• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Harborne

  • Thread starter Thread starter mike-g
  • Start date Start date
Well lets hope one of the Directory or other Experts are watching this thread and can suggest what the current Weekin Works factory on Park Hill Road Harborne used to be, as the architecture certainly looks victorian or poss Edwardian.

Swivelling the Streetview Image to the left gives a lovely shot of the Harborne Railway bridge - a fave landmark
 
Well apparently it was a laundry at one point,1890s and then it was part of the Chad Valley,rom the 50s ,I couldn't see a link oh and now its apartments
i just googled weekins works sorry its not apartments its a business park
 
Last edited by a moderator:
AH - thanks again Mike & Elizabeth - its always been a source of confusion to anyone I've asked that lived in the area and you've cleared it up in one fell swoop!

Playing around on Streetview - here is another fave landmark - the Fireman's head outside Harborne Firestation in Rose Road, a source of fascination when I was a kid although he seems to have weathered a lot since then
 
Last edited by a moderator:
More Streetviews - the beautifully ornate Victorian cast-iron vespasienne on the High Street. The French always have a word for it don't they? I believe the derivation is because Emperor Vespasian made a tax on it.

I don't suppose the history is written yet for this or how it came to be there but I don't remember seeing a similar in any other Birmingham village (but maybe the necessity wasn't there). I love the typically Victorian flourish inc the Grecian Key pattern around the top rail and the outrageous pommel.
 
I think it was the cause of a certain lack of urge when a double-decker pulled up to the stop that used to be directly outside! Thankfully they seem to have moved the stop a little further down the road now
 
Albany road harbourne was formely known as green rd [ named changed in 1883 ]

Emerson rd harbourne was formerly known as highfield rd [ named changed in 1897 ]

have a nice day every body best to you all Astonian ;;;;;
 
Just out of curiosity, does anyone have any info on the Gooseberry Growers Society and their members or exploits, especially connected with The Green Man? I wonder if "Bobby" went to a good home?

Astonian - were these name changes connected with the building of the Houses and School on those roads as the architecture (to my untrained eye) would seem to fit eg Emerson Rd and Albany Rd
 
hi aidan
yes there is a familar archictec to them and they go back decades from the land owners
whom owned hem even today its was the calthorpe family whom now is a big organisation of a trust
they virtualy own every think in the south side of the city and virtualy all up the bristol rd
one half was the cadbury family and across the centre is the calthorpes family
they worked liked the cadbury trust at one time in there reign of power they ran the justice system in birmingham along with the calthorpe family and there bounville trust housing you could not paint your front door a different colour of paint if you wanted to do you would havehad to get permission but it was not granted by them
even today the calthorpe trust you have have to get permission to do any altraations to your property
even the bristol court hotel could not repair there balcanys unless its the same material
and its these people whom was partly to blame for the rd changing ;there rules at the calthorpe trust still in excistance that i do know as i do know alot of the wiggs involved with them and at one time i was on the harborne
committee ; years ago
best wishes Astonian ;;;
 
Thanks Astonian - I believe that Calthorpe refused any Pubs on their land, hence the dearth of pubs between Harborne and Hagley Road with the notable exception of "The Dirty Duck"
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Elizabeth Redmond said:
Hi there are a few things on the old hospital site from what i've been told a care home,health centre,there's a few photos on the thread,just seen the church i got married in on the link,
Click to expand...

Hi Liz, The Medical Centre is on the site of allotments, the care homes are on the hospital site, and the Mormon church is next to that where there were 2 or 3 big houses, and then the swimming baths. Hope this helps.
 
Elizabeth Redmond said:
View attachment 50792I thought i had put this on its in my album,can't remember the name even though i went in there most days
Click to expand...

Hi Liz, The shop was mainly a proper tobacconist who also sold sweets, and I think was called "Maughans". I remember the chap behind the counter always wore a short grey working over-jacket made of nylon, and always smoked a little cigar!
 
Thank you,they had a few small toys in there i remember,because my niece loved going in there,ever hopeful she would be treated to more than a bag of sweets,
 
Just a small cutting on when the weathercock on Harborne church was repaired and reguilded in 1970
Mike

harborne_cock.jpg
 
I bought "The Harborne Pub Song" Christmas single in 1982 but no longer have a record player to play it on. It name checked every pub on Harborne High Street (I think) to the tune of twinkle-twinkle if I remember right. I remember one line "...and the little White Horse" which always made me smile when I clicked on the beautiful arts & crafts latch of the bar. The band was Malfunction which seemed to have been based in the Kings Arms.


Apparently the single itself is "rare" now - is Redington's Rare Records still going....
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Never heard that before Aidan,although i frequented all those pubs,70s/80s,i found it amusing in the 90s when the youngsters i know
Christened it the Harborne Run as if it was some new thing they had discovered:)
 
Indeed, the song dates itself as two of the pubs have sadly gone now... Still enough for a good night though :sick:
 
I didn't realise that Harborne had its very own dear Workhouse.

From what I can see, it was on the corner of Lordswood Road and Gillhurst Road, likely opposite The Old House at Home. I think it may be the reason why the current row of houses there are set back from the Road. The reference I is suggested that it later became a manufactory for washing-powder and that there was also overspill accommodation at the Pass House at the top of Moor Pool Lane.

Strange, I thought, Moor Pool Lane is nowhere near. However, the Harborne Society suggest that Moorpool Lane did indeed meet up with Gillhurst Road at the junction with Upper Ravenhurst - but where was that. My thoughts are that if you follow the line from the current Moorpool Avenue then it is likely that it formed the part of Oakham Road where it bends at an odd angle and that Upper Ravenhurst is probably the current Ellesborough Road, the Pass House being on that junction.

The trusty https://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?KingsNorton/KingsNorton.shtml doesn't on this occasion add much apart from that the Workhouse continued in operation for some time after the 1836 Kings Norton Union Workhouse opened (now Selly Oak Hospital) and that few records survived.

Big ask I know, but does anyone have any info on the Harborne Workhouse or know of its representation in any sketches, paintings, tokens, documents etc?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Aidan
Below is a picture of what is stated was the old workhouse for Harborne & Smethwick. It was apparently built half way between Smethwick & Harborne village. Smethwick would have had the most people, but Harborne presumably was the administrative head. If this is the building , then I think some alterations were made to it since it was the workhouse. It is stated that it was afterwards called High Harborne, and has since been demolished. Apparently it was governed by Joseph Tallis, who also kept The Maypole pub till his death in 1833, after which it was run by his wife Sarah
Mike

Old_Workhouse2C_Harborne.jpg
 
Wow - that is a rare find Mike, thank you, perhaps the alterations were when it became a Manufactory?

Google maps tell me that from there it is 2 miles to the centre of Smethwick and about 1 mile to St Peter's Church, the old centre of Harborne - and all in a straight line - or 1.5 miles to the furthest end of the High St.

Would the Workhouse, Washing-Powder Manufactory or "High Harborne" be mentioned in any directories of the time?

Also I'd like to prove/disprove my theories about the Junction of Upper Ravenhurst and Moor Pool Lane meeting with Gillhurst Road - are there any early C19th maps that you know of. I think Harborne was Staffordshire at that point.
 
No Aidan, that is all I have. the directories for areas outside Brum are a bit sparce. No mention of High Harborne on the 1890 map. there are afew buildings around there, but nothing named anything of use. There is no washing powder manufacturer trades section in the directories, but the soap powder section shows nothing nearer than the centre of smethwick.
 
Mike - thanks for checking. I have had some success and found a sketch map dated 1834 put out by Harborne Library in 1978 referencing "Harborne and it's surroundings" by James Kenward 1885.

It shows the Workhouse position as above on corner of Gillhurst and Lordwood Rd (opposite the actual Lords Wood and a place call the Burned Heath - sounds like something from Judge Dredd!)

I think my assumption about Moor Pool Lane above is incorrect and I was assuming it was Moor Pool Avenue. According to this map Moor Pool Lane must have been Ravenhurst Road
 
Aidan
That means it must be the red building on the 1901 OS map. The furthest I can go back on a street directory (although in that year houses are not numbered) is 1883. Then it must be a private house in the occupation of Arthur Illiff, who doesn’t appear in the commercial pages. In 1880 (before which Harborne is just listed as a suburb , with no street directory, and no numbering) , Arthur Iliffe is not listed, and there seem to be no commercial properties in Lords Wood Road other than pubs and a coal merchant. Similar results show in earlier years.
Mike

site_of_workhouse_map_c_1901.jpg
 
Mike - thanks for this map and your invaluable help here. The map's great. Massive building for the surrounds.

Sorry to trouble you for more - but I am intrigued by this Moor Pool Lane - where did it meet with Gillhust Lane/Rd and where did it meet Harborne High St. As the 1901 OS is earlier than Harborne Tenants I am hoping it may clear up the mystery..
 
It doesn't Aidan, in fact it doesn't seem to exist. Gillhurst lane meets Ravenhurst road about where it does now. Ravenhurst road goes down to meet Wentworth avenue, and, apart from a little spurt north from the junction of ravenhurst. rd and gillhurst lane, there are no other roads in the area.
mike
 
Last edited:
The poet W H Auden lived on Lordswood Road, i believe before World war two, and just before he left for America.
 
Neville - surprising but correct. He lived at 42 Lordswood Road, I guess where the LDS centre now is (previously Harborne Maternity). There is a blue Plaque on Harborne Swimming Baths "BIRMINGHAM CIVIC SOCIETY, W.H. AUDEN, POET, LIVED IN AN ADJACENT HOUSE, 1919-1939"

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
W.H Auden 1936



Remarkably next door to him in Harborne House was the Pinsent family, descended from David Hume.

Ellen Pinsent became the first woman to be elected to Birmingham City Council and famous for her work on conditions for the mentally impaired (fighting off Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain who both supported the views of the Eugenics lobby - a fact I find surprising.

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) visited this house several times. He was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in the areas of logic, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language. While there he had typed (in Paradise Street) what would become his seminal work "Notes on Logic" . Described by his mentor and colleague Bertrand Russell as "the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived, passionate, profound, intense, and dominating," Wittgenstein is considered by many to be the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. Instrumental in inspiring two of the century's principal philosophical movements, logical positivism and ordinary language philosophy, he is considered one of the most important figures in analytic philosophy. [serial (but perhaps non-cereal) sandwich eater apparently

More detail of all three in Harborne and Birmingham at at https://mikeinmono.blogspot.com/2009/08/that-sprawling-ink-blot.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top