Recent content by toolate4regrets

Way late to this thread, but I grew up in Sparkhill in the 70s and 80s. My first job when I was at school was working in the butchers in Kwik Save on saturdays - would have been around 1984/5. Rima Patisserie used to have these amazing easter nests There used to be a wonderful sweet shop...

Before Lancaster, photography was still expensive and compicated, Lancaster put photography in the hands of 100s of 1000s of people before Kodak came over to the UK... also Kodak took the invention of Alexander Parkes in Birmingham and had better marketing than Pumphrey brothers of Birmingham...

By 1900 Lancaster were the largest camera comany in the world, and the owner, William James lancaster is regarded as being the man who made amateur photography possible. The earliest record I have of them making cameras was from around 1854. Also if you fancy owning a Lancaster watch camera...

Hi Jo! I am writing a book on the photographic industry In Birmingham and Philip Harris crops up a few times especially in the 19th Century, and I wonder if the company have any information regarding this side of the business? I have a chemical bottle, an early 20th Century pinhole camera and...

Hi Lyn Thank you... I am still not totally sure if the title was more to describe a journey to and around the Bull Ring or whether a tram was actually involved at all... it may have just sounded catchy :) All i know is it used 1930s amateur footage of Brum

Does anyone have a copy (or know where I can find one) of a 1974 BBC Programme called A Tram to the Bullring? ... the footage in that programme was also used in a 1989 BBC Programme narrated by Michael Buerk called Birmingham . The BBC have apparently lost/never kept copies of either show!

It is surprising the number of cabinet makers in the country who turned into making cameras in the 1860s - it seemed quite a natural progression ... cameras of this age were more wooden boxes with mirrors or lenses inside... even with bellows, wood makes up most of the camera itself (an early...

Thanks for adding bits of information about him ...i'd also found census reports and newspaper archives useful as well to get more information on him and the business, but despite a relatively decent amount of facts ...there is not much concrete out there about him. I found a report in 1903...

Did anyone find out anything more on Lorenzo Field? (only 12 years late to the party!!!)

I thought I would try a different tack which may give different results... the posts already mentioned from this question have been useful

That went very cheaply! Glad I already have one of those though

Just wondered if anyone had any photos which showed anything camera or photographic related... I noticed one photo in the thread of a chemist on Potters Hill with Kodak and Ilford signs in the window which is great, but wondered if anyone had any photos of photographic studios or works, or...

The numbers on the backs of all carte de visite refer to the reference given to them by the individual photographer ...once the photographer closes down those records are all lost... i have not come across any Birmingham photographer whose records like that are still available unfortunately.

Thank you so much Alistair! I would really appreciate it! Birmingham's huge history of camera making and photography has been neglected and I would love to do what I can to tell people about it ...if I ever write a book on it, I will be in touch!!

I am not sure if you as the publishers are the correct person to speak to, but I am doing research on photographic history in Birmingham and Edwin Elliott is of great interest to me especially with his connection to Coronet. Do you know whether Margery has any information related to the company...