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Birchfield Road Perry Barr

This 1959 Keith Berry photo must have been taken along Birchfield Road. I remember queueing to see a circus at, I think, Alexander stadium. We never got in to see it, either it was full or we gave up on the wait. It would have been around the time of this photo. Don't know if it was the circus company pictured in the photo as I was very young at the time. I wonder if mikejee could possibly look up the address of the Birchfield Hotel please? Be very grateful. Viv.


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hi viv another wonderful pic from you and i agree with dek it looks like holy trinity church in the background..i was christened there...

thanks viv
 
the first odeon in the country just prior to it being opened...dated 1935..that workman sitting on the top of the building is braver than i would have been...ive no head for heights lol

Image retrieved by Oldmohawk
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Hi Dek. It looks very like the church, but not too sure. The windows are slightly different. Also the alignment of the church is different and I don't think it would fit the position of the building in the photo, even if the photo had been taken on Trinity Road. See what you can make of these two pics. The first is the view on Trinity Road the other on Birchfield Road. Viv.


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Think they are the same church Viv. Looks like the one is taken from the Mosque side. Will be going past there sometime next week and will take a photo. Jean.
 
Thanks Jean. I've enlarged a section of the photo and I think the windows are sash windows. More like house windows but could be completely wrong! Viv.

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just found one of my kellys discs and the birchfield hotel was at nos 253 and 255 birchfield road quite a way from holy trinity church although not a million miles away as the vicarage is at no 213...so what we thought could have been the church was most likely another large house..

lyn
 
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That's great Lyn. The reason I'm interested is that my dad and aunt went to a school at 247 Birchfield Road (Queenswood School) in the 1930s. So the Birchfield Hotel must have been quite close, well probably just a few doors away. That's a great result for me, thanks. In fact mikejee posted a map on the Queenswood School thread, so I'll have a look as that will show roughly where the circus pic was taken. Viv.
 
brillient viv..well the numbering in 1962 was 245 city day nursery and then nothing until numbers 253/5 which was the hotel so maybe your dad and aunts school had been demolished by then..

lyn
 
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Thanks Lyn. Yes looks like a few of the houses disappeared even before the road changes. The lady that ran the school was Miss Hawkins and, my aunts friends were local children (Perry Barr, Aldridge Road, Walsall Road, Church Road). She went there in 1930, my dad went in 1926. She remembers Birchfield when it was a village. So I must ask her to tell me some more about it. Mikejee's 1938 map shows where the school was, he's marked it in pink, so the circus pic (post #76) would have been quite near. Just for info there was a vicarage alongsde the church, opposite Birchfield House. Viv.

Here's Mikejee's 1938 map (hope that's ok Mike) :

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thanks viv ive got my bearings now...how great that you have an aunt who can remember it as a village i shall look forward to hearing what she recalls of the place back then...

lyn
 
TOPSYTURVEY said:
1959
1959PERRYBARR.jpg
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Love that photo!

My mother worked at Wilkes, the little wool shop next door to Dodds when she left school and she used to take me in to visit the ladies who ran it when I was a child.

Re the circus photos, it definitely looks like the Trinity Road end of Birchfield Road.
I used to go to ballet classes in one of the big Victorian houses up there - they were beautiful places.
 
Hi A Sparks. Wool shops were a regular feature of shopping parades in the 1950s weren't they? I loved the places and still do (when you can find one these days). There always seemed to be a sense calm inside them. Nothing was rushed - like the process of knitting - and there were always things in there to fascinate a child, from the little stitch counters that fitted on the end of knitting needles to the masses of knitting patterns promising the latest fashion cardigans and sweaters. I had lots of knitted cardigans, my mum loved knitting, many of which were quite complex. I couldn't produce anything like it. I went to school with a girl whose mum was also a gifted knitter. She often wore a plain knitted skirt, it was very full and weighty and swirled as she walked. All hand produced.

Looking at Mikejees map in post #90 of Birchfield Road made me wonder if the rectory is still there. On streetview this is the side of the church on Birchfield Road. I think the Rectory is still there - what an impressive home it must have been. If it is the place, looks like it has another purpose now.


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A Tower in Perry Barr.
Three pictures of Birchfield Rd Perry Barr, the early pictures show a pointed tower on the building on the corner of Aston Lane. The tower was later removed from the building ? The Birchfield cinema which opened in 1913 can be seen in the lower right picture.

1900-1920
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1905 ca.
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1920 ca.
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Viv my oldest daughter was Christened at Holy Trinity and we had to go to the Rectory to make the arrangements. We went in the room to the right of the red door, I think it was the vicars study. It was very much like something you would see in a Poirot program. I'm not sure if its still the vicars house because this was 40 years ago.
Lynne.
 
lynne i am going to visit our dad tomorrow i must ask him if he can remember if he and mom had to also go to the vicarage to arrange my christening at the church..i am quite chuffed that this church is still standing as we have lost so many...

lyn
 
3 more wonderful pics topsy..i shall study them more later on but those cottages look interesting..i wonder where the exact location was...

thanks topsy

lyn
 
Hi Lynne and Lyn ( ! ) That's lovely that you've both got connections to Holy Trinity. And how nice that the vicarage is still there. There's a side window to the house which might have been for the vicar to view his church (from his study perhaps?)

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The property still appears to belong to the church too.

Oldmohawk I too am baffled by the tower. Wonder if it was removed for safety reasons, or damaged?

Topsy. What great photos! Are the two 60s ones looking towards the station? The photo of the cottages is superb. Do you know roughly where these were by any chance?

Viv
 
Vivien , Yes the 1959 pics look towards wallsall rd.......The caption for the cottages.......1897

Cottages in Birchfield Road, Handsworth, near the Crown & Cushion, December 1897. A board on the wall in the centre advertises 'Freehold land to be
 
Great pics Topsy, all the buildings are still there except for Birchfield Road School.
Thanks for posting.
Lynne.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Oldmohawk I too am baffled by the tower. Wonder if it was removed for safety reasons, or damaged?
Viv
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Hi Viv - I usually look at these old photos and simply enjoy the 'view' and look at the people in them but that 'tower' puzzled me, and because it is very old I have no idea what shop or business was there. After looking at many other photos I think the 'tower' is probably a Corbelled Turret. The image below shows a rather prettier and more useful example on the 'Old Royal' below, at least it's got windows and is somewhere in Birmingham. Perhaps Corbelled turrets were an architectural fashion in those days and maybe some other Birmingham buildings had them.
oldmohawk
Example of Corbelled Turret

 
Hi Oldmohawk. Just love to find out what happened to the turret. There must be a story about it somewhere, it's not the sort of thing that would disappear unnoticed. Wonder if there's a newspaper report about it? Viv.
 
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