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Barrows Stores

R

ringoosmeg

New Member
Hi all,

Im hoping out there there are a few people remember this shop, Im doing a bit for my mother who worked at Barrows in the 50s and 60s.

Im trying to find anyone that worked with her or knew her her or had any recorlection of the shop.

Her name was Evelyn Leake, but married one of the drivers from Barrows garage, Domonic Grego.

It would be great too if anyone has any photos of the store, shes in her 70s now but often talks about her days there with affection.

My father, left the stores to work for Barrows Heating (Aga agent) and continued working for them until he passed away.

Thanks for any help you all may be able to give.

Regards.
 
My treat when young was to to be take to Barrows[es] and have a Rum Baba with my cup of tea. It is probably down to memory but I never again enjoyed a Rum Baba like the ones they did there. Not as good when they moved it in my opinion.
 
I worked on the Perry Barr Shopping centre ,not the one that's there now, but the one built around 1963/4 and there was a Barrows shop there when it opened.
 
My grandad was Alec Leake, but not that one, his real name was John Leake, but every one called him Alec, dont ask I dont know why...

They lived in Durham Road, Sparkhill,

Cheers

R
 
In the Birmingham Mail on Saturday 10th January 2009, there is a photo of Barrows in Bull Street taken in 1955. opposite McConville's a dress shop which I often frequented. Must confess my only memory of Barrows is the one which was in Corporation Street.
 
hi and welcome ringoosmeg.
i,m sure my sister sheila greaves worked at barrows stores,
does the name ring a bell?
regards dereklcg
 
Hi there,
I started work at Barrows straight from school in 1950 as a stores trainee and left in 1960 as assistant office manager.

At my age I am not very good at names but might remember your mom from the department she worked in.

See if she remembers me, name of Derek

Thanks
 
Hi All,
There are several bits and pieces that contributors to this post have picked up about Barrows but I think I can bring some of them together having worked there from 1950 to 1960 and was Assistant Office Manager when I left.

Barrows who were cousins to the Cadburys took over the business in 1824 and when Corporation street came in to being Barrows took the second site along from Bull Street, Dunnes Menswear had the first site, the corner position.

Well before I joined in 1950, the Bull Street site had become the back entrance for the Corporation Street Store, used by staff and for the delivery of goods. The sign above the entrance had not been removed as seen in the photo.

Oppsite this on the left of Bull Street was Dalton Street. McFisheries were on the corner and next entrance down was Barrow warehouse and Garage for the delivery vans. Orders were assembled on trolleys just as Tesco do now and delivered all over Birmingham.

The bakery was also here were those Rum ba ba and my favourite the pineapple cream were produced. the Sales and accounts office was here to.



Sorry to rave on and only hope some one out there finds it interesting.
There is lots more, how they acquired other shops and how this very High Class store finally came to terms with self service but, nuff said for now.
 
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Another lost street name - Bull Lane. Would be now somewhere under the Eastern extension of Colmore Row between Livery Street & Bull Street.

Possibly two lost names as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colmore_Row reckons it was called Monmouth Street from about 1746.

The picture shows I guess an early supermarket delivery fleet maybe c1900 which I am lead to believe was situate on Bull Lane (but can't be if it was then called Monmouth St) - it may be a matrix error.

I can't read the early part of the sign so if anyone can look up or knows about Barrow's, Bull St/Monmouth St and any additional pictures they would be welcome...
 
Barrows Stores in 1900, as well as being at Bull St, was at 74,76 and 78 Corporation St., which must be the photograph.
Bull lane seems to have existed from sometime between 1751 and 1778 to between 1808 and 1815.
Monmouth St seems to have existed from 1808-1815 to 1879, In 1880 it is part of Colmore Row.
Mike
 
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Barrows Store was originally a drapers shop opened by Richard Tapper Cadbury and passed to his son Benjamin Head Cadbury, in 1849, when they decided to expand further into the chocolate and cocoa manufacturing business, the shop was taken over by their nephew Richard Cadbury Barrow and became Barrows Stores.
https://www.bhamb14.co.uk/index_files/CADBURY.htm

Colin
 
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Thanks both.

Mike - do I understand that you think this is at 74-78 Corporation St or did they also have a Bull St site? Either way my thread title is wrong - is there anyway of me renaming it?

Cadbury connection is very interesting. Thanks Colin
 
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Aidan
Kellys gives the two sites 74-78 (74 and 78 can be read on the ends of the fascia in the picture) and also one at 93 Bull St . Im pretty sure the store is shown in blue on the c 1910 map, which shows that it is one shop, with entrances in both streets
Mike

map_c_1910_Barrows_stores.jpg
 
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That's brilliant Mike - thanks.

I hope there is a way to change the title of this thread to just "Barrow's Stores"
(Done)
 
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I remember Barrows Stores, but only just. It looked posh from the outside. They had, if I remember rightly, baskets of fruit in the windows, and possibly with a kind of sash or ribbon on the basket. The Cobden was demolished about 1958/9, and Taylor Woodrow put viewing platforms on the opposite side of Corporation Street with telephones so you could lift up the receiver and hear just where they had got to in terms of rebuilding. The platform would have been about where Barrows was (or there may have been two), so thinking on, Matineau Street etc, must have been demolished at about the same time. Where I lived there were only boys, so I had no-one to talk to or do anything with, so I used to take myself off into town and this was a favourite place for me, museum at the time came second, but I used to disappear into there once I had listed to what they were doing with bricks and mortar.

Shortie
 
Thanks Shortie - nice memories and that does give us a good date fix. Seems quite advanced for the builders to offer a telephonic update at that date, very interesting.
 
I guess it must have been very forward looking for the time, but I did not think about it. It was only a recorded message, but I suppose updated weekly. It probably seems an odd thing for a girl to do, but bricks and mortar have always interested me.

shortie
 
More shots of Barrows Stores...

Just by chance, from the deeds to my house in Church Rd, it would seem that in 1891 Frederick Welch Barrows, an Engineer from Oxford; and his brothers Joseph Barrows of Beacon House, Handsworth, a wine seller; and a Thomas Welch Barrows flogged the land on which our house was built in 1896. The plot backs on to what is now Barrows Lane (which was previously Smarts Hill). Anyone know if any of these are related to the same Barrows Store owners? I may be missing out on discounts here...
 
Very interesting Dennis - particularly for me, as I have used Church Road frequently. My gran used to live at 430 Brays Road, my granddad is buried at St Giles, and I used to live in Wensley Road. I have often wondered where Barrows Lane got its name, perhaps we are now about to find out. I shall be leaving this thread shortly, about to board a plane, but will be back in a week to follow up.

Shortie
 
Ha so Glasshopper. You noted this too. I have been frantically trying to find any reference to this Ringo Fu Man Chew bloke elsewhere. I certainly can't recall him...Phil, Phil, Heathcliffe....anybody!
 
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