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Coalmen/coal yards

I remember going and collecting Coke from somewhere near Lawrence st
I suppose it was a gas works ?? I don't think it was Edwards st
does anyone know what street I might have got coke from
 
From your Reply Oldmohawk it appears that it was Windsor Street
were we collected the Coke in our home made box on wheels
but I don't remember any queue like the one in the photo
Thanks
 
dereklcg said:
hi ya, does anyone remember Higgins coal merchants they had an office in grt Lister st?and worked out of Rupert st / avenue rd depot?
another name that may be tied with them is a family call preedy?
in the stechford area we had a coalman they were based at a yard by the bulls head pub,called fenners we lived in the south yardley area after we moved due to to i hate the words slum clearance.
happy days regards dereklcg.
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Hi, yes I know about the Higgins, and preedy, do you want to know more?
 
But could also make people vulnerable if there was a real emergency. Putting all your eggs in one basket if some other country has a control of certain energy resources could be a bad move.

Maurice :cool:
 
My mom would insist on the coalman leaving the empty bags for her to count by the coal house. She would also tell the coalman up front, not to bring any slack.
 
Morturn said:
My mom would insist on the coalman leaving the empty bags for her to count by the coal house. She would also tell the coalman up front, not to bring any slack.
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talking about slack we must have had some because dad would go down the cellar and make up slack bricks

lyn
 
I think we were happy to get slack in the coal. Not sure why but thought it had something to do with it catching light more easily. Although I can only remember lighting slack was a very smoky process. Viv.
 
after the coal man had put the coal in the celler through the grate in the entry,dad checked it in case the bags were half full of slack and not all coal, he would then chain up,the grating to stop burglars getting in robbing the gas meter and getting in the house via the celler.
 
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i fetched coal from the gassworks for people pushing a homemade cart up and down nechells place hill for a few shillings. i suppose you could have called me a coalboy :grinning:
 
I remember going up Liverpool Street round past the bus station to the gasworks with Dad to get coke for the back room fire. We had a hatch in the pavement outside the house that we lifted to dump the coke into the cellar below.
Andrew.
 
Saturday morning job "up the cut" shovel the coal from the barge to the little truck with steel wheels for the buyer, wheel it to their home and tip it into the cellar then take the truck back and keep the 3d deposit they paid!! I wonder if there are any jobs still?
 
Apparently there was a coal shortage in 1954. Why was that ? I expect coalmen could only deliver a quota of coal during the shortage.

This is supposed to be of a Birmingham coal queue. Mostly women and children in the queue. Looks quite possible that it’s a Brum street. Someone may recognise it. Must have had to get there early if the yard closed at 10.00 (am ?) Viv.

E41CC7F9-87B2-4B96-92F3-7998C9B2319C.jpeg
 
Vivienne14 said:
Apparently there was a coal shortage in 1954. Why was that ? I expect coalmen could only deliver a quota of coal during the shortage.

This is supposed to be of a Birmingham coal queue. Mostly women and children in the queue. Looks quite possible that it’s a Brum street. Someone may recognise it. Must have had to get there early if the yard closed at 10.00 (am ?) Viv.

View attachment 169243 a Coal Merchants in Green Lane smallheath pete thinks
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Brummie a long time ago said:
I remember going up Liverpool Street round past the bus station to the gasworks with Dad to get coke for the back room fire. We had a hatch in the pavement outside the house that we lifted to dump the coke into the cellar below.
Andrew.
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Does anyone remember a coal man / yard on the corner of Templefield St Small Heath the name was Job (Jobe)
 
Just found the pic below in the family archives...lots of memories. Every month or so the coalman would arrive on his horse drawn cart stacked with one hundredweight (112 lb) sacks of coal. He would hand carry several sacks up to the side of the house and dump them into the ‘coal hole’, a small bunker located inside the house, under the stairs, but with access doors both inside and outside the building. He wore a heavy leather yoke to protect his back and neck while lugging the sacks around…. those blokes were TOUGH! When I was old enough to count, and if I was handy, Nan would station me next to the coal hole on delivery days, with instructions to count how many full sacks were delivered. In hindsight, I’m pretty sure she had been cheated in the past by unscrupulous delivery men who dumped less sacks than ordered or dumped short filled sacks. At the end of the delivery, and before paying (everything was COD back then), she would poke around in the coal to check the quality, and woe betide the coalman who'd brought ‘slack’ (coal crushed into tiny pieces which burned very fast) or ‘bats’ (rock hard pieces mixed in with the cobbles in the middle of the sack to boost its weight). She had a sharp tongue my Nan! Until I learned the coal delivery schedule and made sure I was somewhere else on the appointed day, my final chore was to take a bucket and shovel out to the street and collect any ‘deposits’ left by the horse during his visit. I then had to dump the malodorous bounty in the corner of the back yard, ready for Nan to spread over her flower beds and vegetable patch!

Coalman's Cart.jpg
 
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