I have wondered about the location of Cadbury's in Crooked Lane for a while. We know that the first factory was there but the exact location has eluded us I think...unless I have missed a post or two. Anyway, I was looking through saved photo's and artwork and would like to put forward the following location as a distinct possibility.
The first photo is one of Crooked lane looking up to the junction with Little Cherry St and Union Passage (not Street). The second one is trimmed and sharpened a bit. The third one is artwork with a defined sketch of the building.
I think that the building shown at the junction of Crooked Lane and Little Cherry is the one. Number of stories is right..number of windows is right (allowing for a higher ceiling on the ground floor). The loading hatches can not be defined well but the ledges on the closest openings are lower which may indicate hatches. Surely this has to be the place. How many buildings could match the openings and floor numbers in that relatively small location. The bend in the artwork lane is consistant with the photo.
This building is said in the link to have been demolished for a railway in 1847 which would have made a photo impossible, but we know that the railway did not occur and the Corporation St. and Martineau St developments did not happen till much later. Meaning that the building would have survived till later and making the photo easily possible.
The workmen could well have gone for a lunchtime pint at The Crown just around the corner and up Little Cherry St. past the Meeting House on the left. Cadbury's would have moved well before the photo was taken. The last two pictures (see next post) are pre war I think and fifties also showing the exact corner (at the immediate left of the first picture) of Little Cherry and Crooked lane and looking down towards Martineau St. and Dale End. The ladies are walking down Crooked Lane to the latter day exit in Martineau St, past the workings of Goering et.al. Actually a shot from the same location as the first two.
https://www.bhamb14.co.uk/index_files/CADBURY.htm
The first photo is one of Crooked lane looking up to the junction with Little Cherry St and Union Passage (not Street). The second one is trimmed and sharpened a bit. The third one is artwork with a defined sketch of the building.
I think that the building shown at the junction of Crooked Lane and Little Cherry is the one. Number of stories is right..number of windows is right (allowing for a higher ceiling on the ground floor). The loading hatches can not be defined well but the ledges on the closest openings are lower which may indicate hatches. Surely this has to be the place. How many buildings could match the openings and floor numbers in that relatively small location. The bend in the artwork lane is consistant with the photo.
This building is said in the link to have been demolished for a railway in 1847 which would have made a photo impossible, but we know that the railway did not occur and the Corporation St. and Martineau St developments did not happen till much later. Meaning that the building would have survived till later and making the photo easily possible.
The workmen could well have gone for a lunchtime pint at The Crown just around the corner and up Little Cherry St. past the Meeting House on the left. Cadbury's would have moved well before the photo was taken. The last two pictures (see next post) are pre war I think and fifties also showing the exact corner (at the immediate left of the first picture) of Little Cherry and Crooked lane and looking down towards Martineau St. and Dale End. The ladies are walking down Crooked Lane to the latter day exit in Martineau St, past the workings of Goering et.al. Actually a shot from the same location as the first two.
https://www.bhamb14.co.uk/index_files/CADBURY.htm