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Courtyards and yards of brum

hello all

What a great thread this is. I am trying to write about Birmingham in the Great War and instead I have spent the last two hours looking at all these pictures.

I have put on a picture of my Gran and Granddad's wedding which took place in 1921. She was Elizabeth Pledger and he was Isaac Carter. They were both living in Armoury Road, Small Heath.

Have not got a clue where this picture was taken.

Regards

Terry
 
Hi Terry; Armoury Road, do you know the house numbers where your ancestors were living? We of the Harrison family lived at number 44.

Cheers

M
 
Two images showing Court 4, Brearley Street. The doorway to the right in the second image looks like the doorway the family are standing by in the first image. (images only visible if logged in) (See Bolton Rd Small Heath thread)
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Two photos showing Court 19 Brearley Street. (images only visible if logged in)
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The other end of Court 19.

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from the Shoothill collection.
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Court 15, Brearley Street. (image only visible if logged in) (edited to make images visible for https log-ins)

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from the Shoothill collection
 
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I can't open any of these images despite being logged in.
Hi Lady P,
The images are links to pics I have posted in another thread to save duplicating the pics on the server. I suppose we should not have a technical discussion in this thread and maybe continue in this technical thread.
When I'm logged in I see them when I'm logged out I don't
oldmohawk
 
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Court 2 Camden Grove off Camden Street. Other photos can be seen here and a close-up of the kids is here.
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from 'shoothill collection'
 
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The standards of some of these courts left a bit to be desired and some were much better than others - my grandmother lived in one in Aston - but they still had a certain charm that is missing from many housing developments today. If you're asking would I like to live in one, the answer is most definitely no, but then I wouldn't want to live in any city today.

Maurice
 
Hi Maurice
Some of them courts was still around in the late fortys in aston , especialy lichfield road
just before Aston cross if coming up from the aston station to the cross
They was just passed upper portland street heading to the cross it,s self
they really started from the beginning of Ansells really
the very corner of Ansells new frontage there was those tiny little shops and i mean tiny little shops
they was at an angle of the corner as you took the corner on lichfield road there was a couple more of these tiny shops
then there was a huge drive up slope into ANSELLS brewery depot and it had a stop and go sign at the top of of the slope
it was a red to stop at the bottom of the slope and green to enter and ride up the slope and bear right
that was there way in for the draymen and the horses and carts in those days
but just after that exit there old courts just like you have just seen identicle one after another
along the lichfield road right up untill you reached upper portland street
thats where they stopped after you continued along the lichfield road they was slums but not so bad like those courts
i can tell you i wittness those years when they knocked those old shops and courts down right up to the
Very corner of upper portland street and wittnes the building of That new Ansells frontage from the cross and
Along the lichfield road
I do remember as well before the bounders whom changied the site got the pictures of those courts
off here they was on here ten years ago the originale pictures
i recall walking up some of them i bet had stop now i am getting carried away as i recall the eal scene as if it was yesterday i was growing up amongest it ,i do know alot about the ASTON and the slums i lived there amongest the bugs and the cockroaches and the vermin ,,
best wishes Alan,, Astonian,,,
 
Hi Alan,

My grandmother lived in a court off Bartons Bank and my mother lived there too until she was 28 years old and got married. It was still standing until about 1959. My mother wrote about 40 pages of memoirs about this court and the surrounding area, recollecting how her father (until his death in 1920) grew all his own fruit & vegetables, and kept a goat and rabbits. I remember the soil being very poor, yet red & black currants grew well, as well as loganberries and the grape vine.

Eric Gibson on the Forum had grandparents in the same court. Generally it struck me as a clean and peaceful place, though it had the usual miskin and loads of blue engineering bricks covered the yard, but not so shut in as the ones in the pictures above. This was certainly one of the better courts, but the houses still had their tin baths and coppers and mangles.

Granted, my grandfather was a skilled coppersmith and before getting married had lived in several of the many courts off Woodcock Street. Yet when he died in 1920, he left a mere seven shillings and sixpence, having been unemployed for nearly two years due to heart disease.

That Bartons Bank court was certainly a lot better than the court my mother lived in in Church Lane when she first got married.

Maurice
 
Maurice.
You bring back wonderful memories of the 40s and early 50s in Lower Tower St. Its been a long time since I heard the word miskin. We also had a tin bath, wash house with a copper and a tub and mangle, 3 or 4 chickens (for the eggs), and 1 toilet between 2 families. Also when you walked up the stairs there was a crack in the wall and you could see New Town Row through it. Good old days? Im not so sure.
Dave.
 
Dave,

I didn't say they were good old days, and the older generation do tend to forget the bad parts and remember the good. Don't we all? By the same token our modern developers have nothing by which to gauge their so-called progress, and some modern housing developments, leaving aside their appearance, are simply a hideous way of living. As the saying goes. they tend to throw out the baby with the bath water.

Of course, I don't blame the developers for everything. They have a huge growth in population and the ever-increasing growth of the motor car to contend with as well as some incompetent councils and politicians.

Perhaps a gauge of how much they liked it, my grandparents lived there for almost 60 years when many families moved houses almost every year.

Maurice
 
Eric,

My youngest uncle, Albert, was the custodian of most of the Longmore relics, and he didn't get married until 1961 after the death of my grandmother and the move to Kings Heath. His wife was not liked by the rest of the family and when he died just over two years later, the wife had a great big bonfire in the garden of all the relics including the photographs, which meant nothing to her. My mother didn't find out until several hours later as she had been out shopping when the bonfire took place.

So I think it unlikely that any survived from my side as all the Longmores have. passed on now and there are none in my late mother's photo albums. I'd love to see photos of that court too.

Maurice
 
That's a pity Maurice but I guess it's not the only time it's happened.
I recall seeing a photo of granddad with his pipe, his waistcoat, watch chain and bowler hat, no idea where that went.
 
Oh Maurice, I was so sad to read about all your pictures. When we moved into our house in the 70's our next door neighbour was a freelance press photographer and had a room full of glass negatives. He died about 20 years ago and after a 'decent' interval we asked his wife if we could have some of the negatives which concerned local history. She told us 'I threw them away as soon as he'd died - didn't think anyone would be interested'!
 
My Wife and I lived in a back to back in a courtyard from 1956 when I left the RAF till 1961 when we bought our house in Erdington it was 1/128 Vicarage Road Aston, her parents were still in the same court till they were demolished mid 60's. They were terrible, cold, damp, no kitchen, no bathroom, outside toilet shared by 3 houses and wash house shared by 4 only thing in their favour they were cheap, rent 12/6 per week. Eric
 
Ye gods Eric, that sounds like something from a Monty Python sketch!
The lack of bathroom and outside privy was common enough in inner city areas but no kitchen? How did you cook? I know fish and chips were relatively cheap and there were lots of 'chippies' around but those days you mention were before the present day 'take away' trend.
 
Radio rails we had a gas cooker top of cellar steps (health and safety would have gone barmy !) a bit dodgy to say the least, some had their cookers in the so called living room, you can imagine the moisture/damp that created. Happy days !!! Eric
 
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