B
BernardR
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Fabian Jenny's post is dated February and was corrected back than and acknowledged by Jenny.
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HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
we are now using a backup solution
Speedwing, I have not thought about downstream from Heathmill much beyond Duddeston Mill and Saltley mill, of which there is a photo. The text that you refer to reminds me that some mills are made by just damming the river/stream and the differential in heads produced between upstream and downstream of the dam provides enough head for the wheel. In the Heathmill case, since the wheels were undershot, the head produced was not much. Still enough for many years as long as the flooding upstream did not become critical. A natural waterfall would have done the job nicely. Alas not one to be found there.
So, perhaps the floodgate was just that and the natural course of the Rea was directly to the mill dam and the turn at Little Ann St., was from the floodgate into a formed channel. Now I suppose this formed channel became the only course of the river...under Fazeley St and the Warwick Canal. However the old Aston Birmingham Boundary Line, shown dashed and dotted follows what was presumably the original river course in that spot and your blue line is the continuation of the river downstream from there. The boundary zigs and zags a bit there presumably following a minor stream. Anyway, if you follow the boundary line northwards it will take you up past A.B Row...the subject of another thread. Well done and a bit more progress I think.
On the later map the boundary line is marked by dots and these dots will show the original river course to Derittend bridge and beyond maybe.
So, perhaps the floodgate was just that and the natural course of the Rea was directly to the mill dam and the turn at Little Ann St., was from the floodgate into a formed channel. Now I suppose this formed channel became the only course of the river...under Fazeley St and the Warwick Canal. However the old Aston Birmingham Boundary Line, shown dashed and dotted follows what was presumably the original river course in that spot and your blue line is the continuation of the river downstream from there. The boundary zigs and zags a bit there presumably following a minor stream. Anyway, if you follow the boundary line northwards it will take you up past A.B Row...the subject of another thread. Well done and a bit more progress I think.
On the later map the boundary line is marked by dots and these dots will show the original river course to Derittend bridge and beyond maybe.
Hopefully in the coming weeks I will get to see the four original ink and wash on linen maps that Pigott Smith created so at least I can photograph the details shown along the course of the Rea as well as the "parterre" garden at the junction of Liverpool Street and Heath Mill Lane and the adjacent cemetery which was probably William Cooper's resting place.
They are (allegedly) in the new Library of Birmingham archive but the original references were a bit of a mess thus making them effectively "lost" but after a bit of sleuthing yesterday they should be accessible soon though there are monochrome copies in the public access map drawers on level 7 for anyone following this theme.
They are (allegedly) in the new Library of Birmingham archive but the original references were a bit of a mess thus making them effectively "lost" but after a bit of sleuthing yesterday they should be accessible soon though there are monochrome copies in the public access map drawers on level 7 for anyone following this theme.
Sorry. I will get the hang of this one day!!!
B
BernardR
Guest
No problem it catches many of us out at one time or another.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
Dear Rupert,
Thought you would like to see my latest "discovery".
Whilst waiting for the archivists at the new Library of Birmingham find where Pigott Smith's maps have been stored (or lost) this turned up which puts the timeframe of William Cooper et al into some sort of context.
John Tomlinson produced a map of the Bordesley manor in 1762 which shows the Rea running along the upper left corner of the map in broad alignment with the Birmingham Manor boundary.
In the following I have aligned and scaled scraps of Tomlinson's map with those of Pigott Smith's in the area of Mill Lane/Lower Fazeley Street/Great Barr Street and with the Duddeston Bridge to the north.
If you look in the area of the land parcels numbered H2 "Windmill Piece" and G5 you will see a group of four buildings and two boundary lines and closeby to the north west of this group a single building on an eyot splitting the course of the Rea at this point and with a bridge or path to the group of buildings.
There is perhaps a degree of symmetry with Westley's Prospect with regard to Cooper's farmhouse etc.?
Again until I can see the originals as against photocopies I will remain sceptical about the precise location of the original buildings.
That said the parcel named Windmill Piece would confirm the location of Cooper's Smock Mill to be in the vicinity of the farm.
Thought you would like to see my latest "discovery".
Whilst waiting for the archivists at the new Library of Birmingham find where Pigott Smith's maps have been stored (or lost) this turned up which puts the timeframe of William Cooper et al into some sort of context.
John Tomlinson produced a map of the Bordesley manor in 1762 which shows the Rea running along the upper left corner of the map in broad alignment with the Birmingham Manor boundary.
In the following I have aligned and scaled scraps of Tomlinson's map with those of Pigott Smith's in the area of Mill Lane/Lower Fazeley Street/Great Barr Street and with the Duddeston Bridge to the north.
If you look in the area of the land parcels numbered H2 "Windmill Piece" and G5 you will see a group of four buildings and two boundary lines and closeby to the north west of this group a single building on an eyot splitting the course of the Rea at this point and with a bridge or path to the group of buildings.
There is perhaps a degree of symmetry with Westley's Prospect with regard to Cooper's farmhouse etc.?
Again until I can see the originals as against photocopies I will remain sceptical about the precise location of the original buildings.
That said the parcel named Windmill Piece would confirm the location of Cooper's Smock Mill to be in the vicinity of the farm.
Whilst trying to put a date, and possible even a builder, on Cooper's Farm house as depicted in Nathaniel Buck's Prospect with its Dutch/Flemish gabled ends the following turned up in the Warwickshire Photographic Survey at the Library of Birmingham.
They are of long since gone Ravenhurst Manor House on Camp Hill and were taken by William Clark in 1931.
A building that was likened in construction and style to Cooper's Rea side Farm house by various historians.
John Horton of Bradford Street, the Architect Builder responsible for the Birmingham Gun Proof House, was credited with its construction though I think the timelines might suggest it was his father who completed Ravenhurst and perhaps even Cooper's.
Anyhow they in the collection referenced MS2724/2/B/4622, 4623, 4625 and 4654. (As of January 15th 2014 they are currently unavailable due to rescanning)
The following are available online at: https://calmview.birmingham.gov.uk/...c=CalmView.Catalog&id=MS+2724/2/B/4622&pos=40
though they are incomplete scans compared with the Calmview thumbnails.
They are of long since gone Ravenhurst Manor House on Camp Hill and were taken by William Clark in 1931.
A building that was likened in construction and style to Cooper's Rea side Farm house by various historians.
John Horton of Bradford Street, the Architect Builder responsible for the Birmingham Gun Proof House, was credited with its construction though I think the timelines might suggest it was his father who completed Ravenhurst and perhaps even Cooper's.
Anyhow they in the collection referenced MS2724/2/B/4622, 4623, 4625 and 4654. (As of January 15th 2014 they are currently unavailable due to rescanning)
The following are available online at: https://calmview.birmingham.gov.uk/...c=CalmView.Catalog&id=MS+2724/2/B/4622&pos=40
though they are incomplete scans compared with the Calmview thumbnails.
paul stacey
master brummie
Looking at the photo's , the seems to date from the time of Queen Anne, Paul
What a dedicated piece of work speedwing and yes the maps are easy to compare. Gt. Bar St. is not in the first map but you can see the junction where it led to. There is no floodgate run off on the first map so that would have been a later requirement as was the triangular mill pool. I think in the later years water was insufficient and storage was required which helped a bit. So it seems that the southern stream route would likely be the original route of the Rea and the run off from the floodgate was a later addition which has now become the only route and river. The opposite of what I proposed. So the Rea was simply dammed at the mill and forced to flood back upstream...causing flooding and making the floodgate necessary.
Since my last missive, I have scanned, scaled and calibrated most of the available maps which depict the area where it is likely Cooper’s Farm and Mills were located.
None of the earlier plans of Birmingham, Westley’s 1731, Bradford’s 1750 or Hanson’s 1778, cover the area eastwards beyond where Mill Lane met the Rea.
Of the two south east Prospects both Westley’s and Buck’s clearly depict the farm and mill as being beyond that point.
John Tomlinson’s 1760 survey of Aston was probably the first usefully accurate map to show the buildings, though I am reminded of Peter Walker’s musings in 2007 “Reading between the lines, a new look at old maps” that the accuracy of these, including Tomlinson’s, compared with modern techniques can lead to errors.
Firstly high resolution scans were taken from Library of Birmingham facsimiles and subjected to a little digital massage to best fit them to the OS First Edition alignment before conversion to vector files suitable for Autocad by centreline tracing in CorelDraw.
The same procedures were also applied to William Fowler’s Map of Aston surveyed in 1833, Pigott Smith’s 1822 survey as well as the 1889 OS First Edition for the immediate area around the Liverpool Street/Great Barr Street junction.
Scanning and calibration of the Contract drawing produced by Brunel for the Birmingham and Oxford Junction railway at his office in Duke Street, Westminster around 1847 was already complete.
The final process being to align each to a common northing (OS) in a single Autocad file allowing each map detail to be viewed in chronological order in a usefully exact but not entirely precise relationship over about 150 years.
In each of the following the layers detailing structures and line features from Tomlinson are overlaid on the original map scans so comparison can be made with features and alignments during each period.
Tomlinson’s map covers a large area east of the city from Saltley manor in the north to Moseley manor in the south as well as the course of the Rea along the border with Birmingham manor as well as usefully detailing the area around Deritend Bridge.
Clearly earlier mapmakers had not recorded much of interest eastwards simply because it would appear occupancy was low in the largely agrarian landscape. That said the major roadways and tracks bear remarkable similarity even to modern alignments.
When surveyed the Warwick canal had yet to arrive, the Act of Parliament of 25 November 1790 referring to lands in the area that were to be affected.
The Cottrells were sub lessees to the Coopers who were in turn lessees to Thomas Gooch the absentee landlord from Suffolk.
Cooper was also a joint lessee with Thomas Lord Bishop of Bangor in a counterpart lease for 60 years dated 1st May 1728 which on completion was re-assigned to Samuel Parkes, a miller and baker on 1st May 1788 for a further 58 years.
The property described in each case as Heath Mill and Mill House, the Mill Holmes and Lake Meadow.
In December 1873 Queen Victoria signed an Act designed to prevent burial grounds from being opened within city boundaries but which specially excluded that of St. John’s on Liverpool Street.
On 27th July 1879 John Cooper took a one year lease from Gooch, this time for a plot on the piece of land laid out for a burial ground (St. John’s) on the east boundary of his old Farm House.
The very following day The London Gazette gave notice of a Parliamentary Bill for the sale of the St. John’s Burial Ground in Liverpool Street. Was this a deal struck between Gooch and Cooper to raise cash?
Parkes the baker however appears to have drawn the short straw as four years later the navvies arrive to cut the canal no doubt taking down the large structure to the north east behind the main building.
Either way the 1790 Canal Act was the death sentence for Cooper’s Farm as depicted in Westley’s East Prospect published in 1732 and later in 1753 when Samuel and Nathaniel Buck’s engraving was first published.
These primary map sources offer some estimate of relative dimensions, orientation and viewpoint though the exact location of Cooper’s Windmill has to be assumed from the land parcel name and need for a clear exposure to the prevailing South-Westerlies.
However Smock Mills were relatively easy to move so it may have occupied several locations and thus explain why it is missing from other Prospects of the period.
Bucks’ original was plagiarised several times in the ensuing years (Walpole’s New Complete British Traveller in 1784 and The Modern Universal British Traveller in 1794) which confuses the dating somewhat but both indicate changes to the eastern end of the main building.
However it may be assumed from these that buildings on the site were still in existence in 1779 or later and importantly confirms their form and unique arrangement. However who actually built the Flemish or Dutch influenced brick gables on the south-west and north-east facing walls of the main building remains something of a mystery.
My guess is John Cooper rebuilt or added to the house around 1730 shortly after signing the new lease in 1728 at the time William Westley was also carrying out his survey. Despite Westley’s clumsy perspective and incorrect orientation of St. Phillips Cathedral there may be another message in the picture.
Clearly there is a good visual comparison between Cooper’s house and Ravenhurst Manor especially in the detail of the semicircular forms of the gables and the corbelled banding between the windows.
I had considered John Horton, architect cum builder from Bradford Street who completed The Gun Barrel Proof House (1813-5) both with similar gable end detailing but in the wrong century. There was his father, also John, himself a builder who could also have had an association with Cooper and may have also completed Ravenhurst Manor house by 1748 (according to Charles Pye’s Description of Modern Birmingham).
Another theory is that any prominence given by Westley may have been a reference to the work of his father William Westley Snr. a carpenter working on St Phillip’s Cathedral along with other skilled tradesmen who may have also carried out work for Cooper during the late 1720’s.
“A job in the town” being an appropriate expression.
Pigott Smith’s 1822 survey has numerous alignments of buildings and boundaries that fit well with Tomlinson and also indicate how the Rea had been managed during the latter part of the 18th Century. The land to the south of the Liverpool Street junction having a Parterre like garden, perhaps a short-lived memorial to the Cooper dynasty?
William Fowler’s map now shows us the full force of the Industrial Revolution and rapid expansion of building along the Rea valley. By 1833 the site had been cleared of anything vaguely resembling the original House and outbuildings and the surrounding fields are parcelled up for housing being a mix of Gooch and Legge owned lands.
The Rea appears to have been rerouted slightly north to pass beneath the canal but even this would change as the old course was filled to allow development north of Great Barr Street.
The largest parcels 3, 5 and 6 showing signs of development though the Parterre may have survived until then. From the Landowners Tithe book in the LoB (LW 84.9) Parcel 3 was the Deritend Tannery, Parcel 5 to building land, Parcel 6 to Edward Biggs for a house, shop, garden and yard but remaining in the ownership of John Cottrell, Parcel 50 would later be used as the Aston Parish burial ground for St Johns and where John Cooper leased his own burial site from Gooch.
Of the others 7, 8, 9, 19, 20 & 21 were all assigned to Walter Alcock for gardens which probably explains the "parterre" in Pigott Smith's earlier map.
By 1847 land to the north of the junction was now occupied by the Deritend Tannery and the site of Cooper’s House and Farm up to the Cemetery boundary fully occupied by Jutson’s Chemical works leaving no trace of the original land use.
See Ackermann's “bird’s eye” view of Birmingham
Within a few years the railway had arrived and the land beneath the arches was assigned by wayleaves to the Great Western Railway either for construction access or for later use by industry.
This clipped from a remarkable document called the "Two Chain survey" which identified all the land assets between Hatton and Snow Hill including the Duddeston Viaduct (TNA RAIL 274/30)
By 1845 the original “HS1” route had entered town from Euston and Liverpool soon to be followed by the line from Oxford and Paddington begun in 1846 and carried across the Duddeston viaduct which by 1847 had stamped right over Cooper’s former house and garden.
Today’s estranged pier still featuring the open air cast iron urinal cutting into the foundations of the main house. The process of industrialisation was almost complete with just the “badlands” to the west of Duddeston Viaduct and bounded by the canal remaining undeveloped most likely due to pollution from the open treatment of waste prior to the building of the Corporation refuse plant in the 1880’s.
Again the alignment with former boundaries present when Brunel’s surveyors were active in the area during the mid 1840’s is clear. His pencilled in sketches of a proposed “high level” engine shed suggest the land between Liverpool Street and the Canal to have been purchased by the railway.
Today the only evidence remaining is a section of wall sharing the same alignment as Cooper’s original house but constructed from 19th C banded polychromatic brickwork. It could however, simply be a remnant of the Tannery displaced by the railway when completed in 1856.
None of the earlier plans of Birmingham, Westley’s 1731, Bradford’s 1750 or Hanson’s 1778, cover the area eastwards beyond where Mill Lane met the Rea.
Of the two south east Prospects both Westley’s and Buck’s clearly depict the farm and mill as being beyond that point.
John Tomlinson’s 1760 survey of Aston was probably the first usefully accurate map to show the buildings, though I am reminded of Peter Walker’s musings in 2007 “Reading between the lines, a new look at old maps” that the accuracy of these, including Tomlinson’s, compared with modern techniques can lead to errors.
Firstly high resolution scans were taken from Library of Birmingham facsimiles and subjected to a little digital massage to best fit them to the OS First Edition alignment before conversion to vector files suitable for Autocad by centreline tracing in CorelDraw.
The same procedures were also applied to William Fowler’s Map of Aston surveyed in 1833, Pigott Smith’s 1822 survey as well as the 1889 OS First Edition for the immediate area around the Liverpool Street/Great Barr Street junction.
Scanning and calibration of the Contract drawing produced by Brunel for the Birmingham and Oxford Junction railway at his office in Duke Street, Westminster around 1847 was already complete.
The final process being to align each to a common northing (OS) in a single Autocad file allowing each map detail to be viewed in chronological order in a usefully exact but not entirely precise relationship over about 150 years.
In each of the following the layers detailing structures and line features from Tomlinson are overlaid on the original map scans so comparison can be made with features and alignments during each period.
Tomlinson’s map covers a large area east of the city from Saltley manor in the north to Moseley manor in the south as well as the course of the Rea along the border with Birmingham manor as well as usefully detailing the area around Deritend Bridge.
Clearly earlier mapmakers had not recorded much of interest eastwards simply because it would appear occupancy was low in the largely agrarian landscape. That said the major roadways and tracks bear remarkable similarity even to modern alignments.
When surveyed the Warwick canal had yet to arrive, the Act of Parliament of 25 November 1790 referring to lands in the area that were to be affected.
The Cottrells were sub lessees to the Coopers who were in turn lessees to Thomas Gooch the absentee landlord from Suffolk.
Cooper was also a joint lessee with Thomas Lord Bishop of Bangor in a counterpart lease for 60 years dated 1st May 1728 which on completion was re-assigned to Samuel Parkes, a miller and baker on 1st May 1788 for a further 58 years.
The property described in each case as Heath Mill and Mill House, the Mill Holmes and Lake Meadow.
In December 1873 Queen Victoria signed an Act designed to prevent burial grounds from being opened within city boundaries but which specially excluded that of St. John’s on Liverpool Street.
On 27th July 1879 John Cooper took a one year lease from Gooch, this time for a plot on the piece of land laid out for a burial ground (St. John’s) on the east boundary of his old Farm House.
The very following day The London Gazette gave notice of a Parliamentary Bill for the sale of the St. John’s Burial Ground in Liverpool Street. Was this a deal struck between Gooch and Cooper to raise cash?
Parkes the baker however appears to have drawn the short straw as four years later the navvies arrive to cut the canal no doubt taking down the large structure to the north east behind the main building.
Either way the 1790 Canal Act was the death sentence for Cooper’s Farm as depicted in Westley’s East Prospect published in 1732 and later in 1753 when Samuel and Nathaniel Buck’s engraving was first published.
These primary map sources offer some estimate of relative dimensions, orientation and viewpoint though the exact location of Cooper’s Windmill has to be assumed from the land parcel name and need for a clear exposure to the prevailing South-Westerlies.
However Smock Mills were relatively easy to move so it may have occupied several locations and thus explain why it is missing from other Prospects of the period.
Bucks’ original was plagiarised several times in the ensuing years (Walpole’s New Complete British Traveller in 1784 and The Modern Universal British Traveller in 1794) which confuses the dating somewhat but both indicate changes to the eastern end of the main building.
However it may be assumed from these that buildings on the site were still in existence in 1779 or later and importantly confirms their form and unique arrangement. However who actually built the Flemish or Dutch influenced brick gables on the south-west and north-east facing walls of the main building remains something of a mystery.
My guess is John Cooper rebuilt or added to the house around 1730 shortly after signing the new lease in 1728 at the time William Westley was also carrying out his survey. Despite Westley’s clumsy perspective and incorrect orientation of St. Phillips Cathedral there may be another message in the picture.
Clearly there is a good visual comparison between Cooper’s house and Ravenhurst Manor especially in the detail of the semicircular forms of the gables and the corbelled banding between the windows.
I had considered John Horton, architect cum builder from Bradford Street who completed The Gun Barrel Proof House (1813-5) both with similar gable end detailing but in the wrong century. There was his father, also John, himself a builder who could also have had an association with Cooper and may have also completed Ravenhurst Manor house by 1748 (according to Charles Pye’s Description of Modern Birmingham).
Another theory is that any prominence given by Westley may have been a reference to the work of his father William Westley Snr. a carpenter working on St Phillip’s Cathedral along with other skilled tradesmen who may have also carried out work for Cooper during the late 1720’s.
“A job in the town” being an appropriate expression.
Pigott Smith’s 1822 survey has numerous alignments of buildings and boundaries that fit well with Tomlinson and also indicate how the Rea had been managed during the latter part of the 18th Century. The land to the south of the Liverpool Street junction having a Parterre like garden, perhaps a short-lived memorial to the Cooper dynasty?
William Fowler’s map now shows us the full force of the Industrial Revolution and rapid expansion of building along the Rea valley. By 1833 the site had been cleared of anything vaguely resembling the original House and outbuildings and the surrounding fields are parcelled up for housing being a mix of Gooch and Legge owned lands.
The Rea appears to have been rerouted slightly north to pass beneath the canal but even this would change as the old course was filled to allow development north of Great Barr Street.
The largest parcels 3, 5 and 6 showing signs of development though the Parterre may have survived until then. From the Landowners Tithe book in the LoB (LW 84.9) Parcel 3 was the Deritend Tannery, Parcel 5 to building land, Parcel 6 to Edward Biggs for a house, shop, garden and yard but remaining in the ownership of John Cottrell, Parcel 50 would later be used as the Aston Parish burial ground for St Johns and where John Cooper leased his own burial site from Gooch.
Of the others 7, 8, 9, 19, 20 & 21 were all assigned to Walter Alcock for gardens which probably explains the "parterre" in Pigott Smith's earlier map.
By 1847 land to the north of the junction was now occupied by the Deritend Tannery and the site of Cooper’s House and Farm up to the Cemetery boundary fully occupied by Jutson’s Chemical works leaving no trace of the original land use.
See Ackermann's “bird’s eye” view of Birmingham
Within a few years the railway had arrived and the land beneath the arches was assigned by wayleaves to the Great Western Railway either for construction access or for later use by industry.
This clipped from a remarkable document called the "Two Chain survey" which identified all the land assets between Hatton and Snow Hill including the Duddeston Viaduct (TNA RAIL 274/30)
By 1845 the original “HS1” route had entered town from Euston and Liverpool soon to be followed by the line from Oxford and Paddington begun in 1846 and carried across the Duddeston viaduct which by 1847 had stamped right over Cooper’s former house and garden.
Today’s estranged pier still featuring the open air cast iron urinal cutting into the foundations of the main house. The process of industrialisation was almost complete with just the “badlands” to the west of Duddeston Viaduct and bounded by the canal remaining undeveloped most likely due to pollution from the open treatment of waste prior to the building of the Corporation refuse plant in the 1880’s.
Today the only evidence remaining is a section of wall sharing the same alignment as Cooper’s original house but constructed from 19th C banded polychromatic brickwork. It could however, simply be a remnant of the Tannery displaced by the railway when completed in 1856.
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Well this is a very well conducted piece of investigation and I meant to reply earlier but it's the time of the year when lots of things have to be done. Added to this there has been a power outage for three days, which left us in the dark without heat except for hot water. Since it was below 40 Degrees F. inside the house and about 10 outside...even taking a hot bath would have resulted in a freezing experience on exit. Anyway it's over now and we have retrieved our food from a snow bank and not lost too much. Fortunately we had power back just in time to cook Christmas dinner. Gosh...great to be warm again and even with the snoring, it was great to have the dog in bed as a source of communal warmth...even the cat tried to get under the covers...but not a cat thing perhaps. We gave him a hot water bottle and covered his carrying cage with a blanket. He was off the floor and was happy with this arrangement.
Anyway, enough of that and there is a lot above to study but I think you have it pretty much tied down. It might not seem important or interesting to accurately locate historical happenings for some but I find this absorbing and this might easily be the defining study on some of the aspects of this location. Well done indeed!! On the earliest map 1760, in the windmill piece, there is a semi-circle next to the H2...any idea what this represents.
Anyway, enough of that and there is a lot above to study but I think you have it pretty much tied down. It might not seem important or interesting to accurately locate historical happenings for some but I find this absorbing and this might easily be the defining study on some of the aspects of this location. Well done indeed!! On the earliest map 1760, in the windmill piece, there is a semi-circle next to the H2...any idea what this represents.
Thank you Paul,
I have to admit to a large gap in my knowledge on Queen Anne who apparently reigned between 1702-1714 but gave her name to a period of architectural style during the last quarter of the 19C.
Ravenhurst it appears from a brief web trawl was a house built by Richard Smallbroke (the second of that name) and referred to in his will dated 9th November 1613 (PROB 11/122/437) and later occupied by the Lowe family according to a "Plan of the Ravenhurst Estate belonging to Richard Lowe" dated 1748 (MAP 379050). A later reference to John Lowe, describes him as Trustee of the Warwick and Stratford Road, in a "release" dated 17 June 1785 (MS 3375 440331 & 2).
Later the will of Elizabeth Lowe, Spinster of Ravenhurst, of 16 May 1811 (IR 26/361/192)
Pye's description of the Ravenhurst Estate as being laid out by Henry Bradford in 1767 might therefore be a bit off the mark.
My bones tell me Lowe perhaps rebuilt or remodelled the house around 1748 but more I hope when I get to view his plan at the LoB.
Meantime some pictures of the interior from the LoB Warwickshire Collection.
Whilst delving around for stuff on Ravenhurst at the LoB I came across a wonderful survey by the youthful Samuel Bradford (born 1725) of “A Plann of the estate of Ravenhurst in Camphill in the parish of Aston. Belonging to Richard Lowe Gent.” (MS 85/Acc 1932-009/390506)
This was completed only two years before his 1750 Town plan of Birmingham and is considered to be his first work.
It also includes detail of his father’s estate a short distance away on the corner of Cheapside and Moseley Street.
The LoB has a small number of Photostat copies of the original that are effectively monochrome negatives taken from the original document, which remains in the hands of the Society of Friends in Bull Street, though during a visit there recently it wasn’t found.
I suspect it ended up there because Henry Bradford was a Quaker.
The original Photostat process used a photosensitive coated paper onto which was projected the arc light lit original through a lens system. The exposed paper being developed fixed and dried resulting in a largely black image with faint white lines. Any colour in the original being represented at best as a grey and with little definition. Inverting the digital camera copies of the Photostat produced only mediocre results.
The following therefore are my take on his survey based on one of the LoB copies (MAP 379050) and to whom which I am always grateful.
Firstly an Autocad/CorelDraw/Photoshop reconstruction of his survey based on a tracing from photographs of the Photostat and rendered in the style of his later work.
My original reason for wanting to see this document was the small vignette in the lower right corner of an elevation of Ravenhurst house as it clearly relates to how Cooper’s Mill was depicted by William Westley et al.
Working backward in history it appears the house was sold to Richard Smalbroke in June 1551 by Messrs Thomas Fisher and Thomas Dabridgecourt. He and his wife lived there until his death in 1575 and his wife’s in 1584, the house and estate passing to his son Richard the Elder.
Though living at Blakesley Hall at the time he and his family moved to Ravenhurst in 1610 and remained there until his death in 1613 and his wife’s in 1632.
From Marie Fogg’s excellent little book “The Smalbroke Family of Birmingham” she provided this unique snapshot of the building derived from Elizabeth Smalbroke’s Probate Inventory:
“The Ravenhurst consisted of at least eleven rooms- hall, parlour, cellar, or tavern, kitchen and bake house, cocklofts and four chambers….
In the cockloft the Inventory lists “a clock with the greate Bell and all the poyses and weights thereunto belongine”
On her death it passed to Richard the Elder’s nephew another Richard and then to Thomas his brother at which point Ms Fogg’s thread appears to end probably near the latter part of the 1600’s.
So by 1748 it is now in the hands of Richard Lowe, Attorney and Gentleman who passed it to his son John Lowe, same profession until his death.
Of Lowe Charles Pye wrote: You proceed through Deritend, up Camp-hill, and when near the summit, there is on the right hand an ancient brick building, called the Ravenhurst, the residence of Mr. John Lowe, attorney, who is equally respectable in his profession, as the house is in appearance.
John had no heirs but it remained occupied by his two spinster sisters during their remaining lives until finally passing to John’s nephew Richard Webb, another attorney who was by then resident in what later became King Edwards Grammar School for Girls at Camphill. Webb occupied Ravenhurst but later gave his address as Bagnigge Wells in the County of Middlesex, Clerkenwell in today's speak and where Nel Gwyne hung out.
Pigott Smith’s 1830 survey shows the extent of his land ownership, which included all of the Ravenhurst estate.
By 1863 the Sister’s of Mercy occupied the area bounded by Lowe Street and Broom Street the remainder having been sold off by Webb.
Both the 1867 & 9 Post Office Directories list Miss Mary Jackson as the Superioress.
Between 1859-60 the original building became dwarfed by Pugin’s two monoliths, one built less than a metre from Ravenhurst’s north wall.
This from a 1901 postcard showing just how diminutive the original building was measuring just 29.5 x 30 feet at ground level when scaled off the 1887 OS survey.
Compare this with the other postcard from a few posts back to see just how small and oddly scaled it was against the young girls in the foreground.
https://images.birminghamhistory.co.uk/coppermine/albums/userpics/10449/s_convent_from_SSW.jpg
During October 1940 German bombs fell on houses fronting Bradford Street and the immediate area, damaging what had become St Anne’s Convent requiring both of Pugin’s structures and Ravenhurst to be demolished.
Google Earth’s 1945 imagery showing the cleared site with only those houses facing Ravenhurst Street remaining but with lighter patches of ground testament to Lowe’s cultivated gardens.
Finally the Estate in the context of late Victorian Birmingham as Samuel Bradford’s survey overlaid on the OS First edition
Henry Bradford’s house was sited on what is now redeveloped as upwardly mobile apartments with a blue copper clad Modernist “Health Exchange” building fronting Moseley Street and Cheapside.
It is clear from Bradford’s elevation that Ravenhurst underwent changes during its life but the underlying style with the Shaped Gables remained predominant.
Though both Ravenhurst and Cooper’s houses have been described as having Dutch gables (normally pedimented) I don’t think this was the case as Shaped Gables were evident in Jacobean times (1603-25) as in Blickling Hall in Norfolk.
My bones tell me it is more likely that both buildings were reworked during their lives and what we see was the result of Artisan Mannerists, master masons, joiners and bricklayers, who employed pattern books of Classic domestic Dutch styles to either build new or update existing structures.
Often the results were incongruously scaled, just like the two examples.
My money is still on the likes of the Hortons just around the corner in Bradford Street, Make-Overs-are-Us of their period.
Finally apologies for wandering a little off The Rea topic specifically but both remain within the confines of the Rea Valley as evidenced by this found by a fluke accident during a “Lowe” level web trawl:
https://images.birminghamhistory.co.uk/coppermine/albums/userpics/10449/Lowe_sale.jpg
and
https://images.birminghamhistory.co.uk/coppermine/albums/userpics/10449/Potatoes_for_sale.jpg
This was completed only two years before his 1750 Town plan of Birmingham and is considered to be his first work.
It also includes detail of his father’s estate a short distance away on the corner of Cheapside and Moseley Street.
The LoB has a small number of Photostat copies of the original that are effectively monochrome negatives taken from the original document, which remains in the hands of the Society of Friends in Bull Street, though during a visit there recently it wasn’t found.
I suspect it ended up there because Henry Bradford was a Quaker.
The original Photostat process used a photosensitive coated paper onto which was projected the arc light lit original through a lens system. The exposed paper being developed fixed and dried resulting in a largely black image with faint white lines. Any colour in the original being represented at best as a grey and with little definition. Inverting the digital camera copies of the Photostat produced only mediocre results.
The following therefore are my take on his survey based on one of the LoB copies (MAP 379050) and to whom which I am always grateful.
Firstly an Autocad/CorelDraw/Photoshop reconstruction of his survey based on a tracing from photographs of the Photostat and rendered in the style of his later work.
My original reason for wanting to see this document was the small vignette in the lower right corner of an elevation of Ravenhurst house as it clearly relates to how Cooper’s Mill was depicted by William Westley et al.
Working backward in history it appears the house was sold to Richard Smalbroke in June 1551 by Messrs Thomas Fisher and Thomas Dabridgecourt. He and his wife lived there until his death in 1575 and his wife’s in 1584, the house and estate passing to his son Richard the Elder.
Though living at Blakesley Hall at the time he and his family moved to Ravenhurst in 1610 and remained there until his death in 1613 and his wife’s in 1632.
From Marie Fogg’s excellent little book “The Smalbroke Family of Birmingham” she provided this unique snapshot of the building derived from Elizabeth Smalbroke’s Probate Inventory:
“The Ravenhurst consisted of at least eleven rooms- hall, parlour, cellar, or tavern, kitchen and bake house, cocklofts and four chambers….
In the cockloft the Inventory lists “a clock with the greate Bell and all the poyses and weights thereunto belongine”
On her death it passed to Richard the Elder’s nephew another Richard and then to Thomas his brother at which point Ms Fogg’s thread appears to end probably near the latter part of the 1600’s.
So by 1748 it is now in the hands of Richard Lowe, Attorney and Gentleman who passed it to his son John Lowe, same profession until his death.
Of Lowe Charles Pye wrote: You proceed through Deritend, up Camp-hill, and when near the summit, there is on the right hand an ancient brick building, called the Ravenhurst, the residence of Mr. John Lowe, attorney, who is equally respectable in his profession, as the house is in appearance.
John had no heirs but it remained occupied by his two spinster sisters during their remaining lives until finally passing to John’s nephew Richard Webb, another attorney who was by then resident in what later became King Edwards Grammar School for Girls at Camphill. Webb occupied Ravenhurst but later gave his address as Bagnigge Wells in the County of Middlesex, Clerkenwell in today's speak and where Nel Gwyne hung out.
Pigott Smith’s 1830 survey shows the extent of his land ownership, which included all of the Ravenhurst estate.
By 1863 the Sister’s of Mercy occupied the area bounded by Lowe Street and Broom Street the remainder having been sold off by Webb.
Both the 1867 & 9 Post Office Directories list Miss Mary Jackson as the Superioress.
Between 1859-60 the original building became dwarfed by Pugin’s two monoliths, one built less than a metre from Ravenhurst’s north wall.
This from a 1901 postcard showing just how diminutive the original building was measuring just 29.5 x 30 feet at ground level when scaled off the 1887 OS survey.
Compare this with the other postcard from a few posts back to see just how small and oddly scaled it was against the young girls in the foreground.
https://images.birminghamhistory.co.uk/coppermine/albums/userpics/10449/s_convent_from_SSW.jpg
During October 1940 German bombs fell on houses fronting Bradford Street and the immediate area, damaging what had become St Anne’s Convent requiring both of Pugin’s structures and Ravenhurst to be demolished.
Google Earth’s 1945 imagery showing the cleared site with only those houses facing Ravenhurst Street remaining but with lighter patches of ground testament to Lowe’s cultivated gardens.
Finally the Estate in the context of late Victorian Birmingham as Samuel Bradford’s survey overlaid on the OS First edition
Henry Bradford’s house was sited on what is now redeveloped as upwardly mobile apartments with a blue copper clad Modernist “Health Exchange” building fronting Moseley Street and Cheapside.
It is clear from Bradford’s elevation that Ravenhurst underwent changes during its life but the underlying style with the Shaped Gables remained predominant.
Though both Ravenhurst and Cooper’s houses have been described as having Dutch gables (normally pedimented) I don’t think this was the case as Shaped Gables were evident in Jacobean times (1603-25) as in Blickling Hall in Norfolk.
My bones tell me it is more likely that both buildings were reworked during their lives and what we see was the result of Artisan Mannerists, master masons, joiners and bricklayers, who employed pattern books of Classic domestic Dutch styles to either build new or update existing structures.
Often the results were incongruously scaled, just like the two examples.
My money is still on the likes of the Hortons just around the corner in Bradford Street, Make-Overs-are-Us of their period.
Finally apologies for wandering a little off The Rea topic specifically but both remain within the confines of the Rea Valley as evidenced by this found by a fluke accident during a “Lowe” level web trawl:
https://images.birminghamhistory.co.uk/coppermine/albums/userpics/10449/Lowe_sale.jpg
and
https://images.birminghamhistory.co.uk/coppermine/albums/userpics/10449/Potatoes_for_sale.jpg
Attachments
Last edited:
I hope this isn't too far off thread. There's a new exhibit at the MAC in cannon hill park comprising a dozen short video sequences taken by someone standing on the bottom of the river. Considering it's not somewhere you can get to that easily, you might want to see this. https://www.macarts.co.uk/event/david-rowan-the-dark-river It's on 'til the end of April.
Since post 125 (28[SUP]th[/SUP] December 2013) I have taken another look at the land parcel number 3 on Fowler’s 1833 Map of Aston on which Cooper’s House and Farm stood. Though I concluded the arrival of the Industrial Revolution meant the demise of the farm the exact mechanism was somewhat uncertain.
By luck I came across the following in the LoB archive, which helps fill in some of the missing blanks. This was in a bundle of dusty legal documents forming a collection from the records of IMI Plc and it’s subsidiary firms of which Allen Everitt & Sons Ltd was one and occupied the site on the north side of Liverpool Street from 1856 until 1958.
The original document is handwritten so the text is reproduced in full. E&OE
MS 1422/1/9/5/1 Title deeds re property in Bordesley in the parish of Aston (near Heath Mill, otherwise Cottrell’s Mill) 21[SUP]st[/SUP] May 1800
This Indenture made the twenty first day of May in the fortieth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the third by the Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith on and so forth and in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred Between John Cooper late of Moseley in the Parish of Kings Norton in the County of Worcester but now of Washwood Heath in the parish of Aston near Birmingham in the County of Warwick Gentleman the only Son and Heir at Law the Devisee in Fee named in the Last Will and Testament of John Cooper heretofore of the Heath Mills in the Parish of Aston aforesaid Miller of the one part and Thomas Roby of Tamworth in the said County of Warwick, Tanner and John Lakin of Hall End in the Parish of Polesworth in the said County of Warwick, Tanner of the other part.
Witness that for and in consideration of the sum of five shillings of lawful money of Great Britain to the said John Cooper, party here in hand paid by the said Thomas Roby and John Lakin at or before the sealing of these presents.
The Receipt hereof is hereby acknowledged by the said John Cooper party hereto Hath bargained and sold and by these presents Both bargain and sell unto the said Thomas Roby and John Lakin their Executors administrators and assigns.
All that messuage Dwelling House or Tenement (now made into or used as three distinct Dwellings) situate standing in Bordesley in the parish of Aston near Birmingham aforesaid in the County of Warwick near to a certain Mill House called the Heath Mill otherwise Cottrell’s Mill. Together with the Garden, Brewhouse, outhouses and Buildings thereto belonging with said Messuage Dwelling house or Tenement was late of or heretofore commonly called or known by the name of Bordesley Tavern and was late in the tenure or occupation of Ambrose Dee since then Joseph Smith and is now in the respective tenure or occupations of John Nicholson, Samuel Hawkesford and James Squires.
Together with all ways, paths, passages, waters, watercourses, Lights, easements, Liberties, Rights, Members and appurtenances, whatsoever to the said Messuage, Dwelling house or Tenement and premises hereby bargained and sold or intended to be belonging or appertaining or therewith usually set, let, held, used, occupied or enjoyed And the reversion and reversions remainder and remainders of rents, issues, profits and services of all and singular the said hereby bargained and sold premises
To have and to hold the said Messuage Dwelling house or Tenement (now made into and used as three distinct dwellings) garden, brewhouse building and singular other the hereditaments and premises hereby bargained and sold or intended to be with their and every of their appurtenants unto the said Thomas Roby and John Lakin their executors, Administrators, from the day next before the day of these presents for and during and unto the full end and term of one whole year from that next ensuing and fully to be complete and ended
Yielding and Paying therefore unto the said John Cooper (party hereto), his heirs or assigns the rent of one pepper corn upon the last day of the said term if the same be lawfully demanded to the Intent and purpose by virtue of these presents and by force of the statute made for transferring uses into possession They the said Thomas Roby and John Lakin may be in the actual possession of all and singular the said hereby bargained and sold premises with the apputencies and thereby may be enabled to accept and take a Grant and Release of the Reversion and Inheritance thereof to them the said Thomas Roby and John Lakin their heirs and assigns to for and upon such uses Trusts intents and purposes as shall be therein limited expressed and declared of and performing the same
In Witness whereof the said parties to these present have hereunto set their hands and seals the day and year first above written
Seal and signature of John Cooper
Clearly within a short time of the Agreement Roby and Lakin formed a Partnership which traded as a Tannery under different names until 1810 when the following appeared in THE LONDON GAZETTE, MAY 5th, 1810
Notice is hereby given, that the Partnership lately subsisting between Thomas Roby and John Lakin the Eider, as Tanners, at Bordesley, in the Parish of Aston, near Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, formerly carried on under the Firm of Thomas Roby and Co. and latterly under the Firm of Roby and Lakin, was this Day dissolved from the 1st Day of January now last past, by mutual Consent.
The Business will in future be carried on by the said John Lakin the Elder, who will receive and pay all Debts owing to or by the said Parties on their late Partnership Account.
Dated this 5th Day of April 1810,
Thomas Roby John Lakin, fen.
The Tannery operated under different ownerships as evidenced by the Grant and Assignment of Easements dated 30[SUP]th[/SUP] June 1852 No. 17179 between the Deritend Tannery Company and Great Western Railway until the following appeared in THE LONDON GAZETTE, MAY 26th, 1857
NOTICE is hereby given, that the Partnership lately subsisting between us the undersigned, at Deritend, in the borough of Birmingham, in the county of Warwick, under the style or firm of the Deritend Tannery Company, was dissolved, and the trade discontinued on and from the 29th day of September 1854
As witness our hands this 6th day of April 1857.
Samuel Beale, John Palmer. Charles S. Geach, Benjamin Dain, Executors of Charles Geach Esq., deceased., Thos. Mansell, William Wilkes. Thos. Gammon. John Mister, Thomas Penn, Executor of Jno. Tolley. Jno. Bagnall. Thomas Day. John Palmer, Executor of S. Palmer.
Though formally dissolved trading had ceased in 1854 and within a few years Allen Everitt and Sons had occupied the site becoming part of ICI Metals in 1929.
All this for just five bob!
By luck I came across the following in the LoB archive, which helps fill in some of the missing blanks. This was in a bundle of dusty legal documents forming a collection from the records of IMI Plc and it’s subsidiary firms of which Allen Everitt & Sons Ltd was one and occupied the site on the north side of Liverpool Street from 1856 until 1958.
The original document is handwritten so the text is reproduced in full. E&OE
MS 1422/1/9/5/1 Title deeds re property in Bordesley in the parish of Aston (near Heath Mill, otherwise Cottrell’s Mill) 21[SUP]st[/SUP] May 1800
This Indenture made the twenty first day of May in the fortieth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the third by the Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith on and so forth and in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred Between John Cooper late of Moseley in the Parish of Kings Norton in the County of Worcester but now of Washwood Heath in the parish of Aston near Birmingham in the County of Warwick Gentleman the only Son and Heir at Law the Devisee in Fee named in the Last Will and Testament of John Cooper heretofore of the Heath Mills in the Parish of Aston aforesaid Miller of the one part and Thomas Roby of Tamworth in the said County of Warwick, Tanner and John Lakin of Hall End in the Parish of Polesworth in the said County of Warwick, Tanner of the other part.
Witness that for and in consideration of the sum of five shillings of lawful money of Great Britain to the said John Cooper, party here in hand paid by the said Thomas Roby and John Lakin at or before the sealing of these presents.
The Receipt hereof is hereby acknowledged by the said John Cooper party hereto Hath bargained and sold and by these presents Both bargain and sell unto the said Thomas Roby and John Lakin their Executors administrators and assigns.
All that messuage Dwelling House or Tenement (now made into or used as three distinct Dwellings) situate standing in Bordesley in the parish of Aston near Birmingham aforesaid in the County of Warwick near to a certain Mill House called the Heath Mill otherwise Cottrell’s Mill. Together with the Garden, Brewhouse, outhouses and Buildings thereto belonging with said Messuage Dwelling house or Tenement was late of or heretofore commonly called or known by the name of Bordesley Tavern and was late in the tenure or occupation of Ambrose Dee since then Joseph Smith and is now in the respective tenure or occupations of John Nicholson, Samuel Hawkesford and James Squires.
Together with all ways, paths, passages, waters, watercourses, Lights, easements, Liberties, Rights, Members and appurtenances, whatsoever to the said Messuage, Dwelling house or Tenement and premises hereby bargained and sold or intended to be belonging or appertaining or therewith usually set, let, held, used, occupied or enjoyed And the reversion and reversions remainder and remainders of rents, issues, profits and services of all and singular the said hereby bargained and sold premises
To have and to hold the said Messuage Dwelling house or Tenement (now made into and used as three distinct dwellings) garden, brewhouse building and singular other the hereditaments and premises hereby bargained and sold or intended to be with their and every of their appurtenants unto the said Thomas Roby and John Lakin their executors, Administrators, from the day next before the day of these presents for and during and unto the full end and term of one whole year from that next ensuing and fully to be complete and ended
Yielding and Paying therefore unto the said John Cooper (party hereto), his heirs or assigns the rent of one pepper corn upon the last day of the said term if the same be lawfully demanded to the Intent and purpose by virtue of these presents and by force of the statute made for transferring uses into possession They the said Thomas Roby and John Lakin may be in the actual possession of all and singular the said hereby bargained and sold premises with the apputencies and thereby may be enabled to accept and take a Grant and Release of the Reversion and Inheritance thereof to them the said Thomas Roby and John Lakin their heirs and assigns to for and upon such uses Trusts intents and purposes as shall be therein limited expressed and declared of and performing the same
In Witness whereof the said parties to these present have hereunto set their hands and seals the day and year first above written
Seal and signature of John Cooper
Clearly within a short time of the Agreement Roby and Lakin formed a Partnership which traded as a Tannery under different names until 1810 when the following appeared in THE LONDON GAZETTE, MAY 5th, 1810
Notice is hereby given, that the Partnership lately subsisting between Thomas Roby and John Lakin the Eider, as Tanners, at Bordesley, in the Parish of Aston, near Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, formerly carried on under the Firm of Thomas Roby and Co. and latterly under the Firm of Roby and Lakin, was this Day dissolved from the 1st Day of January now last past, by mutual Consent.
The Business will in future be carried on by the said John Lakin the Elder, who will receive and pay all Debts owing to or by the said Parties on their late Partnership Account.
Dated this 5th Day of April 1810,
Thomas Roby John Lakin, fen.
The Tannery operated under different ownerships as evidenced by the Grant and Assignment of Easements dated 30[SUP]th[/SUP] June 1852 No. 17179 between the Deritend Tannery Company and Great Western Railway until the following appeared in THE LONDON GAZETTE, MAY 26th, 1857
NOTICE is hereby given, that the Partnership lately subsisting between us the undersigned, at Deritend, in the borough of Birmingham, in the county of Warwick, under the style or firm of the Deritend Tannery Company, was dissolved, and the trade discontinued on and from the 29th day of September 1854
As witness our hands this 6th day of April 1857.
Samuel Beale, John Palmer. Charles S. Geach, Benjamin Dain, Executors of Charles Geach Esq., deceased., Thos. Mansell, William Wilkes. Thos. Gammon. John Mister, Thomas Penn, Executor of Jno. Tolley. Jno. Bagnall. Thomas Day. John Palmer, Executor of S. Palmer.
Though formally dissolved trading had ceased in 1854 and within a few years Allen Everitt and Sons had occupied the site becoming part of ICI Metals in 1929.
All this for just five bob!
Further ramblings on the Rea
After spending an hour or so at the MAC recently watching the Rea at full flood outside whilst inside the quiet calm of David Rowan’s Dark River video I planned my next “foray” into Rea related goodies in the LoB’s Archives.
I began with the intention of filling in some blanks in and around Cooper’s Farm in the years following the arrival of the canal and the subsequent rerouting of the Rea.
My first port of call was to look at a Tenancy agreement between John Cottrell and Thomas Woolley in 1807 describing land lying on the west bank of the Rea (Lake Meadow) and the Heath Mill House lying in the triangle of land between the original course of the river and Heath Mill Lane. (MS 28/232)
https://images.birminghamhistory.co.uk/coppermine/albums/userpics/10449/P1020941a.jpg
Note the form of the Heath Mill and the building opposite which has “Lakin” written in pencil and “to Osborne’s Mill” in the direction of Liverpool Street. It was Lakin who had earlier entered into a Pepper Corn rent agreement with John Cooper in 1800. (MS 1422/1/9/5/1)
Earlier in 1805 John Cottrell and Thomas Woolley agreed another Tenancy covering land bordering Fazeley Street including the Mill Holmes and toward the Canal boundary. (MS 28/233)
The following show the simple sketches made on the reverse of the original Agreements.
https://images.birminghamhistory.co.uk/coppermine/albums/userpics/10449/Heath_Mill_plans.jpg
On the left the area then known as the Mill Holmes later bisected by Fazeley Street and the new course of the Rea beneath the canal.
(MS 28/233)
The right-hand detail of the land use bounded by Mill Lane, Fazeley Street and the Canal was agreed between John Woolley and Edward Biggs in 1826.
(MS 28/776)
Note the “W” shaped edge of a building on the opposite side of Mill Lane (correctly Great Barr Street) with the legend “Late Lakins Tannery” the precursor of the Deritend Tannery and possibly also a remnant of Cooper’s House.
Though described in archivist’s terms as “imperfect”, meaning someone has torn it in half and kept the best bit, next is Kempson, Robins and Kempson’s original survey drawing of the Heath Mill site that was copied to Wooley and Biggs’ agreement.
https://images.birminghamhistory.co.uk/coppermine/albums/userpics/10449/MS_3069-13-2-2004_scrap.jpg
The canal is still crossed by a timber bridge as Edward John Lloyd’s 1845 cast iron plate bridge over the canal was yet to be erected.
The drawing might also hint at the closure of the old course of the Rea beneath the canal as by then the Forging shops would have been steam powered. (MS 3069/13/2/204 (383270)
https://images.birminghamhistory.co.uk/coppermine/albums/userpics/10449/P1030075a.jpg
Soon all would change as by 1833 the scene was already highly industrialised as can be seen in John Fowler’s Map of Aston, the original now thankfully found by the Archivists. The map is exquisitely ink wash tinted to determine land usage (MS 3889) with each land parcel being identified against Land Owner, Occupant and size in a separate table.
The land to the north of Liverpool Street (3) becoming the Deritend Tannery Company.
https://images.birminghamhistory.co.uk/coppermine/albums/userpics/10449/JPS_comparison.jpg
Later John Pigott Smith’s 1825 original proof copy (below left) would show us William Alcock’s garden on plot 6, shown here with feint pencilled instructions to his engraver to add the Aston boundary along the centreline of the Rea, a row of trees along the canal bank as well as hachuring of the buildings etc.
(MS 2240 Accession 2002/040)
His published map (right) also included the gravestones in plot 50 on the site of John Cooper’s land purchase from Thomas Gooch. The sharp-eyed will also see two buildings apparently in the Rea at the junction with Fazeley Street and Heath Mill Lane, remnants of Cooper’s Mill weir perhaps?
Having concluded the building lying on the left of these two maps to be most likely the location of the Heath Mill house I now turn to another Rea related conundrum.
In the thread “Artists who painted Birmingham” mention is made of the work of James Leslie Crees aka Paul Braddon who sometimes illustrated Birmingham in the manner of his alter ego David Cox, a past near neighbour of mine.
One of Braddon’s lesser-known works was recently auctioned and depicts David Cox’s birthplace in Heath Mill Lane, which by deduction was close to the Heath Mill house. It has Braddon’s hallmark pigeons flying over nattering old codgers. His work was prolific so an exact date is impossible but I would guess around 1885-90 given his birth was only five years after Cox’s death.
The deduction is based on a couple of passages in Cox’s unofficial biography by William Walls’s “David Cox - Remarks on His Works and Genius” 1881:
“He was born of humble parents, in a very unpretending abode, situated in Heath Mill Lane, Deritend — a suburb of the great Midland metropolis.
The house stood not very far from a well-known ancient inn, called the "Old Crown," still existing — a notable specimen of half-timbered work, and which, as a mansion of considerable importance, attracted the notice of Leland, when he visited Birmingham in the reign of Henry VIII.
Cox's humble birthplace, however, and all the adjacent tenements of that date, have been swept away to make room for the requirements of our modern civilisation.
Even the street itself has disappeared; nothing remains but its name, and the picturesque half-timbered, heavy-gabled, ancient inn, which for so many years has been a conspicuous object at its southern corner…..”
N Neal Solley who wrote “Memoir of David Cox” in 1873 was a little more eloquent (Solley being an American): “It would be difficult for anyone who now visits Birmingham — the metropolis of the trade of the Midland Counties, numbering a population of 350,000, with its interminable Streets, busy warehouses, vast railway system, stately chapel halls, and large works and factories driven by steam-engines — to realise the wonderful changes that have taken place since 1783.
Wide indeed is the difference between the aspect which the town presented at that date and its present one. Heath-mill Lane, the scene of Cox's birth, was a narrow thoroughfare. Passing by an old pool, it joined the main approach to Birmingham near the bridge over the Rea, and its south corner was formed by that ancient and renowned inn the Old Crown, built of black oak, with curious gables, still standing, and mentioned as long ago as 1531, in Leland's Itinerary.
The greater part of the lane, including Joseph Cox's house, has been swept away of late years, to make room for the railway approaches, and the quaint old timbered buildings in that part of the town are rapidly giving place to modern red-brick houses…”
https://images.birminghamhistory.co.uk/coppermine/albums/userpics/10449/s_birthplace.jpg
Cox’s chum Samuel Lines sketched the same building around 1798-1800 though from the opposite direction but not providing any useful clues as to its whereabouts. Quite how Braddons completed his work without any more than Line’s sketch remains a mystery unless there are other sources yet to be found.
Line’s may have a had a tenuous connection with David Cox’s father Joseph who was by trade a “whitesmith’ with a dab hand at making swords and Lines was engaged with engraving or otherwise marking swords so perhaps he visited Cox’s birthplace.
A clip from a tinted copy of William Westley’s East Prospect of Birmingham showing Deritend bridge and the footbridge with Cox’s house and the Heath Mill House in the foreground?
https://images.birminghamhistory.co.uk/coppermine/albums/userpics/10449/s_house.jpg
So finally my guess at where Cox’s birthplace lay with respect to the Rea is probably defined by my last map called the “Two Chain” survey, a section of which shows the area around Heath Mill Lane and the Rea from about 1845. (TNA Rail 274/30)
https://images.birminghamhistory.co.uk/coppermine/albums/userpics/10449/274_30_scrap.jpg
The survey was completed by the Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway and was amended by the Great Western Railway during the construction of both the Duddeston and Bordesley Viaducts.
The red outlines showing the areas of compulsory land purchase to build the latter Viaduct into Snow Hill station during the 1850’s.
Thus my money is on the west side of Heath Mill Lane close by the junction with Lower Trinity Street and the junction with Gibb Street.
Standing beneath the arches recently and looking up the slight rise to the Old Crown left me with a funny feeling that this was the spot.
The survey shows both the original 1852 Branson and Gwyther constructed Bordesley viaduct for the Birmingham Extension Railway with Rowbotham’s later 1914 construction grafted onto the south face to increase capacity for Moor Street station operations.
If you are ever in the area just look up to see the small gap between them with the lime stalactites marking the junction.
Clearly also the survey reflects the draining of the pool and rerouting of the Rea to the north.
Today’s footbridge running beneath the viaduct off the “kink” in Gibb Street over the Rea towards Floodgate Street is probably the original route shown on Westley’s 1730 survey which then connected with Lake Meadow Hill and the City often referred to as “the Lover’s Walk”.
Be nice to think so anyway.
This is one of the most interesting threads I have ever come across, so thank you for all your research. I walked from Balsall Heath to Stechford along the course of the River Rea in 1978, I just wish that I had taken a camera. The tunnel under Lawley St goods yard required particular nerve in the darkness I recall. I can solve the mystery about the circular feature in parcel 557 on this map extract, it was the original London and Birmingham Railway roundhouse (see Richard Foster's "Birmingham New Street, the story of a great station including Curzon Street - Background and beginnings the years up to 1860" Wild Swan 1990 pp 48-49). It was 124 feet in diameter and was positioned next to the canal so that coke could be unloaded into its subterranean coke vault directly from the wharf. There is a fascinating contemporary description included as well as various plans which show this to be the mystery building.
Dear Toby44,
you are correct though I arrived at the answer by a slightly different route.
It was detailed in John Pigott Smith's 1856 survey of Birmingham on sheet 112 along with much of the original detail of Curzon Street station
The monochrome copies are available by request in the Archives and Local History section of the LoB, the reference "map" to the individual sheets is on top of the map cabinets in the Map Room.
you are correct though I arrived at the answer by a slightly different route.
It was detailed in John Pigott Smith's 1856 survey of Birmingham on sheet 112 along with much of the original detail of Curzon Street station
The monochrome copies are available by request in the Archives and Local History section of the LoB, the reference "map" to the individual sheets is on top of the map cabinets in the Map Room.
S
Stitcher
Guest
Dumping snow from Floodgate Street in 1939. Viv.
astonboy
A brummie born and bred
Has a Child I lived in Howe st which ran off Duneston st (I think) it was along time ago. At the bottom of Howe st was a huge wall (known locally has the dead wall) on the other side of the wall, was a railway unloading yard were bananas was unloaded. I don't think Howe st is there anymore.
hi astonboy looks like there is a bit of howe st left minus its original houses of course
lyn
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...f2b5707be08994b!8m2!3d52.4844151!4d-1.8853442
lyn
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...f2b5707be08994b!8m2!3d52.4844151!4d-1.8853442
Howe street Mick
New Member
We lived in Howe Street, opposite the Kings Arms Pub. early 1960s
I was born in Inkerman St in 39.After 1945-6 when we started to grow up we used to go round the side of the Raiway club through the iron railings and down the rope onto the River Rea.In the Summer we used to block the centre arch with anything we could find and swim in there.Every thing was fine till one day some bombs floateddown (they were yellow with a 4 fin end) Some one called the police and they wouldn't let us down for weeks
Am I dreaming it but did I once see an old advert for Birds Custard that said something like "manufactured beside a river in leafy Warwickshire"? Strictly speaking this was correct but the implication that the manufactory was in a rural, bosky situation was hardly correct.
