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Northfield Workhouse

florna

knowlegable brummie
I have come across 3 of my ancestors who all died in Northfield Workhouse. They were from the same family.William Witheford in August 1820, Thomas Witheford in January 1821 and Richard Witheford in December 1835.
Can anyone give me some information about the workhouse please? Whenever I search the internet I am referred to Kings Norton Workhouse. Are they one of the same? If not I would appreciate some details i.e. where was it situated; what sort of size was it; were there a range of reasons for inmates to be there? etc.
Thanks in anticipation
Dave
 
On an NHS site the history of Selly Oak Hospital it says that Harborne, Edgbaston, Kings Norton, NORTHFIELD and Beoley all had their own individual workhouses until 1872 when they were replaced by a much larger one at Selly Oak.
 
Dave, I am a little confused the Church Road Northfield that I can find joins the Bunbury Road - I think we need someone with an old map and much better map reading skills than me.....Mike??????
 
Polly
The old church road joins the Bunbury road and then turns left and goes up to the traffic lights by the shopping centre. I gather that Ash Bank farm was on the site of what is now the high st, and am , tentatively , attributing it to the building in blue on the c1884 map below, which places the workhouse in the red area , and the "unprepossessing shops" are those in the google view (I agree with the description)

probable_site_of_workhouse.jpg
 

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Thanks Mike - I must have crossed that road a thousand times and never realised that it was called Church Road where it meets the Bristol Road.
Where you have marked Ash Bank Farm makes perfect sense as that is where Ash Grove retirement flats are now.

I agree about the shops too - one of my least favourite styles of Architecture.
 
From my memory those shops were built in the late 1950s. The one that appears to be Betfred was the Electricity Board, one of the shops straight ahead was Timpson shoes, the wife of my boss was the manageress, her husband was my manager from 1960 - 1962 whilst I was working at J Gould, Tailors at the other end of Northfield. I do not recall a building on that site prior to that, I think the farm, "Ben Brown" springs to mind, occupied the whole area.
But I have been known to be wrong.

Clarkie
 
Thanks to all of you for your comments and help. You learn something new every day!! My grandfather had the corn shop on the corner of Church Road but no one told me about the workhouse!
Thanks again
Must agree about 60's buildings.
Dave
 
On a site about workhouses I found this about Northfied.

Northfield had a small workhouse from around 1801. The institution had a garden where potatoes and cabbages were grown. The inmates were employed in making nails.

I also found this site (No longer available) - it says the workhouse and gaol was on the Turnpike and was converted into cottages in 1820. It shows a picture of one of the cottages and says it was demolished in the 1950's.

It says Bell Hill was previously the Turnpike.

Dave says one of his relatives died in 1835 - which questions the 1820 date of conversion into cottages.
 
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Polly
The old church road joins the Bunbury road and then turns left and goes up to the traffic lights by the shopping centre. I gather that Ash Bank farm was on the site of what is now the high st, and am , tentatively , attributing it to the building in blue on the c1884 map below, which places the workhouse in the red area , and the "unprepossessing shops" are those in the google view (I agree with the description)

probable_site_of_workhouse.jpg
childrens fete 1908c.jpg
 
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