• 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
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Thorpe Street

W

Wendy

Guest
I sat in the car park in Thorpe Street today while my husband had a long phone call. I am sure this area was a barracks and from looking at the brick work and area it was obvious this was so. Does anyone have any more info.
 
Hi Wendy,the barracks in Thorp Street were built in 1880.
I remember going to a couple Christmas parties there in the early 50's.think it must have been something arranged by the Royal Warwickshire Regimental Association.

Colin
 
Hello Colin, Thanks for the info and the photo. Now I see it the car park entrance. You are lucky to have known the building before it was a car park.
 
Thorp Street

Hope you do not mind me telling you that the correct spelling is Thorp Street. The Drill Hall was originally built for the 1st Volunteer Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

Terry
 
Thanks Terry, I realised when I read Colin's post that I had spelt it wrong and I think Cromwell just followed my post. Thanks for the confirmation and extra information. Wendy.
 
Thorp Street

I was pleased to see the photo of the Barracks/Car Park in Thorp Street.
My Reeves/Goddard family lived in Thorp Street No's 15 & 24 from 1841 until 1870's...Then moved into Inge Street for 1881 census...but I have
often wondered if they HAD to move because their house was knocked down to make room for the Barracks ?? Does anyone have a detailed map
that would show which way the numbers were listed in Thorp Street ??
Hope someone can help me pinpoint exactly where they lived.
Many thanks,
Margaret.
 
Thorpe St

Thankyou Colin B for the photo of the barracks,my grandfather Thomas Hogan served there till his death in 1939.Mom often spoke about her father he spent his whole life in the army and she often mentioned the barracks ,thanks once again Mary.
 
Thorp street barracks

My grandfather Alfred Bromley was stationed at Thorp Street at the beginning of WW1.He served as an ostler and reached the rank of sergeant. He served in France and I believe Italy during that war. There's much info, uniforms, medals etc for the Royal Warks at their museum in Warwick. Well worth a visit.
 
Thorp street barracks

My grandfather Thomas Joseph Herrick looked after the Army shrine at Thorp street barracks........ Cat...:) I have a photograph if i can get it on i will do so.
 
Pardon the ignorance but is this the Thorp Street that joins onto Hurst Street?

Referring to the Suffolk Street Recruiting Office, often referred to as The Technical School, was this the same as the Matthew Boulton College I attended in the 1960s?
 
Welcome Downard yes and yes. the Matthew Boulton college in Suffolk Street was the first of the now three sites for that college.
 
Belated addition to this thread.

My grandfather's brother, Bert Wilson, used to run the White Lion pub, which is (still) on the corner of Thorp Street and Horsefair. Sadly, at no great age he was killed by being thrown from a horse on the Bristol Road in spring 1914. I've often wondered about how many of the Royal Warwicks Territorials, who drilled at Thorp Street and later served in France and Flanders, had been served pints by Bert.
 
hi chris
intrested in reading your thread nice to hear your relative ran it
i for one have had quite afew round of drinks in that pub with the lads of yester day
i would say that there was that many could could not count them if you tried
andeven those whom managed to get back would have used it especialy next to the baracks i know every christmas we would go in there for a tot prior to going into the christmas reunions at the baracks sid hanson and afew other officiers and myself would go in for a tot before entering the barracks in rememberance ofour lost comrads i lost fellow friends [like most of us did ] and a couple of uncles and my fathers brother was lost there killed in action .have a nice day chris , best wishes astonian ;;;;;
 
As Pedro 42 says, the Royal Warwicks museum at Warwick is well worth a visit, also there is the grave of Enoch Powell who joined up as a private
and finished the war as a Brigadier, another officer of course who serviced with the Warwicks in the Great War was Monty, Second Liet; Bernard
Law Montgomery who was awarded the DSO and went on to greater things. Bernard67Arnold
 
Probably a bit late to be posting a reply about Thorp Street Drill Hall now but, I have only just joined the Forum and I thought maybe someone might still be reading about it and be interested.
My Mom and her family lived at the Drill Hall, as caretakers, before, during and after WWII.
It was where Mom met Dad when he was in the Home Guard and, so the story goes, was crawling up and entry during an air raid!!!
The family later moved, just up the street, to one of the back to back houses. Soon after that, Mom married Dad and they managed to rent another of the houses, this time at the back of Nan and Grandad's house.
I was born there and we lived there, happily, until 1960 when it was decided, by the powers that be, that the houses weren't safe and we all had to move out. With the move went the last vestiges of community spirit.
My Mom was asked by Carl Chinn, many years later, to write about some of her memories of life at the Drill Hall and I believe these are now stored in the Central Library.
 
Hi Stroili, like your good self I have only been a forum member for a short
time, its seems that these threads are left on and people come back to them as and when, if that makes sense. A few weeks ago I post an item
about our parents old Co op numbers, and was reminded my about three
more senior members that this had already been covered some two years
ago! Wasnt the loading bay area for the HPO in Thorpe, Street I started at Royal
Mail, as it is called nowadays when I came out of the army in 1953,
I think all the vans used to back in down at the Hill Street end, have I got
the right street? I didnt like the job very much I only stayed 42 years til
1995! Moving on to Burton on Trent and then Derby.Nice to met you, talk
again soon, Quote; Old gardeners never die, they just throw in the trowel
Bernard67Arnold:cool:
 
Welcome Stroili. The good thing about this forum is we all love to read posts like yours. How lovely the story of how your Mom and Dad met. I started this thread because I was sat in the car park which the baracks now are, waiting for my husband and could clearly see the structure as it would have been. I am so glad your Mom wrote down her memories. I think this will be in Carl's Archive which anyone can view.:)
 
hi - looking for more info on my great grandfather who married in 1907 at St Jude when he was living at 19 Thorpe Street.
Anyone know if this is the same Thorpe Street as the Barracks mentioned in this thread?
Surnames researching - Turner, Nicholls
 
It was the same one as the drill hall / barracks. No 19 Thorpe St was on the northern side, the same side as the drill hall on the map below. No 27 was the pub on the corner (The White Lion) and the numbers ran downwards approximately consecutively to the right, so it was probably the next or the next but one to the drill hall on the same side as the pub.
mike


map_thorpe_st_c_1889_no_19~1.jpg
 
Wow that was quick. THANK YOU.

His father was a publican so wonder if he ran the White Lion - although not convinced he was still living at home in 1907 when he married.
I am really struggling to find a birth certificate so thought I would learn more on the detail I do have hoping that it will lead me in the right direction.
 
Debs
The map I showed is basically one originally surveyed in about 1902, but additions made up to 1911. Although it shows the pub, and I mentioned it to help you get your bearings, the Birmingham directories list it in 1900, but not in 1904. Presumably it disappeared, as a pub anyway, between those years. In 1900 the landlord was.

1880 Mrs Charlotte Dixon
1883 Mrs Catherine Allen
1884 Joseph Davenport
1888 James Billinghurst
1890-92 Cornelius William Donovan
1895-96 Alfred Overs
1899 William H Kendrick
1900 John H. Preston
He could have been there in the gaps of course.
mike
 
hi - a big thank you for your help and such a quick reply. This is proving really hard work to track down my great grandfathers birth certificate.
 
I am new to this site and noticed,the information about Thorpe Street.
Part of my family tree is of my late mother-in-law Clara Reed,she was married in Birmingham in 1934.
We found out recently that she had been married to a James.C.Butler in 1919 at Aston registry office, Ihave just applied for her marriage certificate,and although there was a bit of a postal strike i received it in 2 days, thanks to the quick turn round by the registry office,they must have processed it within the hour.(wonderfull service)
I dont know how Clara and Mr Butler arrived in Birmingham,they both came from Halifax,on her cert, she gave her address as Back 21 Thorpe street, Birmingham.(could this have been behind a shop ?)
She did mention working at the Kings Head. was there a Kings Head in Birmingham ?.Wendy on this forum has a Howell could this be a link.
Graham
 
Graham
X court or Court Y or back of no Z are all terms used to describe houses off the main street set in a small court . Court 21 Thorpe st was almost certainly one of the 4 houses in the yard to the left of the Drill Hall shown in the map earlier in the thread. They are not listed in the 1920 electoral roll so would have moved on (assuming that the address they gave was where they actually were living (which is not always so).
There are two Clara and James Butlers living together in the rolls in 1920., one at 27 court 3 Camden Grove and one at 34 Edward St.
There was at least two Kings Heads in Birmingham in 1921 (Hagley road and brearley St), but unfortunately not all pubs are listed by name in the directories, so there may be others
Mike
 
Thanks for your reply Mike, Interesting to note that there were two Clara & James Butlers in the area in 1920.I dont know what happened but my Clara was married again in 1934 and she said she was a spinster for the record.Her address in 1934 was 321,Golden Hillock Road,Sparkhill.
Her new husband was Walter.J,Reed of the same address.
Graham
 
When WW2 began my dad was called to sign up at Thorpe street barracks. On that day he made a lifelong friend ,Dennis Mcgauley of the Mcgauley cycle shop family.They both went from there to Enville Hall near Stourbridge for training,they both survived and were 90 this year. When ever we go to the Hippodrome we always park there and do a bit of reminiscing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top