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Furnace lane..
- Thread starter Astoness
- Start date
TOPSYTURVEY
brum
Gt pics again Lyn. #2 #5 It,s hard to imagine how many familys lived where the pile of rubble lies.
morning topsy..looks like demolision was under way then...furnace lane has long since fascinated me made more so because the old aston furnace still lies beneath it where what locally know as the yellow park area is now...also our mom and dad did a lot of their courting there lol
lyn
lyn
TOPSYTURVEY
brum
I hadn,t realised that Lyn.... Do you know up until recent years i didn,t even consider where Furnace Lane and a lot of other names originated from.
yes topsy its smack bang under the little park area...i wrote to time team about 3 years back suggesting it as a possable venue for dig but to no avail im afaid...i believe it could be that a lot of the funace lies intact including a bellis morcam engine ..which is great news but would dearly love to see it uncovered..
lyn
lyn
There is a huge section on here about Aston Furnace under the thread title Aston Furnace...including a picture/maybe early photo of the wire mill/paper mill that replaced the iron smelter; taken from the top of the cinder/slag pile before the school was there. Hockley Brook was open then and the flood plain was not built upon. The furnace leat would still have been there but not used anymore.
Here is a link to the picture from the top of the slag heap. The factory is at the corner of Kensington and Porchester...neither very much there then. The trees show the run of the brook and the leat would be to the right of the house. You can't see Furnace lane down below the slag heap. This would not be the older furnace this being a later wire mill probably and the older building would have been a little further back possibly. Maybe the remains of the tailrace route can be seen though...between the house and the factory and I think Guildford can be seen in the background with three story buildings on it. They must have had a bridge over the leat back then.
https://www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/kids/aston/park/astonarea/furnace.htm
Unfortunately the picture does not seem to be as sharp as it once was but if you zoom in you can make out most of it. I think your street was yet to be built and most of the slag pile was to go under Alma and Inkerman. The slag pile is what Pye saw on his journey to Wallsall I think and until I read that travel story I thought that the picture was torn and wondered where the vantage point could have been. The mound was huge seemingly.
I thought that the picture was a touched up early photograph but note that 1848 was possibly about the earlyest that this could have been. Anyway maybe the date of the picture is a bit later or maybe it is indeed a rudimentary photo. There is a similar such picture of Nechells Place on here also with actual people on it. This also is the same vintage.
https://www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/kids/aston/park/astonarea/furnace.htm
Unfortunately the picture does not seem to be as sharp as it once was but if you zoom in you can make out most of it. I think your street was yet to be built and most of the slag pile was to go under Alma and Inkerman. The slag pile is what Pye saw on his journey to Wallsall I think and until I read that travel story I thought that the picture was torn and wondered where the vantage point could have been. The mound was huge seemingly.
I thought that the picture was a touched up early photograph but note that 1848 was possibly about the earlyest that this could have been. Anyway maybe the date of the picture is a bit later or maybe it is indeed a rudimentary photo. There is a similar such picture of Nechells Place on here also with actual people on it. This also is the same vintage.
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Ray Griffiths
master brummie
These pictures are super and unrepeatable now. The kids playing on the brickpile reminds me of my own childhood...playing on the bombed buildings during the war. Still this tme there would be no body parts. I suppose that there would still be an outcry about all of this at the time but it was 'long gone time' for something better. From what I hear though you only got something new.
Some of the houses still appeared to be lived in at the time of the demolition and the same style lampost appears from time to time.
Some of the houses still appeared to be lived in at the time of the demolition and the same style lampost appears from time to time.
TOPSYTURVEY
brum
What fantastic pictures Rupert !!
W
Wendy
Guest
Amazing pictures Ray all the better for being in colour.
S
Stitcher
Guest
The back walls(shown) of these 19th century engineers workshops follow the line of the old Furnace Lane.
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The just posted photo is taken from Furnace Lane itself from about the rear of Alma Street School I think. The earlier colour photo of demolition shows the same sheds from a different angle on Porchester. Good Photo not seen before. The back yards of some of the houses on Porchester, backing on to Furnace Lane, must have had trees.
hi folks ive been talking to marg fry who lived in furnace lane in the 50s and has spent over 10 years researching...she lived in a house once used as a school in the middle part of furnace lane that ran from clifford st to gerrard st and she has 2 drawings of the house circa 1800 when it stood in it own grounds so tomorrow i am going to collect the drawings from her and i will scan and post on this thread...cant wait to see them and many thanks marg its very kind of you to share the drawings with us all..
lyn
lyn
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TOPSYTURVEY
brum
Look forward to seeing them Lyn.
right folks many thank to marg fry who was born there for providing these drawings etc...here are 2 of what was guildford house..the address on the 1861 census was guildford house gerrard st and at that time was a school house...by 1881 it had become no 7 furnace lane...by the time marg was born there the house had been split into 3 seperate dwellings...this is all margs own research i am only posting it for her thanks again for sharing marg..
i have asked for mikejees help on this as we are trying to find out when guildford house was built...so far mike cant find it before 1833 but is doing some more research...thank you mike..
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1889 map...gerrard st running across the top clifford st running along the bottom..william st to the right and guildford st is to the left...guildford house is high lighted in black(which looking at it now i should have used a brighter colour) and the marg lived in the section marked with a cross...
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