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Little King Street Hockley

thanks for the 1883 jan reminding me that joseph lucas started from humble beginnings in little king st later to move a tad further down when he built the joseph lucas factory gt king street

lyn
 
pjmburns said:
I hadn't noticed so thanks for pointing it out, Lyn.
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jan i think i read some years ago that lucas gks employed over 10000 people including my dad and my aunt so not bad considering only a few years before joseph started with a little workshop in this street

lyn
 
Thank you for this! It appears from one of the maps that shows the numbers as odd and even, that 61 was one house in from the Felt Works. Interesting that Thomas Taylor at Number 65 was a marine store dealer too. Many on the street appear to be shops or businesses (likely within their own living space as noted before) - what an industrial little street it was!
 
Sylvia Willis said:
Thank you for this! It appears from one of the maps that shows the numbers as odd and even, that 61 was one house in from the Felt Works. Interesting that Thomas Taylor at Number 65 was a marine store dealer too. Many on the street appear to be shops or businesses (likely within their own living space as noted before) - what an industrial little street it was!
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yes as most streets back then sylvia...a mixture of houses and little workshops at the back or actually inside the houses if they had 2 living rooms...the street i grew up in was just like that...spoon makers..pearl button makers..badge enamelling...jewellers..dress makers all sort of little industries...no wonder we were once known as the city of a thousand trades

lyn
 
Hi I'm new to the forum.
My great uncle Tom Scott lived at No. 68 Little King Street in the 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses. In 1901 there were 2 parents and 8 children in the house! By 1911 he was 20 and a silversmith. I'd love to know where he worked and if there's any trace of it left - I will be visiting the Jewellery Quarter on Friday.
 
On the 1921 census he appears to be still living on Little King Street and a Silversmith. His employer is listed Shippand Saunders or Saunders Shippand which I'd guess may be a transcript error and should possibly be Shepherd & Saunders.
 
Thanks so much. I haven’t got access to the 1921 census yet. I will see what I can find about Shepherd and Saunders (or similar).
In the end he had to leave the jewellery trade and went to work in the car industry.
 
Just found this. The company still exists!

Saunders & Shepherd were silversmiths and jewellers based in London trading from 1869 to the present day. Their claim to fame is the invention of the self-closing bracelet in 1889.

The firm was started by Cornelius Desormeaux Saunders (senior) and James Francis Hollings Shepherd in 1869. They registered their silver mark in 1893 and by 1899 they were known as goldsmiths, silversmiths, jewellers, gold chain and gem ring makers and particularly specialised in making silver, jet and onyx jewellery for export. Due to their ongoing success they opened branches in Birmingham and Chester.

They registered as a limited company in 1916 as Saunders, Shepherd & Co. Ltd and now had factories in Fetter Lane in London, Birmingham and a branch in Glasgow.

Between 1916 and the 1940s they established a strong reputation for jewellery design and also started to manufacture and import watches. They struggled during the depression of the 1930s and had their London premises badly bomb damaged in 1941. They went down to just 30 employees by 1945 but managed to keep going, moving to Bleeding Heart Yard in London in 1980.

In 1981 they were commissioned by Lady Diana Spencer to make an 18ct gold bracelet which she wore on her wedding day in July of that year..

In 1996 they were joined by Eterna watches and also gained the exclusive distribution of Fope Jewellery of Vincenza, Italy.

They are now based at their new factory in Birmingham.
 
ChrisWright said:
Thanks so much. I haven’t got access to the 1921 census yet. I will see what I can find about Shepherd and Saunders (or similar).
In the end he had to leave the jewellery trade and went to work in the car industry.
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Chris, welcome to the Forum!
Shepard and Saunders is a London based firm, I just Googled them. You might start there! Best of luck.
 
Phil said:
A couple of photos of Little King Street in the late fifties and early 60's. One shows the British Legion Club and the other shows the Jarvis family in 1954 they must have had connections with the local shop because they are all sat outside it.

Phil

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The British Legion was directly opposite of the Lucas & Son - Tom Bowling Lamp Works which was pulled down in late 1966.
 
There was a Mr & Mrs Jarvis at 73 Little King St - nest to the entry 3 doors from where we lived at 79. Mr Dodd died died whilst on the outside toilet - Fireman had to chop to door as he had fallen against it, stopping it opening. Mrs Cross ran the little shop which was at 83 or 85 ?? Little King St - Think she was a relative of the Jarvis family?
 
We were the Nickless family. We lived next door to the Knights at 1/98. I can remember being sent to buy 1/4 of corned beef from Mrs Cross at the shop. She cut it with a knife that had been sharpened so mant times it was reallyn5hin. She always seemed to be tasting whatever she was cutting with her lips pursing.
 
Richard Dye said:
Great pic! Bikes seem to have meant so much more back in the day.
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i would agree richard..bikes were sometimes the only means of transport.. in the late 20s early 30s my own grandad used to cycle there and back from paddington st aston to chances glass in smethwick every day not easy for a man who served on the front during ww1 and suffered from the effects of being gassed a couple of times..sadly he died in 1938..hard life back then

lyn
 
What wonderful maps and photos, really enjoyed looking at all those - thanks everyone!
I used to be a member here before but had to re-register my email address to view them all.
I just found my great great grandparents living at the Back House of number 11 Little King Street with 8 of their 10 living children, must have been so crowded! Thomas Hands was a 49 year old carpenter and his eldest son still at home was listed as an Electro Plater. His wife Hannah was 43 years old and their youngest was only 4 months old!! ( I thought surely a grand daughter but apparently not. I have the family at various nearby addresses in other censuses up until 1921 in Ladywood.
I noticed in the Kelly's 1921 image above there was a C. Hands. & Son as Chairmakers at Bishop Street, unsure if this is a more distand relative... my father was born in 1921 where the family lived in Bishopsgate Street and had a newsagents/tobacconist.
 

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I'd speculate that they possibly lived at no. 11 itself, not a back house, the ditto marks being just for Little King St. And the following 2 houses being the back houses behind no. 11.

Either way it's nice to have numbers that early.
 
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