I was bored the other evening so I was browsing youtube for some clips of where I grew up (Stourbridge, West Midlands). I found a few interesting clips from the 80s when I was growing up there, but then I found what appears to be a documentary, split up into several clips, regarding the building of Stourbridge ring-road in the late 1960s. A couple of these clips are superb. The first one nearly made me wet my pants for a number of exciting reasons.... At 0:36 in the clip, the mock-tudor building on the left is The Mitre pub where I spent most of my mid/late teen years drinking, unsually until unconscious. Secondly, the no.257 bus on the right of the clip is the bus I used to catch every day to college and thirdly, there's a RHD Gulf Blue 1963 (!!) Notch in the clip, reg: 56 JGD...




As if this video clip wasn't enough nostalgia for one evening, another clip from the same documentary actually did make me wet my pants. In the construction of the ring-road a number of old buildings had to be knocked down. Check out the following clip at 0:31...

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Argh!

Which dealership was that, then?

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😎

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The one in Stourbridge :wink: :lol:

In 1968 when demolished, I think it was called Mill St. Garage (Kidderminster Coachcraft). The old building was demolished and a new one built further along on Mill Street, outside the new ring-road in 1968/69.

The new garage in Mill St. Stourbridge c.1971...


I used to get loads of parts for my '61 daily driver from there in the early 1990s. One of the employees owned two Split Beetles, a '51 11G and a '52. His dad used to own a 1947 Beetle.

This remained the VW garage for the area until around 1998 when a new sparkly dealership was built in Wordsley.

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Whoever thought the construction of Stourbridge ring-road could yield such a wealth of pre-67 VW stuff? Another clip, from the first day it opened- 1 Nov 1969. At 2:35, there's a Baltic Blue 66/67 Fastback...




...and another clip showing the side of Mill St. Garage before the bulldozers moved in at. At 0:50 you can see the corner of the dealership on the left, complete with Mr. Bubblehead VW-logo and at 1:01 you can see the rear of the Mill St. dealership...



...I spy a beige pre '67 Beige Beetle on the old forecourt.

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cool! nice one Rich. I love watching these old videos 😎