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Birmingham City Hospital officially closed Nov 2024

it was demolished sept 2017

The Fire Incident
Before the building was torn down, trespassers entered the empty structure (which had briefly functioned as a specialized care facility until its closure in 2016). A chair located in the former staff building was deliberately set on fire, causing subsequent fire and smoke damage that spread to other parts of the historic building and required emergency fire-fighting intervention. [1]
 
maybe zero could read post 126 and let us know that the main archway and 2 flanking archways are not in storage..as far as i recall the whole lot was demolished very furtively

lyn
I posted the photo's in my earlier post. This was the last I saw of the archway. Don't know what happened to them when the demolition teams came in. The site was completely locked off to everyone but the contractors.
 

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These are the bells. They were kept in storage. The quality of the photo's won't be as good as all the others. They were taken with my works phone.
I'm not sure where the bells are now, I'll try and find out Monday.
 

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Re. Post 5. The leather sorting house chair with the 1831 carving must relate to and reflect changes introduced by the Poor Law Act (1831) which extended the powers of the Guardians. See attachment below.

A "sorting chair" or intake seat was a place where officials or guardians evaluated, registered, and processed newly arrived paupers or inmates. It was obviously designed to give the impression of power.
Screenshot_20261009_213552_Chrome.jpg
 
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once again fantastic photos zero...it seems as though quite a few very important artifacts were saved which is great to know...the bell is most important and if you could find out where its stored that would be great as viv has said given its date of 1831 it was most likely at the lichfield st workhouse and then moved to western road...what would be even better is to find out if there are any plans for the artifacts to be displayed somewhere where the public can see them..thanks again zero this is turning into a very interesting thread

lyn
 
Yes, Lyn, in my post #161, I presumed the bell was moved from Lichfield Street to Western Road. Maybe someone can confirm it was at one time on the Western Road site.

I notice there's a yellow 'Museum Archive' notice alongside the bell. Does this give us a clue as to where it's stored ? The Dollman Stores, perhaps ? And was it moved into storage in the 1990s when the workhouse buildings were demolished (excepting the Archway of Tears) ?

With further searching, found this below, and it seems to be an artifact of BMAG. Could it be/have been in Bham Museum and Art Gallery ? The date on this bell is clearly 1851 so it must have been cast for the Western Road workhouse. The yellow labelling of the bell in post #158 is dated 1831. Taking a closer look at the photo of the bell in post #158 think the bell is actually stamped 1851. So don't know why the yellow label suggests otherwise. Must be an error, as it's easy to mistake the '51' for '31'.

Screenshot_20261010_051237_Chrome.jpg
 
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Yes, Lyn, in my post #161, I presumed the bell was moved from Lichfield Street to Western Road. Maybe someone can confirm it was at one time on the Western Road site.

I notice there's a yellow 'Museum Archive' notice alongside the bell. Does this give us a clue as to where it's stored ? The Dollman Stores, perhaps ? And was it moved into storage in the 1990s when the workhouse buildings were demolished (excepting the Archway of Tears) ?

With further searching, found this below, and it seems to be an artifact of BMAG. Could it be/have been in Bham Museum and Art Gallery ? The date on this bell is clearly 1851 so it must have been cast for the Western Road workhouse. The yellow labelling of the bell in post #158 is dated 1831. Taking a closer look at the photo of the bell in post #158 think the bell is actually stamped 1851. So don't know why the yellow label suggests otherwise. Must be an error, as it's easy to mistake the '51' for '31'.

View attachment 231197
hi viv i did wonder if the date on the bell was 1851 not 1831 but didnt like to say as you say it could have been either...i am sure zero will be able to confirm it came from western road workhouse..

lyn
 
Why would there be 2 bells?
The inscription on the bell in the 2 photos seems to be in differnet places.
 
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Yes that's correct Janice ! The style of bell is different. It has a different hanging mechanism and different decoration and banding.

And the other bell in post is a school bell, and is possibly plain all over, with a single hanging mechanism. 20261010_085909.jpg
Screenshot_20261010_090417_Samsung Browser.jpg
 
I did indeed think they were the same Janice ! So thanks. The bell with the 4 arm hanging mechanism could be 1831 - the figure on the bell is debatable from the angle of the photos.

Now with my glasses on (!) the school house bell might have been from here (orange dot). Schooling was provided for around 600 children.


Screenshot_20261010_090944_Chrome.jpg
 
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And I notice C&G Mears of London aren't named as submitting one of the seven tenders for the 1851 bell casting in the newspaper extract in post #169. A Mr J Talbot won the contract and was the cheapest.
 
Re the C&G (Charles and George) Mears bell - it must have been from the Whitechapel Foundry. (Famous for the Big Ben bell recasting). Charles and George took over the Foundry in 1844, (according to Grace's Guide) so the date on the bell probably wasn't 1831(unless their father Thomas who had the Foundry from at least 1810, named his Foundry for his sons born 1816 and 1820 - unlikely?).
 
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Yes - I did wonder if he was simply quoting a price for a Foundry. All the named seemed to be individuals - need to do a bit more investigating.
Going gardening on Windermere Fields now so back on the case later
 
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