• 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

Great Russell Street

Astoness said:
hi derek there are lot of old photos on the thread of gt russell st some show the back houses which you may recognise

lyn
Click to expand...
A message which I formulated some time ago and which was in response to your post 695204 which was probably dated around August 2020, some how vanished into the ether. Anyway by chance I came across the message in my photos and this related to the football photos I had sent previously and you asked if I had any idea of the dates because you had a friend who also worked at William Newman between 1969 and 2005. The gist of the content is as follows:-

It's a little bit difficult to put any precise date on the footballing photos but I will do my best. My working life at William Newman and sons started in1955 (age15) as a commercial trainee and I completed 20 years service at the time of leaving in 1975, so your friend and I would have been there at the same time 1969 to 1975 at my time of leaving , a period of about 6 years. You will see from those dates that at the time your friend started I would have been age 29 my footballing career having come to an abrupt end due to injury. Despite this I played for St Andrews Athletic and Birmingham City Colts and although I was captain of Aston Boys during my school years I was never involved in Villa Trials which was a disappointment having lived most of my formative years in Aston. If you look at image 0084 that's me receiving the cup and I think I would have been around 20 the year being around 1960, likewise images 0082/3. It therefor looks that both the football and cricketing Photos are a few years before your friend joined the company. I take it Lyn that you had some connections with Aston, I go back a long time for example when the picture house was called the Astoria before it became the Crossroads Studio. Happy days, sorry I was unable to be a bit more informative.
Derek
 
Two threads about Great Russell Street have been merged into this one. There may be earlier unseen posts.
 
I’m just following up on an address that my grandfather was born at. It appears that it’s a front street facing house and was Mrs Lings Fried Fish Shop according to Kelly’s. I think my great grandad maybe shared the premises with his grocery business and Mrs Ling.

My question is what court was behind 208? My grandad was one of 5 children born in Great Russell Street, but the birth sequence went 35 court, 208, 35 court, 208, 35 court. I can’t see them moving back and forth between the same house over a 8 year period so wondered whether 208 fronted 35 court?
 
It look like court 36 was behind 208 (entrance between 206 & 207) and court 35 was behind 203/204.

Is the address place of birth or residence because you could be born at the first and not be living there.
 
I’ve been continuing my research into 208 Great Russell Street and I found this photo on here. There is also a photo of the same row of houses just before demolition in the sixties. The photo isn’t overly detailed but I think I can make out E Smith Greengrocer written in the window. Can’t prove it but that’s likely to be my great grandfather outside his shop between 1911 and 1914 when he went off to war. They lived at 35 court prior to this and likely shared ownership with Mrs Lings fried fish shop until around 1912 when they moved into the main shop 208 and presumably took over rental completely. What i didn’t realise was that this part of Great Russell Street was north of New John Street, I always presumed it was the other end. Always looking for more information about my great grandfather and where he lived. My own father had no idea about his grandfather until I started researching our family history so I find every snippet to be incredible.
1781161033425.png
 
hi rich i take it you found that photo on the gt russell street thread where there are many old photos of this street...the below map certainly confirms the location of it with court 36 being behind you can clearly see the entry on the left that leads to court 36..you can move the map around if you want to..i am going to say that there is a very good chance that that could be your gt grandad standing outside the shop or at least another member of the family in which case you are so very lucky..old photos usually showed the owner of the shop/pub etc standing outside...if you move the map you will see that gt russell st finished at farm st and was only a few doors up from the mathias tavern pub..pretty sure there is also a photo of this pub...hope this helps..click on link below

lyn

 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top