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Chapman Road Small Heath

V

ValerieWhiles

proper brummie kid
Have you any photos of Small Heath? My grandfather had his butchers shop on the corner of Chapman road until it was bombed in 1940. It i think 353 Coventry Road. I'd reallly love to have a picture of it! I was born in Chapman Road and lived with my family there at no. 22 and then No 19. Any photos of this road, please?
 
Can anyone help Valerie please ? I’ve had a quick look through our Small Heath thread and a few others, but can’t see anything. Having said that I don’t know Small Heath, so some Small Heath photos already on the site may show the building.

Could we first confirm the number of the butcher’s shop on Coventry Road please ? Thanks.

Viv.
 
Yes. I can confirm that it was 353 Coventry Road. The name was Thomas G Whiles. Actually, his father Joseph Whiles, my great grandfather, had the tenancy of Blakesley Hall and my grandfather lived there as a child! I contacted Blakesley Hall some 15 years ago and had a conducted tour of the beautifully refurbished house with the Curator there. I was actually able to supply her with a photo of my great grandfather.
My grandfather had the shop (No 353) and house behind it on the corner of Chapman Road with Coventry Road from 1893 (about) to 1940 when the Luftwaffe bombed it. My father Rowland moved to 22 Chapman Road taking my then elderly grandfather with him. Later we moved to 19 Chapman Road, a better house!
I'd love to have a picture of any of these buildings... Thanks for the assistance and interest.
V
 
There is this aerial photo of part of Chapman Road taken three years (1937) before the Luftwaffe bombed it. Chapman Road runs from centre right to Coventry Road on the left.
ChapmanRoad1937.jpg
 
Many thanks for this! It's closer than I've ever reached before...! The aerial view is difficult for me to tie in with very old memories as I am not a spring chicken any more! I wasn't born in 1940...
When the shop was bombed in 1940, my father took his dad down Chapman Road and literally 'squatted' no 22! It had no door so he put one on it and rescued some of the less damaged furniture from the old house plus his pre-war cache of sugar and tea! He had to find somewhere that night for himself and his father to sleep. Ever resourceful, my Dad! He negotiated a rent with the landlord.
He then went to work at W Tays the butchers on the main Coventry Road. Some people may remember that shop?
 
This (unfortunately low res) aerial view taken in 1945 shows a cleared bomb site at the junction of Chapman Rd and Coventry Rd. It looks like several bombs landed in that small area with other cleared sites nearby.
1945ChapmanRd.jpg
 
Valerie’s account is interesting of how her family dealt with being bombed out of their home. I expect Small Heath was especially targeted because of the BSA. Viv.
 
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22 Chaman Road is the opposite end of the road from the Coventry Road.
1950s map red marker is on no 22. Green dot where 353m would have been.
1627299190422.png
 
Thank you for the map. You have pin-pointed the site of my Grandfather's shop very clearly. He was a very well known figure: he was well educated and played the piano wonderfully. He was also an immensely talented artist. He lived with us at 22 until he died when I was 3: I remember the whole area turned out for the funeral in 1945. The shop took a direct hit by the Luftwaffe and was entirely demolished. We were so near the BSA and Joseph Lucas and Guest Keen and Nettlefold.
 
The entry from Kelly's is so interesting. My Great Grandfather and my Great Great Grandfather were mentioned in Birmingham trade and business directories as running their business from 34 Congreve St from the early 1800s. I believe that one of my Great grandfather's businesses was a tavern which was actually on the site of Birmingham Art Gallery. I have a 'truck' piece fom it!
 
pjmburns said:
22 Chaman Road is the opposite end of the road from the Coventry Road.
1950s map red marker is on no 22. Green dot where 353m would have been.
View attachment 159571
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Thank you for this map. In fact the space next to no. 22 on your map was a bomb site. I remember it as a totally demolished area, probably the site of a couple of houses. There were heaps of brick and twisted metal and there were the remains of an air raid shelter - and we all played there, in those days before 'Health and safety' provisions existed!
This meant that the side of no.22 was flanked by a party wall not an original external wall. When I was about 9, the landlord must have been advised that this would not do! It would not have been, technically, a load bearing wall. So, I remember, builders putting up masses of scaffolding and taking down that flank wall to replace it with tarpaulins. Like living in a dolls house! It was, I recall, very uncomfortable - we couldn't have heavy furniture on the precariously supported upper floors so we slept on matteresses on the floor - no beds allowed! But, it was so exciting for two kids aged 9 and 7.
 
Hi Valerie. Would you remember the piano teacher who lived almost opposite you in Chapman road? I was a choir boy at St Aidens Church and when we finished practising we went over to her house and howled outside her window to show what we thought of the child playing as they were just learning, she would come out and tell us in a posh voice to clear off, this would have been about 1951, Did you go to Oakley Road school by any chance?. Regards Acklam19
 
So sorry Acklam 19 - ! I have been absent from this so interesting forum really as I was widowed very suddenly and it has taken me quite a while to deal with that.
We went as a family to St Aidens which was just across the road from 22 Chapman Road where we lived at the time. My grandparents, Thomas Green Whiles (1863 - 1945) and his wife Annie Maria Whiles (1874 - 1929) attended St Aidens every Sunday as did I with my parents and brother while Father Marlowe was the priest. However, it was technically 'High Anglican' so there were nuns and incense and lace on surplices which my mother really disliked, being 'Low Church'.

The real family church, for some 180 years was St Martins in the Bullring and we went there most of the time, as had many generations of my family . I was confirmed there by the Bishop of Birmingham in 1953 .
I actually had lessons from the piano teacher you mention! , Miss Osborne was elderly when I knew her in 1958. She was a lovely lady and a friend of my Grandfather who was a very fine classical pianist. Lessons were 2/6d an hour! I remember her as a real Edwardian lady in the best sense of the word.

I have an old Birmingham Post photo somewhere of Father Marlowe collecting for the Church with is barrel organ on Coventry Road with a scruffy little boy of 8 helping him. That was my brother, now 80! I'll try and find the photo which is pretty tatty and put it on here . It shows the priest with his barrel organ - and my little urchin of a brother!
Regards
Val Whiles
 
hi val firstly my sincere condolences on your recent sad loss..a difficult time for you...
i have been going through all of my photos and so far no luck in finding a photo of the butchers shop i have even gone through all the coventry road photos as very often they also show the corner side roads...i have asked a couple of contacts so dont give up just yet as one could turn up..

lyn
 
Lyn, this is the only aerial photograph of that area and is the same one as post #4. No. 353 would have been the second house from the corner.
 

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Hi Valerie. So sorry for your loss.

It is nice to have a name for that dear lady who we tormented it seemed good fun at the time she turned the tables on us the one time though by inviting us in for tea and cakes which being backstreet kids we soon gobbled down but on the way home some comedian said could have been poisoned that took the pleasure off it somewhat but at 85 I am still here. I have many happy memories of St Aidens and the club house at the back of the church which you got to by a pitch black side entrance very creepy. Regards Aclam19.
 
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