Thanks Lyn looks very likely as the ground rises quite quickly between Archibald and Francis Roads. Hard to believe! Viv.
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Lozells Road, Shops, Pubs, Businesses etc
- Thread starter Jules65
- Start date
My mother liked to shop along Lozells Road when she didn't want to go into town. One of her favourite shops was Robinson's Haberdashery, which I think was at the Villa Road end of Lozells Road. I'm friendly with a member of the Robinson family who owned that shop, where he worked until it closed.
He's now a music teacher.
G
He's now a music teacher.
G
hi G..same thing here...our mom loved shopping up the lozells road...and i used to go with her to help carry the bags
...cant recall the name of the shop now but it was always a must for buying our dads..chittling.. pigs trotters and tripe from...great shops..great times
lyn
...cant recall the name of the shop now but it was always a must for buying our dads..chittling.. pigs trotters and tripe from...great shops..great timeslyn
My g-g-grandfather, Thomas Stevens, was a cordwainer (bootmaker) and on the 1861, 71 and 81 census lived at 125 Lozells Road. He died in Aston Manor in 1890. Looks as though the shop remained a shoe shop for a considerable time. I just looked at the 1891 census on line but the numbers aren't recorded and there are over 1000 residents to check! If anyone has more information I'd be very pleased.
Chanty
He is on the 1881 census on the page Warwick.Aston.district.7.page 6. However, although he is listed in the directories up to 1880, he is not listed in the 1882 Kellys, or anyone else at that address (though there is a bootmaker listed in 1882 edition at no 121, who is not at that address in the 1881 census) Possibly he had retired?
He is on the 1881 census on the page Warwick.Aston.district.7.page 6. However, although he is listed in the directories up to 1880, he is not listed in the 1882 Kellys, or anyone else at that address (though there is a bootmaker listed in 1882 edition at no 121, who is not at that address in the 1881 census) Possibly he had retired?
Attachments
Thanks for that, Mikejee. All I know is that he died in 1890 in Aston Union Workhouse infirmary of 'paralysis'. In 1881 he was only 52 so maybe he had a stroke. By 1891 his wife was living with her daughter, my g-grandmother, who was widowed the same year in a back to back in Handsworth and they were taking in laundry.
JackiePritchatt
master brummie
I can't ever forget that shop my mother met her mother 20 yrs later in that shop, I was standing beside her seeing my grandmother and uncle for the first time 1970. It was a great shop sold everything. It was well missed when it closed.
Regarding Robinson's Haberdashery, I was talking last night with my friend whose grandfather founded the business in the 1920's. First, and slightly to my surprise, the address of the business was actually 317 Burbury Street, and not Lozells Road. The shop was originally the residence and surgery of a Mr Lawson-Tate, an apparently celebrated gynaecologist, and the main entrance to the house was on Burbury Street. My friend told that there was family legend of human infant bones being found in the garden of the property when it was being converted into the shop....
My friend said he was a kind of head-cook-and-bottle-washer for the family business, serving in the shop and going around delivering and collecting stock in the company van. One thing he told me struck a chord - he collected shoes from a large warehouse in Wrottesley St, in the city centre, that building now being the famous Chung Ying Chinese Restaurant, where I've eaten many a happy meal. He also occasionally visited the shoe manufacturers in Northamptonshire.
After the Robinson family closed their business, in late 1969, the shop was taken over by Padmore & Co Ltd, famous in their day for billiard and snooker tables, and everything to go with them. I'd forgotten about Padmore's, but being reminded of this brought back a faint memory of going into their shop to buy a box of chalk for the snooker tables at Triplex Safety Glass, where I worked at the time. I believe the premises is now an Asian supermarket.
G
My friend said he was a kind of head-cook-and-bottle-washer for the family business, serving in the shop and going around delivering and collecting stock in the company van. One thing he told me struck a chord - he collected shoes from a large warehouse in Wrottesley St, in the city centre, that building now being the famous Chung Ying Chinese Restaurant, where I've eaten many a happy meal. He also occasionally visited the shoe manufacturers in Northamptonshire.
After the Robinson family closed their business, in late 1969, the shop was taken over by Padmore & Co Ltd, famous in their day for billiard and snooker tables, and everything to go with them. I'd forgotten about Padmore's, but being reminded of this brought back a faint memory of going into their shop to buy a box of chalk for the snooker tables at Triplex Safety Glass, where I worked at the time. I believe the premises is now an Asian supermarket.
G
JackiePritchatt
master brummie
Hi G, at the end of Wheeler St. turn left to Lozells st. What was the shop called on the corner, straight in front of you it sold underwear, tea towels, socks and many more items.
Jackie
Jackie
hi G you are quite right about lawson tait living at 317 burbury st....i started a thread for him last year if you are interested..
lyn
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...oneering-surgeon-1845-1899.46494/#post-570333
lyn
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...oneering-surgeon-1845-1899.46494/#post-570333
JackiePritchatt
master brummie
Hi G,
Thanks for that, yes that's the one I was thinking about. I thought it was called Robinsons.
Jackie
Thanks for that, yes that's the one I was thinking about. I thought it was called Robinsons.
Jackie
The thot plickens....until last night I had never heard of Lawson Tait, and was completely unaware that there was already a thread on the Forum concerning him. My friend* told me that his family thought that the infants' bones in the garden were the results either of experiments, or something rather more sinister, about which I decline to speculate. At any rate, it seems that Lawson Tait had something of an excellent reputation in his field....whatever he might have buried in his garden. Thanks for the link, Lynne - goes to show that in days of yore Lozells must have been quite an up-market part of town. Amazing what you can find out!
*Tim Robinson, jazz guitarist of note, and guitar teacher based in Sutton Coldfield.
G
*Tim Robinson, jazz guitarist of note, and guitar teacher based in Sutton Coldfield.
G
Another interesting (?) fact about Lozells Rd....
Anyone with an interest in classic unsolved cases will know about Death In The Priory, the case dating from 1876 in which a lawyer, Charles Bravo, died from antimony poisoning at his house The Priory in Balham, south London. Bravo lived there with his alcoholic wife Florence, and her close companion Jane Cox. The domestic situation was not a happy one. Cut a long story short, on April 21 1876 Bravo died without saying a single word about how he came to be poisoned with antimony, and since then the arguments have raged - was it murder by his wife or her companion, or was it suicide? We will probably (well, almost certainly) never know.
Anyway, the inquest could not reach a proper verdict, so the case was never brought to trial. It was a sensation in its day, and remains so, at least to aficianado's of unsolved crime. Jane Cox was a suspect, some said with good reason, and after the initial furore had died down she moved from Balham to Birmingham, and lived for a time either in Lozells Road, or possibly Villa Road. Precisely where has never been recorded, and why she should have moved to Birmingham anyway is not known. She owned property in Jamaica and moved there shortly after her brief stay in Birmingham.
A little bit of local scandal........
G
Anyone with an interest in classic unsolved cases will know about Death In The Priory, the case dating from 1876 in which a lawyer, Charles Bravo, died from antimony poisoning at his house The Priory in Balham, south London. Bravo lived there with his alcoholic wife Florence, and her close companion Jane Cox. The domestic situation was not a happy one. Cut a long story short, on April 21 1876 Bravo died without saying a single word about how he came to be poisoned with antimony, and since then the arguments have raged - was it murder by his wife or her companion, or was it suicide? We will probably (well, almost certainly) never know.
Anyway, the inquest could not reach a proper verdict, so the case was never brought to trial. It was a sensation in its day, and remains so, at least to aficianado's of unsolved crime. Jane Cox was a suspect, some said with good reason, and after the initial furore had died down she moved from Balham to Birmingham, and lived for a time either in Lozells Road, or possibly Villa Road. Precisely where has never been recorded, and why she should have moved to Birmingham anyway is not known. She owned property in Jamaica and moved there shortly after her brief stay in Birmingham.
A little bit of local scandal........
G
as you say G another of lifes mysteries...great story...having spent nearly 10 years researching aston..lozells..hockley (my neck o the woods)..you would be surprised at just how many eminent and unusual people lived around those parts including someone who fought and survived the battle of rorkes drift...he is buried in an unmarked grave with nothing to commemorate his bravey and he will be my next case study
lyn
lyn
Can't hear the words 'Rorkes Drift' without thinking of Michael Caine....I'll say no more.
There are still many (suprisingly) large and well-appointed houses around Lozells/Handsworth/Soho, which indicates that in years past it was no ordinary area. I'd be interested to hear your progress re: the Zulu Wars veteran, a period of our military history which isn't all that well-known or documented.
G
There are still many (suprisingly) large and well-appointed houses around Lozells/Handsworth/Soho, which indicates that in years past it was no ordinary area. I'd be interested to hear your progress re: the Zulu Wars veteran, a period of our military history which isn't all that well-known or documented.
G
In the late 1800s My G Grandfather Philip Drennan was a Bootmaker (Cordwainer) and had two shops on the Soho Rd Handsworth and My Gt GT Grandparents Ann and Patrick Drennan had similar Workshops on Hill Street, Lancaster Street and Mill St in Aston from 1860 -90s.
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xBIGGLESx
master brummie
My 1925 car was in Birmingham in 1960s I have been searching for a Mr Padmore or Mrs Maymore May paperweights Birmingham promotional items of there day. One of these would make an appropriate mascot for my car but its hard to find one at a reasonable price. If anyone comes across one at a reasonable price I would like to know please.
Hi Patrick,
I picked up on this thread during browsing the old area, i think you might find that (if memory serves) the chip shop, which was on the same side as the pet shop & toy shop was owned by a family by the name of Winnett; their son & daughter (Fraser & Sylvia) both of whom i'm told went to St Silas Infants & Junior School in Lozells.
Lozellian.
Hi,
Yes, I think the chippy I'm on about, I'm reasonably sure was next door to the pet shop pictured in the photo.
Lozellian.
Hi Astoness,
Another shop I remember was called Millingtons (modern day terminology would be a deli) you'd turn right out of carpenters road into lozells road and it was the first or second shop on the right hand side. Mom & Nan always went there for their cheese & cooked meats etc.
Lozellian.
Radiorails
master brummie
A lot about Millingtons here:
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/millingtons.16405/
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/millingtons.16405/
i am just wondering if millingtons was where our dad used to get his chittlings from there again i think not as from memory i think the chittling shop was was a tad further down the lozells road
lyn
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a few photos of lozells road shops...had a quick look and i think most of them are new to this thread...someone mentioned foster bros earlier which you can see on the corner of pic 3 on the left of that pic is the bell inn and on the right the lozells inn..both building are still there but as you would expect no longer pubs...the lozells inn is also showing on pic 5 next to baines bakery and also showing on the left on pic 4
lyn
lyn
Hi Astoness,
I remember my Nan used to buy chitlings, brains, pigs feet, tripe etc for my Grandad but, she always got hers from Lens (Pritchard) Butchers in George Street, Lozells. Then when Nan passed away I inherited the job as I was a butcher at Thomsons (Lichfield Road & Aston Cross).
Lozellian
Hi Astoness,
In pictures 1 & 2 I think Millingtons is the first shop on the right with the canopy above it and the chippy referred to in an earlier post (pic 5) is the 4th shop up from the pet shop next to the butchers; the only tailoring shop I remember was Hepworths on the Lozells Road opposite corner to Foster Bros.
Lozellian.