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Mills Of Birmingham

  • Thread starter Thread starter O.C.
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Thanks Sylvia, I knew of the mill and knew that the site of the mill is now a gas holder, but you have given me the name of the roads which is of great help, so will add that now to my research....I think mom said she would save me the article but won't see her for a few weeks. Once again thankyou :) :)
 
A bit of a gap since your posting re the mills of Birmingham. but I am the Great Grandson of Thomas Henry Summerton via his son Fredrick or more accurately Thomas Fredrick Summerton b 1893 d 1983 Nottingham.

I have a wonderful picture of Thomas Henry Summerton's father which I will post when I get home if you are interested. I believe his family were millers from Birmingham (possibly Edgbaston) but went to America in the Early 1800's to seek their fortune. They became millers (naturally) in Racine Illinois) before Thomas Henry came back to England and took up the Soho Mill.

If you are still interested please post a reply

Ian Summerton
 
Welcome Ian. There has been much interest in this thread over a long time, please post any info. you have regarding the mills of the area or the people who ran or owned them, anything connected is of interest .

Regards Mike
 
Hello Ian

If you go to Search at the very top and put in Mills of Birmingham you will see how much interest Loisand has generated on this site regards this subject so i am sure, as mike-g has said, any history or photo's you can post/tell us about will be read and appreciated.

bren
 
Great Thread. I'd like to put a shout for Bromford Mill. My Great Grandfather moved from Warwick in 1864 and after a short spell in lodgings, moved to the cottages just below Bromford Wire Mills. Here, both my Grandfather and father were born before moving just up the Lane to the "triangle" with Wheelwright Road. Here's a map from 1904 (surveyed in 1886) and also notes from the excellent British History Online.

BTW anyone got any pics or drawings of the old Bromford Mill? Can't seem to find any.:(

Tried to upload but got error message saying a security token was missing:confused2: File sizes were below the max.:confused2:
Will try again later.
 
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I just wanted to let you all know that there is talk of opening mills once again, i hear, and if i heard correctly there are 20 thousand mills in this country. Cost could be 12,000 to 15,000 pounds per Mill, i wrote everything down so that i could notify (those of you who are interested and not aware of the proposal) even down to the reguirements, but alas i cannot find where i have put the paper...Cat
 
My Sister was married in St Cyprians Church pre WW2 the entrance to Webster & Horsfalls wire mill was on your L/hand side as you went to the church there were cottages?, or houses? before you reached the church, i was only 5yrs-6yrs old at the time, memory fades a bit after 70+yrs!.
 
St Cyprians Church photos dated & Hay Mills bridge over the river Cole dated, the wire mill & church were on the city side of the bridge, i have an idea the church may have been demolished.
 
St Cyprians was not demolished when this was compiled but not sure of the date.
 
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Bernie, I have solved my own question, it was a mission ie St Chads Mission, according to an article i`ve read Horsfall built St Cyprians church with the river Cole running underneath.
 
Di and gang I'm still here, I will do some updates later for you all, and perhaps some more requests for you to get your teeth into....take your minds of things
 
St Cyprians Church is still there,and so are the cottages my father and his father worked at the wire mill Horsfall they also built the cottages for thier workers I believe also owned houses around the area.There is another entrance to the wire mill at the end of Speedwell Road,Horsefall also built a school house for the children of thier workers.I remember my brothers friend lived in the end cottage as you walk down towards the church they are really tiny and go out the back there is a couple of feet before a straight drop into the river cole.
 
Autumn and Winters on the way so back to the mills of Birmingham and Warwickshire.
I have got references to two mills that have eluded me, so here's hoping someone can help me....I'm sure they are connected to mills by a different name, but after googling and looking on National Archives ...nothing. So here goes:
Cattell's Grove Mill....in 1896 it was a paper mill with these people working there....R Davies, R Johnson, G Mercer, J Wilson....anybody have any idea what this mill was probably called and where was it, I've looked on a map and Cattells Grove is of Nechells Park Road, so I'm assuming it could possibly be Nechells Park Mill, if any one could confirm I would be happy as larry :) :)
Moland Mills, Belmont Road...the home of Birmingham Waste Company in 1961....looking at the picture of this company in Alton Douglas book of Birmingham at Work it looks familiar...it looks abit like the building as you travel into city centre on the 55 and 94 bus route, by the new recyling plant, situated just behind the pub I think called the Statesman, again this may possibly be a mill that I've already researched but need help trying to find the original name, again I've googled and looked on the archives.
Thanks for any help you can give :) :)
 
liosand
I think the one on this 1890 map is the one you're looking for. It is lkisted in 1896 as being smith stone & knight Ltd. birmingham paper mills
Mike
 
Why oh why can't the British Postal service do some nice stamps like these....looks like I have to send of to the Isle of Man for them :crying:
 
They are beautiful, I am trying to get a set of them, there is a stamp fair on in Sutton at the beginning of September so am hoping to try and purchase a set, if not will be contacting the Isle of Man to try and get some. They were issued in April of this year, so hopefully fingers crossed...I beleive on one of the stamps it has a midlands mill on it!!
I have attached a document to do with the needle mills of Redditch, it is interesting reading, how the midlands lost out on some important patenting, I retrieved it from Guttenburg site so I have had to do some editing to it....enjoy!!:)
 
Hi Ann, they are lovely stamps I hope you manage to get a set.:)

The article on the Needle Mills is interesting, there is such a lot of interesting reading on the old mills. What a shame there are so few left now.
 
I note that Nicolas Juxon Buttonmaker was your relative. He was mine too. Maria Juxon his granddaughter married Job Robbins a baker of Digbeth. Their oldest daughter Emma Jane Robbins married John Robert Ensor, and they were my great grand parents. Where do you fit in??
 
I have spent an interesting time this morning at the Mills Archive (https://www.millsarchive.com/. Until today, although I had heard of the mills archive, I did not know it was in Reading, where i live, and, apparently, neither did a lot of other people. Today and tomorrow it is open to the public (10.00 - 4.00) under the heritage open days scheme, and , if you are nearby , it is well worth a visit to talk to the very knowledgeable people there. They are trying to save information on mills that otherwise might be lost, and , if there is no other suitable local archive, keep it and , eventually, digitise it and make it available to those who are interested. They will always welcome new information, and, although there is much work to be done in indexing what is available, would welcome any enquiries concerning mills. At present they realise that, though they have much engineering information on construction etc, they are short of social detail on who lived there, the history of the mill, etc, and would welcome any contributions in this field . The person to contact would be Elizabeth Trout, and the e-mail address is info@ millsarchive.com. They are very pleasant people , interested in their subject, in the same way that those on the forum are interested in birmingham, and I would encourage anyone who has information for them to contact them
mike
 
No aidan, i was just visiting, but I said I would write a note on thew archive and send them a link, which I have done. They therefore now, htrough your post, have a link to the Holloway head mill
Mike
 
Thank you for the link. I had planned to send them material on a mill I had researched, but I see that according to the poorly worded terms & conditions they would claim "copyright unless otherwise stated". I really cannot think that they meant to do that.
 
Glad that you enjoyed the Mill Archive centre, I find it a very useful place to visit via the web. Mike you are right about finding out about the people that ran these mills, thanks to this site and to Di Poppitt, who has spent many hours for me trawling through the censuses I am now managing to obtain most of the censuses for my research of the Warwickshire/Birmingham mills. It has amazed me how, very often, the mill has been passed down through the family, not only in Warwickshire/Birmingham mills but also lnks to the Leicestershire mills. x
 
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