AN OLD BIRMINGHAM POSTCARD: CHECK OUT SALTLEY!

 The Old Postcard Of Birmingham…

Slag heaps,

Like Egyptian pyramids in a desert dusk

Rise into a dank smog

With its nauseous green and yellow stink,

As Birmingham’s industrial image spoils;

Factory stacks,

Like smouldering obelisks in a desert sandstorm

Smoke into a rank fog

With its bilious grey and obscene stink,

As Birmingham’s industrial workforce toils…

 

Pete Ray

The postcard was used and sent on 12th September 1907, nearly 110 years ago. 

But ‘Beautiful Birmingham’?

The writer reckons it was a good representation of what Saltley was like then.

I lived just 2 or 3 miles from Saltley as a young child in the early 1950s.

The heaps reminded me of ancient Egyptian pyramids and the chimneys of ancient Egyptian obelisks…

The postcard is one of those currently being displayed in Mary B Harding’s book: ‘Comic and Novelty Postcards of Birmingham’ by Maxam Publishing, Smethwick, West Midlands.