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Articles: The Iron Room, Birmingham Libraries. Recent Articles

Richard Dye said:
One wonders why the likes of Boulton, Watt, Murdoch, Priestly and both Brunels were never knighted ( and numerous more). Just thinking out loud. I happen to follow/read frequently about the aforementioned group.
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Richard, Sir Marc Isambard Brunel (the father) -- 'On 24 March 1841 Brunel was knighted by the young Queen Victoria. This was at the suggestion of Prince Albert who had shown keen interest in the progress of the [Thames] tunnel.' Wikipedia.

Albert was keenly interested in Engineering, but he died in 1861.

Priestley was a dissenter and supported the French Revolution. I do not think he would have wished to be knighted.

I'm guessing that there was a general prejudice against trade and engineering and the owners of factories by the gentry and those who decided such things. Thomas Telford was the son of a shepherd, raised in poverty and apprenticed as a stone mason at the age of 14. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Derek
 
Stokkie said:
Richard, Sir Marc Isambard Brunel (the father) -- 'On 24 March 1841 Brunel was knighted by the young Queen Victoria. This was at the suggestion of Prince Albert who had shown keen interest in the progress of the [Thames] tunnel.' Wikipedia.

Albert was keenly interested in Engineering, but he died in 1861.

Priestley was a dissenter and supported the French Revolution. I do not think he would have wished to be knighted.

I'm guessing that there was a general prejudice against trade and engineering and the owners of factories by the gentry and those who decided such things. Thomas Telford was the son of a shepherd, raised in poverty and apprenticed as a stone mason at the age of 14. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Derek
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Thank you Derek, I stand corrected with Sir Marc Brunel. Regarding Thomas Telford I would certainly add to the list. Priestley was a deserter, however he did discover some pretty breakthroughs in chemistry.
Looking from afar I see that honor being bestowed a far less significant breakthroughs. Sir John Surtees has a nice ring to it :) .
Than’ you again!
 
Pedrocut said:
Louis Webb, Benjamin Stone and the Grange Erdington and more.

theironroom.wordpress.com

A selection of recent small accessions

Every year, we receive new accessions of archive material relating to Birmingham which are added to our collections. For this blog post, we thought we’d show you some of the smaller accession…
theironroom.wordpress.com theironroom.wordpress.com
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I remember Hardman's stained glass being at Lightwoods House in Bearwood. They made stained glass up to 2008, I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardman_&_Co.
 
Pedrocut said:
Chocolate Boxes.

theironroom.wordpress.com

Chocolate boxes of yesteryear

LS 10/Cadbury This post is about the old fancy chocolate boxes. Many of us are in possession of old chocolate tins or boxes which are too handy to be discarded and have been used to stash postcards…
theironroom.wordpress.com theironroom.wordpress.com
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The section on Kunzles was interesting to me as one of my aunts worked there as a young woman, she used to tie the ribbons round the boxes.
 
Pedrocut said:
The Number 11 is a number we all remember !

theironroom.wordpress.com

Number 11: Know Your Place

Exhibition by Prof Kathryn Moore and Dr Alex Albans, Birmingham City University The ‘Number 11: Know your place’ exhibition was designed to help people discover a sense of pride, belonging and curi…
theironroom.wordpress.com theironroom.wordpress.com
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Went to school on the Number 11 bus . I think that more than any other followed by the Numbers 15 / 16 / and 53 . Remember running after the 15 and 16 trying to jump on the platform of the rear of the bus before the one man operated ones came on the scene. No sense of fear back then. The Number 11 could seem to get you to any destination.
 
Pedrocut said:
Tales from the Crypt.

theironroom.wordpress.com

Tales from the crypt

Wallpaper – design side [Ref: EP 25/26/3/23/1] Whilst undertaking a survey of the ecclesiastical parish collections we hold I stumbled across a rather intriguing item. It’s a piece of torn wa…
theironroom.wordpress.com theironroom.wordpress.com
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Very interesting!
Another nice thing is that they have a sample of the wallpaper from the church.
Was that unusual for paper to decorate chancel walls in churches? I can't recollect ever having noticed.
 
Pedrocut said:
Yardley in World War II.

theironroom.wordpress.com

An account of Yardley during World War Two

Oral testimonies from people who are living or have lived in an area are an extremely useful resource for developing an understanding of the past, and talking to members of your family about their …
theironroom.wordpress.com theironroom.wordpress.com
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We should never forget how lucky we are . it's a generation thing as time moves on memories fade or change. This forum and the people with their memories keep things fresh in our minds. A big thank you.
 
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