New Street Wine Merchants conundrum..Chavasse Family....

[Dennis Williams]

Wow…talk about serendipity Trev… or one thing leads to another?….I saw the first pic below from Graham Knight’s blog ….fascinating reading…Thomson and Chavasse, Wine Merchant’s in New Street, with ancient underground tunnels ….reputedly remnants from the old Debtors prison, which was below the Courts of Request in High Street, where the Primark store is now…later also the old home of John Jennens, famous Brummie family man……

So, I then looked up the Thomson and Chavasse family business on Google…and it seems the Chavasse family, as well as being Wine Merchants, were also prominent Brum medics! And to really gild the lily, they were related to a Sutton Coldfield man of repute, Alfred Evans, and father of….Mary Ann Evans aka ‘George Eliot’, famous author and proud sharer of name of my old working Hospital in Nuneaton….! The mind boggles…..here are some pics that might explain the links better….

On reflection, the business-shop was I think, next door to the Art Museum…presumably the Royal Society of Arts at the top of New Street, near Christchurch…. And the tunnels went towards Waterloo Street…which would make sense…..but I fail to see how any tunnels from the High Street, Courts of Request, would be dug that far…..? However, then I thought that very near their shop was Christchurch….. and it had CATACOMBS….viz. April 26, 1893.

“The catacombs, which run from north to south under the church, are 633 in number, and of these 137 are occupied, the legislation with regard to intramural interments, passed in 1873, having the effect of preventing further interments in the catacombs. There have, however, been six interments since that date, but these were by special permission of the Local Government Board, The catacombs are approached by a passage situated at the right hand of the church, access to which is gained by a flight of steps. This passage was originally, before the building of the shops in New Street, a subterraneous one, arched over, and necessarily in semi-darkness. A curious evidence of how easily accessible the church was from the street remains in a number of inscriptions rudely scratched on the church wall, and which are now about seven or eight feet above the head, as one stands on the floor of the passage.

From the passage, now open to the light of day, grated doors (which are kept securely locked) secure the entrances into a series of four subterranean " tunnels," each one separate and distinct from the other. On each side of these " tunnels " are three tiers of recesses, built of red sandstone. They very much resemble miniature bakers' ovens. The majority are open; some are closed with slabs of stone cemented in. On these slabs are the names and ages of those who lie inside, with the date of their death.” Maybe these were the abandoned vaults?

Or maybe these are not as old as the ones mentioned in the text? Thus my confusion reigns…..and so, over to you experts…HELP?

 

[rosie]

I have a book which was gran's and it's by Pye Henry Chavasse F.R.C.S. called "Advice to a wife on the management of her own health and on the treatment of some of the complaints incidental to pregnancy, labour and suckling"!! (1912).
I think there are Chavasse graves in Key Hill.
It's a pity the Church and catacombs were demolished, it sounds amaxing!
My mother used to say we couldn't have an underground system like London because of all the tunnels and soft sandstone.
rosie,

 

[Pedrocut]

June 1863, Birmingham Gazette.