Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
Now for someone not many might have heard of...Francis Daniels...
In 1878 George Holloway, M.P. for Mid-Gloucestershire, wrote an essay on old-age pensions and superannuation describing the working of the Stroud Holloway Original Benefit Society, which he had founded in 1874. Appalled by the fears of his employees at the prospect of illness and old age in days long before the welfare state, Holloway set up a society in which for a penny-a-day contribution members would receive ten shillings a week sick benefit, a sum of money at death, or an annuity after 65.
A young school master at Ebley, near Stroud, was so enthusiastic about Holloway's ideas that after sixteen years' teaching he came to Birmingham in 1891 as district manager for the Sceptre Life Association in the Midlands. His name was Francis William Daniels, and he might have come to Birmingham when he was only 14, for an uncle wanted him in his pin-manufacturing business. When he eventually came Daniels proposed to rectify the one weakness in Holloway's society. It should not, Daniels thought, be restricted to a predominantly country area. It would operate best among industrial workers in a large town. So he presented his plans for a Birmingham mutual sick benefit and old-age society to Alderman William Kenrick ofEdgbaston, who was prominent in politics and business, and so impressed him that he undertook to become president of the society if his actuary reported favourably. This the actuary did and Alderman Kenrick was president for twenty years, a period later exceeded by his son, Alderman Wilfred Byng Kenrick.
In 1906 the society took the name of the Ideal Benefit Society, and by now it had divisional headquarters in London, Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, and in Yorkshire. Its Birmingham office was now at Coleridge Chambers, which, greatly daring, it built in Corporation Street. As early as 1893 the society had given notice that its funds would be "lent on freehold and leasehold security, preference being given to members, who will be encouraged to buy or build their dwelling houses, and to payoff their mortgages out of their profits in the society". This foreshadowed the society's first venture into estate building and development at Bordesley Green, Birmingham, where, in 1910, a start was made on the Ideal Village.
Thus the Ideal Benefit Society enters our realm of street names. Daniels Road obviously commemorates the founder, while Finnemore Road is named after one of the earliest chairmen of the executive committee, Mr. William Finnemore, father of Sir Donald Finnemore, the former High Court judge. Ideal names also proliferate in the Cherry Orchard Estate at Handsworth Wood, and in estates at Olton, Knowle, and Shirley. When Coleridge Chambers became inadequate for the flourishing society a site was bought in Steelhouse Lane, but this was sold ata profit of 11,000 pounds before building began. The executive then acquired the home of the late Sir John Holder in the sylvan surroundings of Pitmaston, between Moseley and Selly Park, where Holder's Lane and Sir John's Road still commemorate the baronet brewer. The old house was demolished and the present distinguished and delightful offices built and declared open in 1931.
And from Bill Dargue's site:
St Paul's Mission, built in 1912 in Finnemore Road as a chapel of St Margaret's Ward End, was consecrated as a parish church in 1929. A new church was built c1970 in Belchers Lane behind the old, which was retained as the church hall. The church is now the centre of a community project embracing a number of different facilities and services.
Bordesley Green Board School was opened in 1902 by the Birmingham School Board with accommodation for over a thousand children. In 1931 the school was reorganised into senior girls', junior and infant departments. The junior and infant department closed in 1941 and the buildings were used by the Civil Defence during World War 2. The senior girls' department became Bordesley Green Girls County Modern School in 1945 and the junior and infant departments were opened again soon after 1951.
In 1998 children from Bordesley Green Primary School discovered the origin of a badly damaged stone fountain in the Ideal Park which commemorates the rescue by a local boy of a drowning girl. On 7 May 1907 16-year-old cycle polisher, Harold Clayfield of 11 Ronald Road, jumped into a 5m deep clay pit at the junction of Belchers Lane and Bordesley Green to save 4-year-old, Florence Jones. The girl was saved, but non-swimmer Clayfield, drowned. His memorial was paid for by public subscription. Sadly Florence herself was to die only four years later as a result of playing with burning pieces of paper at her home in Green Lane.
The Ideal Village is a designated Conservation Area. Other Ideal Benefit housing was built on the Cherry Orchard estate in Handsworth Wood where Ebley Road recalls the village of Daniels' birth.
My doctor is very near there, and I have an old dear friend who lives in Finnemore....to say it has 'gone to the dogs' over the past few years is putting it mildly. The City Planners no longer seem to have an interest in it's "Ideals"...
In 1878 George Holloway, M.P. for Mid-Gloucestershire, wrote an essay on old-age pensions and superannuation describing the working of the Stroud Holloway Original Benefit Society, which he had founded in 1874. Appalled by the fears of his employees at the prospect of illness and old age in days long before the welfare state, Holloway set up a society in which for a penny-a-day contribution members would receive ten shillings a week sick benefit, a sum of money at death, or an annuity after 65.
A young school master at Ebley, near Stroud, was so enthusiastic about Holloway's ideas that after sixteen years' teaching he came to Birmingham in 1891 as district manager for the Sceptre Life Association in the Midlands. His name was Francis William Daniels, and he might have come to Birmingham when he was only 14, for an uncle wanted him in his pin-manufacturing business. When he eventually came Daniels proposed to rectify the one weakness in Holloway's society. It should not, Daniels thought, be restricted to a predominantly country area. It would operate best among industrial workers in a large town. So he presented his plans for a Birmingham mutual sick benefit and old-age society to Alderman William Kenrick ofEdgbaston, who was prominent in politics and business, and so impressed him that he undertook to become president of the society if his actuary reported favourably. This the actuary did and Alderman Kenrick was president for twenty years, a period later exceeded by his son, Alderman Wilfred Byng Kenrick.
In 1906 the society took the name of the Ideal Benefit Society, and by now it had divisional headquarters in London, Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, and in Yorkshire. Its Birmingham office was now at Coleridge Chambers, which, greatly daring, it built in Corporation Street. As early as 1893 the society had given notice that its funds would be "lent on freehold and leasehold security, preference being given to members, who will be encouraged to buy or build their dwelling houses, and to payoff their mortgages out of their profits in the society". This foreshadowed the society's first venture into estate building and development at Bordesley Green, Birmingham, where, in 1910, a start was made on the Ideal Village.
Thus the Ideal Benefit Society enters our realm of street names. Daniels Road obviously commemorates the founder, while Finnemore Road is named after one of the earliest chairmen of the executive committee, Mr. William Finnemore, father of Sir Donald Finnemore, the former High Court judge. Ideal names also proliferate in the Cherry Orchard Estate at Handsworth Wood, and in estates at Olton, Knowle, and Shirley. When Coleridge Chambers became inadequate for the flourishing society a site was bought in Steelhouse Lane, but this was sold ata profit of 11,000 pounds before building began. The executive then acquired the home of the late Sir John Holder in the sylvan surroundings of Pitmaston, between Moseley and Selly Park, where Holder's Lane and Sir John's Road still commemorate the baronet brewer. The old house was demolished and the present distinguished and delightful offices built and declared open in 1931.
And from Bill Dargue's site:
St Paul's Mission, built in 1912 in Finnemore Road as a chapel of St Margaret's Ward End, was consecrated as a parish church in 1929. A new church was built c1970 in Belchers Lane behind the old, which was retained as the church hall. The church is now the centre of a community project embracing a number of different facilities and services.
Bordesley Green Board School was opened in 1902 by the Birmingham School Board with accommodation for over a thousand children. In 1931 the school was reorganised into senior girls', junior and infant departments. The junior and infant department closed in 1941 and the buildings were used by the Civil Defence during World War 2. The senior girls' department became Bordesley Green Girls County Modern School in 1945 and the junior and infant departments were opened again soon after 1951.
In 1998 children from Bordesley Green Primary School discovered the origin of a badly damaged stone fountain in the Ideal Park which commemorates the rescue by a local boy of a drowning girl. On 7 May 1907 16-year-old cycle polisher, Harold Clayfield of 11 Ronald Road, jumped into a 5m deep clay pit at the junction of Belchers Lane and Bordesley Green to save 4-year-old, Florence Jones. The girl was saved, but non-swimmer Clayfield, drowned. His memorial was paid for by public subscription. Sadly Florence herself was to die only four years later as a result of playing with burning pieces of paper at her home in Green Lane.
The Ideal Village is a designated Conservation Area. Other Ideal Benefit housing was built on the Cherry Orchard estate in Handsworth Wood where Ebley Road recalls the village of Daniels' birth.
My doctor is very near there, and I have an old dear friend who lives in Finnemore....to say it has 'gone to the dogs' over the past few years is putting it mildly. The City Planners no longer seem to have an interest in it's "Ideals"...
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