• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Birchfield Road Perry Barr

Holy Trinity Church on the corner of Birchfield Road and Trinity Road. You could not see this view today because a large overpass has been built there. Looking at the shadows I would say the time was early afternoon.
Trinity.jpg
 
will be before winter viv...here is a pic of the area where i think the kiln is situated...must have been standing only feet away from it...i have emailed someone to try and find out if any photos were taken when it was excavated in 1959

ROMAN KILN PERRY BARR 002.JPG
 
Thanks Lyn. Interesting report. The kiln might not be something we'd recognise as a kiln even if there's any of it left. It might just look like rubble.

I've often wondered if additional sites around Perry Barr Village/Perry Village go that far back too given the rivulets, rivers and streams and its many mills scattered about. Some of the mills have a long history and perhaps these were sites of early furnaces ? All a bit speculative, but I imagine there's more than we think given the proximity to the Icknield Way.

The area was largely agricultural up until 80 years ago and I'd have loved to have had a poke around before all the estates were built. Viv.
 
so would i viv...yes i agree even if the kiln was still there it may not look as it was but i am hoping to get a reply back regarding any photos that were taken in 1959..surely there would have been..fingers crossed
 
just a final map showing where no 224 wellington road was (mentioned in the excavation report) also showing the spot where the roman kiln was found..looking at this map it looks as though no 224 is down a gully but if you look at the map on post 404 is shows that it either had a very long garden or it was a wooded area
 

Attachments

  • showing 224 wellington rod with roman kiln in red (1).jpg
    showing 224 wellington rod with roman kiln in red (1).jpg
    173.4 KB · Views: 41
In my childhood and youth I must have gone along Birchfield Road at least 3 or 4 times a week. When I bought my first car I often sat in traffic jams there just like in this photo which is from the Library of Birmingham's collection.
Their information with the photo is
Date:1958
Description:Birchfield Road, Perry Barr, looking south before the construction of the Birchfield Road Underpass in the early 1960s. At the top right-hand corner is the inn sign outside the Old Crown & Cushion.
Click to expand...

I cannot place where this is on Birchfield Road ... I can see the pub sign but the other side of the road does not look like it should do opposite the pub ... Brooks Opticians and a little shop named Cabin ... anyone got any ideas ?
PerryBarr.jpg
 
Me again ... pondering about my photo in post#418. I don't think it is Birchfield Road, I think it is Wellington Road and the two photos below appear to confirm this.

The photo from post#418. Note the litter bin on the pavement, a bus stop further along, the Atkinsons Pub sign, and the building beyond it with a light colour on its lower wall and darker above.
PerryBarr.jpg

I think the above photo has been taken from an upper floor window of the modern Crown and Cushion Pub (just visible in the photo below) looking down on Wellington Road.

A photo of Toys Chemist which was on the corner of Birchfield Road and Wellington Road. Note on the other side of the road is a litter bin, a bus stop, a pub sign and a building with a light and dark coloured wall.
ToysChemist1959.JPG
 
Last edited:
phil i agree with you...i did have my doubts about it being birchfield road but didnt like to say anything as i could not be sure...

lyn
 
Phil

Your photo #148 The first building on the left is Harry Brooks Opticians, the next is Gordon Motors 300 & 294 Wellington Rd .
 
A view of Birchfield Road looking north and a road roller turning into Aldridge Road is holding up some buses. On the right next to Wilkins Chemist is Crown Avenue ... which I first learnt about earlier in the thread ... I never even noticed it in the 1950s when I walked past.
1959SteamRoll.JPG
 
Guys, I think you may well be correct about that first photo being Wellington Road....I did say my memory is very vague. I do remember Toy's Chemist - in fact, I was going to ask what was on the corner of Birchfield Rd and Wellington Rd before the 'new'(?) C&C was built, but you've answered it for me.
I definitely remember having an eye-test at Brooks Opticians, and I do remember, slightly more vaguely, walking past the opticians and the car-lot with my Mom as we made our way to the station.
However, thinking about it, I would guess that Mom, who was a very, very cautious person, may well have crossed Birchfield Rd on the library side of the crossroads with Wellington Rd, then walked down Wellington Rd a short distance to where it was easier to cross. This was all nearly 65 years ago, don't forget. What I would say, though, is that the small pub on Birchfield Rd opposite today's C&C (for want of a better description) was definitely called The C&C at one time - my dad used it on Saturday lunch-times in the 1970's and I sometimes went to collect him and have a quick 'un myself. There again, memory does tend to play tricks with one....

Great thread, though. I love seeing old pics of 'my' area when I was a nipper - a good old working-class neighbourhood that was ripped apart.

G
 
Hi Lyn, there was no date with the photo but the No 6 Perry Barr tram route closed in 1949 so the photo must have been taken before that date.
Phil
 
Would we have a map showing whereabouts number 296 would be, although i believe it is now long gone.

thank you..
 
At the terminus on Birchfield Rd the trams stood in the middle of the road with traffic passing both sides. Some interesting things in this pic ... a Vee shaped object on the wire above the tram, a 'two tone' Bundy Clock, and what look like flags hanging on the pub. The tram conductress appears to be having a chat to the right of the clock and two women sitting on the tram's front balcony seat. Maybe a tram expert will know what the Vee shaped object is.
TramTerminusBirchfieldRd.jpg
 
Map attached shows 296 in red
 

Attachments

  • map c1950 showing 296 Birchfield Road.jpg
    map c1950 showing 296 Birchfield Road.jpg
    185.4 KB · Views: 29
Phil the land in Normandy road where the cricket match was being played is, on the later map, interestingly still green. How has that happened when so much land of inner cities has been used for housing?
The traffic jam on Birchfield Road shows only one half of the picture. We lived in Stoneleigh Road, which runs parallel to Birchfield Road, as I walked home from work at ICI I walked past a line of cars usually at a stand still. I regularly had a chat to my husbands cousin who sat in his 'Bubble' car on his way home to Sutton.
 
This photo is in the 'A few Trams for a Change' thread and shows two trams queuing to get to the terminus. The library can be seen and the Birchfield cinema and if we could see what film was on we could have dated the photo but it looks to be just after the end of WW2. I can see at least five buses in the view which gives some idea of the traffic jams in those far off days. (linked image only visible if logged in)
index.php
 
Last edited:
oldMohawk said:
At the terminus on Birchfield Rd the trams stood in the middle of the road with traffic passing both sides. Some interesting things in this pic ... a Vee shaped object on the wire above the tram, a 'two tone' Bundy Clock, and what look like flags hanging on the pub. The tram conductress appears to be having a chat to the right of the clock and two women sitting on the tram's front balcony seat. Maybe a tram expert will know what the Vee shaped object is.
View attachment 109663
Click to expand...
The angle piece over the wire is to hide the sparking when they run the current pickup pole round and engage with the power line, if you look it is inline with windows in pub.
The clue is the bundy clock the tram would be stopped at that point following it's journey from city it should have pulled up a bit further to locate . It was possibly installed during the war to prevent aircraft seeing the flash when changing direction at night
 
Thanks Ray, the tram is standing at the terminus and I remember the conductors/conductresses had to pull the collector pole down and walk round in traffic to get it back on the wire and I thought it might have been some sort of guidance system to save them having to fiddle with it at the same time as watching out for cars and bikes etc. I don't think it remained there long because I have never seen it in other pics.
oldmohawk ...:)
 
Photo in #430 is very definitely taken during WW2 or very soon after it ended as confirmed by the V canopy over the wiring, white bumper on the tram and the white painted base of the Bundy clock.

I would agree the photo in #433 is soon after the war ended as the BCT buses have the darker roofs introduced during the war but nothing seems to have blackout headlamps still fitted.

Two great photos.

Simon
 
The No 6 Perry Barr tram service ended in 1949 and 4 years later in March 1953 they were taking up the tracks.
TramTracksGoing.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top