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District Fire Office

P

Puffin

proper brummie kid
I understand that this office was at 61 New Street at some point and the secretary was called Henry Lowe. I have some memorabilia that I THINK belonged to Henry Lowe but I can't find out anything about him. I have drawn a complete blank on Ancestry. I would like to leave these items to the museum but would also like to find out more about Henry. I suspect he was awarded for his long service.
 
Some photos in this thread:

Alliance Assurance Company Colmore Row

This building is described by the Illustrated London News as one of Birmingham's most beautiful buildings. Well I can see why. And how nice it is to be able to say, the building's still with us. Interesting point in the description attached that when the company bought up the District Fire...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
and posts 34/35 here:

Union Street

People tend not to look enough when they're walking along Colmore Row, Great Charles Street, Newhall Hill, Margaret/Edmund Street area. The detail on some of those buildings is absolutely stunningly beautiful.
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
also

Enos Edwards - Engineer of Birmingham Fire Office 1805 / the Bull Ring Riot 1839

Hi I have several generations of ancestors that worked as fireman for the Birmingham Fire Office 1805-67 in Union Passage. Although there is lots of information on the later fire service i,e from 1870’s and the Tozer family, I wondered if anyone new of where I could start to find information...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
I have eventually found Henry Lowe on Ancestry - 30 years since I started looking for him. I have found his parents, siblings and his son and daughter-in-law. It has taken a long while to prove that the diary found in my Mum's loft belonged to Henry as there was no name written. Eventually I managed to find a newspaper article which named him in a court case mentioned in his diary involving the District and Norwich Fire Service.
However I still have no idea why his diary and other items were in my Mum's loft! So far I can find no connection to my family except they all lived in the Handsworth or Aston area etc!! Beginning to think I'll never solve the riddle!!
Just done a BT enquiries search and there are 13 Lowe names in Birmingham!
 
Hello Puffin just found your article about Henry Lowe and the District fire office, if you are still looking to place the items in the care of a museum the West Midlands Fire Museum at Aston Fire Station would like to put them on display for our visitors to see. The Fire Offices in Birmingham being the beginning of the modern Fire Brigade in Birmingham, you would be welcome to visit our museum to see what we have relating to the Insurance Offices.
 
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