• 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

Gosta Green Through Duddeston

JK

I know as far back as I can remember it was always a hostel, I think the whole frontage there was owned by Italians. I haven't been down that way for years. I know that in the late 60's and early 70's it was still going because the chap who owned all the hot dog and burger carts in the town stored them at the back of the hostel which he owned as well. There was a sort of café on the front but I don't think they got many customers in off the street. I think it was for the residents benefit only.

There was another café on the corner with Bartholomew Row which was a little better. I think it was called Ledo's.

Phil
 
Isobel

I have just had a look in my 1903 Kelly's it reads like this for Duddeston Row.

here is Fox St

47 Thatched House PH John Willard
51 Spencer Joseph Shopkeeper
52 Evans Mrs Beatrice Pawnbroker
53 Golden Horse PH John Willard.

This means you grandparents shop is on the photo that I posted just past the corner shop.

Phil
 
Hi Phil, I'd forgotten about the other cafe, as you say much better-funny how time dims the memory, until it's given a jolt.
John.
 
Thank you all so much for the picture , map and information . I'm thrilled to bits ! I have no idea about an Italian connection as there is no one alive now to ask . Somewhere in my past I remember ice cream mentioned but when I asked my late Brother he laughed and said it was nothing to do with our family . Perhaps it was a family secret .On the 1901 cencus there were several Italians in that row including an ice cream vendor and a barrel organ player but the monkey wasn't listed .

By the way , it was my G.Grandparents not my Grandparents as I stated earlier ( sorry ) , I'm not quite that ancient .

Isobel
 
Thanks for that picture of Fox Street too, Phil. My SHIMEL/SHEMMELL great grandparents lived at number 42 in the mid-19th century. They certainly weren't Italian, though family legend had it that they were Jewish. Even that seems doubtful and it's more likely that they were originally Derbyshire SHEMWELLs mispronounced in much the same way as Tamworth gets pronounced as "Tammorth" is some quarters!

Regards,

Maurice
 
sospiri

Concerning Perry Pens, would that be part pf the building to the right of the tram. The building behind the tram is Halfords, the one that burnt down. I am just trying to locate the building in my minds eye before I make an intensive search. The thing is I have many photo's that are not indexed at all.

Phil
 

Attachments

  • Halfords 2.jpg
    Halfords 2.jpg
    104.2 KB · Views: 9
Hi Phil,

It really is incredible that so little exists of what was once was the largest manufacturer of pennibs in the world. A few nibs, boxes and artefacts exist on eBay and verious antique sites, but stocks are now running out. Had I just a few of the large cartons of nibs that my father brought home for us kids to play with, I would now be worth a small fortune, going by the prices they are now charging!

The angle of the building to the right of the tram would suggest that that building is not even in Lancaster Street. I've hunted high and low for a line drawing and all I can find is this box (which is also used on the Pen Room site, though I didn't lift it from there!). When I can find my copy of the "History of Renold", privately published by the company that took over the whole of the Perry group companies in the late 1950s, I'll check the chapter on Perry again, but I am sure there is no photograph of the Lancaster Street building in there.

As I remember, it was 4 storeys high and came right up to pavement in both Lancaster Street and Brick Kiln Street, which ran down the right hand side of the building.

Regards,

Maurice
 
Thanks Mike-g, but I'm already well acquainted with the Pen Room Museum and I have stacks of information from other sources too. What I'm looking for is a photograph of the old Lancaster Street building. It wasn't exactly small and I find it difficult to believe that one hasn't survived somewhere.
 
sospiri

Concerning Perry Pens, would that be part pf the building to the right of the tram. The building behind the tram is Halfords, the one that burnt down. I am just trying to locate the building in my minds eye before I make an intensive search. The thing is I have many photo's that are not indexed at all.

Phil
I think the building to the right is the fire station,

Brumgum.
 
I think you are right there, Brumgum! That had crossed my mind, but I've been out of Brum since 1961 and Aston Uni seems to have smothered that area now.
 
So remembering that I have not been in this part of Birmingham since Noah docked the Ark. Are we saying that Perry Pens stood where Aston University's original main building stands?

Sorry if I am being a bit thick about this but I can't seem to get my head around it.

Phil
 
At least you're closer than me, Phil! (A darned side colder at the moment too, I believe!)

I can't speak for Aston Uni, even though I was in the buildings a couple of times a few years ago. I was in a car, knew where I wanted to get to, but ended up going against the flow of the traffic and cutting up a bus (much to the driver's annoyance) to get into the Uni. I remember the old Gosta Green, which was fairly open, and the trams came down Corporation Street, swung around a wide curve and into Lancaster Street. Perry Pens was, at that time, I think, the second major building on the right as you came into Lancaster Street. I still can't place where Halfords was! And is the Fire Station still there?

When I knew it, the original red bricks of the Perry factory had become black.

Regards,

Maurice
 
nice pic here of some georgian houses in ashted row..appartently known by the locals as doctors houses....

astoness
 

Attachments

  • Nechells Ashted Row 1 (2).jpg
    Nechells Ashted Row 1 (2).jpg
    106.3 KB · Views: 10
Lyn

I never heard them referred to as doctor houses, its just at the lower end of Ashted Row towards Vauxhall rd. There happened to be a few Doctors & Dentists and the like who had houses and practice rooms in the locality.

Phil
 
thanks phil...anyway they look as though they were pretty grand at one time...such a shame....

lyn
 
Those houses were the same as the ones built on Great Brook Street at Vauxhall and backed on to each other as PMC said earlier.
 
I think you are right there, Brumgum! That had crossed my mind, but I've been out of Brum since 1961 and Aston Uni seems to have smothered that area now.

I was told by a chap at the pen museum that the pen factory building facade had been saved and the building now housed students.
There is a picture of it as it is now in the museum. Members of my family worked at the factory and my Gran was born in Moland Street.
 
Ah! I'm a little bit away from the Pen Museum, Brumgum. A modern picture would be interesting, but an old one much better. But thanks for the info.

Regards,

Maurice
 
Ah! I'm a little bit away from the Pen Museum, Brumgum. A modern picture would be interesting, but an old one much better. But thanks for the info.

Regards,

Maurice

https://www.birminghamheritage.org.uk/pentrade.html
maybe you could e-mail the pen factory (above) they are very helpful.
The fire station is still there but no longer in use but has been purchased for multi use etc.
I've passed by where you live in Crete, it's lovely!,

Brumgum.
 
Back
Top