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Archway Of Tears

Hi Maurice
I will try and get back on this evening with more story lines and a couple of other photographs
i put my paper work down the other day in fact a night a two but my old dutchess moved it some where so tonight
i am hoping to put my finger on the button
one with a couple of gentlemen haveing dinner sitting in there section having lunch
in the old spike of western road which was part of the old place
also there is a big story of info with them
the arches mentionioned and in view what you have got now wasa not always painted in white wash
i used to pass it daily for years up and down westeren road for work purposes and for lady girl friends
and associating with friendsi used to work for pollard s of coventry when i came out of the forces
brookfield crescent which was about 500 yards passed the old spike they was industreal machine sellers
but cutting that bit out one year they employed a little old felloa for sweeping up the ware house and do some machine cleaning before we had taken them out across the coun try
this little old chap was a resident there at the spike nice old fella sppoke with him every day when i seen him at the warehouse
he told me he was living in the spike and told me his story
and prior to me starting at the machine company i had a friend whom worked at the hospital
whom was also ex military whom i knew as a kid he worked around the hospital as summerfield hospital as a porter
he suggested that i apply at the hospital for a vacant postion of porter
so i went down there and i went into that archway the door on the left and the second door you see was the reception
and on the door directly facing in the archway was the head porters office
and there was a guy from ickneild port road was the city mortary attendant there as well mr ridding
any way maurice got to cut off now but will be back alan;; Astonian,,
 
HI Maurice
The frontage of the gate house there was no challenge it was done automatic and it was in the early sixties
the picture i have put on in number one and the fencing you see was replaced from an old six feet netted fencing
which had a steel framed gate with a see through netted chicken wire and locked by a steel padlock
which ran down the side of those gates which in some parts had turned rusty and falling down
so they refenced it with the fence you see on the picture but directly behind that fence they left a long series of old building
which was only single high building for the accomadation of homeless men which was turned as the spike for these poor old men
it lasted a couple of years before they demolished that complex of building called the spike
they had to be in before a certain time or they was locked out
the top half of the arch went long before they demoed the spike along western road and added info it was facing R Whites pop maker
but any way after the top half of the arches down they moved further inside the grounds and started on the other building
demowing and rebuilding what was when they introduced summerfield hospital name
but prior to building new wards they used the old one which i think i have put the picture off
and it was excactly as you see it in the picture huge and dingy wards
sadly in the sixtys my grand mother whom was in her late seventy ,eightys years old was sent there very ill indeed
this was 1961 as i recall it i was sixteen years old i have never been in that part they called sunmmer field hospital
i have of course been a patient in my youger years at dudley roadnow the city hospital
but never summerfield,
And i can tell you Maureece i went into the building it was dark and dinghy ans eerie
the ward as you can see is excactly how it was , i commented to my mother about the state of the ward
as we started to walk into the ward it got worse and horrifying to see all these elderly people
in there very late times of there years nearly every bed each if not all was suported by by these hoist by there arms
or legs , and i have never seen nothink like it in my life, just surprizing and shocked to see the human sking
hanging from there arms it was looking at sheeets of linen it was the humam skin and by god
the smell of these bodies was unreal and over powering we eventaly got to grand ma,s bed
i stood there for two minutes mom sat down and i emediatly said to mom i have to wait out side
because i felt sick by seeing what i did and the smell of the place was over powering me
i will never forget that place for as long as i may live
if my memory serves me correct again once you walk through those front gates with the arch as you proceed further into the grounds
possibley another 100 yards in or a little further there is another arch you would be further in if you like the back end of the whole hospital which eventual you willl have come across the laudry rooms the wash house where they done all the hospital washing of blankeys and bed linnens
may i take a moment to mention this person whom was a very careing person and hard working whom beleive in life
and helping theneeded and homeless people and taking kids from the erdinton cottage homes and fostering these kids
and bringing them up in this world she as devoted her life to numerous kids from the erdington foster care
her name was Olive Frisby she worked at this terrible place for years i beleive she got a mention on this forum some many years ago
but during her spare time of rearing these kids she actualy worked in that wash house at the summerfielf hospital
sadly she died many , many years ago so did most of the kids and family
but getting back on track the second arches was where the wash house was big huge old crepped building
you would be around the sides of dudley road hospital and lodge road mental health issues depart ment
and these was apart of the old work house sections and they went on further taking you within the prison walls of winson green prison
there was these big wards what you see , in the seventys the prison department was given back some of these large wings
of the work house which ran down the back of the lodge road hospital along the prisison walls
and converted back to cells extention
i had a frightful experience of seeing first hand on these large rooms with the huge cell doors where they locked the really sick mental health patients in i was involved at one time to take a person below ground level to these places and see first hand of what they was like
i have said i will put a picture of a couplke of guys having dinner at the spike and see inside
so please bear wwith me
the top of the gate house was demolished i hink it was about sixty two or three
you also mentionioned the new departments they built within the grounds yes they built a new nurse accomadation for nurse to live on site and regarding the picture of the gate house where that one time new fencing i mentionion afew later they built a front complex
of departments for the NHS firstly of the new building was for the death people of hard of hearing to attendend
they close the one in little bromwich which i know as yardley and brought it to westeren road
well maureece i had better scamper off now for the time being speak again soon Alan,, Astonian;;;;
 
i am pretty sure the urban explorers have already got into the archway of tears before the boards went round it...sure i have seen their photos.could be on the site 28 days later...shame we have to lose yet another building of social history interest which from what i can tell also includes the demo of the present hospital but we should all know by now that the powers that be very rarely care about preservation...

lyn
 
Hi Lyn,

Hope you had a nice break and good to see you back. 28 Days Later has recently had a big shakeup and all photos and all but recent history has been removed. The photos have been moved to a new site and the access can be be set by whoever posted them to be whatever he or she determines. I rejoined as I haven't been on there since before the reorganisation and I have yet to see what is as available and what isn't. For certain it is not going to be the free-for-all system that they had before.

Maurice
 
morning maurice had a wonderful time thanks...amazing tour...well i did not know that about 28 days later thanks for the heads up...i cant be sure if i saw the photos on there but later on i will have a look around to see what i can find...wished i had saved them now:rolleyes:

lyn
 
Ha ha Lyn,

Well I save a lot of stuff and then generally forget what I have called it, especially if I am in a hurry! Going completely off topic, we had snow here this morning - only about an inch - but more is due later. We can do without that!

Maurice
 
maurice i have just logged onto 28 days later and i am having no trouble viewing photos that were taken as long ago as 2005 when i have time i will go through the hospital and workhouse section to see if i can locate and weston road pics...talking about snow have a look at in the garden today thread and see what my daughter is putting up with in usa:rolleyes:
 
That's very strange, Lyn, I couldn't get on with my old username & password and had to re-register. Then I got the message about the photographs. Also I could only go back with about 5 pages of postings. But all the old faces were there and a few new ones. When I can find a spare half hour I will have to investigate again.

Maurice
 
yes its strange maurice....i will also take a longer look at it tonight but as far as i can see i have no problems with the site..
 
Lyn,

This is the message I got................

Hi *******, This is just a quick note to let you know that we have discontinued image uploads to the server. Nice as it was, the system was a bit hit and miss, complicated to use, and it also put a strain on the forum backups.
The best solution is to use a 3rd party image host. Please use www.ForumImageHosting.com as an alternative. It's free and easy to use. Here's some features: Drag and Drop uploading, Private and Public folders, all the link codes you'll ever need, share directly to Facebook, Twitter and other social media directly from the image or album page. And of course, you can use the images wherever you want.
In the near future there will be guides published, but in the meantime, just make sure your pictures go in an album, the album is private (if you want), and you use the 'Image embed codes -> BBCode full' to display the full size image. As usual we recommend the largest image size is 1024 pixels on the longest edge. Anything larger than that is pointless.

Maurice
 
I was at City Hospital (Formerly "Dudley Road") this morning and was saddened to see that the Archway of Tears has been demolished. I had thought there plans to preserve it.
rosie.
 
i heard that the archway at Weston road has been knocked down after
a long fight, is that correct and does anyone know what happened to
the brass plaque. Thanks Stars if this is in the wrong place please replace
it.
 
oh my life stars...if this is true its disgraceful....will try and find out

lyn
 
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Hi lyn

I believe it was in the Birmingham mail. I googled is the archway of tears
Still standing. If it's true, it is so so sad.
 
I was at the Eye Hospital a few weeks ago and walking back along Western Road, I read the demolition order. It said that the Archway was to be carefully dismantled and stored for reuse in redeveloping the the site. we need to be vigilant.
 
rosie said:
I was at City Hospital (Formerly "Dudley Road") this morning and was saddened to see that the Archway of Tears has been demolished. I had thought there plans to preserve it.
rosie.
Click to expand...

hi rosie...so it has gone then...i have not been over over that way for some time so did not know...its just another example of how the powers that be care so little about preserving a major part of our heritage:mad:

lyn
 
DavidGrain said:
I was at the Eye Hospital a few weeks ago and walking back along Western Road, I read the demolition order. It said that the Archway was to be carefully dismantled and stored for reuse in redeveloping the the site. we need to be vigilant.
Click to expand...


thanks david...i take it its just the actually archway that they have saved..thats if they have of course...i read that the site is to be used to build new housing...have to say i dont think i would like a house on the ground where a building caused so much misery but having said that would without it have caused so much more

lyn
 
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waste ground where the archway of tears once stood...noticed they managed to save a couple of trees..very nice of them:mad:

lyn

ARCH OF TEARS...ICKNIELD ST SCHOOL OLD END 002.JPG
 
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oldMohawk said:
Hi Viv, I've just had a thought, perhaps the white coloured building was an entrance on the road which was at some time demolished. I can see a building on Western Rd on a 1892-1905 map and perhaps they wanted a 'nice' looking entrance. It would be interesting to know when it was demolished.
Phil
Click to expand...
Hi just a reply a few years too late as this is dated 2017 better late than never as they say. I worked as a volunteer in the early 1990s at what was the old workhouse at what was Dudley Rd geriatric school of medicine up until 1992/1993 when it was demolished apart from the Archway of tears Building which was incidentally turned down as listing from English heritage. And i can defiantly say the fine-looking entrance frontage building had definitely been demolished by that point as had the large chimney in one of the pictures. The workhouse chapel was demolished in 1977 And some of the stained glass is in the Birmingham art museum it this date and info on it. Marianne.
 
Expect this memorial has disappeared with demolition. A simple plaque commemorating those in such desperate need seems pretty inadequate to me, but at least it was recognised as an important part of local history. Viv.

Screenshot_20230225_154233_Chrome.jpg
Screenshot_20230225_154348_Chrome.jpg

Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
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