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Ashley Street Nelson Street South

mayne-knott

proper brummie kid
Census details are RG13/2835. Address details 25 Ashley Street (St Martins Ward. Any help in finding out where this is in Birmingham or details of where I can find any pictures or maps of the area will be much appreciated. Many thanks.
 
In 1900 no 25 Ashley St was Henry Insley, coal dealer. It is shown in red between Gooch St & Bristol St on the c 1913 map below. Wrentham st is still there to give you an idea where exactly the street was.

map_c_1914_no_25_Ashley_St.jpg
 
Hi mayne-knott, I believe Ashley Street was previously named Nelson Street South and it ran between Bristol Street and Sherlock Street and lay inbetween Wrentham Street and Benacre Street. Only Wrentham Street remains today though. It's junction with Bristol Street could possibly have been inbetween Monacco House and the petrol station, (just before Bristol Street Motors)
If you search for www.old-maps.co.uk and put Wrentham Street in the search box and then look at the map for 1916-1927, you should find it.
Hope this helps
 
Many thanks mikejee, the 1901 census lists Albert Harvey, my grandfather as living there. He's listed as a "coal yard keeper" status "worker" on the census which I recall Dad telling me. The family history is all starting to fit together. I can't recall my father ever telling me about living at this address, though. Many thanks again.
 
This map of this street surveyed in 1888/9 shows it was then known by its former name of Nelson Street South1888BirminghamNelsonStSouthBristolTerraceBelowCabDepot.gif
 
1866SthNelsonStreet.jpg 1866 Map with this street named Sth Nelson Str
 

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I've often looked at this photo showing a 'Bristol Road School' mainly because of all the advert posters plastered on it. On the building is a street name plate 'Nelson Street South'. Looking at maps I could not find a street of that name but eventually found this thread which has maps showing that the street was renamed 'Ashley Street' but also show that there was a church on the corner with a Sunday School behind it. The building does not look (to me) much like a church, maybe it was Methodist. I've also looked at the information in the links in post#7.
BristolRd_School.jpg
 
Larger scale maps show it was a Unitarian Church. the poster also dates the photo as around august 1882. The building does not look much like the outline on the map, so possibly it was demolished to build the church. The 1882 directory lists it as Mrs Mary Pitman's commercial school. the street njumbering changes between 1882 & 1883, but it does not look as if in 1883 & 1884 there is anything listed. In 1888 the unitarian chapel is listed but placed the wrong side of the junction (not unusual with early Kellys)

Birm post 10.8.1882.jpg map cx 1889 showing unitarian chapel on corner of nelson st south.jpg
 
Thanks Mike for the information. I suppose the 'bill posters' knew the building was empty and on went the adverts.
 
I suppose if your first image in #9 is from a newspaper it could put an approx date on the photo of the building.
 
The Old Meeting Church was built there in 1885, knocked about a bit in WW2, partly by the Luftwaffe and perhaps partly by the Home Guard who used it as an HQ for their Street Fighting School which operated in the devastated area adjacent to it - but no doubt it was the planners who finally did for it in the 1960s.

(Isn't that area Bristol STREET, rather than Bristol Road as the shop was called?)

Chris

Church1900sWEB.jpg
 
The date around august 1882 I gave in post 9 came from the newspaper (10.8.1882)
Chris
The building had been a school since at least 1841, though then it was run by Edward Pitman and was called either an academy or a boys boarding school. Always in Bristol St, as you say. Had wondered if it had originally been on a site in Bristol road, but no evidence of that. Probably called that because iot was on the "road going towards Bristol ?
.
 
Hello:
My friend is a retiring real estate attorney in the US. MANY years ago, a friend visited the UK and purchased an old document, a land lease, which my friend has had hung on his wall every since. It is an interesting conversation piece!
Well, as part of our conversation, we decided to see if we could determine where the land was located.
Per the lease, dated August 4, 1848, it was between Sir Thomas Sherlock Gooch (and to the best of our feeble vision) Samuel Henn. It is for a piece of land 14 yards wide as shown in the picture. Interesting to us is there is no street number, and instead it says it is the land between that land owned by Sir Gooch and that land owned by Sir Gooch from/to John Langley.
Our search brought us here and we think the street became Ashley street thanks to the good work by others on this forum.
Does anyone know where this land would be located or what is there today? It is just an interesting search to study a bit of history.
Oh, and the rent? The annual sum of Eleven Pounds, Four Shilling and Seven Pence! About Eighteen Hundred Pounds per year, today.
Thank you for your time and any information!
 

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Welcome to the Forum, Jeff, and thanks for the information.

This is my opinion on the current location of Ashley Street:

21stCbirdseyeviewWEB700.jpg

(See also my website pages dealing with the WW2 history of the street and especially this one where the above image appears: https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscences60ABhamFightingSchool.htm - it's safe to click on. Further pages:
https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscences61staffshg.htm (second half of the page)
https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscences60BhamFightingSchool.htm )

I'll leave it to more knowledgeable members of the Forum concerning today's Birmingham - which I'm not - to confirm to us whether or not this aerial view from around 2005/2010 is still valid; and what the function of the current buildings is or has been.

There are other references to Ashley Street within this Forum. Using the Forum Search function will bring them up.

Good luck.

Chris
 
Welcome to the Forum, Jeff, and thanks for the information.

This is my opinion on the current location of Ashley Street:

21stCbirdseyeviewWEB700.jpg

(See also my website pages dealing with the WW2 history of the street and especially this one where the above image appears: https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscences60ABhamFightingSchool.htm - it's safe to click on. Further pages:
https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscences61staffshg.htm (second half of the page)
https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscences60BhamFightingSchool.htm )

I'll leave it to more knowledgeable members of the Forum concerning today's Birmingham - which I'm not - to confirm to us whether or not this aerial view from around 2005/2010 is still valid; and what the function of the current buildings is or has been.

There are other references to Ashley Street within this Forum. Using the Forum Search function will bring them up.

Good luck.

Chris
Hello, and thank you. Did you try to upload an image? Sadly nothing shows. I appreciate all information. I’ll do some more searches as you indicated. All the best…
 
Hello:
My friend is a retiring real estate attorney in the US. MANY years ago, a friend visited the UK and purchased an old document, a land lease, which my friend has had hung on his wall every since. It is an interesting conversation piece!
Well, as part of our conversation, we decided to see if we could determine where the land was located.
Per the lease, dated August 4, 1848, it was between Sir Thomas Sherlock Gooch (and to the best of our feeble vision) Samuel Henn. It is for a piece of land 14 yards wide as shown in the picture. Interesting to us is there is no street number, and instead it says it is the land between that land owned by Sir Gooch and that land owned by Sir Gooch from/to John Langley.
Our search brought us here and we think the street became Ashley street thanks to the good work by others on this forum.
Does anyone know where this land would be located or what is there today? It is just an interesting search to study a bit of history.
Oh, and the rent? The annual sum of Eleven Pounds, Four Shilling and Seven Pence! About Eighteen Hundred Pounds per year, today.
Thank you for your time and any information!
This is a useful website (you may already know about it) you can position an1890s map alongside a current street map (which can be changed to a satellite view).

 
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