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Lathams Shops

Great photo, thanks Lyn. Unusual shape to the section curving round onto Rocky Lane. Of all the photos we’ve seen of Latham’s so far, they seemed to favour corner plots for their shops. Viv.
 
yes viv i was right its one of rays pics...could be our mom used this one as we were right on the no 8 route

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Lots interest and much of the past here; apart from the clock and the public library (minus small spire), which is probably no longer a library, little seems left. I notice a Woolworth store and a National Provincial Bank? I date it late 1960's. Incidentally the NP Bank merged with the Westminster in 1970 to form todays NatWest Bank.
 
yes alan and also the clock was moved further down to more or less where lathams shop was:rolleyes:
 
what a great pic of the cross. when i hear the word Lathams i think of nechells green and oil cloth
 
I remember frequently going shopping to a Latham's in Nechells Park Road with my late Wife in around the 70's buying curtains, dress material etc... Eric
 
Viv

Not my area at all, but is this the Kingstanding shop, I've got it marked as Hawthorne Road, but there is no Hawthorne Road in Kingstanding is there?

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I used to work there at the Kingstanding Rd branch in the 80s and 90s. I remember when we used to get a new range of net curtain in & the candy stripe bed sheets in the spring and there would be a rush to buy them. I regularly meet with some of the old staff including L.Latham.
 
Henry Latham was my first cousin, twice removed. He was born in Eccleshall, Staffs in 1882. He trained as a draper in Cannock under his brother in law and then moved to Birmingham. His first shop was in Nechells Park Road around 1917. He married Florence Stringer and they had 3 children but she died of flu in 1923 when the youngest was only six months old.
He had nannies to look after the children and concentrated on his business which became very successful. However I get the impression he wasn’t always the best father to the girls as he spent so much time on the business.
In 1929 he married Winifred Bradbury and they had four more children. All of the girls helped in the shops as he now had three shops with those in Kingstanding and Glebe Farm. However the girls didn’t get always on with their step mother and found their father temperamental and so after 1945 most of them moved out of Birmingham, some of them to Canada.
Henry died in 1954 while living in Walmley Ash Road.

Hope you find this background interesting!
 
My grandfather Frederick McGuirk (Fred) working in Latham's drapery shop in Nechells in the 1960s. My mother lived with her parents in the flat over the Glebe Farm Road Lathams. Apparently Mr Latham offered Fred the flat because he was a hard worker and a highly respected member of staff. The family lived there from the 1930s for over 18 years then later moved to Earlswood.
 

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My Grandfather Fred McGuirk working in Latham's drapery shop in Nechells in the 1960s. My mother lived with her parents in the flat over the Glebe Farm Road Lathams. Apparently Mr Latham offered Frederick the flat because he was a hard worker and a respected member of staff. The family lived there from the 1930's for over 18 years then later moved to Earlswood.
i lived in nechells. mom used to get the oilcloth from there.i remember it standing on end by the window. after mom bought it.the next-door neighbour would collect it on his hand cart.
 
Weirdly long before I started researching my family history I lived in Stechford and often used to go to Glebe Farm, not knowing that one of my ancestors had a shop there. Anyone any idea when the Latham’s shops closed?
 
Weirdly long before I started researching my family history I lived in Stechford and often used to go to Glebe Farm, not knowing that one of my ancestors had a shop there. Anyone any idea when the Latham’s shops closed?
Lathams also had a shop at the Poolway Shopping Centre on the Meadway, Sheldon. John.
 
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