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Broad Street/Easy Row

Re: broad st/easy row

Big Gee I remember Lyns thread on the new library site and recovering old blue bricks there was a good discussion on what was on the site and I believe there was a canal basin as remains had been found of an old lock so it would have been an industrial area as for the chimneys like yourself I cannot remember any.I also remember reading that this area was to have a regency type mews built similar to the one in Bath but was abandoned as to expensive sadly my memory does not stretch to saving great detail only snippets of information. Dek
 
Re: broad st/easy row

Those are two great links David. Thanks for that. So it looks like the chimneys were most likely to be connected to Winfield's Cambridge Works (and/or the Union Works?) who made brass bedsteads. The video on the first link is very interesting and a nice piece of recorded history. The Newton painting must have been painted just at the point the area was demolished. Thanks for posting the links.

Ell, your photos show how, yet again, the area has been re-invented. Crazy to think that some of these buildings are standing on the old canals!!! Thanks for posting. Viv.
 
Re: broad st/easy row

A couple of years ago I led a walk around some of the canals of Birmingham City Centre and I made the Hall of Memory the starting point as a landmark that most people would know. I started off by saying if you had been standing here 80/90 years ago you might have got your feet wet!
 
Re: broad st/easy row

Here is [part of a drawing made in the 1890s (from Norman Bartletts book on Broad St) of the area north of Broad st. there do seem to be 2 chimneys, though I;m not sure they were in exactly the same positions
Mike

from_c_1890_area_north__broad_st.jpg
 
Re: broad st/easy row

Photo by Feltip of the Library of Birmingham from Suffolk Street Queensway

 
Re: broad st/easy row

I've always felt that this area had an unfinished look about it when I worked at Alpha Tower in the 80's. Ell's photos seem to confim that they're still struggling to sort it out. Hopefully the new library and other facilities will help to do that. Mike's 1890s map in post 38 surprises me as it shows how heavily industrialised this area once was, so I imagine it would have been an incredibly busy, noisy area. It must have become pretty much a wasteland in the 1930s when demolition took place. Pre-conference centre days I do remember Bingley Hall and a pub nearby (possibly called the Cricketers?) but that's all I can recall of the older buildings in this area, and I expect in any case they were demolished when the Conference Centre was built.

However I have found a sketch of Winfield's Cambridge Street Works in 1887 (with 2 chimneys!!!). Viv


560791fc-4ddf-6f97.jpg
 
Re: broad st/easy row

all dated 1989..

pic 1site of the old bingley hall and the building of the convention centre

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I've often wondered what John Baskerville's House was like and where it actually stood (in exactly the same place as the modern BH?). I've now found a picture of the house which places the house in a meadow on Easy Hill. He also erected a windmill on the estate some time after 1745. The house was later made much more spacious and elegant by John Ryland but was attacked by rioters on 15 July 1791. This picture by P.H.Witton shows the ruins of the house. Not only did the rioters destroy the house, they also drank the contents of the cellar.

560791fc-548f-17a7.jpg


According to the British History online site (https://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=104) Baskerville's will left instructions that he should be buried in the 'conical building in my own premises heretofore used as a mill'. It's not clear for what purpose the mill had been used, but he may have made paper there. It's possible that he was probably only concerned with the finishing processes to provide a suitable surface for his type.

Viv
 
gf.jpegI have posted this advert here because the shop was on Easy Row.
 
I've often wondered what John Baskerville's House was like and where it actually stood (in exactly the same place as the modern BH?). I've now found a picture of the house which places the house in a meadow on Easy Hill. He also erected a windmill on the estate some time after 1745. The house was later made much more spacious and elegant by John Ryland but was attacked by rioters on 15 July 1791. This picture by P.H.Witton shows the ruins of the house. Not only did the rioters destroy the house, they also drank the contents of the cellar.

560791fc-548f-17a7.jpg


According to the British History online site (https://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=104) Baskerville's will left instructions that he should be buried in the 'conical building in my own premises heretofore used as a mill'. It's not clear for what purpose the mill had been used, but he may have made paper there. It's possible that he was probably only concerned with the finishing processes to provide a suitable surface for his type.

Viv
Has the windmill ever been discovered through archeology ?
 
Broad Street with Baskerville House has been 'Streets of Birmingham' which said as he was an atheist he wanted to be buried on his own property which now woud be underneath Baskerville house
 
Broad Street with Baskerville House has been 'Streets of Birmingham' which said as he was an atheist he wanted to be buried on his own property which now woud be underneath Baskerville house
He was buried at the back of Baskerville House, until the canal was built. He was then re-buried in Christ Church when it was demolished. His remains where then buried at Warstone Lane cemetery, and moved again to un-concecrated ground.
 
"...in a Conical Building in my own premises Hearetofore used as a mill which I have lately Raised Higher and painted and in a vault which I have prepared for It. This Doubtless to many may appear a Whim perhaps It is so—But it is a whim for many years Resolve'd upon, as I have a Hearty Contempt for all Superstition the Farce of a Consecrated Ground the Irish Barbarism of Sure and Certain Hopes &c I also consider Revelation as it is call'd Exclusive of the Scraps of Morality casually Intermixt with It to be the most Impudent Abuse of Common Sense which Ever was Invented to Befool Mankind." So to later re-inter him in a church was a bit against his wish.

In 1821 a canal was built through the land and his body was placed on show by the landowner until Baskerville's family and friends arranged to have it moved to the crypt of Christ Church, Birmingham. Christ Church was demolished in 1897 so his remains were then moved, with other bodies from the crypt, to consecrated catacombs at Warstone Lane Cemetery.

In 1963 a petition was presented to Bimingham City Council requesting that he be reburied in unconsecrated ground according to his wishes. (Where?)
 
may be was transfered to the other side of the road on the Ickneild street frontage of the entrace to the cremtorian
which is part of the key hill cemetry that was once there before demolishing of it
way back in his time, as it was known to be next to the big high wall that runs up the side of the railway lines from hockley station
looking into the cemetry by standing at the railing on ickneild street just as you are about to embark walking under the bridge
on foot of Ickneild street walking towards the mint
beyond them railings way back in those days they used to bury every one whom was an unknown member of any relatives
with no family ties and including people whom was classed as a pauper was buryied on that side of the cemetry
there was plots postionioned there with no markings or head stone markers
it was a very rough terrain no other graves was ever near that spot
until afew years later possible very early 1900 the made the paupers grave close to the entrance of key hill
but even them have gone all except two i think his left paupers graves which is dated late 1800 early 1900
they started to thin out the first part of key hill entrance and done away with the very eary graves of 1800
many years ago i went in search for a family member of tree which i found in a cabinet at the old libary
with the name and it was the only named logged under the index numers and stating it was a paupers grave
this was an 1800 listing grave where the postion was
but getting back on track if he was an athiest none beleiver and moved him around who,s to know he got cremated and ashes
buryed in with the building of such an iconic building what he built if you have not been in that building and seen the fantasic murials
on the wall i suggest you go in and see them,,,, Alan Astonian,,,,,,,
 
An engraving of an early occupant of Broad St, Nettlefolds (later to be incorporated into GKN). The later 1880s map shows its position, which must mean that the view is looking down Baskerville Place


Broad Street - Nettlefolds Ltd - Head Office - c1890.jpgmap 1880s showing Nettlefold's Screw Works.jpg
 
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