• 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

Coal Merchant

N

Nodrogw

knowlegable brummie
My Step great grandfather was a coal merchant, living at 204 Pitsford Street, Hockley, Birmingham. His name was Ernest Alfred Worsey, and I believe his business was known as Worsey and Sons. My great grandmother died whilst they were living at this address in August 1900. Can anyone tell me what happened to Worsey and Sons (Coal Merchants) after this date, and where they moved to. Also can anyone tell me if 204 Pitsford Street was at the Icknield Street End or AllSaints Street end of the street.
 
The yard at 204 Pitsford St is (I think) marked in red on the map c 1903. The house will be either the one on the left or right of it, though I suspect it to be the one on the left. Certainly it was close to that on that side of the street and there was at least one other building before the end of the street. Before it became a coal yard it was a drysalters.
Ernest Worsey & Sons , coal dealers were at Oozells St wharf in 1899 and there and 204 Pitsford St in 1900. the firm had disappeared by 1903, and a cab proprietor was at 204.
I assume that this was the same Ernest Worsey that ran The Vine pub in nearby Blews St West /Rosebery St up to 1899 (after which the pub disappeared).
mike

View attachment 48815
204_pitsford_st_c_1903.jpg
 
In 1911 he appears a haulage contractor living at the Globe Inn, Grove Lane, Smethwick and his son Ernest is down as a boatman at 11 Grove Lane
 
Sorry. I stopped too early.
No more entries till 1913 (nothing 1912)
1913 Ernest Worsey, coal dealer, 21 Shenstone road
(in 1912 it was Arthur Conyers, coal dealer and inn 1915 it was James Davies coal dealer)
1921 Worsey Ernest, furniture remover, 48 Thimble Mill lane
No 21 Shenstone road wasn’t there in 1903 so I can’t position it for you, b ut it was on the western side between Dudley road & colenso road.
I think no 21 is just about where barleycorn drive joins the road in 2010

Mike .Have you got a number for the Globe Inn, as it isn’t listed by name in kellys

Mike
 
Last edited:
Thanks mike
Very peculiar. Have looked at 1901 census, and it shows the Globe at 201 Grove Lane, Smethwick. Kellys also shows it there till 1908, but from 1912 on it is not listed (nor no 201). I would reckon that by 1911 (as opposed to 1901) it had ceased being a pub, but was called that still. I have found that in one other place previously. The position in Grove lane is shown in blue on the 1901 map. This version doesn’t list it was a pub, but the 1890 version does. As can be seen there is a large area to the back suitable for a haulage contractor
Mike

map__globe_inn_grove_lane_c_1901.jpg
 
Would anyone have any information on a coal merchant in Wattville Rd, Handsworth. approx 1920 onward. My mother-in-Law has told me that her Grandfather (James Mills) owned this business, she remembers going there to visit when she was young. Would anybody have any photos of Wattville rd from around that era. I have found a James Mills married to Mary stating that his profession is a Haulier Carter. Would that be a coal man? If so then i maybe on the right track..
 
At number 71 there is a Mills James coal dealer there were two other coal dealers in the same street

yogimon said:
Would anyone have any information on a coal merchant in Wattville Rd, Handsworth. approx 1920 onward. My mother-in-Law has told me that her Grandfather (James Mills) owned this business, she remembers going there to visit when she was young. Would anybody have any photos of Wattville rd from around that era. I have found a James Mills married to Mary stating that his profession is a Haulier Carter. Would that be a coal man? If so then i maybe on the right track..
Click to expand...
 
Coalmen often were carters as well , and sometimes changed what they desribed them selves as over the years, though they might be doing exactly the same thing
 
Backbreaking work, similar to the olive picking here in Crete, except olive picking only lasts a few weeks and you don't get so dirty! :)

Maurice
 
And don't get complaints from angry householders about dirtying up their home with their boots
 
yogimon said:
Would anyone have any information on a coal merchant in Wattville Rd, Handsworth. approx 1920 onward. My mother-in-Law has told me that her Grandfather (James Mills) owned this business, she remembers going there to visit when she was young. Would anybody have any photos of Wattville rd from around that era. I have found a James Mills married to Mary stating that his profession is a Haulier Carter. Would that be a coal man? If so then i maybe on the right track..
Click to expand...
that is.My family
 
Anne, Yogimon has not been here for five years. But a private message, using the Forum's facilities may get an answer. Horsencart does not come here often now, I believe.
 
Hi there, just joined and saw this thread , I am researching the Warners they had a coal yard somewhere near handsworth or Smethwick and are in a census living in Wattville street
 
No help but coincidently, I have a John Warner living on Wattville St at the same time (1901) as your John (?) Warner. At one time his father was a coal dealer but as far as I can see they appear to be completely unrelated.
 
The 1900 and 1903 Kellys directories do not list any Warner as a coal dealer . There is a John Warner , china & glass dealer at no 49. The 1890 Kellys lists a John Warner, coal dealer, referring to Elliot & Warner at Wattville Road. In 1890 the china & glass dealer is also at 49 Wattville road, so I would think are probably related. The 1888 map below shows no 49 , with a large open space two doors away, which might well would be his yard, though at this time there was plenty of space around there for it

map 1888 top Wattville road.jpg

Part of the large space nearby by 1913 was marked as a smithy.. the present (2022) view of 49 and the space is below

view 49 Wattville road june 2022.jpg
 
Have no experience of coal merchants, or coal, for that matter. But when I visited Gotham in South Notts, one December, circa 1985, the very characteristic odour of coal hung in the streets everywhere. No back-to-backs, but stayed with an uncle in a two-up-two-down-with-privy-out-the-back, and a coal fire in every room. Fast forward to 1995, and a visit to Hel, on the Baltic coast of Poland. Narrow spit of land, with tiny village. All houses were coal heated, and that same odour was in the streets. You could even pick up pieces of it on the gravel roads. Was all over the place. In both towns, what kept you warm, and held off the damp were the two same essentials: a coal fire, and a hot cuppa.
 
The John Warner at 49 Wattville Rd/St is not the coal dealer John Warner. And it seems to be the case that he may be listed as the china dealer in the directory but it is his wife who actually was. She is listed as such on the census whilst he is always listed as a bricklayer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top