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Flower Sellers

  • Thread starter Thread starter peter (Pirate) Graham
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peter (Pirate) Graham

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The photo of the lady selling the flowers in corporation street is my aunt Kathy she was there for as long as i can remember her sister also sold flowers

Note photo was lost. See post #3 below.
 
Hi can anyone remember the flower sellers in the bullring i worked as a barraboy for Nelly Kelly selling flowers for years from about 1958 till 1965 winter and summer we were on the left hand side of the market looking from Jamaica row just up the slope.would love it if anyone had any pics they could post ,and thanks for the memory's
 
Peter

Heres a better photo of your Aunt Kathy for you album.

Phil

City Bull Ring Flower Girl .jpg


13.11.11. Sorry Peter i am not sure if this is the right photo that I am replacing as I have nothing to compare it to at the moment.
 
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Many thanks i have never seen this picture now i can show my kids thanks again.
 
terryb18 said:
Heres a few more

Terry
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Hi Terry don't know where you found these pics the young good looking guy on the flower stall in your first pic is myself i was about 11 or 12 then, many thanks for the memory,

Pete
"too old to die young"
 
Fashionz said:
I remember the flower seller, I always wished my mum would buy some. Later, when I got a job in Albert st. I would buy flowers for her from here.
Click to expand...

Well Terry you probably bought them off me i work on that stall from when i was about 9 till i was about 15 1/2 then started full time work .

Pete
"too old to die young"
 
Here are 2 slides that I think come from the marvellous Pyllis Nicklin collection, showing flower sellers in The Bull Ring in more or less at the same spot as the previous photo under the Ringway.

These were taken in 1959 not long before the closure of the Bull Ring for its modernisation.

Phil

City Bull Ring late 59[1].jpg

City Bull Ring Sep 1959.jpg
 
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Market gardening in the Bull Ring. Not sure of the date but looks about turn of the century. Interesting anchor hung on one stall. My guess it's a floral tribute of some sort. Wondered if it had anything to do with Nelson's statue in the Bull Ring. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1388398775.964192.jpg
 
Found another photo of the same market gardening spot but looking the other way. The anchor floral arrangement is a florist, but they not only sold flowers they would probably have made up arrangements too, such as special tributes for funerals etc. Quite skilled. Can't quite read the name of the florist between the two awnings. This photo is about 1910. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1388489093.593954.jpg
 
I love these recent photos Viv. Have been exploring them for hours. the participants would never have imagined the
First World War or its successors in the Second World War, let alone Korea, Vietnam or wherever. Looks as if the people there are looking into the camera and asking the future. Need i say more?
 
Great photos Viv, I love these old pictures. I tried to read the florists name a trade directory may throw some light on it. The man on the ironmongers photo does look like a postman carrying a sack of letters or parcels. You can study them for hours.
 
This is a photo of the same spot about 20-30 years later and the florist who made up tributes looks like he's still in business. You can see the tributes hanging on the awning. In the earlier photo with the two girls, one is holding a jug so maybe she worked on the florist's stall and was fetching water (from the ancient water fountain perhaps?). I think the man crouching must be the florist himself as he is doing something around the stall which has a pile of sphagnum moss piled on it (used to make wreath bases). Don't know what the other girl is holding. Another consistent feature is Boots' the Chemists in the background. And on the latest photo you can just make out Oswald Baileys. As they say, every picture tells a story. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1389299302.198080.jpg

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1389299322.707519.jpg
 
Here's another Phyllis Nicklin photo. This might be the one Phil refers to in post #4.
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And by way of contrast, a photo showing stall holders some 60 years earlier doing the same job, with pretty well the same equipment and quite possibly the same range of flowers. It wouldn't be until foreign imports arrived that the range of flowers available would expand dramatically. Viv.
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Vivienne14 said:
Here's another Phyllis Nicklin photo. This might be the one Phil refers to in post #4.
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And by way of contrast, a photo showing stall holders some 60 years earlier doing the same job, with pretty well the same equipment and quite possibly the same range of flowers. It wouldn't be until foreign imports arrived that the range of flowers available would expand dramatically. Viv.
View attachment 115703
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This same photo in post #10 you say you're unable to read the sign on the stall - It reads "R H WADE FLORIST" I hope this helps, regards, J.
 
Thanks Jonob. Think that particular florist was on that pitch for many many years. Probably a family business. Viv.
 
Flowers sellers at the turn of the century. (Images from the Shoothill site). The wooden crates used by many in the markets for display are popular again today. Viv.
 

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Market day 1901 and a street seller has penny packets of lavender for sale. Elderly ladies would frequently buy lavender. Maybe that's what the ladies to the right of the seller are doing. Viv.
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1940s/50s (?) flower sellers. Aaaah look the nice man has bought some flowers for his lovely wife! But sadly not from the two ladies. Viv.
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well viv
looking at the state of there bunches of flowers ,i don,t blame him
they look a like and dressed alike, i wonder if they was sisters wearing the same type of coats and head scarfs
there bunches loook like bunches of heather , his look like a bunch of Dafts or tulips ,
and in my eyes the tulips are a lovely flower
Iwonder what time of day or month it was and the year it was taken
Like most of us men when we are guilty of some think we always take floers home to our good ladies viv,
best wishes Astonian,,,,
 
They were probably gypsies selling them for "good luck" (or bad luck if you did not buy them). The bunches seem a lot bigger them than now - must be reducing the size, like chocolate bars
 
Hi Mike
To be honest that was my first thoughts and to put it along those lines but i better think different it case that words offends some one
so i put it as heather because every body in those days it was only gypsies whom used to sell heather as a good luck charm

I recall the story of my old mother when she was young living in new cannal street coffee shop
and she had her first child 18 months old whom died a gypsy came into the shop and asked her and her mom to buy some they told her to go and she replied a put a curse on you both if you do not but any way mom said she turned and said mumble jumble and went within three weeks her child john died he would have been my oldest brother still ,and ever since that day my mother when she
was alive alway bought some think of these people
but yes i was gonna say the excatact thing of what you have stated mike
best wishes Alan,, Astonian,,,,
 
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It was always said that you bought the luck not the flowers. As far as I can see it there was a lot of truth in that. A very nice lady, from a well known Romany family in mid Devon, visited the store each week where I worked at one time. I saw her every week for about fourteen years and from time to time after that when I was in the local town. She did possess a 'lucky' manner which I found on a couple of occasions to be 'right on the money'. I knew her by name but she would always call me Sir. I did not slavishly buy her flowers- she respected that - she knew a mug when she saw one ;) - and a pleasant business kind of friendship built up. I never met her husband but did meet her children, on occasion, when they were not not at school. She had an older sister -who did the pubs and one or two other places. I did meet the sister now and again but she did not poach territory. :D
 
Hi Alan
I am very please to hear and read your reply on this subject, regarding the Lucky bit
And of your comment about the older geration of romany that was firrst on the scene within the birmingham area

best wishes Astonian,,, Alan,,
 
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mikejee said:
They were probably gypsies selling them for "good luck" (or bad luck if you did not buy them). The bunches seem a lot bigger them than now - must be reducing the size, like chocolate bars
Click to expand...

I've upset one or two of those ladies in the past if they've asked if I'd like to '....buy some lucky heather' when I pointed out it was actually dried statice they had, not real heather!
 
Viv, I think the ladies in your post #21 are selling 'pussy willow'. I can remember Mom having some in a vase in the pre-fab. I also bought some the other day from M & S and blooming expensive it was too. It doesn't look like heather to me. It looks like one of the cooler months as everyone has their coat on - the man has his Fair-Isle slipover too. I bet that took some knitting!
 
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