i thought this may interest some of you who may not have read this story..especially those who like me have connection to ladywood...
an innocent looking shop front in ladywood hid a secret which shocked victorian birmingham and the whole country..behind the front windows of the paint and wallpaper shop in ledsam street was a clandesine explosives factory with enough dynamite stockpiled to devastate a wide area and kill large numbers of people..the shop was run by american alfred whitehead although the press produced a host of other colourful characters who were said to be implicated in the plot with him...the police received a tip off and in april 1883 they raided the shop and found 14 carboys of nitrogen glycerine in the the kitchen where whiteheads manufacturing operations were based..it was not just the murderous intentions of the plotters that shocked people but the possibility that a simple mistake by whitehead during the manufacturing process could have spelt doom for half of ladywood...what the plotters motives were was unclear..the press referred to them as nihilists or anarchists...in todays terms they were international terrorists....the shop where whiteheads bomb factory was based still existed in the 60s when it was a general store...now demolished...
lyn
an innocent looking shop front in ladywood hid a secret which shocked victorian birmingham and the whole country..behind the front windows of the paint and wallpaper shop in ledsam street was a clandesine explosives factory with enough dynamite stockpiled to devastate a wide area and kill large numbers of people..the shop was run by american alfred whitehead although the press produced a host of other colourful characters who were said to be implicated in the plot with him...the police received a tip off and in april 1883 they raided the shop and found 14 carboys of nitrogen glycerine in the the kitchen where whiteheads manufacturing operations were based..it was not just the murderous intentions of the plotters that shocked people but the possibility that a simple mistake by whitehead during the manufacturing process could have spelt doom for half of ladywood...what the plotters motives were was unclear..the press referred to them as nihilists or anarchists...in todays terms they were international terrorists....the shop where whiteheads bomb factory was based still existed in the 60s when it was a general store...now demolished...
lyn
Attachments
Last edited by a moderator: