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Arch In Selly Park

The other stone looks much older than the balustrade stone and much eroded and maybe from a structure older than St Philips.
It certainly is a mysterious arch!
oldmohawk .. :)
 
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Great photographs showing a really curious mixture of stonework.
There seems to be quite a lot of sandstone - particularly the inner skin - and whilst there is some stonework (other than the balustrades) that could have possibly come from the original St. Philips church, I believe other masonry has been robbed from elsewhere.
However the research into this ornamental architectural feature and its discussion has caught the imagination of many of us here. The fact that it has no roof supports the ornamental purpose I think.
 
Hi G
just been going through the threads to day and i notice on one of the threads of just late i over sighted for some reanon
you have mentionioned clee house and you had not noticed it
well is it because you have walked passed it on your walk up kensington road and expecting to see the name on the gate post
because it is the reason you have not clocked it is because it not on the gate post
it was a dark brown sign just on the wall as you step into the wide door way
a slim looking sign with well worn dark writing
if you judge the road when you walk up kensington road passing greenland road on your left
you will eventualy see the beginging of the convent wall if you judge about half that full view
meaning standing still for a moment cast your eyes from the top end back to where you are standing
you should be in that postion out side the filmores house
It as a high raised drive up when you enter there is a large garage door ajoing the house, but saying this i do not just know what as been altered if any by any knew owners its been donkeys years since i was in that house
but i can tell you i can walk there blind fol;ded to the house and the drive of the house
I can tell you grea today i went to my office to do some work took my son with me and its in tyseley
as i was sittimg there i thought about old filmore and his wife and of course is house son i thought to myself
sitting there , i think i will go back home on a detour to worc
i thought i will go to filmores and get a shot of the house but my old dutchess phoned me and said she aint well
can you come home so that snookered my planns other wise i would have got a photo of philmores old house
i have been looking at mikes planns and tryiing to trace it but i cannot make head or tail
but there is an arial view first and i have tryed ll angles to me its loks bang in the middle of the convent
wall and you see the marking of a burial graves plots, if you looked through there upstairs windows there plots was in two
dezigns if on the inside of the convent and they was taking the coffins down the gardens
the first batch was just a straight paralle line across , but later in years a good few yards further down they was burried
long ways and another thing about kensington road some one showed on there picture of the white houise
in the back ground of kensinton road that was about six or seven house from filmores
so unless you can see the filmores house on the street and cannot get the info; i will go down kensinton road myself and get shot of the house for you i am dearly looking for the clossure of this gem
either i will try and sort some one else from selly park whilst i am down there because i am well known in selly park
and as been for the last thirty years or so by most people especialy the older ones
whom may just be able to tell us i will not go around to southborne because i do not know anybody there
because that was barron land at the time just bushes and rubblle in my time up there best wishes Alan Astonian,,
 
Great - fantastic work - a huge well done to you ! That's the closest I've ever seen the arch ! You've done the forum and Birmingham proud to have recorded this in the way you have. My only only hope now is that this arch endures for future generations. It does indeed appear to be of mixed stonework with the balustrade appearing to be of single composition (restoration?) Nevertheless, I repeat, great work. This Clee House is now baffling me ? I walked up Kensington Road hundreds of times as a lad : as you walk up from Pershore Road, is it something on the left between Greenland Road and the end of the convent on Selly Park Road ? SPF4EVER
 
Don't know if this helps but Cecil Fillmore (architect) lived at number 34 Kensington Road according to the 1955 phone book.
 
You got it it in one pjburns Cecil Filmore was is name and Arcchitect was his game
now we have got the ball rolling again i have summoned the help of a very good friend of mine whom is looking into it
and he is a member of the selly oak and kings heath society whom is extrmely knowlede about that area
and i think he may hold the key to the big question of the Archmy friend is well known there for kings heath
 
Back in the land of the living and catching up on where we are on the Arch. I have drafted a letter to the son of the person who has written a book and will post it tomorrow and sit and wait. I dont know how far we can go on this subject as leads are starting to slow up a bit. I would like to know who it was that commisioned the build and the actual date it was erected. Looking at it closely, and my pictures are large and clear, it does not seem the work of an architect. It is as I said before, a little ad lib. I think it was built to amuse the owner and make a pleasant garden structure using really nice historic material. Its a matter now and wait and see G
 
Hi grea
could this garden feature been built by the builder of most of the houses in that quarter namely
DIBBLE, I am saying that because he built the houes down and around that area st stephens road and surrounding roads
and afew more roads he built the houses down and around pershore road as well
Astonian,,,,,
 
I wouldnt know really. I'm not sure when Dibble was around. I think oldmohawk was closer to the real era it was built, Lyn, Viv and Mikejee are also pretty close to the answer too. At a guess id say it was erected around the turn of the centuary. Its just a case f plugging away at it.G
 
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