Before he died in 1963 my father worked for a Heating and Ventilation company called How. Would this be the same company? He was the accounts thereThere used to be a building services company, How Group on Lionel Street, i think they were located at HV House.
Does anyone know anything about them?
Peter How was my Dad's bos.How Group was a company that consisted of several smaller firms who specialised in different aspects of the building services industry.
How Froggatt, How Kinnell, How Fire Protection, How Prosser and quite a few others.
They supplied and installed all manner of plant, Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning, Fire Protection and so on.
The company was founded by the old man, Cecil How, and run in later years by his sons Peter and Michael.
They were based at a head office in Stone, Staffordshire.
The new premises, are I believe, Vivienne, for another company, Faulkes who were furriers.A couple of images of buildings that were once on Lionel Street.
A D Foulkes
View attachment 119829
Presumably this building was not only the Head Office, but also the Lionel Lead Works too as shown on this 1926 trade advert.
View attachment 119830
And this is just entitled New Premises. Perhaps it was a promotional image. It's dated 1897. Viv.
View attachment 119828
There is a thread about this place.We have visited the Back to Backs property in Birmingham as run by the National Trust but I’m wondering if the Courts were truly back to backs or were they something similar? I guess we should also bear in mind that in 1847 they weren’t that old and may well have been more desirable than the poverty being experienced by agricultural workers in the country at that time Does anyone here know much about the Courts? I can’t seem to find any information elsewhere but could visit the main library in Birmingham City centre. The relatives we have discovered living at Court 15 disappear in the next census but their son sadly appears as being in the Cottages (children’s homes) attached to the Coleshill workhouse. I guess that says it all. He did, however, learn a trade there as a baker and became independent. So the system may not have been all bad.
Great map here, it helps tremendously.,I have a relative listed as living on Court 15 in 1888, William Mills, he married twice, jessie Docker with whom he had a son who possibly died in child birth and then Kate,(Catherine Molloy), I have no other information other than he worked at a brass foundry.If any one has any details about them or where I could find out more about them, I would be very grateful.Welcome to the forum Brunel. Glad you find the thread interesting. Courts were collections of houses, often originally built in what had been the gardens of larger houses on the street, though these were sometimes demolished and replaced , leaving the smaller houses behind. The buildings in court 15 are shown in purple in the map c1889 below. Earlier maps do not have the same detail. I suspect that the houses in the court, in one of which your ancestor lived, were the four nearest Lionel St, the others being later additions. In 1847 very likjekly theb houses were not numbered, which is why no number is given.
View attachment 132126