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Gosta Green Through Duddeston

Dennis

I've just been down Rea St South on Google and the whole of the Thomas Ash factory has gone and it's an empty site. All that is left is one little factory unit in Charles Henry St (backs on to Rea St) that is called Fredrick Ash Ltd.
 
Jim

I can't tell you how happy I am to see my favourite thread back open once again, thanks so mu


I know nothing of the company whilst Thomas Ash was living at Prospect Row, but we did business with them whilst they were at Rea Street South that would be some 8 years ago and they were expanding then so I would imagine they are still there.

Phil I feel just the same as you, I just hope I can contribute more to it.
 
Dennis

I think you mean the 1841 Pigot's directory. this shows Thomas Ash , zinc worker at Hen & chickens Yard, High St. This was presumably the yard behind where the Hen & Chickens had been before it moved to New St, somewhere I believe around where M & S is.
I don't know if they have any connection with the following:
1823 Ash J. and H. copper smiths, braziers, and tin and iron plate workers, 86, Dale-end
1829 Ash Henry, coppersmith, brazier, tin and iron plate worker, 86, Dale-end
1833 Ash Henry, coppersmith, brazier, tin and iron plate worker, 1, Dale-end
1839 Ash and Morris, copper smiths, braziers, tin plate workers, and fender
makers, 1, Dale end

after 1841:
1845(PO directory) Ash Thomas, zinc manufacturer, 3 Peck Lane
1845 (PO directory) Ash Thomas, zinc & galvanized iron worker 119½ New St
1849 Ash Thomas & Son, galvanized iron & zinc workers, manufacturers
of sash bars & bell [tubing, &c. & inventors of the patent stair rods, 119 New street, 3 Peck lane, & Ashted row.


The mention of Ashted Row hints to me that there may be a family connection with this person, though I wouldn't think it was the same Thomas:
1823 Ash Thomas, druggist, grocer, and oil and colour man, 38, Stafford-street, and 56, Lichfield-street
1829 Ash Thomas, grocer, tea dealer, druggist, and oil & colourman, 65, Coleshill-st
1833 Ash Thomas,grocer, tea dealer, druggist, and oil and colourman, Prospect-row
1839-1841 Ash Thomas, chymist and druggist, 6 Prospect Row
1845 (PO directory) Ash Thomas , chemist & galvanic ring manufacturer & post office receiving house . 167 Ashted Row.

There is also in Whites 1850 directory:
Ash Frederick, iron and steel merchant; house, Selby Oak cottage, Northfield/ who might be connected.
If you want me to go after 1849 , then let me know.

Mike, you are truly a huge friend and fantastic mentor, both to me and every other scholar on here...like young Phil....That fills in a load of blanks...which I will explain later...I will post the full story on the famous Brummie girls and boys thread...I sincerely hope it's worth it! And I echo Phil's comments about the site and in particular Gervan...missed his wit wisdom, and his brilliantly informed posts and photos of our fair City, and it's history....and dekka is also lurking effectively I note....cheers matey..!!
 
Here,s something that one of our tram experts could confirm for me and that is information on the number 7 tram that ran from Nechells to Martineau Street. What was it's route, did it run along Great Lister Street, and did it cease to run in 1922 when it was superseded by the number 7 trolley bus.
 
Here is the best I can do Phil. I'm sure others can do better . From "Birmingham in the Electric Tram Era". I assume that 1884 was when the track was laid, 1907 when electric trams came in , and 1922 when they finished

no_7_tram_route.jpg
 
Thanks Mike & Jennyann,

As any little bit of information helps to fill in the whole picture. Mike I think you will know what I require the information for, so with your permission I will use your map.
 
Thanks Mike & Jennyann,

As any little bit of information helps to fill in the whole picture. Mike I think you will know what I require the information for, so with your permission I will use your map.

Hurry up then Phil....I am intrigued....almost like old times on here!
 
Phil I read that there was a one way system in Nechells.At the Green it went left into Thimble Mill Lane right at Long Acre down to Cuckoo Rd and back up Nechells Park Rd.
 
Dennis

Sorry it concerns something I was asked on another forum and being no great tram enthusiast I was struggling with an answer, but I think it has been answered reasonably well now.
 
This is the only photo that I have ever found that shows my little section of Francis St where I lived as a youngster from about 1953 to about 1963 when we moved about half a mile. We lived just about opposite where the lorry is parked outside Middleton's builders yard. The photo is taken from Henry St and to the right you can see the site where the St James Sunday School used to stand where you could get a free dinner on a Sunday as long as you brought your own plate and spoon.

I'm quite amazes to see a car parked in the road, as to my knowledge nobody owned a car in the road, mind you it looks to be parked outside the outdoor so it might have been a salesman. The other thing that intrigues me about this photo is that the two lads in this photo look very much like my two younger brothers, but it is not clear enough to say for sure and as it is taken from a piece of film there is no way it can be cleaned up further.
 

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Two photos of Mount Street park down the posh end of Nechells, both photos were taken before World War one. What I notice first is how clean and well dressed the kids are secondly it's just how many of them there are. The photo is obviously posed so I wonder if the photographer arranged or them all to be there and did he pay them?
 

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I like your Francis Street pic some lots Phil....I was never privileged to go to Nechells or anywhere near there in my childhood years, being drug up in Stechford and Bordesley Green for my sins, but loads of my previous rellies did, and I appreciate now the mantle of innocent childhood we were bequeathed due to, as Phil put it, 'nobody in our road owned a car'. So we were generally formed by dint of our brushing against the same old same old...friends for llfe, good or bad, and memories made that much more indelible by essentially local peer pressure....and didn't we do well? Anyway, sorry for getting carried away for a minute there...so may I post this for penance...it has nothings for me, as I don't know or remember it, but it struck me as a nice photo that someone might like...bit before my time, much nearer to Dekka Carr's period...?

Nechells Park Road 1900 copy.jpg
 
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Dennis

Believe me you would not thought it much of a privilege had you lived in Francis St during the era that I did. The whole area was crumbling around our ears and that was nothing to do with the demolition that was going on all about us. Then of course we had the added delight of living seven (5 children, 2 adults) in a one down and two up house. We manages quite well until my step father brought his 3 sisters over from Ireland.

Though as a child none of this really bothered me, as the whole area was a wonderland for a child. Had there been an official Heath & Safety Executive then my childhood would have been much different and my time spent out at play would have been so much different. Besides I cant see how they would have been able to demolish houses only a couple of doors away from occupied houses with all the kids playing around them whilst working and then when the workmen knocked off for the evening the site would be invaded by the local urchins.
 
Well I think I appreciate what you mean Phil...we were lucky and lived in a standard Council House (but bought) parlour type 1930s ...and we always had aunts and uncles living in the front room after marriages, and we had three bedrooms and an upstairs bog and bathroom, but next door and some over the Road were bombed by Herr Wotsit...so scrambling about bombed out relics, sailing across the bombed Richmond Bowling Green using fallen corrugated fence panels, was a regular feature of all-day play that would bring out the H&S boys in a muck sweat now, as nan would say...so I had some of the privations, but not all....and it didn't seem to affect you too badly, if I may be so bold....you certainly attracted me to this glorious site (and others) with your cracking posts when I first alighted on here a couple of years ago!!! And still do.....blush....so have another pic for luck mon ami...


Berners St drays copy.jpg.
 
hi dennis just catching up and thats a cracking pic of the new inns berners st...a new one to me

cheers

lyn
 
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