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Shops in parlours
- Thread starter Kieran
- Start date
There were a couple in Ford street No6 which was Minnie Powell and she sold all haberdashery and the No 9 Binghams who sold most other goodies. They used to cut the cheese with a piece of wire. Shopping was very strict then, you could only buy certain things on a Sunday - never bread. You could even take your shoes in to be mended. But they were the mainstay of the street when The Flat was shut.
There were 3 such shops that were often used by myself/family when we lived in Hubert Street,Mr and Mrs Swift in hubert Street itself(Mr Swift worked at the Longbridge),then there was the Laws in Holland road(i went to school with their son),and also another in Aston Brooke Street on the right hand side,going from Aston Road towards Chester Street about two thirds of the way down.The part of Aston Brooke Street now called Aston Brooke Street East.
I have often wondered when I lived in Ford street why we had a long room attached to the house and also was attached to next door. It was always referred to as the factory. I have now been able to find out that in fact that early 1900s the occupier was a jeweller so presumably the house was used as a jewellers factory. I know the jewellery quarter had such rooms, but I never knew it extended so far away. So not only parlour shops, but also house/factories.
Kieran, you get to the factory part by either going up the normal stairs through the landing, or in the backyard through an outhouse up some wooden stairs and through a trap door. It was exciting as a kid, but we never really played there, it was a room that gathered dust with bits of junk in it. It was a long narrow room with loads of glass missing out of the metal window frames.
Hi! Not a Birmingham memory, but a relevant one I believe. My aunt and uncle, Dorothy and Aubrey, ran a shop from their parlour in the 60's and 70's. They lived in a small village called Shilton, in North Warwickshire. At the back of the house was an acre of land which they turned into a market garden and they sold fruit, veg and flowers from this in their shop. My uncle also used to go to Coventry Wholesale market to get bananas, oranges and so on. Many people from the village used this shop regularly-Shilton was fairly remote in those days and their weren't so many cars. I remember going there some Sunday mornings and seeing much of their produce being displayed on the pavement outside. The house-three cottages converted into one-is still there-I'll try to find out if any pictures of it from those days have survived.
On the point of Veg, Coal, etc., from these shops, our Village Shop had a Market Garden which added to the stocks in the Shop, so this was quite common.
On the subject of 'House Factories' - my Family came from the Doncaster/Rotherham area in the 900s/1000 AD time, going via Luton in Bedfordshire then up to Coventry, before moving to Olton, then Kings Herath/Sutton Coldfield at the turn of the 19th Century and early 20th Century. The point is that they became involved in the manufacture of Time pieces in Coventry. There's still a lot of history/present Factories in Coventry linked to our Family. A lot of their component parts were made in upstairs rooms, (House factories), then collected for final assembly in the head Factories.
Its a certainty that such manufacturing processes were done in B'ham's streets too. Obviously if a 'Parlour Shop' was one use, manufacture was another - Maybe another 'Thread' entirely?
On the subject of 'House Factories' - my Family came from the Doncaster/Rotherham area in the 900s/1000 AD time, going via Luton in Bedfordshire then up to Coventry, before moving to Olton, then Kings Herath/Sutton Coldfield at the turn of the 19th Century and early 20th Century. The point is that they became involved in the manufacture of Time pieces in Coventry. There's still a lot of history/present Factories in Coventry linked to our Family. A lot of their component parts were made in upstairs rooms, (House factories), then collected for final assembly in the head Factories.
Its a certainty that such manufacturing processes were done in B'ham's streets too. Obviously if a 'Parlour Shop' was one use, manufacture was another - Maybe another 'Thread' entirely?
I've come across the use of the word 'shopping' with reference to the small workshops which flourished around Birmingham in the 18th/19th century. So in Birmingham, maybe it's not too far removed from the parlour shop idea. 
Viv.
Viv.Rocker an interesting post, I think we forget just how must manufacturing was carried out with the home, and maybe still does, at a more specialist level. There does not seem to be too much documentary evidence of the more specialist trades such as components for time pieces. There is a post on here of jewellery being produced in the same way. It would be nice to here of the other trades.
Still looking for some photo’s of parlour shops, interiors would be great, with the elusive cigarette machine, well you would surely be given an MBE.
Kieran
Still looking for some photo’s of parlour shops, interiors would be great, with the elusive cigarette machine, well you would surely be given an MBE.
Kieran
As a new member just wondering if there are photos with the posts?
Fascinating linking in to people's stories just researching my family who lived Nechells/Aston area.
Henry Marlow was a hairdesser lived with his family 1891 census 7 Holborn Hill.
Just wondering if there is any info around this great site. Thank You
Fascinating linking in to people's stories just researching my family who lived Nechells/Aston area.
Henry Marlow was a hairdesser lived with his family 1891 census 7 Holborn Hill.
Just wondering if there is any info around this great site. Thank You
Welcome to the forum. I am glad you find the forum posts interesting. Unfortunately a few years ago th efirum was hacked and in th eprocess all the photos were lost. Many have been replaced, but not all, including some on this thread. But if you search for individual streets in the search box, then you may find what you want. Below is a map c1889 showing no 7 Holborn Hill in red. There seems to be no hairdresser listed in Holborn Road at the time, though there is no reason for him to work very close. There is one , Harry Moore at 23 Nechells Park Road (the road that runs down just to the right of no 7), though no23 is right at the other end , some distance away.
Hi
Thank you..that's an amazingly quick response with such great info attached. I was trying to see if polly kettle was around? She mentioned her GGMA lived at No 11, when my rellies were at no 7.
And so sorry to hear everyone's photos were hacked..just so sad
The 1890 and 1892 directories list a Richard H.Smith, commercial traveler living at no 11. No 7 is not listed in 1890 , but has Harry Ellis in the 1892 edition. The dates are publication dates and usually taken to refer to the year before, though an exact time cannot be known. In general only those with businesses, official status or were well off were listed in directories at this time
Johnfromstaffs
Johnfromstaffs
I lived in something similar for almost the entire 1950s. Dad went to work, and Mum ran the shop, while my brother and I concentrated on growing up. The shop was slightly more than a front room and possibly could not have supported a family, but on top of Dad’s money provided a pleasant life with few concerns about paying bills. I am sorry it wasn’t within the B’ham boundary, but since my memory of those times is good, I hope this is of interest.
The premises was a Butler’s Brewery (Wolverhampton) tied house, with three storied living accommodation with seven bedrooms and an indoor bathroom plus an outside loo. There was a large lean to kitchen, with two storerooms leading off, a brick and glass greenhouse, and two large stables with haylofts above. As this was before the days of such places as B & Q, Dad started a timber business, selling timber cut to length, either planed or rough. The stock was bought in from merchants and collected by Dad in a trailer behind his car. 12 foot planks were delivered by the suppliers and stored through a trapdoor between the stable and the hayloft.
I think that the place might have been a small commercial hotel in the past as the doors on the (unused) top floor rooms had numbers screwed to them. There was a cellar beneath the shop, with appropriate built up stillages for barrels, and a beer engine in the shop, which Mum had removed to provide more counter space as the pumps stirred up the beer in the small barrels causing complaints about cloudy beer from the jug sales customers. Apart from the beer, she sold anything from biscuits, (Elkes of Uttoxeter), sweets and chocolate from Wilcox’s of Burton, and “Old Betty Plant’s” of Stoke, and general goods like washing powder and such bought from Belding’s of Walsall. Mum was always favoured with a visit from one of the Beldings for her order. Cigarettes, tobacco and “twist” came via Dobson of Stafford, and the relatively few perishable items were provided by Price and Webb in Stafford. I think that these wholesale businesses and their like must have now all disappeared as things changed in the 60s. Pop came from Corona, and was sold off the back of their lorry, no advance ordering but a monthly account as a trader.
One final recollection, the great day that the freezer arrived. Midland Counties Dairy from W’ton, eager to encourage ice cream sales, provided a freezer and Mum, ever the entrepreneur, expanded her empire to include frozen peas and fish fingers as well. My brother and I were almost in heaven at the thought of limitless ice cream, but we were kept on a very tight rein!
The premises was a Butler’s Brewery (Wolverhampton) tied house, with three storied living accommodation with seven bedrooms and an indoor bathroom plus an outside loo. There was a large lean to kitchen, with two storerooms leading off, a brick and glass greenhouse, and two large stables with haylofts above. As this was before the days of such places as B & Q, Dad started a timber business, selling timber cut to length, either planed or rough. The stock was bought in from merchants and collected by Dad in a trailer behind his car. 12 foot planks were delivered by the suppliers and stored through a trapdoor between the stable and the hayloft.
I think that the place might have been a small commercial hotel in the past as the doors on the (unused) top floor rooms had numbers screwed to them. There was a cellar beneath the shop, with appropriate built up stillages for barrels, and a beer engine in the shop, which Mum had removed to provide more counter space as the pumps stirred up the beer in the small barrels causing complaints about cloudy beer from the jug sales customers. Apart from the beer, she sold anything from biscuits, (Elkes of Uttoxeter), sweets and chocolate from Wilcox’s of Burton, and “Old Betty Plant’s” of Stoke, and general goods like washing powder and such bought from Belding’s of Walsall. Mum was always favoured with a visit from one of the Beldings for her order. Cigarettes, tobacco and “twist” came via Dobson of Stafford, and the relatively few perishable items were provided by Price and Webb in Stafford. I think that these wholesale businesses and their like must have now all disappeared as things changed in the 60s. Pop came from Corona, and was sold off the back of their lorry, no advance ordering but a monthly account as a trader.
One final recollection, the great day that the freezer arrived. Midland Counties Dairy from W’ton, eager to encourage ice cream sales, provided a freezer and Mum, ever the entrepreneur, expanded her empire to include frozen peas and fish fingers as well. My brother and I were almost in heaven at the thought of limitless ice cream, but we were kept on a very tight rein!
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