• 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

New unseen photos with no locations

Here you are Phil.
The following three pictures are in sequence, The transparencies were very faded, which explains the rather poor quality of the shots, as they have been "coaxed" to give a vaguely reasonable picture. The first just shows a row of houses being demolished with no characteristic features. This was after some of Mary St School being demolished.This is followed by the second and third, which show a small shop with "The Stores" on the fascia. The following one after this has no recognizable features and is the last on the roll. We think it is likely to be Balsall Heath, because of the Mary st school photos previous to it,but cannot be certain.

32A.jpg


33B_Stores.jpg



34A.jpg
 
Wondering why The Stores was left standing when either side has been demolished. It's obviously unoccupied. Is there any chance that this wasn't demolished? Also the building has a 'detached' appearance given there's a large advertising sign on one side and a fenced off area on the other. However, it looks like it was once more than one dwelling and there's a name plaque on the first floor wall which suggests originally it was a name for a row of 2 or more houses. So maybe the shop expanded and the owner took over the neighbouring house. I think the pavement is dropped on the side where the advertising sign is fixed. And below the advertising board there must have been a low level structure attached to the wall as the wall has a small rectangle of painted bricks. Or maybe another advertising sign was there. - I've seen these low ad signs on other streets. If so it was probably a busy thoroughfare/passageway alongside. All suggests to me this might well have been left standing for a particular reason. All speculation - again. Viv.
 
Last edited:
Mike

I still have nightmares about this one, the reason being it looks so familiar and it does have a look of Mary Street about it, but in reality I haven't got a clue and it could be anywhere. Did I suggest before that the houses that look like a terrace and there were quite a few in the section of Mary Street Edward Rd to Balsall Heath Rd?
 
Mike

After studying some photo's. I think the building toward the centre of this photo is the place. If so then it was at the head of Pleasant Terrace and was at number 69 just up a little way from the school and that would fit in with what you say about following the school photos.
 

Attachments

  • Balsall Heath Mary St  .jpg
    Balsall Heath Mary St .jpg
    72 KB · Views: 70
To me that seems to fit, and probably means that the first of the three was the back of one of the terraces off Mary St, like Victoria terrace, though cannot quite fit the long outbuilding with the c1950 map.

map_c_1950_area_around_69_Mary_St.jpg
 
These features fit Phil's head of Pleasant Terrace features. Viv.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    157.4 KB · Views: 59
Mike

I think it's a pretty good fit, I couldn't have had that photo when we looked before or else I would have suggested it before. It's a good enough reason to come back to things after a while.
 
Here are another two that have been on before (or possibly I only put one on). The old thread has gone, but we never determined for certain where this gasholder was . It appears to be incomplete, so presumably was being demolished. The pictures are between ones of a wedding and some of the Moseley St area, but are likely to have been taken on a different occasion than either.

12A~0.jpg



11A~0.jpg
 
the house on the right is the most unusal shape i have ever seen mike..nothing spring to mind yet but its early days
 
Mike

Anything to narrow it down like other photos on the roll, did you get as far as Aston Church Rd, or could it be around Saltley, Windsor St or The Avenue or even in Adderley St in Bordesley. I can't think of any other gas works in Birmingham, Any chance of it being outside Birmingham at say Swan Village?
 
Hi Phil what about Watson road viewing the other side
Watson road of Aston church rd and along the cut tow paths ( Canal paths) After all there was building further along
I recall the Divis building contractor from wrentham street of the bristol road moved down there as I worked for them
Division later became big player in the road engineering around brum after moving there Astonian,,,,
 
I've had look on britainfromabove and there are plenty of gasholder views mainly 1930s but I haven't seen a roof like the one on that white house. In fact much of the housing near gas works seems mostly uniform terraces but the three buildings in the pic are all different. Could that building in the middle be a pub?

Gasholders near Saltley Viaduct.
They were there in 2003
saltley via 2003.JPG

They were demolished after 2003 and before 2005
SaltleyVia2005.JPG

Windsor St gasholders still there in 2014
WindsorSt2015.JPG

Watson Rd gasholders still there in 2014
Watson2015.JPG

So none of these gasholders were demolished in the 1960s/1970s
 
Last edited:
Phil
As I said, the later photos were of the area around Moseley st , cheapside area, and all the earler ones were of a wedding. and I certainly did not go taking photos after that- too much alcohol. I suppose it could be outside Birmingham, but I wou;d have thought that i would have taken more photos in that case. Another film does have some of Walsall, but that was a different time.
 
The gasholder in the pic has two data Tx/Rx aerials on top and the horizontal ties look solid rather that the usual lattice ties on most gasholders. You notice things like that after looking at lots of gasholder pics .... :D

When I first saw the pic it seemed to have a 'semi rural look' about it and this set me thinking about towns such as Stratford, Warwick, Worcester and such, in the days before North Sea gas, did they have local gasworks ?

ps. Well Stratford did apparently https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrsa1537.htm
 
Last edited:
I don't know where these two pictures were taken but to me the wall in the foreground of the pictures looks like a canal side structure, the house is lower than the photographer so Mike could you have been on a towpath of a raised stretch of canal? ie canal behind you.
 
Mike

Interestingly Alan mentions Watson Road, which if you remember is the area around Aston Church Rd that I thought was a possibility when we first looked at these photos. The other thing I cannot remember any gas storage containers being dismantled in Birmingham around the time you were taking photographs except possibly Adderley St in Bordesley. Moseley Street is not a million miles from Adderley St.
 
The wall, mentioned previously, I also believe to be canal related. The building with the unusual roof I feel is more likely to be a building with a design for a specific purpose - not sure what at this point - rather than a house.

Most towns, even small ones, had their own gas works, for instance Torquay, Paignton, Brixham, Totnes and Newton Abbot all had their own and most became a target of the Luftwaffe during WW2. None of those mentioned were damaged but surrounding buildings often were.

Another line of thought here would be railway lines. All gas works were supplied with coal for the gas manufacture and outgoing traffic would be coke and tar which were by products of the gas production. In Birmingham, coal and particularly tar would be cargoes of the canal narrow boats.
 
I thought perhaps our experts at searching Britain from Above might find the site

Solihull Gas works perhaps

Solihull Gas works 1945.jpgSolihull Gas works.jpg

Canal nearby NW/SE, thus half round blue bricks in foreground, house has old Band 1/2 TV aerial pointing north toward Sutton Coldfield, sun on south face of chimney
 
Solihull Gas works perhaps
Looks a possibility, I suppose we will have to wait to see if Mike was ever in Solihull.

I decided to have a look at gasholders on 'britainfromabove' and typed 'Gas Works' into the search box and 1073 aerial views from all over Britain became available on my screen. Looked through them all and saw many very good images of gasholders in small towns around Birmingham but unfortunately not the gasholder and buildings in Mike's photo.
 
Back
Top