• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • 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

Archway Of Tears

took this book to Goa to read and thoroughly enjoyed it a very enthralling story with great research.
 
Hi Bo, oh blimey time has passed so quickly and lots of connected people will have no doubt died. Would it be possible to let me have the names of the daughters of Harty Hake and William Arthur Edmunds please. And I would love to know any details about the parents of Sarah Ellen Larney (my grandmother) and anything about the parents of William Arthur Edmunds.

You may not get this message but worth a try. the link seems to have become unused!!
 
Thank you for the link Viv, I thought The Archway was listed but it appears it isn't.
There was some renovation done on the roof and chimneys, obviously not enough!
I wonder if the plaque is still there?
rosie.
 
Thanks for the link, Viv, but I'm afraid that I find such articles somewhat depressing. It just confirms, as I have always thought, that this city and its institutions, like many, is run by a load of bean counters for whom history is the last item on a long list of priorities, the first on the list being to make money. The only alternative is to take as many photographs as you can and ensure that these photographs and digital copies of any associated documentation are placed on a website where they are available to all. I no longer have faith in places like the Library of Birmingham where, as we have seen, access can be restricted within a couple of years of the place being opened.

Maurice
 
Hi Maurice, I hope you are feeling better!
We go to City Hospital (formerly "Dudley Rd.") regularly and we often park near the Archway. It's difficult to get near because of the barricades, I would love to go and have a closer look.
My 3x great grandfather died in the Workhouse Infirmary.
rosie.
 
Hi Rosie,

Yes, much better, thank you for asking. I'm not really that familiar with the area, though of course many ancestors have been! Barricades and hoardings in the name of safety are frequently a problem and it's difficult to know who to approach that would agree to allow you access for the purpose of taking photographs. The jobsworth över my dead body" attitude is prevalent everywhere. If we can't do it legally, maybe we should ask one of the urban exploration people to do it illegally! Like mysterious fires at places wanted for development, these sorts of demolitions generally take place over a weekend of a bank holiday to minimise any objections!

Maurice
 
Hi Maurice,

Yes it would be good if the urban exploration people could do something, I'm hopeless with a camera!!
The Archway is on the edge of the car park by the Western Rd. entrance/exit, not too far from the pub on Dudley Rd. that "fell down" recently with the weight of scaffolding.
rosie.
 
The guys that used to post on the Forum haven't been around for some time, maybe they just got too old to climb fences! I haven't seen them on 28 Days Later either. So many restrictions, understandably, on the use of drones too.

Maurice
 
Hi Maurice
Here is a couple of picture to start with on our topic of Archway of tears, and Tears of hell
 

Attachments

  • ScanImage001.jpg
    ScanImage001.jpg
    212.4 KB · Views: 72
  • ScanImage002.jpg
    ScanImage002.jpg
    244.8 KB · Views: 45
  • ScanImage003.jpg
    ScanImage003.jpg
    236.7 KB · Views: 42
There was the 'old' workhouse in Lichfield Street and a 'new' workhouse on Western Road. Is this why we have images of two archways? Have they been mixed up? Just a thought - sorry no evidence. Viv.
 
Hi Viv, I've just had a thought, perhaps the white coloured building was an entrance on the road which was at some time demolished. I can see a building on Western Rd on a 1892-1905 map and perhaps they wanted a 'nice' looking entrance. It would be interesting to know when it was demolished.
Phil
 
Hi Maurice, the pictures on that website show the building which I can see on GE and which was one of my pics in the other thread. The 'Archway of Tears' in the captioned pic below looks very different.

Linked Pic from Alan's post#32
index.php

(only visible if logged in)
 
Last edited:
I don't know the area but if you look on here https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Birmingham/ then the two views are both there but one is labelled view from the east and the other from the west so that seems to suggest that they are opposite views. In other words one as you went in and one as you came out. If they are building houses then I would have thought the gateway could have been left s an entrance, either pedestrian or car. Then it would be preserved in situ.
 
Thanks, Janice, that seems to have cleared up the matter. Will it then be known as the Workhouse Estate? :) :) :)

Maurice
 
A search of the actual planning application includes the following statement.
Prior to full demolition commencing, some elements of the building are due to be retained. The main archway and two side flanking archways are to be carefully removed by hand. The Trust intend to place these features into storage to be incorporated into future redevelopment of the Hospital site. Once completed the rest of the building is to be demolished via mechanical process.
 
In the 70's I has a contract to supply skips to the then West Birmingham Health Authority hospitals. Dudley Rd hospital being one of them. From time to time when the porterring staff thought a job was outside their remit and they wanted double time wages within normal working hours I was asked to supply a gang of men.

One of our regular jobs every couple of years was to sweep out the old workhouse buildings that were still standing at that time (photo 1) they were mostly still in good repair. One of our first jobs was to clean out a room in the old workhouse building that was full of old clothes belonging to patients of the infirmary and inmates of the workhouse that had died over the years and never been claimed (photo 2).

Another regular job was to clean out the cell like rooms (photo 3) of the dust dead pigeons and other such things that had amassed over the preceding couple of years.

All in all these places were better cared for when they were looked after by the Health Authority, but I suppose all that ended when they became trusts.
 

Attachments

  • 1 Winson Green Western Rd Workhouse.jpg
    1 Winson Green Western Rd Workhouse.jpg
    229.3 KB · Views: 35
  • 2 Winson Green Weston Rd Workhouse.JPG
    2 Winson Green Weston Rd Workhouse.JPG
    130.3 KB · Views: 36
  • 3 Winson Green Weston Rd The Workhouse.JPG
    3 Winson Green Weston Rd The Workhouse.JPG
    189.9 KB · Views: 33
The building seen in Alan's pic post#32 is probably the original 'Archway of Tears' and was the gatehouse on Western Rd.
It can be seen (circled) in Pic 1 aerial view date unknown. Note the tall chimney seen in the background of Alan's pic is visible in this view.
Pic 1.
Pic1Workhousegatehouse.JPG

It can also be seen (circled) in Pic 2 aerial view date 1920.
Pic 2.
Pic2WesternRd.JPG

In this Pic 3 aerial view date 1945, the gatehouse is still there on Western Rd.
Pic 3.
Pic3arches1945.JPG

Sometime after 1945 the gatehouse was demolished but I have not been able to find the date of demolition.
The aerial view today
Pic 4.
Pic4WesternRd2016.JPG
 
Fascinating pictures, Phil, and many thanks for posting. So it appears that the original Archway has gone, but that they intend to demolish the other one and rebuild it as part of any new development according to Janice's post #44.

Maurice
 
Hi Maurice, if we knew the date of demolition of the gatehouse it would interesting to see if there were any protests in newspapers about it or was it just allowed to happen ...
Phil
 
Agreed, Phil, though if after 1950 the newspapers won't yet be online, and trawling through microfilmed copies in the Library would be a thankless task, especially not knowing if you were going to find anything. I'll check the online stuff and report back.

Maurice
 
As the Archway is in the car park I find it strange that the land would be used for housing, so is the main hospital going to be demolished too?
The Treatment Centre has only recently been built so there is a need for parking.
rosie.
 
Online Birmingham papers finish at 1945 - just a few Staffordshire beyond that. Nothing under Archway of Tears or Archway so I checked Dudley Road Hospital and that was nearly all Death Notices or Situations Vacant.

That's a typical PR job Pedrocut, divert onto a different subject a.s.a.p. - However we are excited by the potential for the development of new clinical services on the site.

Maurice
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top