Ash Family

[Dennis Williams]

In 1841 Thomas Ash, a 40 year old Burton man, then living in 6 Prospect Row, Birmingham, was the owner and developer of a zinc & galvanized iron business from premises listed at 119½ New St
In 1849 Thomas Ash & Son, were listed as "galvanized iron & zinc workers, manufacturers of sash bars & bell tubing (and co) & inventors of the patent stair rods" - again from 119 New street, but also premises in 3 Peck Lane, & Ashted Row.
Coating iron or steel in molten zinc to form a rust proof, ‘galvanised’ alloy, had only been discovered around 1831 in France, and Thomas must have been fairly quick off his starting blocks, by working towards putting this process into commercial use by his company. Being the son of a "chymist", must have helped and inspired him greatly.

For the sake of completeness, there is another set of intriguing entries (gifted to me by the blessed Mike Jee) of a Thomas Ash, who may be the same man (most likely), or even HIS father, which reads thus:
1823 Ash Thomas, druggist, grocer, and oil and colour man, 38, Stafford Street, and 56, Lichfield Street
1829 Ash Thomas, grocer, tea dealer, druggist, and oil and colourman, 65, Coleshill St
1833 Ash Thomas,grocer, tea dealer, druggist, and oil and colourman, Prospect Row

Anyway, as the business grew, his son, Joseph Ash, starting work in dad’s business at 13 years old. By 1851, the Ash Family had moved to a posher and bigger house at 167 Ashted Row.


Ashted Row


In 1857, 33 year Joseph Ash (who had by then married Mary Ann Genders in 1848, and was living at nearby 141 Ashted Row, Aston), spread his wings, and opened his own Zinc metal business in Meriden Street, making hardware items and railway stores. They must have been fairly comfortably off, as there is a sevant also listed in the 1851 Census. The Great Western Railway Company extensively used Joseph Ash for many of its track-side requirements such as water towers, lamp sheds and lube tanks for keeping their operations well oiled.

In 1864 Joseph Ash joined forces with John Pierce Lacy who provided extra galvanizing experience for his iron and steelwork. Ash & Lacy remained the group parent company of the business until its recent takeover by Hill & Smith.

Joseph also founded Joseph Ash & Son in Rea Street South, Digbeth making galvanized roofing and metal storage tanks, which in later years was managed by his oldest son Thomas Henry. This gradually expanded to a site occupying hundreds of acres of land bordering on Rea Street South, Moseley Street and Charles Henry Street. Two impressive Victorian office blocks were built in Charles Henry Street to house the growing number of administration staff which was required to run large expanding business. Opposite the galvanizing factory in Charles Henry Street, slum back-to-back houses were demolished to make way for a new tank manufacturing unit- JA Envirotanks. At a meeting to ceelebrate 150 years in Brum Manufactoring history, general manager, Simon Proctor - a former pupil Birmingham Blue Coat School - said the history of the firm, and of Joseph Ash, was a huge asset to the business. He said: "The historical aspect highlights the depth of experience of the company and shows we are a solid enterprise. "We have been here for 150 years and have every intention of continuing to perform solidly into the future." Mr Proctor, who joined the business since 1983 and worked his way up the ranks, said the company continued to value a family atmosphere and benefited from low staff turnover.


Factory in Charles Henry Street now..


Now part of the Hill & Smith group, Joseph Ash sees annual turnover of about £29 million, with JA Envirotanks represent approximately 20 per cent of the business. The company, still based in Charles Henry Street, currently employs 50 staff and now focuses on environmental storage solutions.

As well as all the business activities, Joseph fathered eleven children and took a great interest in local philanthropic movements. He was for many years actively engaged in promoting the affairs of the Birmingham Blue Coat School and was a generous supporter of the hospitals of the city, of the General Dispensary, the Blind Asylum, the Deaf Institution, and the Harborne Industrial School. He lived for many years in Acocks Green, Yardley, but moved to Leamington Spa in 1885. He died aged ninety-one at his house Gaveston, in Guys Avenue with the funeral taking place on August 4, 1915 at Old Milverton Church, Leamington.

https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/sh ... t=Ash+Lacy

So the above link will chart how a humble family run Zinc metal company from the back streets of Digbeth and Aston, expanded exponentially, to become a major global exporter today.
But what of the background story, and the real purpose of this post?

Well Joseph had a son in 1859, who eventually managed the business, and eventually inherited a vast amount from the sale of part or whole of the company’s assets. His name was Alfred Ash.

In 1881 Alfred Ash was living in comparative luxury with mom and dad and his four sibs in Kingswood House, Church Road, Kings Norton, together with their two servants. In 1883 Alfred married Emily Hannah Barker, and they bought a house in Acocks Green, where, in 1890 they had a son named Graham Baron Ash, who stood to inherit a fortune, and was to become the focus of this story - the self-styled ‘Baron of Packwood’....to be continued.....

 

[Dennis Williams]

Part 2


Graham Baron Ash...Spinster of the Parish...


In 1904 Graham, then aged 15, moved with Alfred his father, mother Emily, and younger sister Betty, from ‘Rougement’ No 32 Flint Green Road, Acocks Green, to Packwood House ‘An old fashioned country residence’ with 134 acres of land. His father bought the house “because the boy wanted it”! Packwood House along with 134 acres then went for the princely sum of £4,500.


'Rougemont', Flint Green Road, Acocks Green



Packwood House and gardens...


A lover of luxury, Alfred was described as viewing life 'from the sunny side - and from the interior of a gorgeous Rolls-Royce', whose Flying Lady mascot, made by Lalique, had a blue element running through it. He may have been a Blues fan…?
In 1914 Graham Baron enlisted for service in the Great War, firstly as a stretcher bearer on the front line, but in 1917 he learned to fly, but after crashing four planes on landing, he then wisely became a balloon artillery officer!! After the war he returned to the family business.

Baron, on reaching the age of 21, declined the opportunity to attend university but was given an eight-month world tour by his parents.

In 1925 his father died, and as he was not really interested in industry, he resigned his chairmanship of Ash & Lacy, sold all of his financial holdings in the company, and invested the considerable acquired wealth in stocks and shares, and set about the restoration of Packwood house and gardens to the original Tudor style, under the supervision of the Birmingham architect Edwin Reynolds (1875-1949).

Ash housed his extensive collections of furniture and other 16th- and 17th-century artefacts, manly tapestries, many acquired in the 1930s from neighbouring Baddesley Clinton. At Packwood, he also sought to 'rescue' features from old properties which faced demolition in the inter-war period. Baron Ash entertained lavishly at Packwood, particularly in 1938 when he served as High Sheriff of Warwickshire.

Due to a marriage that Baron’s father regarded as socially unsatisfactory, the Baron’s sister Betty was largely detached from the Baron’s life until a visit to Packwood by Queen Mary in 1927. Since protocol dictated that the Queen could not be received by a bachelor, Baron obtained assistance from his estranged sister. The Queen was a heavy smoker, and to help put the Queen at ease, Betty who had never smoked, also had a cigarette and was ill as a result.

Baron was friendly with Cecil Ferrers of Baddesley Clinton. The Ferrers had little money and sold many items to the Baron helping to enhance Packwood with paintings, furniture, silverware, tapestries and a 31 foot long 600 year old table.
In 1928, the Baron had traced his ancestry back to Richard Ash of Ashby de la Zouch and he delighted in having found his family coat of arms. The motto is ”Non nobis, sed omnibus”, or “Not for us alone, but for everyone”. It is ironic that his friendship with the Ferrers at Baddesley Clinton and donation of Packwood to the NT have preserved many objects now returned to Baddesley as the motto says, “for everyone”




In 1941 Baron gave Packwood to the National Trust, but continued in residence until 1947. Initially, the National Trust was not keen to take on this house, as it is a total fake constructed during the 1930s, but Baron also gave them an endowment of £30,000 for its upkeep, with the stipulations that there was never to be a restaurant or cafe on the site and that fresh flowers from the garden must be supplied to the house every day.


In 1943, Baron took a 40-year lease on Wingfield Castle near Norwich, which he also restored, completing it in 1962. During this time, the Packwood gardens were converted to vegetable plots to support the war effort, but Baron’s gardener was later employed by the National Trust to restore them. Despite this, relations between Baron and the NT gradually deteriorated. In 1962, use of the table as a catwalk for a fashion show incurred Baron’s indignation and he told all his friends not to support the Trust. By this time Baron was living at Wingfield Castle in Suffolk and the lack of National Trust properties in this area is attributable to the rift. Wingfield was a far more grandiose and genuinely older building than Packwood and Baron restored it with similar energy. He died there in 1980. During this time in Suffolk he fell out with the National Trust and that is why there is a dearth of National Trust properties in this area.


Wingfield Castle, Suffolk



He died aged 91 in 1980 with instructions for a private cremation. His friends from Norwich Cathedral where he had contributed generously to the roof repairs, held a memorial service for him with the Duchess of Kent unveiling a memorial tablet to him.
When he died he left £1 million to the Friends of Norwich Cathedral, £1 million to a homeless men's establishment in London and £1 million to his sister aged 85 years; she, in fact gave half of this to Myton Hamlet Hospice and shortly after, when the National Trust took over Baddesley Clinton, she donated £300,000 to the public appeal.

A true Birmingham born gentleman of humble origins, who became this self styled parody of a “Baron’, and it’s accompanying ‘aristo’ lifestyle, but who left his family’s enormous wealth and legacy to the Nation, and to whom we should be eternally grateful….


Alfred, Joseph and Baron Ash in Packwood...


For some cracking photos of the interiors and gardens...you may like to try this link...https://raggedrobinsnaturenotes.blogspot ... house.html

 

[Dennis Williams]

Part 3
HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT
As an aside, the prior history of Packwood is also interesting.

The Fetherston family were established as yeomen farmers in the parish of Packwood in the 15th century, and gradually built up a small estate. Packwood House was built in the late 16th century by William Fetherston (died 1601), and while it was not the manor house, it became the most important house in the parish because the lords of the manor were non-resident. It was described as the 'great mancient house' in 1599 when William Fetherston transferred his property to his son, John.

At John's death in 1634 the estate was inherited by his son, also John Fetherston, who had trained as a lawyer and had married a local heiress. John Fetherston II built the stables and farm buildings adjacent to the house in the mid-17th century, and either he, or his son Thomas, who inherited in 1670, was responsible for creating garden enclosures and a cold bath (Tyack 1994).

Thomas Fetherston (died 1714) left the estate to his sister, who was married to Thomas Leigh of Aldridge, Staffordshire; it subsequently passed to their daughter, Catherine, who died a spinster in 1769. After Catherine's death, Packwood was inherited by her half-nephew, Thomas (born 1761), younger son of William Dilke of Maxstoke Castle, Warwickshire. Thomas Dilke died in 1814 leaving the estate to his brother Charles, who was described as living in 'the true style of an English gentleman' (West 1830). The house was modernised in the early 19th century, but the gardens remained largely untouched. Packwood remained in the Dilke family after Charles' death in 1831, but from 1851 it was let.

In 1869 it was sold to George Arton who developed the gardens and created the parkland from surrounding agricultural land in the 1870s (OS). Reginald Blomfield (1856-1942) included a description of Packwood in The Formal Garden in England and in the late 19th century and early 20th century Packwood became noted as an example of an 'old English garden' (Country Life 1902; Jekyll and Weaver 1920).

At Arton's death in 1904 Packwood was sold to the Ash family…whch is where we came in...

 

[Dennis Williams]

Phil posed the interesting question whether famous surgeon JOHN ASH, of general Hospital fame, was part of these metal basher Ashes....but after a little extra research we decided that it wasn't so....pity, that would have made the story even sweeter..sigh...