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Passages, Alleyways Gulletts and Snickets of Old Brum

Glad i am not into hot dogs or beefburgers
you never know what goes on behind the scenes do you. i never give them a thought. i have eat them when i was in brum of a night. But when i called to see my friend to get some castings and saw that yard.i was sickend. no wonder the council shifted them carts of night and the blokes did a runner when they seen them
 
It's named as Cole Holloway, off Cromwell Lane. Now just a paved pathway through to Woodcock Lane.
When I lived in that area (1950s) we always called this the Roman Gully. It was steep and narrow and it was paved and I think there was a handrail. It ran down from Woodcock Lane to Cromwell Lane. A distance of about 200 yds.
 
A new (to me) and very evocative photo of CLIVE PASSAGE, Snow Hill in 1960, from Alton's latest 'More of the 60s' book. Clive Passage is also featured in Post Nos 87 & 88.


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For the Gosta Green crowd, PENN STREET/GOPSALL STREET. Or rather the old pub that looks so sad now...another one bites the dust?



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Hi Dennis, I hope it is okay to reply to this old post. I used to live in Gopsal Street until 1968. The top end. Thank you so much for the photos. Great to see the Eagle and Ball , which has been renovated for the University students. This is the first photo I have seen of Penn Street before demolition and it has brought back so many memories. Hoping one day to stumble across Gopsal Street before demolition as our street doesn’t seem to have much history. A very grateful lady, thank you. Kind regards Sue
 
hi susan the photo dennis posted with the bunting out and a girl on the pavement...is that gopsal st...not knowing the area im not sure

lyn
 
hi susan the photo dennis posted with the bunting out and a girl on the pavement...is that gopsal st...not knowing the area im not sure

lyn
Hi Lyn. That is Penn Street, it continued from Gopsal Street. I was ecstatic when I found it this morning. I have seen some fantastic photos of town and all the areas I know well but the Eagle and Ball and Penn Street have been the only ones from my “patch” Of course I have seen photos of Belmont Row, A B Row, Curzon Street etc which have been great too.....but these 3 photos have been the nearest to my old home. , 49 Gopsal St. The Eagle and Ball was classed as being in Gopsal Street /Penn Street from what I have read.. Not too impressed with Gopsal Street in pic number 3 by the way but I wouldn’t be, would I. I hope this has made sense Lyn. Kind regards Sue.
 
Hi Dennis, I hope it is okay to reply to this old post. I used to live in Gopsal Street until 1968. The top end. Thank you so much for the photos. Great to see the Eagle and Ball , which has been renovated for the University students. This is the first photo I have seen of Penn Street before demolition and it has brought back so many memories. Hoping one day to stumble across Gopsal Street before demolition as our street doesn’t seem to have much history. A very grateful lady, thank you. Kind regards Sue
You are most welcome Sue!
 
The pub at no 9 was The Drovers Arms, which was still there up to 1868, but gone by 1872. this would, i think have been on the side of the street that became the market. there was also The Talbot at no 24, which would have been on the other side of the street. By the 1873 White's directory there was a licensed victualler listed at no 346 Bradford St, where the later Drovers Arms was
I have seen the 1871 census sheet for the Drovers Arms on Bradford Street, St. Martins. The proprietors were Henry Mitchell, licensed victualler, age 46 and his wife Louisa, age 39. There is no street number given, but it was the first building enumerated after Smithfield Street. This would place it at the NE corner of Smithfield and Bradford, which you call the 'later' Location. This means your dating needs to be modified by at least two years.
 
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My father was a night sorter at Birmingham Head Post Office for many years up to the late 1970s, sorting mail for Birmingham 1-5. In conversation he would make reference to Fire Engine Passage which he considered to be almost unknown.
I wonder if the reference to "Fire station" in #85 has any connection. The attachment 57844 is no longer available to view and is going back to 2010. I realise it's a long shot but I just wondered......
 
My father was a night sorter at Birmingham Head Post Office for many years up to the late 1970s, sorting mail for Birmingham 1-5. In conversation he would make reference to Fire Engine Passage which he considered to be almost unknown.
I wonder if the reference to "Fire station" in #85 has any connection. The attachment 57844 is no longer available to view and is going back to 2010. I realise it's a long shot but I just wondered......
Hi Clive...Re your ref to Fire Station Passage or Fire Engine Passage....Maybe this photo is pertinent..?

Den
 

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Hi Clive...Re your ref to Fire Station Passage or Fire Engine Passage....Maybe this photo is pertinent..?

Den
Hi Dennis
Thank you for the photo. I'm quite sure that will be the same place. It's many years ago that I discussed it with my father so I clearly got the name slightly wrong. My father was born in the parish of St Martins and was christened and married at St Martins Church so, as well as being a very knowledgeable Royal Mail sorter he had a great knowledge of the city centre and many tales to tell.

Clive
 
Just Bringing the Pinfold Street Thread back up. I find on my GGG grandparents marriage certificate that the address they lived at was Pinfold Street. My GGG grandfather's occupation was a "Wire Drawer". I have been up and down that street many times and often wondered whereabouts they lived along it. Would there be any way of finding this out. ?
 
Wire drawing is a very specific trade, predominantly around the Sheffield area I think. Latch and Batchelor in Hay Mills are an historic company plying that trade as was FA Power (GKN) in Adderley Road / Landor Street. I'm not aware of any more wire drawing companies in the Birmingham area.
 
It may be another case of an 'address of convenience' and they never actually lived there, especially if that address is listed for both.
 
Wire drawing is a very specific trade, predominantly around the Sheffield area I think. Latch and Batchelor in Hay Mills are an historic company plying that trade as was FA Power (GKN) in Adderley Road / Landor Street. I'm not aware of any more wire drawing companies in the Birmingham area.
The person concerned was then GGG grandfather of the member. Without having a date it is not possible to exactly how many wire drawers were in the area, but it must have been at least 90 years ago. The 1821 Kellys lists 16 wire drawing firms, with many more listed as specialised "wire manufacturers"
 
Of course there were quite a few follow up posts from mike and Shortie and others...some of which are reprised here....and some old pics for any newcomers to this site....

From the directories, and West’s Warwickshire
1815 Brunner Paul, brush maker, and keeper of Lady Well Baths
1818 Brunner Paul, brush maker, and keeper of the hot, cold pleasure, and" (shower baths, Lady Well
1823 Monro and Co. fumigating and vapour baths, together with hot, cold, shower, and pleasure baths, Lady well-walk
1833 and 1833 Monro George, proprietor of Lady-well Baths, Lady-well walk.

Also listed as Birmingham Baths
1839 Munroe, George, Ladywell Baths

1841-49 Monroe. Prop.of Ladywell Baths


West’s Warwickshire directory states:
Of BATHS, &c. Mr. Hutton, our best informant, says,

"At Lady-Well, so called from the Virgin Mary, are the most complete baths in the whole island; they are seven in number, erected at the expense of £2000. Accommodation is ever ready for hot or cold bathing; for immersion or amusement, with conveniency for sweating. The bath appropriated to swimming, is 18 yards by 30, situated in the centre of a garden, in which there are twenty-four private undressing houses ; the whole surrounded by a wall 10 feet high.

And later:
While on the spot, we cannot omit giving a description of the present state of Lady-well, and the important improvements that have been connected with that never failing source of purity. Strangers can have no idea of the advantages which Birmingham possesses with regard to its Baths, and we really believe that thousands of its inhabitants, that have arrived at the meridian of life, are not acquainted with their arrangement and extent. In Mr. Hutton's day, they were seven in number, and cost nearly £2000. There are now ten, the additions of the new, and the improvements of the old. Baths have, since they came into the possession of Mr. Monro, cost upwards of £2000 in addition. They are upon an extensive plan of comfort and accommodation, and bountifully supplied with the purest water.

The 1st. or Ladies Bath, laid with marble,has an excellent dressing room adjoining it, and over the fountain the following lines are inscribed :—

" O'er this cool stream the goddess health presides.
And through the silent wave perpetual glides ;
Plunge then, ye fair, with fortitude descend.
The indulgent goddess will her influence lend :
By her kind aid the faded cheek resumes
The rouge celestial, and with beauty blooms;
Seize
then her offer, try the lucid spring.
And, with returning health, its virtues sing."
O V E R T H E S E A T .
"The sparkling eyes grow languid,—faintly gleam.
When bane
ful sickness shakes the tender stream :
Bath'd in the flood transparent, health returns,—
The eye re-sparkles and the bosom burns.
With ncw-rais'd vigour: briskly through the veins
The blood meanders,—and
the fair complains
No more
of pulse too rapid, or too slow.
Of aching head, weak nerves, or spirits low ;
But, all alive, the animated
form
Beams forth fresh charms, the coldest heart to warm."


The 2nd. or Gentlemen's Cold Bath, is neatly fitted up, with dressing room, &c. for Non-subscribers.

Tbe 3rd. is also a Cold Bath for Gentlemen, and is upon a good scale, being fifteen feet and a half square, and nearly four feet and a half deep, receiving a supply, from an abundant spring within itself, of twelve hogsheads per hour. It has private boxes fronting the water, and a convenient dressing room.. The following' appropriate lines appear under a good painting opposite the boxes :—

" Whoe'er thou art, approach'. has med'cine fail'd ?
Have balns aud herbs assay'd their powers in vain ?
Nor the free air, nor fostering sun prevail'd.
To raise thy drooping strength, or sooth thy pain ?
" Yet enter here, nor doubt to trust thy frame.
To the cold bosom of this lucid lake;
Here health may greet thee, and life's languid flame.
E'en from its icy grasp, new fire may take.
" What soft Ansonia's genial shores deny,
Zembia may give; then boldly trust the wave !
, So shall thy grateful tablet hang on high.
And frequent votaries bless this healing cave.
" Is rosy health the subject of thy boast?
Thy wish that active strength may long endure ?
Lest active strength and rosy health be lost.
Plunge in this limpid tide—thy bliss secure."


The 4th or large Swimming Bath is upwards of one hundred feet long and fifty feet wide; the gradual depth from three to five feet. This delightful bath, which is supplied with about one thousand hogsheads of water per hour from Lady-well and the surrounding springs, is in the centre of a neatly-laid out garden, well planted with high trees, and enclosed with high walls, and is, perhaps, unequalled in any inland town in tbe kingdom.—The platform, flights of steps, and conveniencies for bathing and dressing are well constructed.

The 5th or Temperate Bath, by an equal mixture of hot and cold water, produces in two or three minutes a bath of 82 degrees by Fahrenheit—being about the heat of Buxton.
The 6th or Hot Bath is made of fine veined marble, and is supplied from a large furnace with hot, and from a reservoir adjoining with cold, water. The heat is increased or decreased at pleasure, in a few minutes, to the temperature of Bath, Bristol, Buxton, Matlock, &c. The following lines, from Thomson, are inscribed upon a tablet, surmounted by a stone vase, fronting the dressing boxes :—

" When sun's enlivening genial warmth diffuse.
Cheerful to this salubrious stream repair ;
And through the waves, at each short breath repel,
As humour leads, an easy winding path.
This is the purest exercise of Health,
The kind refresher of the summer's heats;
Thus life redoubles, and is oft preserv'd
By the bold swimmer, in the swift illapse
Of accident disastrous. Hence the limbs
Knit into force; and the same Roman arm
That rose victorious o'er the conquered earth.
First learn'd, while tender, to subdue the wave.
Even from the body's purity, the MIND
Receives a secret sympathetic aid."


This bath has been considered by the faculty as a great acquisition to the town of Birmingham. The Ladies' cold baths and dressingrooms are in a distinct building. There is also a distinct bath for the Jews, conducted upon the plan laid down by the High Priest, and the shower baths throughout the establishment are regulated upon
a new and improved principle. The dwelling house of the proprietorhas been newly erected, and fitted up in a handsome style; it extends upwards of sixty feet from east to west, and the whole establishment is not only highly creditable to tbe proprietor, but invaluable to the town of Birmingham.

The other Baths consist of the artificial waters of Harrowgate, Leamington, and Cheltenham; also sulphurous, aromatic, and topical fumigating or vapour Baths; these are upon an admirable and improved construction for invalids, the water being brought to a level with the dressing and bed-rooms. Invalids can also be accommodated with apartments.

However it looks as if other trades were on occasion at the baths. In 1830 there is listed;
Blundell Joseph, dyer, Lady Well Baths.


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Really interesting posts never knew the story behind the name of the street off Hurst St & now I know. Shame unable to open the attachments. Thanks for sharing this.
 
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