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Cox Street West - Balsall Heath

R

RobertS

master brummie
Hello Folks

Does anyone know when Cox Steet West in Balsall Heath was built? We know The church St. Thomas-in-the-Moors, was started from the estate of William Sands Cox, Esq., in 1868 and finished in1883.

any help appreciated. Thanks
 
RobertS

I can't tell you when Cox Street West was built, I can tell you that it disappeared in the early 70's. mikejee can even show you photo's just prior to this event.

Being born local to the area I have always thought it odd that there is a Cox Street West, an Upper Cox Street, but the nearest Cox Street is over by St Paul's Square. I wonder why this is so?

Perhaps someone that answers your question may also be able to answer mine.

Phil
 
I can't tell you exactly when it was built, but it is not listed in the 1868 directory, which would refer to 1867, but is in the 1872 directory (referring to 1871) the land was apparently sold for building in 1869. So about 1870 would seem a good estimate.
As to the different Cox Streets, it can be said that the Cox St near St Paul's Square was in 1795 called Cocks St on maps. Maps continued to show it as Cock St until at least 1851, but the 1849 Whites Directory lists it as Cox St. The change to Cox is presumably due to the name of the street being written down as a person heard it.
Cox St West and Upper Cox St , however, seem to have been named after Dr John Cox, who owned the Longmoor Estate which , when sold, provided the land on which they were built.
Mike
 
Mike

Thanks for the info, normally when you have something like Upper or Lower Cox Street or Cox St West, South, East or North you would normally have a Cox Street, but not in this case. I just find it intriguing.

Phil
 
I have always been intrigued that the Cox family is not better commemorated in Balsall Heath. The land and all the construction costs for St. Thomas in the Moors Church was given by William Sands Cox in memory of his father Edward Townsend Cox. Edward was a surgeon who lived to the ripe age of 93, dying in 1863. Rev. Dr. John Cox,William's grandfather and longtime chaplain to Deritend, owned a farm called 'Longmoors', which was sold in 1869. He made an enormous contribution to the improvement of community health by founding a dispensary in Sherbourne Road which provided healthcare for the sum of a penny a week. This survived until the founding of the NHS in 1947. He started three of these dispensaries in total as well as founding the Queens Hospital in 1848, which was later subsumed into the Birmingham Accident Hospital.
The Cox family had been around the area for a few hundred years and yet relatively little commemorates them, a great pity in my opinion.
Ted
 
mikejee said:
I can't tell you exactly when it was built, but it is not listed in the 1868 directory, which would refer to 1867, but is in the 1872 directory (referring to 1871) the land was apparently sold for building in 1869. So about 1870 would seem a good estimate.
As to the different Cox Streets, it can be said that the Cox St near St Paul's Square was in 1795 called Cocks St on maps. Maps continued to show it as Cock St until at least 1851, but the 1849 Whites Directory lists it as Cox St. The change to Cox is presumably due to the name of the street being written down as a person heard it.
Cox St West and Upper Cox St , however, seem to have been named after Dr John Cox, who owned the Longmoor Estate which , when sold, provided the land on which they were built.
Mike
Click to expand...
Mike, I have some relatives, George and Keziah Duval, who lived at 82 Cox Street in 1881 before emigrating to Australia. Would you by any chance have any old photos of their house? Thanks so much!
 
mjfish
Do I take it you mean 82 Cox St West, when you say cox St? As far as I can see Cox St never had numbers as high as 82. 82 Cox St west had changed considerably by the 1970s, being combined into nos 81-83. It would have been the middle of the three combined buildings, with the bricked up doorway and entry.

7A__81-85_Cox_St_West_East_Side.jpg
 
mike so the numbers of cox st west went up singular...there were no odd and even side...

lyn
 
I was born at number 30 in 1950, moved to 2 back of 100 and then 1 back of 100 and after that to number 100 until 1963, have some very good memories of Cox street west
 
Hello everybody,
It's been a long while since I last logged in, for which I apologise. I was reading Catherine's thread, dated 2009? and it brought back some happy memories. I used to live in Gooch St, no. 1/147 behind Harry's Cafe; whilst there I left school (St. Michaels, Floodgate Street) and later moved to 69 Cox St. West and worked at Lincoln St Motors for while. Later again, we moved to Stanhope St, off Conybere St. Seeing photo's of Gooch St and Cox St West bring back some very happy memories. Later on again, I joined HM forces and after two years I bumped into a chum who lived in Hope St. He joined up a month after me, neither of us knowing the other had! Another coincidence happened about a year later, when I met a classmate, from St Michaels, he had also joined up about the same time as me and all three of us ended up in the same unit. Spooky!

I love seeing the photo's of those streets and I'll keep trawling to see what else has been posted since my last visit.

Thank you all, again, for contributing and keeping the memories alive.

Mike (Costello)
 
My only recollection of Cox Street West is from the 1950s, we used to deal with an engineering company called GH Yule who did reboring and engine machining for the motor trade, one day when delivering a car there for work my mate waiting outside was accosted by a young woman asking if he 'wanted a good time' a 'lady of the night' out at 11 am o_O
 
Does anyone have any photos of Cox Street West, Balsall Heath or thereabouts ? A lost street now I believe. Mum grew up there. Hardly any photos of the place.
 
Sure there are/a photo somewhere on this forum for Cox Street West as I have printed something out for my mother in law. Her family lived at 37 from 1871 - 91 and operated the business of Photographic Apparatus Cabinet Makers from that address
 
I am just researching The Webb Family from 104 Cox Street West. Mrs Cox was Harriet Bird , an ancestor of mine. Married to Daniel. Any information gladley appreciated.
 
mooky said:
I am just researching The Webb Family from 104 Cox Street West. Mrs Cox was Harriet Bird , an ancestor of mine. Married to Daniel. Any information gladley appreciated.
Click to expand...
It helps to know when they lived there - if only roughly. I've looked through a bunch of old directories from 1898 to 1965 and there's no mention of either name at that address. Admittedly they wouldn't show up if the directory didn't list that address (it's missing several times) or if they lived in a flat above whtever shop was there.
 
mooky said:
I am just researching The Webb Family from 104 Cox Street West. Mrs Cox was Harriet Bird , an ancestor of mine. Married to Daniel. Any information gladley appreciated.
Click to expand...
I don't recognise Mrs Cox or Cox Street but Daniel Webb (died 1908) was my great grandfather (lived at 270 Pershore Road in 1901) and his wife Harriet died July 12th 1928 aged 82....
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Philip Webb.

Thank you for posting on the forum. We strongly advise member not to post their personal email addresses on the forum. The data can be harvested and use for scams, fraud and identity theft. If you wish other members to contact you, then its best if you advise them to use the “Start Conversation” facility we provide. This then protects your privacy.
 
phil you can edit out your email address if you wish to do so or i can do it for you?

lyn
 
Thank you Mike for this interesting thread. Having unearthed my copy of my maternal grandparents Marriage Certificate, they married at St Thomas in the Moors Church on the 16th April 1927 and began their married life at 1 Herbert Place, Cox Street West. Their surname was Rowley and my grandfather was a sheet metal worker. It has been great to see this thread and despite the houses being in poor condition, have been able to picture where they would have lived. They moved in due course to 60 Grace Road near to Montgomery Street school, from where my mother and her sisters were evacuated to Pershore. In later years, the family lived in Mapleton Road, Hall Green, which at least still stands today.
 
mikejee said:
Cox st west
Photo 14
Carrying on from a few months ago at #106, we turn the corner from Clevedon road into Cox St West. At the left is Royce car hire, though directories of the time list it as Bones private car hire, which can be seen better in the last shot in # 106. It is part of no 48, the first use of which recorded is as part of a glass warehouse . By the shape of the pavement in the 1890 OS map it was in fact probably an entrance at that time into which vehicles came. This has now been filled in to make an office. Just before WW1 no 48 was a mixture of a brush maker and Cox St West social club, while after the first war it was used by a printer, a cabinet maker and around 1967 the building was shared with a turf accountant by two tailors, Scotowicz and Betker. The four houses to the right were almost certainly built for residential purposes, although the one on the right (no 44) was used for a time as a shop. The left hand one (47) at the turn of the century housed a cycle enameller and a fishing tackle maker, while no 46 was used by a painter and decorator. On the far right Lincoln Street Motors (39-48) was a relatively new building built around 1960 on a site that had always had an industrial use, shoe rivet making being the most recent, this developing from horseshoe-making when the demand for these diminished. An iron kettle maker and a chandelier maker once also occupied part of the site.
Photo 15
When the photo was taken no 39 Cox St West was partly listed as being part of Lincoln St motors , but also by joiners Bowen & Deeley and a French polishing firm. In 1956 it belonged to physician & surgeon, but, for most of its life seems to have been a private residence.
Photo 16
To the left of the picture is a space. No 38 Cox Street West was destroyed by bombing in the war. The Solid Brass Ring Co. (no 37) had been doing business since the late 1940s, first describing itself as a curtain ring manufacturer and later a brass chain manufacturer. Around the time of the bombing which destroyed its neighbour it was a wholesale upholsterer and earlier, together with buildings either side, a garage run by William Hatfield. However, earlier incarnations had been the home of William Dawkins (1890-97), who first described himself as a photographic frame manufacturer, but later expanded this to photographic apparatus manufacturer, and from the end of WW1 up to 1932 no 35-37 were the home of Blackhams, brassfounders., and a part of this previous to this was Lycett & Co, brassfounders. Houses immediately to the right of it held many trades, often only for a year or so, including whip maker, window blind maker, leather boot lace maker, tinplate worker and tortoiseshell folder maker.

14B__Cox_St__West__west_side.jpg



15B_Cox_st_west_west_side.jpg


16C__Cox_st_west_west_sideA.jpg
Click to expand...
 

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