• 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

Blacks. Birmingham factory probably in the Saltley / Nechells area

v60pdb

proper brummie kid
I'm looking for any information on a factory in the Nechells, Saltley, Aston area. A number of my forbears are shown as working at "Blacks" in the 1901 census. It may have been a foundry as some are shown as "Hammer Drivers" and "strikers".
Does anybody know anything about that factory?
 
Screenshot 2021-09-19 at 06.28.59.png
It may be useful for us to see the entry in the 1901 census. Or perhaps you could supply a name. Many thanks.
Thomas Barton aged 17 was my grandfather. He was blind in one eye. he had an accident whilst young. You can see there is annotation for both him and his brother William in the 1901 census, saying "Blacks". Other siblings were in the Brass trade. Perhaps Blacks was a Brass manufacturer?Hope you can help.
Best regards,
Peter Barton
Lincoln.
 
hi peter thanks for that extra info hopefully someone can help with this...have to say i have not heard of blacks but that does not mean to say it was not a foundry of some sorts...could you also let us have the address of where living on the 1901 please it may just help...

lyn
 
Peter, your grandfather was a ‘Steam’ hammer driver, so Blacks must have been a fair sized works. Viv.

I’m moving this thread to our Factories and Offices section.
 
hi peter thanks for that extra info hopefully someone can help with this...have to say i have not heard of blacks but that does not mean to say it was not a foundry of some sorts...could you also let us have the address of where living on the 1901 please it may just help...

lyn
99 Great Francis St, Duddeston, Aston.
 
Could the word be blocks rather than blacks, relating to the job rather than a company?

It's unusual for a place of work to be listed on the 1901 census.
 
Think that’s right. The ‘o’ (in Blocks/Blacks)is formed in the same way as in ‘soldering’. A lower case ‘a’ should be more like that in ‘Lathe’. Viv.
 
Could the word be blocks rather than blacks, relating to the job rather than a company?

It's unusual for a place of work to be listed on the 1901 census.
i agree i think the word is blocks if so they could have worked anywhere ..i wonder what their occupations were on the 1911 census...i cant check as im not subscribed at the min

lyn
 
i agree i think the word is blocks if so they could have worked anywhere ..i wonder what their occupations were on the 1911 census...i cant check as im not subscribed at the min

lyn
1891 Samuel is a "lathe fitter"(same on Thomas marriage cert and also several of the children's baptisms - I ddin't look at all of them). I thought he was the same on 1911 but it looks more like "filer".
Thomas on 1911 is a "striker" and it also says "edge tool work"
1632047172821.png
 
If you look at the rest of the census pages, it looks as if the additions are a kind of shorthand to describe the job. For example laundry worker/wash, furniture maker /cab, chemist /drug, mechanic /tool and many others.

Blacks, or is it blocks, appears for a striker on at least 4 occasions, and for steam hammer driver twice. There is someone described as an umbrella blacker.
 
I saw that but wondered if it was an individual rather than someone empoying people.
Yes Janice I thought the same but 'blacksmith' could describe a multitude of businesses, if I can determine No. 149 on the 1889 map it may prove one way or the other by the size of the building.
 
Back
Top