to Longbridge town centre and the Austin Village. Notable people Mike Skinner – the musician aka The Streets lived in and was raised in West Heath. Freddie Farrell – Comic. Lived in and was raised in West Heath. Ian Lavender – actor of Dad's Army fame (Private Frank Pike) lived in Harpers Road in West Heath. In the TV show he wore the claret and blue scarf depicting a loyalty to his real life favourite local football team Aston Villa). Dame Barbara Cartland – it is sometimes stated that the romantic novelist who had been born in Augustus Road, Edgbaston, lived in West Heath but no published evidence is available to support this belief. It is possible that her family moved to West Heath, less affluent than Edgbaston, temporarily after her grandfather's suicide in 1903 which followed his bankruptcy and the family's consequent loss of wealth. Reverend Wilbert Vere Awdry – creator of "Thomas The Tank Engine", was curate at St. Anne's West Heath from 1940 to 1946. It was during this period of his life that Awdry first told a railway story to his son Christopher in 1943 and published his first railway story, "The Three Railway Engines", in 1945. Awdry also held services at the Epiphany Church in the Austin Village. Bruce Chatwin – as a young child during World War II, the novelist and travel writer often lived for periods in West Heath at the home of his widowed paternal grandmother, Isobel Chatwin, who lived at 198 West Heath Road. His uncle sometimes took him to sail boats he had built at nearby Barnt Green Reservoir. Chatwin's mother Margharita had worked as an assistant to Ronald Cartland, Barbara Cartland's brother, who was Member of Parliament for Kings Norton. In the 1950s, 198 West Heath Road became the home of the local medical general practitioner, Dr. Anthony Bobak, but despite the significance of the building, the house was demolished in 2007 and replaced by a block of apartments. The Rockin' Berries – the chart topping band from the 1960s first formed while members were pupils at Turves Green Boys School. David Claridge – born in 1953, lived at 10 Coney Green Drive in the Austin Village as a young child and was a pupil at Turves Green Infants' School, before moving to a private school, Greenmore College. As an adult he created the character of "Roland Rat", a