The First "Metric" houses

Birmingham built it's first metric houses - where all the dimensions were in millimetres as opposed to feet and inches - on the Chelmsley Wood Estate back in the 70's.

It was a block of houses built by C.Bryant and Sons (Bryants) in a system called "System 4 Metric".

I was the engineer who set out - that is placed it in position on the ground from the architects plans -this first metric block. I also took the pictures of the events that followed. So, sadly, I am on none of them.

There was quite a performance that day. The great and the good of the city of Birmingham and Bryants came out to the site and buried an imperial "staff" - a folding 6ft ruler - in the foundations with great pomp and many speeches.

You can see below a number of pictures taken on the day. What day? I can hear you ask... hmmm... I cant remember. Perhaps Bryants could help.




Cllr BEAUMONT-DARK burying the imperial staff ( 6ft rule) in the foundations of the first Metric block of houses in Britain.








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Christopher Bryant with Cllr BEAUMONT-DARK - others unknown



In the foreground - George Tilbrook, the Site Agent (manager) talking to Maudsley, the City Architect for Birmingham. Others unknown.

This is the groundworks crew - excluding me who worked on the site. Left to right 1. not known. 2. George Tilbrook. 3.Alan ? Senior Engineer. 4. Chris Higgins (Engineer). 5. Ernie Harris (Engineer). Rest unknown except man with leveling staff. He was my chainman (assistant). His name was Joe from Northern Ireland.

The whole groundworks crew. The black guy (Ken) was the most amazing machine driver I have ever seen. He could make a 20 ton machine dance. Spectacular and a joy to watch.
You can see where the "staff" was buried and also the layout of the walls on the raft foundation of the block. The green lines show the dividing walls between houses.

Pictures of Birmingham in the late 60's

I believe this is a "Brew House". This is what a shared wash house was called in Birmingham back to backs. This one - taken in the late 70's was near to the jewelry quarter. I cant remember the road. Notice the sterilised milk bottle - or as my dad called it "bulls milk".



These remaining houses were at the bottom of Summer Lane I think. The flats behind were built by Bryants using Bison units and those on the right were built by Wimpey or Geo Stubbings. Notice the church in front of the houses. There is another shot of the front of this church on the site.



I believe those gasometers in the background are some of those at Saltley Gasworks - my father fell off one of those and survived. I am told this is Cato St - a road running parallel to Devon St in the Saltley area.


An old lamppost. Probably gas originally but converted to electric before ending it's life as a headless corpse. This was taken in the Newtown area off summer lane.



Above and below local lads playing on the cleared land in the Newtown area. Probably late 60's early 70's




An old corner shop on the corner of a street off Garrison Lane (on the left at the top of garrison lane near to Bham City football ground).



Above and below...houses being demolished in Summer Lane Newtown. In the background can be seen a new block of flats and the old George Lucas Factory





The old being replaced by the new. How long will they last I wonder? Again in the Newtown area.



This is the church contained in one of the pictures above. It was still in use as can be seen from the messages on the front.




A classic Birmingham gentleman's urinal - I suppose "pissoir" in France. There were many of these dotted about Birmingham. I'm not sure whether any exist anymore.