Does anyone know why 17 Borrowdale Road is missing? Every day I walk past the empty space and wonder why it’s not there.
No. 13 is missing as well but I suppose that’s just unlucky.
My husband was born at 48 in 1944. He says there never was a property there. The plot of land was used as an allotment, probably to aid the war effort.
I remember a chap once told me that before the estate was built a property was there and underneath there’s a tunnel that goes to Frankley.
My mom moved into Borrowdale Road in 1931 at 125. She remembers an allotment and a power station.
I’ve heard about that tunnel, it goes all the way back to Cromwell’s days. When they burnt down the house next door to the church they hid all the treasure down the tunnel. I live next door to where your mom lived.
I lived at 36 Norrington Road. Does anyone remember me?
I think the tunnel started at Quinney’s Farm and went to St Leonard’s Church. It was used by the monks to store all their worldly possessions.
Cromwell had a lot of connections to the tunnel. The bridle path is still in place from the farm to the church.
About 5 years ago a well-dressed lady knocked at my front door. She explained that she’d spent her childhood in Borrowdale Road and asked to enter my garden. She looked around for a big oak tree, but it was next door and they were out. I later learnt that the well-dressed lady had passed away. It just goes to show.
I lived at 36 Norrington Road. Does anyone remember me?
The tunnel was built in Elizabethan times.
The estate was built in the Thirties to clear the city centre slums.
The house missing in Borrowdale Road lines up exactly with those missing in Fitzroy Road, Norrington Road and Masonleys Road. You’ll find that the water from Elan Valley is sent in big pipes underground to Birmingham. That’s why it can’t be built on.
It was funded by Cadburys and Austin to house their growing workforce. They must have been palaces compared to the back to backs.
So why do they miss the numbers out?
I lived at 36 Norrington Road. Does anyone remember me?