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Welcome to our family site, I am the youngest son of Sydney and Martha Roberts of Mill Lane Solihull, I was born in the year of 1934. I can't remember anything about that year except that it was a very good year "vintage I might add". I have two brothers one of which now lives in Canada, but that is far ahead of where we were in 1934. My granny and grandad also lived in Mill Lane down at number 4 some very old cottages which were to be demolished  later on  with Drury Lane and part of Warwick Road to make way for Mell Square as we know it today. The war came in 1939, Solihull had its carnival as though nothing was any different, all of us children dressed up in costume of some sort or another I remember my dad put a tin hat on my head I had a toy rifle (pop gun) that fired corks on a string and a card stating that “Britain Needs You”, and would you believe I won my class, I got a watch for my efforts. There was an air raid shelter in the garden of Mill Lane School where we used to go when there were Air Raids the sirens could be heard going off and we were got ready to go, with our gas masks which we all had. We also used to get a lot of parades. The ATC (air training corps) and the Army Cadets from Solihull School had bands and they were always parading around Solihull, there was another band that could outdo them all and that was The GTC  (girls training corps) and they were good, there was always something going on in those days for young boys to get excited about, we did not quite understand the darker side of things. 1945 the war ends we have a street party in the school yard in Mill Lane, while the war was on the school became “The British Restaurant”.  After the war it became derelict for sometime but was later refurbished for for the collage, after that it was demolished. (I have some cini film of the demise of the school as well as our home which I am hopping to put onto our site when I can get them transferred.) As with all young men when we reached 18 years old we were called up for our
National Service, my two brothers went into the Royal Air Force but I went to the Army, what an experience that was, something never to be forgotten.

 

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