• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Birmingham Camera Companies

T

toolate4regrets

knowlegable brummie
My first thread so apologies if I mess up along the way!
I am interested in finding out more about companies in Birmingham who made cameras... At the end of the 19th century we had the largest camera company in the world here, but the history of camera making in the city has been largely forgotten and I would like to try and remedy this somehow.
Any information would be useful to add to what I have already discovered.
 
Slightly off topic did you that in 1904-05-06 there was in Birmingham the B.P.S. Birmingham Photography Society, there are no photos in the programs for those years and there are no adverts
this is a quote that may be of interest " Out of 9,000 prints sent in only 350 passed the selection committee." the society appears to have gone on a few day excursions, it is interesting reading



toolate4regrets said:
My first thread so apologies if I mess up along the way!
I am interested in finding out more about companies in Birmingham who made cameras... At the end of the 19th century we had the largest camera company in the world here, but the history of camera making in the city has been largely forgotten and I would like to try and remedy this somehow.
Any information would be useful to add to what I have already discovered.
Click to expand...
 
welcome to the forum...if ever you find a photograph of the coronet camera co summer lane we would love to see it...been looking for one for years now...the building is still there but would love to see a photo showing the name coronet

cheers

lyn
 
thanks viv i already have all that info but still on the hunt for a photo of the building baring the coronet name....must be one out there somewhere she says hopefully

lyn
 
L
horsencart said:
Slightly off topic did you that in 1904-05-06 there was in Birmingham the B.P.S. Birmingham Photography Society, there are no photos in the programs for those years and there are no adverts
this is a quote that may be of interest " Out of 9,000 prints sent in only 350 passed the selection committee." the society appears to have gone on a few day excursions, it is interesting reading
Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply, Birmingham Photographic Society seems to have had many ups and downs in the 19th and early 20th century - from being important to disappearing for 30 years- I need to have a look at them properly as I've already found a number of camera makers were also members of the society
 
Astoness said:
welcome to the forum...if ever you find a photograph of the coronet camera co summer lane we would love to see it...been looking for one for years now...the building is still there but would love to see a photo showing the name coronet

cheers

lyn
Click to expand...
Details are still scarce about coronet despite their size etc... partly due i suspect to world war 2 destroying many of their records - I've never seen a photo of the building as it was either - it's strange that none of their advertising material featured their premises as many companies used to do
 
Vivienne14 said:
Here you are Lyn!
A photo and some history. Was wondering if the Great Hampton Street building is still there too. Vv.


https://sites.google.com/site/drcor...of-the-coronet-camera-company--birmingham--uk


There's a mention on here too with another photo of the building.

https://www.astonbrook-through-astonmanor.co.uk/summerlane_3.html
Click to expand...

I've worked out that the building they originally occupied in Great Hampton street is just down from the Pelican Works building and still there!

A few other camera companies were in the area too, like Marlow and Mander

I have quite a list of companies that made cameras in the city but it's very hard to find any information on them - except through adverts if they posted any or through people's collections
 
As an update to my original post, i know of the following companies but beyond their names and some cameras they made, details are few and far between
Lancaster
Underwood
Philip Harris
E Marlow
Marlow Brothers
Pumphrey and day
Rendalls
Coronet/Conway/Standard/Warwick
Edwin Elliot/BOLCO
Envoy
Midland Camera Company
S Hulme
Ashfords
Aston camera company
G Hill
Griffiths
W J Smith
W Tylar
 
The thread "61-64 Ludgate Hill, Birmingham" mentions the firm "Philip Harris" quite a few times. I think that they were mainly manufacturers and suppliers of laboratory glassware. I was not aware that they ever made cameras but they might have done. Dave.
 
Philip Harris, in Edmund Street, was a principal pharmaceutical manufacturer and supplier. Medicines, in tablet, powder and liquid forms were supplied as well as surgical goods. They had another building in Ludgate Hill which dealt mainly with chemical and industrial items, glassware and other scientific apparatus. After a move for some of the company, to Weston-super-Mare electronics and biological products were manufactured. I never heard of cameras being made but of course I left to company to move to Devon in 1954. Cameras might have been part of the WSM or Lichfield part.
 
Last edited:
Been interesting looking at this, didn't realise there were so many B'ham producers. Viv.
 
Radiorails said:
Philip Harris, in Edmund Street, was a principal pharmaceutical manufacturer and supplier. Medicines, in tablet, powder and liquid forms were supplied as well as surgical goods. They had another building in Newhall Street which dealt mainly with chemical and industrial items, glassware and other scientific apparatus. After a move for some of the company, to Weston-super-Mare electronics and biological products were manufactured. I never heard of cameras being made but of course I left to company to move to Devon in 1954. Cameras might have been part of the WSM or Lichfield part.
Click to expand...
They only dallied with cameras for a short time in the late 19th Century ..maybe because other companies were branching out onto photography
 
farmerdave said:
The thread "61-64 Ludgate Hill, Birmingham" mentions the firm "Philip Harris" quite a few times. I think that they were mainly manufacturers and suppliers of laboratory glassware. I was not aware that they ever made cameras but they might have done. Dave.
Click to expand...
Even Philip Harris archives dont have records about their camera making but they definitely did make at least 2 different ones
 
On E.Elliot, here's an extract from the site link given below. Seem to have been through various collaborations and mergers. Viv.

"The camera body was made in the Midlands by E Elliott Ltd, (Edwin Elliott) a well established Bakelite moulder in Birmingham, and the lens was made by a subsidiary of Elliott's, BOLCo, the British Optical Lens Company. On 23rd May 1936, a private limited company was formed to acquire the two companies (E. Elliott and The British Optical Lens Company) from Edwin Elliott. BOLCo became a wholly owned subsidiary of E. Elliott Limited and Edwin Elliott became Chairman and MD of the new Company.

Although produced mainly in black, the VP Twin camera was given a facelift (quite literally) in the early 1950s by fitting a metal plate to the front with the BOLCo name and 'L-Yacht' trademark ('L' in a Yacht = Elliott) proudly displayed (see above). Another famous British camera manufacturer joined the VP Twin story in the 1950s when the VP Twin was marketed by K G Corfield Ltd both in the UK and abroad. This collaboration came about as a result of Edwin Elliott having provided financial backing for Kenneth Corfield to develop the Lumimeter (enlarging exposure meter, late 1940s) and subsequently his range of Periflex cameras (from spring 1953) The most important aspect of this collaboration was the work of Frederick Archenhold, the chief optical engineer at BOLCo, who designed and led the manufacture of the lens elements for the 50mm f/3.5 Lumar (1953), 50mm f/3.5 Lumar-X (1955) and 100mm f/4 Lumar (1957) and 150mm Lumar lenses."

Extract taken from this link here. https://www.photomemorabilia.co.uk/My_First.html
 
toolate4regrets said:
As an update to my original post, i know of the following companies but beyond their names and some cameras they made, details are few and far between
Lancaster
Underwood
Philip Harris
E Marlow
Marlow Brothers
Pumphrey and day
Rendalls
Coronet/Conway/Standard/Warwick
Edwin Elliot/BOLCO
Envoy
Midland Camera Company
S Hulme
Ashfords
Aston camera company
G Hill
Griffiths
W J Smith
W Tylar
Click to expand...


Many of the Birmingham companies you listed are amongst those listed on this link. Most have addresses, dates and details of their products. Additionally there are these 4 companies: Aldis, Hurman, Bleasdale and another named Mander (although not sure this last one actually made cameras). Viv.

https://www.earlyphotography.co.uk/site/companies.html#A
 
Industrial Past
Hall Green's history is not just about urbanisation, it also has a rich and interesting industrial past. Originally this was made up of smithies and mills, some of which ground blades or rolled metal. More recent industrial activity was also there ahead of the houses.
Early Ordnance Survey maps show a building in the fields named the Robin Hood Works. This became Newey Goodman who manufactured 'smallwares' and employed over a thousand people.
A small chocolate factory was built before the First World War in Webb Lane, which went on to make electric vehicles and fork lift trucks in particular.
Aldis Brothers had a factory built on a green field site in 1914 in Sarehole Road, and made signalling lamps that were famous around the globe.
Velocette, one of the great names in British motorcycling had their factory in York Road.

Most of these industrial sites have been replaced by residential property and today there are just a few rows of workshops left, and York Road still has a factory.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Many of the Birmingham companies you listed are amongst those listed on this link. Most have addresses, dates and details of their products. Additionally there are these 4 companies: Aldis, Hurman, Bleasdale and another named Mander (although not sure this last one actually made cameras). Viv.

https://www.earlyphotography.co.uk/site/companies.html#A
Click to expand...
Hi

thank you :) Yes i found that site previously. Aldis i kinda cant decide on - they mostly made projectors and lenses but i mostly feel they are outside the camera making field. Hurman bought the Marlow company after it went under and transferred the business to newcastle rather than making cameras in birmingham under their own name. Mander was my fault for missing off the list - they did make cameras for a period but famously made very good photo frames! Blesasdale I havent found any info on at all so far. Thank you :)
 
jmadone said:
With regards to this post this is offered for sale at auction.https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/dominic-winter-book-auctions/catalogue-id-srdom10137/lot-cba64099-ad17-4a7c-acd3-aace010db0c0
Click to expand...
That went very cheaply! Glad I already have one of those though
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top