Selly Oak

A Memory of Birmingham.

We were the Hobbis family and we lived at 54 Oak tree Lane, Selly Oak with my parents and grandmother. The house was directly opposite the old Selly Oak Hospital. I can remember the re-building of the hospital and sadly now it lays derelict ready for redevelopement into housing.

Selly Oak was always a busy village with many shops and you could walk from one end of Oak tree Lane to the bottom of Selly Oak passing many retail shops on the way. Not as it is now. There were not many students living there then, most lived on the campus.

My sister and I used to count the many public houses there were. I can remember, The White Horse, the Plough, Oak Tavern, The Station Inn, the Bournbrook, the Brook, the Gun barrels, Actually there were many more.
We used to regularly visit The Oak Cinema, which used to stand on a site somewhere Sainsbury's is now.
We both attended Raddlebarn Infants and Juniors, then I moved on to Selly Park girls' school.

My grandmother's mother owned our home along with many houses in the Selly Oak area. Her name was Fanny Woolfe. I remember the dummy factory at the bottom of the village. Also the old 'bomb' site in I think, Hubert Road. We used to play there in our younger days when we lived in Exeter Road.
How the place has changed. I wonder if there is anyone else who remembers the area like I do?

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