Recent content by MichelleC

I just had a 'Ten-Minute Talk' published by the British Association for Local History on 'The Scandalous Failure of the Birmingham Penny Bank' which I thought might be of interest to some of the forum members. Ah, the good old days when you needed no experience and no capital to start a...

Yes, Baldwin had several very nice obituaries. The one in the Unitarian journal (the title of which is escaping me at this precise moment) is particularly warm. His funeral at the Kingswood Meeting House in Kings Norton was attended by a cavalcade of local politicians and other high status mourners.

Hello! Glad you enjoyed my article. You can note to your walkers that the 1829 date on the frontage of the Sherborne Mill building is a fiction :) The paper making business didn't get started until the 1830s. The current building frontage dates from 1908. There are no surviving records for the...

Ernie Cale was my uncle. He died in March 2020 at the age of 92. My father, Leonard Cale, was also an electroplater at the Ionic; he died in December 2018 at 84. I remember going on the company's Christmas outing to the pantomime for the employees' children several times. I also remember how my...

This facade was created in 1908-09 - the mill was rebuilt following a catastrophic fire. The plans are in the Wolfson Archive Center at the Library of Birmingham.

A long shot: Does anyone have (or know of) any images of Breedon House in Kings Norton, or its estate area? The house was located where the Cotteridge Board School was built (opened in 1900). First mention I have found of it is in a newspaper advert for 1834. It went through multiple hands in...

I have my copy of Lucy Lethbridge's book open in front of me. Fascinating! Thank you for alerting us to the appearance of a Baldwin household in this book. It is not the best footnoted text, unfortunately. My suspicion is that the Alice Osbourn journal remains in private hands, as it is...

I just sent you a private email via this website. Let me know if you want to take discussion further!

I will see if I can figure out again how to send you a private message so I can facilitate the connection.

Hello! Prompted by my conversations with him, my Baldwin family contact Louis (parents Cyril and June) actually wrote to your mother last year at the last address he had for her, and it was recently returned to him as "not at this address". I know he would be very glad to make a connection...

Here's another connection: 74 Newhall St was James Baldwin's address in the 1840s. From Aris's Birmingham Gazette, July 10, 1848 - the leasehold of the property was for sale: “All that roomy, substantial, and excellently situated DWELLING HOUSE and PREMISES, with Manufactory, Court, Stable and...

Have you ever visited Winterbourne House in Harborne, which was built in 1903 for John Nettlefold? It is quite a nice spot, includes some displays about Guest, Keen and Nettlefold and the Moor Pool Estate, as well as the family. https://www.winterbourne.org.uk/

Can't help you with that exactly, but in case you don't already know, Broad Meadow was the estate occupied by Joseph Billing Baldwin (1825-1884) and his family in the 1870s-1880s (they are there in the 1881 census). He was the son of the paper maker, and one-time Mayor of Birmingham, James...

Common and repeating names are the bane of every historian's life, aren't they. There are so many James Baldwins in that family tree - including in the same generation - that I always have to cite them with their dates. Seymour does appear in the Baldwin tree, appearing first (that I have found...

Oh goodness! How wonderful! What are you going to do with those papers? There are literally no business records remaining/accessible for James Baldwin & Sons Ltd. I even talked to the Official Receiver, who told me all the business records had been destroyed. My Baldwin descendant contact only...