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Old Windmill Holloway Head

pmc1947 said:
You can find plenty of photos and descriptions of the both the Inn and the Mill here.

https://www.search.digital-ladywood.org.uk/engine/search/default_hndlr.asp?txtKeywords=windmills

Phil
Click to expand...

Phil - that's a really useful site and contains the attached sketch from 1865. Although some of the contributions as I said before seem a little contradictory, one of the posts is from Chris Upton (and I have a book of his which is well researched) and says "The mill was used for grinding corn and in the 1770s Thomas Griffiths, the miller, was taking the sacks of flour across the town to his brother, who ran a baker’s shop in Hill Street."

Other snippets are also interesting: "There had been at least one previous mill on this site", "In 1778 it was struck by lightning and badly damaged. The mill was finally demolished in 1873." and "The road into Birmingham from Five Ways was known as the "hollow way" due to the rutting of the cart tracks. "
 
Rupert - you asked on another thread about Google Earth and the UK version to see timeline. I have v5.1.3535.3218 which has the ability to see the image over the last ten years at different times of day or night! (thanks for pointing this out as I had not noticed this before and could prove useful & fun).

The Windmill site seems to have been cleared around Aug 2003 but the image only stabilises in increments of a few years. Before this it seems to have been factory/warehouses. I can't yet work out how to capture an image or URL of a view to share it with you but I would be surprised if you can't update your version.

Update - can paste into a word doc - can you see this?
 
Aidan
If you mean save an image from GE. then go to file/save/save image. name it and save it where you want to and bingo, done.

Terry
 
Ok the windmill was a tower mill which means that only the very top of the tower rotated to face the wind and the tower itself was mounted on a larger round base, as can be seen from various views. I am not sure what was in the bottom...probably mechanism...grind stones chutes...bag filling. All the paraphenalia neccessary for milling perhaps. In the old picture you can see boys standing on it...beyond the decrepid building.

Anyway if you look at the first picture...top left corner...there is an opening in the fence and the path through it seems to be part of a continuous round feature that may mark the wall of the round larger base. Nothing certain but still could be. If this is so it would put the mill closer to Florence street than I thought. And further away from Ernest.
 
There is certainly a suggestion of an outline & path as you say. The shape and size of the land would also seem to fit with the map work down earlier in this thread
 
There used to be a Windmill Street, off 6 Horsefair, Birmingham.l. Obviously named after the old Windmill, I have a vague recollection of this street when I worked in Bow Street in the mid 1950s
 
I can't find any evidence that Windmill street ever actually led to the old windmill. It seemed to stop at about exeter passage which led me to think that this passage ran around the mill. Howver, just interpolating from the 1890 survey and the older map, it seems to me that Mikes blue dot adjacent to Florence st. is probably correct. Actually if the old pub was at the corner of Exeter and Holoway head then sightlines can be drawn on GE and using the old paintings of the Dog some indication of location can be made to compare.
 
If I interpret correctly the Dog & Duck would be under the Petrol Station and the large windmill would loom from its position in Florence St over the back of the red scaffolding now https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=52...d=_zjw2B7qx1GLHTWSXT0jvA&cbp=12,216.23,,1,2.1 - The site of the Windmill seems reasonable from the evidence but the site of the Dog & Duck does not accord with the perspectives of either of the two sketches of similar views - I had figured it was at the corner of Ernest street from these viewpoints as per my previous streetview https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=52...a4mMW_CO1KvxidBy9f3VWQ&cbp=12,195.54,,0,-0.63 Confused now
 
I think the corner of Exeter is right by interpolating the old map with the 1890 survey. Then if you draw sightlines from Florence to that spot on GE the angle is right for the old drawings of the pub. An Exeter passage location for the mill is too abrupt for the viewing point.
 
Probably totally inaccurate so just for fun, I've tried to match the hedgerow from Mikes 1778 map with Ernest Street.

unable to replace this image
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi Aidan.

There's a transparancy slider thing in Google Earth. You can drag the slider from 100% clear to 100% opaque.

So you have present day Birmingham on your screen.
Click 'add overlay image'. Choose old map from your PC.
The old map overlay apears but the clever thing is, you can drag around, stretch, rotate or compress the image to fit the present day land marks. Use the transparency slider to help.
If you loose the 'image drag frame box' (not sure what it's called) just
click the overlay image title. Click properties to edit & improve the position of overlay.
gary.
 
Hi, just read your post from a while ago. I am trying to find out more about the brick warehouse on Bow St where I work. Any help really appreciated.
 
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