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Handsworth

I'd vote for lawnmower :) is that a small roller on the front. What a fantastic shop.
Great pics thank you - good to see Handsworth at its finest.
 
Hmmm . . .
I suppose the handle does lend itself to the garden more than the kitchen
As a bat, I'm afraid!
 
Yes agree it does look more like a lawnmower with the front roller or maybe something for spreading fertiliser on the garden. Victorian gardeners had a vast range of implements for gardening. Be hard to precisely label what sort of shop this was. Just noticed there seem to be people in the doorway too, maybe staff? Viv.
 
I think it's a seed spreader, they can still be purchased today mostly plastic and rubber now though.
 
I would go along with that Phil.

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Mr George Albert Asbury was described as a tea dealer, though he probably dealt in coffee also, together with all the other things you can see. The shop was at 55 Key hill. However the date is wrong. He is there in 1884, but by 1888 he was at 165 summer Lane, and by 1892 he has disappeared from the shop scene, though Arthur George Asbury, tea dealer, is at 177 High St Aston
 
Post 180. no 3 Villa Road. There are tram tracks in the street but no overhead wires. I think this would date that picture to before 1913
 
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One from me to add to the collection; Villa Road 1904. Like the shopkeeper putting up his awning. It's striped so perhaps it was a butcher, seem to remember butchers' shops having those. Viv.

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And one of the Carnegie Infant Welfare Institute in Handsworth. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the building's still there. Viv.

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There's a new Heritage Trail starting, running through Handsworth and Lozells, trying to put a "positive spin" on the area (as they say).
Should be interesting?
 
Great pics - thank you. Nice to see the roads without any cars just trams. Always makes places seem much quieter and more tranqil.
 
Hi Shortie wasn't the Grand turned into a furniture store and later a bingo hall? Seems to ring a bell and it was on the opposite side to Woolworths and lay back from the road a little. Judy
 
Hi Judy - I can't find the post where I mention The Grand - it's not a place I remember to be honest. I wqas only there from 1960-64. Opposite woolworths was the MEB abd the Post Office, both set back, then there was the Market and Hawkins (not sure if in that order). One of the shops along that stretch may have been a cinema at one time, but my memory of the buildings on that side is a little vague - however the Walpamur shop was quite large and may have been the Grand at one time. I shall have to find my map and see if that is any help. Shortie
 
I remember the Grand Cinema on Soho Road well. It was a real flea pit. I think it might have been opposite Woolworths, but I can't really remember. I think it was very near the old Billiards Hall which was probably in the stretch of road from Nineveh Road to Boulton Road. I used to go to children's morning pictures there in the late 1940's.

(another) Judy
 
Hi Shortie

The Walpamur shop does strike a chord. My husband's family had a shop on the Soho Road opposite my father's and he says the Grand was known as the Fleapit too. I suppose most people went to the Regal as did we on occasions. Many thanks for your reply by the way. I do so love this forum! Judy
 
I worked on the Soho Road, in the area between Ninevah Road and Boulton Road during the years 66 - 68 but I can't remember the Grand building - had it been demolished then?

I do remember Woolworths, the Post Office and the Billiard Hall.
 
It was closed around 1953, but the building was taken over by John Blundell Ltd for a furniture store. It re-opened in the late-1970’s as an Asian cinema, known as the Grand Palace Cinema That closed in 1982, and by 1984 was standing derelict.
It has since been demolished and a small shopping centre named Soho City has been built on the site.
 
Thanks for that information Carol. I remember the last time I visited the Grand - I was only a little girl but had taken my sister to see The Wizard of Oz. She was frightened by the witch and I had to take her home, much to my annoyance. It amazes me that I was taking my sister to the cinema when I was probably only about 10 or 11! But then we didn't live too far away!

Judy
 
You've got it right: on the left heading towards city centre. However it is sadly now not a pub and has been converted to social housing.
 
'New Inns' was the terminus for the cable trams it seems to me...which is what the trams are in the old photo I think. So that being the case, then the tram has a ways to go and perhaps the building in the distance on the right was the New Inn..I think I read that there was a toll gate there at one time. Perhaps the term New Inns was associated with the area too, rather than a single building.
 
Agreed! David's photo is the New Inns pub that I remember. It was near to the Albion Cinema which was on the same side of the road, and used to house the Handsworth Ballroom in the 50s.
 
The New Inns Public House, junction of Holyhead Rd and Sandwell Rd Handsworth.
 

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