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Aston Viaduct 1850's

gingerjon

gingerjon

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN R.I.P.
This nice etching circa 1850's of Aston viaduct notice the man walking in front of the train, the pool is the serpentine with Aston Hall and Aston Church in the back ground
 
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Curson St being Birminghams main station and Vauxhall Gardens a mile away could this be the original Vauxhall Viaduct with the church being St James of the Lea. Dek
 
Thanks for posting the Google maps link, Aidan - I had a nice little online explore! My late wife's DORMAN ancestors were located in Thimble Mill Lane, Long Acre & Holborn Hill, but I never knew the area when I lived in Brum. Any idea what the umbrella-like structure is off Thimble Mill Lane?

Maurice :cool:
 
Thanks Dek - I'll try to get my 3D head on and try it out....

Hi Sospri - I don't know the area very well myself (or I'd not be asking a question) but glad you've been able to explore.

If you are referring to the structure here https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=52...2631,-1.871364&spn=0.000416,0.000862&t=h&z=20 then I am also at a loss, although I have seen them at various places over the country. I always thought they were a place of worship but looking at the satellite view and location it looks like some sort of distribution warehouse - but if so why the strange shape? It must cost a pretty penny to build such curves and can't be efficient for storage - would love to know for definite.
 
The view looks as if from where Holborn Hill is now, between its junctions with Long Acre and Nechells Park Rd. Of course the land is completely built over now, so a direct comparison cannot be made.
 
As you say, Aidan, it doesn't look a cheap building to erect, and looks very different when viewed from street level.

Thanks, Dave M, the vehicles parked there look very similar and you could well be correct. Perhaps they dumped a pile of salt/grit there first and put the structure around it. :D

Maurice :cool:
 
Stitcher said:
Does this short text help?? View attachment 63066
Click to expand...

Thanks Stitcher that seems to confirm it is Aston station - all I can say is those arches must go deep into the ground now. Also confirm Lloyds suggestion as to the viewing point (thanks Lloyd) - the path down in the second picture seems to become Holborn Hill.
 
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Thanks for the links, Mike, we learn something every day! :)

This Aston viaduct area is certainly worth more exploration too.

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
...My late wife's DORMAN ancestors were located in Thimble Mill Lane, Long Acre & Holborn Hill, but I never knew the area when I lived in Brum. ...

Maurice :cool:
Click to expand...

Hi Maurice - at what date were your ancestors-in-law living in that area? It may help to date and add interest as to when the area started to be developed as it seems quite unpopulated as little as 150 years ago if we are to believe both images. I just love the image of the shepherd leading his sheep down Holborn Hill!
 
Hi Aidan,

They were born in Short Heath Erdington in the 1840 to early 1850s. No exact address.

By 1861 the family had moved to 35 Wainwright Street, Aston and none of the children had actually started work.

From 1871 until 1911 all the males worked making garden implements of one sort or another - spades, forks and edge tools - though I don't know whether they all worked for the same employer. the addresses as as follows:-

1871: 37 Cooks Hill / Thimble Mill Lane
1874: Cooks Lane, Rocky Lane
1876: Sycamore Road
1877: Long Acre
1881: 64 Charles Arthur Street / Southall's Buildings, Long Acre / 23 Thimble Mill Lane / 2/26 Holborn Hill
1887: 19 Long Acre
1891: 64 Charles Arthur Street again / Southall's Buildings, Long Acre / 23 Thimble Mill Lane / 87 Trevor Street, Nechells
1901: 19 Long Acre again / Southall's Buildings, Long Acre
1911: 53 Cromwell Street / 1/64 Wainwright Street

David DORMAN married into the BAIZON family who were lock-keepers in that area:-
1871: Lock House, Primrose Hill
1881: Lock House, Chester Street
1891: Lock House, Chester Street

Chester Street also seems to be known as Cheston Street [?], and as far as I can make out, the lock houses have now all been demolished. But I did find the snippet below.

EDIT: Re: your comment about the sheep, I have old pictures of Aghios Nikolaos (now a town of about 12,000 people) here in Crete that had a whole hillside, in what is now the centre of the town, covered in sheep and just one small building. Within 30 years, the same area is absolutely solid with buildings - not residential, but mainly hotels, retail, bars, etc. It really is amazing how quickly dense development takes place.

Maurice :cool:
 
Thanks Maurice - it is interesting as the development must have been very quick but not with hotels and restaurant I think!
 
Aidan:

I had a play with the census address searches, which only show households of course, using a couple of the streets I had mentioned.

TMillLne LongAcre WainwrightSt
1841 13 0 12
1851 21 0 37
1861 35 95 5
1871 32 45 6
1881 68 111 68
1891 160 200+ -

Steady growth with Thimble Mill Lane, Long Acre didn't appear until 1861, and the sudden surge in Wainwright Street was due the building of a large number of courts. Holborn Hill & Cooks Hill seem to have changed their names too often, so didn't appear regularly.

My DORMANs were one of the few families left in Wainwright Street in 1861 - the rest seem to have drifted in the direction of the new Long Acre, but they eventually followed.

However, I fear this is drifting too far from the original topic, so I'll call it a day before the Mods do it for me!

EDIT: Hmm, this Forum software appears to treat spaces the same as HTML does. Hope you can make sense of those columns!

Maurice :cool:
 
Thanks Maurice, I appreciate the work you've done there - important to to see the population growth from rural idyll in the paintings (borne out by your table) to the Aston we know and love (around 1881-1891). Excellent
 
Aidan:

Getting back to the subject of the viewpoint of your picture in post #5, it must be somewhere along the dashed green line on the map below, which passes through the viaduct towards the parish church. Does anyone know the location of the serpentine viv-a-vis the modern map?

EDIT: The guy in your picture is presumably walking down Holborn Hill (which in 1861 had a total of 16 households!)

Maurice :cool:
 
Maurice i,m trying to keep up with this thread and leaning as I go.Are you talking about the Serpentine ground where the Onion Fair used to take place if so it would have been just to the right of the arrow head by the Express Way. Dek
 
Nice map work Maurice. I favour the corner of Long Acre/Holborn Hill with a bit of artistic licence as to the perspective and the number of "residences"
 
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The Council road depot in thimble mill road has a salt grit 'beehive' building, which is what is visible. It is full of gritting salt. There is another on the M6 going South by Coleshill.

I saw this print mseveral years ago, and argued for hours with someone who lived Serpantine Road, that the lake is NOT the sepentine. It is th the wrong side of the tracks.
To hjave the Church beyond the line, and the Hall to the left of the church, you must be viewing from the Tame Road area or the GEC site
The river was diverted at Witton Road and runs along the embankmentto Gravelly hill.

We never did work out exactly wher it was taken from! It may well be Prioryb road, Salford Park

Brian
 
Aidan:

Yes, I'm sure there is an element of artistic licence, but you can only work with what you have!

Dek:

Although born in Aston more or less behind the Barton Arms, I left when I was about four years old and this bit between Nechells & Aston is well outside my scope. When someone mentioned the serpentine, I assumed they were talking about the lake in the picture, which seems to have long since disappeared. As to Onion Fair, I know nothing of this.

Brian:

Thanks for more confirmation of the beehive.

Maurice :cool:
 
Serpentine road on part of the site of the serpentine lake is just visible top left of the picture. The part where the onion fair was held was later the car park/asda space behind the sports centre next to the Church. i.e. all on the same side of the railway as the church & hall are, immediately behind the embankement of the Railway.
The river runs the other side of the embankment - it was diverted to flow along it. The ground probably flooded often - it still happens occasionally now on the outer circle, by the end of Tame Road, Electric Avenue, but not so much since they dredged, and built the retaining walls. The artist has probably called the flloded are the sepentine, without realising the actual lake was beyond the railway.

It's still a very good picture, and shows the rural nature of the area!
 
Here is the Staffs. map of the area under review. I thought that the Serpentine was in the loop of the old river course and railway and I seem to have seen boat houses there on a map. Holbourne Hill may be a bit far away and would not give the right perspective on the railway I think, anyway it is in the lower right of the map. The branch of rail running up to the right was later than the pictures it would seem. I rode my bike down Holbourne Hill...left under the bridge over Litchfield and right to Electric Avenue for 5 yrs. Right past features that I never knew were there. I think the view point is in the 'V' of the spurs and I think you can see the stream where the little bridge would have been over and the farm house or remains of is marked also perhaps. Actually, the little bridge would have crossed a leat from forther up the old run of the Tame. The leat would have run to the right to a water mill that was at the west end of Salford Pool before that was there.

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/m...7&sheetid=8340&zm=2&x=93&y=51&ox=2636&oy=2950
 
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