ASSINDER — the Tripe dealers in Digbeth

[Yvies]

Looking for any photos, records in archives around the Assinder family from Digbeth. Where did they come from?
The last Assinder to run the Tripe Shop (that I've found) seems to be John Peters Assinder born 1832, when he retired he moved to Rhyl, died in 1911.

 

[MWS]

There are a few newspaper snippets, mainly about the selling of a property in the 1840s occupied by John's father, also John, 24 Digbeth.

Elder John's possible father, Joseph, gives his birthplace as Bham in 1851 but can't see a matching birth. There's one in Temple Balsall year slightly out but probably not him.

An unusual name, and difficulty with those is spelling variations are difficult to track down. There's a Thomas (Ossinder) baptised in Bham in 1742.

 

[ed.s]

I can't help with origins, but I found a 1953 article on memories of Digbeth that recalls:

In Digbeth, too, was John Assinder's tripe shop, run by a kind-hearted proprietor who used to dole out free bowls of tripe broth and cow-heels after ten o'clock at night. The quicker-witted spirits among the local youngsters used to queue outside his shop, bare-footed, to arouse his sympathy.

(From the Evening Dispatch, August 22, 1953)

My family were cattle dealers and butchers,with a shop at 91 Digbeth from the late 1700s to the 1850s, so could conceivably have been suppliers of Assinder's in their earlier days. They later had their own tripe house on Union Street in the 1840s/50s.

 

[ChasS]

I would like to add that there were (at least) TWO tripe businesses in nineteenth century Digbeth. The Assinders business appears at "15 Digbeth" through all censuses from 1841 to 1901, run by two generations. The other at 23 and 24 Digbeth was run by a George Mountford. He appears at that address in 1861 as a harness maker, in 1871 as a tripe dealer, and in 1881 as a harness maker AND tripe dresser.

I have seen some confusion in other sites, with the suggestion that the Assinders were at 23/24, but on that the censuses are quite clear.

 

[ChasS]

On origins, Joseph Assinder, father of the John who started the tripe business in the 1830s, was baptised at Hampton in Arden in 1761. He married Mary Minshall at St Martin's, Birmingham, in 1787. John (born in 1802) was baptised there in 1806. Previous generations were from the Balsall area.

 

[ChasS]

There are a few newspaper snippets, mainly about the selling of a property in the 1840s occupied by John's father, also John, 24 Digbeth.

Elder John's possible father, Joseph, gives his birthplace as Bham in 1851 but can't see a matching birth. There's one in Temple Balsall year slightly out but probably not him.

An unusual name, and difficulty with those is spelling variations are difficult to track down. There's a Thomas (Ossinder) baptised in Bham in 1742.

Hello MWS - can you give a steer on how to access those newspaper snippets? Thank you

 

[Vivienne14]

This thread might be of interest to those looking into the Assinders. https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...-tripe-house-digbeth.50338/page-2#post-707565

 

[MWS]

Hello MWS - can you give a steer on how to access those newspaper snippets? Thank you

I found them on findmypast and I think they are also on the British Newspaper Archive. It's free to register and search on both sites I think but to see the articles you need a subscription.

 

[ChasS]

I found them on findmypast and I think they are also on the British Newspaper Archive. It's free to register and search on both sites I think but to see the articles you need a subscription.

In the British Newspaper Archive, I found relevant items in 1845 editions of Aris's Birmingham Gazette. In April of that year, auctioneers placed notices regarding the forthcoming sale of properties in the estate of a Samuel Bodell, deceased. Among them as Lot IV was a freehold sale of the "House and Premises, No. 24 in Digbeth, occupied by John Assinder." A subsequent notice in May gave more detail: "The Retail Shop, House and Premises........in the occupation of Mr John Assinder, a portion of buildings occupied by Mr Hodgetts, and Land at the back." This lot, along with other adjacent properties in the sale, were stated to have "the joint use of an intended passage leading into Moat lane....."
Evidently, some of the properties failed to sell, and were advertised for another auction a few weeks later. Among those was No.24, but by August it was said to have been lately in the occupation of Mr. Assinder. He evidently moved out that summer, and of course is to be found in the 1851 census at 15 Digbeth.