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Staniforth Street Old Wall

Hope it was worth it!! Sounds as if you need a stiff drink rather than a cuppa - although my preference would be the cuppa.
Janice
 
hi janice i hope it was worth it too...a nice cuppa will do me fine...just uploading pics from camera..

lyn
 
hope these pics may help to determine what the wall was used for or if it was part of a building...must admit i dont feel confident enough to say...

pic 1 the entrance is opposite this building in staniforth st
pic 2 entrance i used..

WALL 011.JPG WALL 012.JPG
 
out the back door into the courtyard.. pic 1 shows the wall seems to be all to the left of the courtyard going down as far as the eye can see so it is quite long sometimes hidden by trees..wooden pallets and bins..WALL 002.JPG WALL 001.JPG WALL 003.JPG WALL 004.JPG
 
last few...have to say and i am no expert but these bricks look very old to me and look as though they have burning on them..almost like chimneys..i originally thought maybe part of the iron foundry then changed my mind but now im not sure again:rolleyes:

WALL 005.JPG WALL 006.JPG WALL 007.JPG WALL 008.JPG WALL 009.JPG
 
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Very good investigation Lyn. As you say the bricks, well most of them , look old. See what you mean about looking burnt, but not sure.
 
its a strange one mike...as i said i entered opposite the safe storage building and then turned left when i got into the courtyard...if you look at the link below and slide the blue dot across we can see that the iron foundry was there and the wall kind of kinks at the back of it..we may never know for sure but at least we have some good photos of the wall now...

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18&lat=52.4884&lon=-1.8930&layers=176&b=6
 
Fantastic - it is good to know exactly where that wall goes and to see what it looks like. I think you are probably right Lyn about the Iron Foundry. I am going to have another look at one of the planning applications as I think there was a reference to the Josiah Robins Mike mentioned in #20.
Janice
 
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morning janice..could do with trying to have a look at the wall from the other side of it now...did not have time to try and do that yesterday....as far as my eye could see i could not see any reason why the wall is still there and what purpose it serves if any...unless of course it is listed....its amazing just how much history is still around that we dont know about unless its pointed out to us..as the wall is so long it cant all be connected to the iron foundry but i think it definately runs at the back of it so could just be a retaining wall i guess...the plot thickens..for those that dont know if you click on the arrow at the top right of the photos they will enlarge to full screen..later on hoping to take all the posts from post 17 on this thread and will set up a new thread called.."old wall staniforth st"....

lyn
 
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A 1948 aerial view showing the fire station on the right and Staniforth St leading away to the left with two large industrial type chimneys behind the street. The land behind the fire station was being cleared.
Staniforth1948y.jpg

Image from 'britainfromabove'.
 
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Morning Lyn. I wondered if the wall was so long as several buildings were built in one go - like a sort of terrace of workshops, if you see what I mean. That way people would not know where the individual buildings were once they had come down and only the joint wall was left. It could mean that the wall was part of several places including a foundry. I am not sure whether the buttresses would be inside or out. Looking at the marks on some parts they were probably inside. That plan I posted seemed to indicate a retaining wall and I saw it called that in the planning applcation I found.
Janice
 
hi janice....yes i think all things considered coupled with what you have found out i think it must have been a retaining wall....i still want to get a look round the back of it though lol...

lyn
 
lol janice i could always take a master key:D...not sure when i can get down there again but will do asap
 
I assume the building in photo 2 in #33 was the old employment exchange. If the wall ran from opposite that entrance to the left then it is at the back of the iron foundry in Staniforth Street but also looks as if buildings fronting Moland Street could have also had it as a back wall. I know we have other maps but I am trying to get things clear in my mind - is the attached about right? Machine tool works is roughly where the Iron Foundry was.
Janice
 

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A 1950 view below, of the area with two buildings that can be seen on Google Earth and Apple Maps today. There appears to be a wall with possible buttresses and on the other side of the wall could be large piles of scrap or ore. The wall can be clearly seen in an aerial view on Apple Maps which shows the site cleared ready to build the tall building seen in post#3.
Wall.JPG

Image from 'britainfromabove'
 
pjmburns said:
I assume the building in photo 2 in #33 was the old employment exchange. If the wall ran from opposite that entrance to the left then it is at the back of the iron foundry in Staniforth Street but also looks as if buildings fronting Moland Street could have also had it as a back wall. I know we have other maps but I am trying to get things clear in my mind - is the attached about right? Machine tool works is roughly where the Iron Foundry was.
Janice
Click to expand...

yes janice i would say that the machine tool works is exactly where the iron foundry was and i also agree that the moland st buildings had it as a back wall thats why i want to get to take a look round moland st...

thanks phil...it does look like a pile of scrap but could also be a demolished building..
 
After reading this thread and looking through the photos, this is my opinion on the wall, having a little experience in the demolition game and therefore also knowing a little on how buildings are constructed. Looking at the substantial concrete foundations that can be seen under the wall this to me demonstrates the fact that the wall has always been used for the purpose of retaining what was in the other side of it and preventing landslip. Most buildings of the time this wall was built were built on little on no foundations other than what were called spread footings. The buttresses would have been built on the other side of the land the wall was built to retain.

As for the brickwork I would say it was mid Victorian the reason it looks blackened would most likely be the same as for any brickwork of that time the area was heavily industrialised and most buildings in Birmingham looked black until they were cleaned up recently. It's either that or they were overdone in the kiln when being manufactured.
 
Ifyou go back to post 20 of this thread I overlaid the c1889 map on google, and showed it at various % of transparency, and this showed that the feature marked was exactly where the wall pillars in google are
 
thanks phil i agree i can only think it was a retaining wall but as said before i cant understand why its still standing...dont really think we can go much further with this mystery unless of course someone knows something we dont but i will try to get down to moland st asap and take a look round
 
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