A Local History Facebook Group Poem by Ray Miller

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 stood 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 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?

What do you think of the estate these days?

It's alright apart from the dog shit, the drugs,
the drunks, the boarded up shops and boy-racers.

The pub's been knocked down,
they've built a home where it was
for old people with dementia.

Can you tell the difference?

There isn't a 36 Norrington Road.