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fair ground at new john street birmingham

kc

master brummie
hi all
can anyone help me im looking for any info regarding fair ground people who lived in caravans in new john street birmingham around 1938 upwards
kind regards kc:fat:
 
I have family who were travelling showmen and in 1881 were living in caravans in New John Street, on my grandmother's birth certificate of 1882, her place of birth was 39, New John Street. This area must have been popular with the travellers of that time. Not been able to work further back and the last confirmed information is in January 1889 when the fair was in Saltley Road. Amazed that the area was still used as recently as 1938, I will watch this topic with interest.
 
thank you for your reply geofred
my grand parents were called thomas frederick harris he married flora owens flora parents were william john owen and leah biggs /hayes

kind regards kc
 
i am sure i have posted a photo of travellers or fairground people this could have been 2 or 3 years back...could be under the njsw or the new john street threads so you would need to do a search..

happy hunting

lyn
 
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hi
thanks for your reply iv looked through the last 3 years threads im afraid I cant find these
photos of travellers or fairground

kind regards kc
 
This was classed as Old Peck Hockley but I believe it was where Burbury Park is which isnt too far from NJS
The Old Pleck Hockley Brook.jpg
 
hi carol cracking pic not seen that one before but the old pleck i know of (maybe there was more than one) was waste ground near bracebridge st newtown and was the site of the onion fair before it moved to the serpentine...the council then took over the old pleck and turned it into walmer recreation ground...there is a thread for the walmer rec ground which is very interesting...here is a link about the old pleck..and also the link to the thread about walmer rec ground

https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=44256&highlight=walmer+recreation+ground

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/nostalgia/carl-chinn-birmingham-day-reckoning-4875133


lyn
 
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just read what mike said carol and according to the caption on your photo the old pleck ran beside hockley brook which of course burbury st park did....so basically im now totally confused because i thought the old pleck was on the walmer rec ground nr bracebridge st lol...hopefully we can sort it out..

lyn
 
Lyn

I'm sure I have posted this elsewhere on the site, but the Birmingham Onion Fair started in the Bull Ring at the Michaelmas Market . After a few years because of continuous disputes between the traders and amusement owners as the traders claimed they encouraged thieves and pickpockets by 1860 the traders were asking for bylaws to prevent the fairs from operating.

By 1875 the fair moved to The Pleck a public open area in Burbury Street, which is now known as Burbury Street Park. After remaining there for a few years the fair moved to the Sepentine Grounds Aston.
 
hi phil you are spot on except that as i thought burbury st park is nothing to do with the old pleck.. here is part of an article dated 1892 about the opening of walmer recreation ground which prior to that was called the old pleck...it was in the stephens ward which was in newtown also posting a map of the triangular shape that was walmer st rec ground and the triangular shape is mentioned in the article...sorry i cant post all of the article as it makes good reading but its so long and i dont know how to do it lol..

lyn
 

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just read johns info phil which i dont think he wrote...the bit about burbury st could have been a miss print because if you read on it does say that the lion that escaped was captured near stevens st which i think should read st stephen st and bracebridge st which is where the walmer rec ground was...its a good job we dont always take what we read as gospel isnt it phil...errors in history can be made just like captions on photos as we very well know...

lyn
 
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Lynn it looks like we were both right. Carol


hi ya carol all i know is that the old pleck was nothing to do with burbury st park...off to try and solve another mystery now lol

lyn x
 
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I have some showmen ancestors who were in caravans at New John Street early part of century I just wondered if there is a map to pinpoint the exact spot.

Are there any other areas in Birmingham where the fairground / gypsy caravans were parked, New street area for instance.

Even though they had several properties and businesses in Birmingham they preferred living in the caravans and just parked them in the driveway or on waste ground nearby c1925
Louisa
 
hi Louisa
thank you for your reply what was your ancestors name my was owens and harris who lives in new john street
kind regards
 
Hi KC
My ancestors were fairground showmen, they travelled to different places on a sort of regular circuit so I was able to find out a lot more about the families when I finally worked this route out. Some sites I found helpful particularly the Sheffield fairground site are:

https://www.fagb.co.uk/index.html

https://www.nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk/
https://www.members.shaw.ca/pauline777/TravellersUK.html

I hope these links work the last one has some indexed information from different census records etc.
The names Harris and Owens are not in my family history.Were they fairground or Circus showmen or gypsy families as there are different archive places to look for information.

For Gypsy families I have a small book called My Ancestors were Gypsy's by Sharon Sillers Floate which has quite a lot of information but the internet searches are also a good source. The Romany and Traveller family history society may be another source to check. The Birmingham Library may have copies of the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society from 1888.

Louisa



 
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