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Coventry Road, Small Heath

S

SteveBland

New Member
Hello all,

I'm hoping to find out what happened to an area of Coventry Road and I would welcome any information or leads you are able to offer.

An area of Small Heath between the canal and what is now the ring road (A4540), numbers 27 to 47 Coventry Road, seemed to disappear between 1920 and 1922. Does anyone know what happened to them?

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...2!3m1!1s0x4870ba74c11533bf:0x1bfaa430f8014004

The census of 1911 shows the houses, and back-to-back houses called 'Dunns Cottages' running alongside the canal lock. In 1911 this is shown as an area called Hay Mills.
The electoral roll of 1920 shows the houses, and the back-to-back houses called 'Brook Cottages'.

The 1922 electoral roll doesn't show them at all.

Coventry Road.jpg

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/m...=10098&ox=4646&oy=3116&zm=1&czm=1&x=344&y=207

I've had a search through the forum, and found information on other areas of Coventry Road, but nothing on this part. Any information gratefully received. I have very much enjoyed reading through the wealth of knowledge available on this forum.

Thanks very much,
Steve
 
I don't know exactly when the cottages were demolished.

I know that from the fifties onwards there was a garage on this site call Victoria Garage.

The site was bounded by advertising hoardings and a café fronting the Coventry road. A small recreation ground on the Watery lane side and the canal towpath on the other.

I may have a picture of the site taken in the 70's or 80's.
 
Hello Bob,

Very interesting information. It would be fantastic if you have pictures. Thanks for your help.

Regards
Steve
 
Waterl2.jpgwaterl3.jpg

Found a two more.

The first one shows the junction of Watery lane and Coventry road. Victoria Garage was on the left.

The second picture is looking down Watery lane towards the Coventry road. The (very) small recreation ground was on the left by the last advertising hoardings.

Bob
 
badpenny said:
What would the two roads opposite the junction in the first picture be?
Click to expand...


Back then it would have been Watery Lane dead ahead and to the left New Bond Street, and the photo would have been taken from Sandy Lane, not Watery Lane.
 
Hi SteveBland, this may be totally irrelevent to what you are looking for, but the area you have on the map looks like somewhere I looked into sometime back. The area was called Spring Vale and you can see information on these threads

https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=42511&highlight=miles+street

https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=42441&highlight=elm+grove

There is a comparison picture that I did on the Elm Grove thread (first link I think) that shows the Corporation Wharf on your map
 
Last edited:
Covroad1.jpg

This picture was taken in 1951. It is looking down the Coventry road towards the Watery lane/ Sandy lane junction.
The buses are travelling towards Birmingham city centre.
If you look past the last bus on the right, you can just make out buildings that might be the houses that stood where Victoria garage was or they might be the building next door which was the Birmingham Corporation refuse dept.
 
Hiya,
for some reason I can't open links but I live in Brook Cottages off the Coventry Road so interested to find out if the demolished ones were linked to mine in anyway.
 
I use to get off the bus down the Cov Rd pass the bus garage and a movie house on the right, going to Brum under the tunnel by the train station and walk up the hill on the left to Moseley Rd and get on the bus to go to Moseley Schoolof art. Seems there way a auto fix it shop under the bridge. this was in the 1940s during the end of the war. John Crump. Parker, Co USA
 
Funny how things come to mind. A few years later it seems that as you go under the bridge where the train station was as you bear right towards the bull ring there where a row of shops, amongst them was a STRIP JOINT or a bar where Ozzy Osborne once played, This would have been in the late 1950s. Am I thinking wrong on this? John Crump OldBrit. Parker, Co USA
 
John

You are not wrong, the club was The Daddy Longlegs later renamed the Dolls Club. One of the first euphemistically so called gentleman's clubs in Birmingham.
 
Cottagecrafter if you look at the top of this page you will see that site had been hacked so a lot of earlier photos have gone unfortunately.
 
May not be the same ones but although the electoral roll shows 'Brook Cottages' as missing in action I currently live in one!



SteveBland said:
Hello all,

I'm hoping to find out what happened to an area of Coventry Road and I would welcome any information or leads you are able to offer.

An area of Small Heath between the canal and what is now the ring road (A4540), numbers 27 to 47 Coventry Road, seemed to disappear between 1920 and 1922. Does anyone know what happened to them?

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...2!3m1!1s0x4870ba74c11533bf:0x1bfaa430f8014004

The census of 1911 shows the houses, and back-to-back houses called 'Dunns Cottages' running alongside the canal lock. In 1911 this is shown as an area called Hay Mills.
The electoral roll of 1920 shows the houses, and the back-to-back houses called 'Brook Cottages'.

The 1922 electoral roll doesn't show them at all.

View attachment 95106

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/m...=10098&ox=4646&oy=3116&zm=1&czm=1&x=344&y=207

I've had a search through the forum, and found information on other areas of Coventry Road, but nothing on this part. Any information gratefully received. I have very much enjoyed reading through the wealth of knowledge available on this forum.

Thanks very much,
Steve
Click to expand...
 
COVENTRY ROAD
Would you be able to pinpoint, on a map:
No. 44 (in the hamlet of Bordesley in the parish of Aston in 1871)
No. 40 (in the hamlet of Bordesley in the parish of Aston in 1881)
Any information on the type of property these were (eg shop) and what sort of neighbours there were.
Many thanks
 
Below is a map c1890 The numbering of the road had changed by then, but what was nos 40 and 44 in 1871 and 1881 are shown respectively in Blue and Green. Ignore the red markermap c1890 showing 40 and 44 Coventry Road.jpg
 
This 1930s photograph shows shops on the north side Coventry Road close to the junction of Charles Road. The shop on the corner of the latter was that of Davis Bros., the drapers. Next door is a branch of the Home & Colonial Stores Ltd., provisions dealers. Next door to them was the fruit/veg shop of Henry James Lea. I am not sure what the makes and models of the vehicles. I do know, however, that my garage was probably built for the tiny saloon car in the middle of the photograph. I did try and put a car in my garage and did manage to shoe-horn it in. Of course, once inside, I could not open the door to get out!

Coventry Road - Henry James Lea.jpg
 
Very busy scene outside the church/chapel/hall. Policeman (right) seems to be eyeing up the furniture outside A.E.Haim (?)s. Looks about very late 1800s. Viv.

5AEBD937-0946-4ACD-BD87-8B792C30BCF6.jpeg
 
www.midlandspubs.co.uk said:
This 1930s photograph shows shops on the north side Coventry Road close to the junction of Charles Road. The shop on the corner of the latter was that of Davis Bros., the drapers. Next door is a branch of the Home & Colonial Stores Ltd., provisions dealers. Next door to them was the fruit/veg shop of Henry James Lea. I am not sure what the makes and models of the vehicles. I do know, however, that my garage was probably built for the tiny saloon car in the middle of the photograph. I did try and put a car in my garage and did manage to shoe-horn it in. Of course, once inside, I could not open the door to get out!

View attachment 142317
Click to expand...
Look at the size of that extendable ladder. Also the angle does not meet current HS&E Requirements. I like him going up in his waistcoat and white shirt. I know OG is an Austin 7, but is the one behind a 'bullnose' Morris?...and what is that hanging down underneath it?

Bob

The angle for the ladder should be 75degrees, one foot away from the wall for every four foot of ladder.
 
Well, the poor devil up the ladder has a quandary. Does he keep the correct distance away from the wall (assuming he hasn't done so) or does he put the foot of the ladder in the roadway and risk getting knocked off the ladder by a careless motorist? :worried:
 
The lovely picture, post 23, is after `886 when horse drawn trams commenced to Small Heath and before 1907 when the route was electrified. I believe the constable has his eagle eye on the people selling things. making sure they are 'legit' I guess.
A similar, but not as nice, view, Apparently 1910.

1595944673802.png
 
Hi all. Regarding the ladder in front of the shops lets not worry about the height, what you must realise is its a "tie up" two ladders lashed together with sash cord to reach the required height they were in constant use during my youth in the decorating trade and were lethal.
all the best hewittbj39
 
Radiorails said:
Well, the poor devil up the ladder has a quandary. Does he keep the correct distance away from the wall (assuming he hasn't done so) or does he put the foot of the ladder in the roadway and risk getting knocked off the ladder by a careless motorist? :worried:
Click to expand...
He will need to comply with NRSWA 1991, the signing, lighting and guarding section now Unit 1, used to be unit 2, prior to April last year. I kñow I can make life fun, Now let me thrill you all with ladder safety yes regular users are expected to have a certificate.

Bob
 
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