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Nazareth House

K

kryzwicki

proper brummie kid
Hi there,
I am looking for information and photos of nazareth house convent and childrens home which used to be in Lickey Road, Rednal as I was there for a time in 1961. Can anyone help?
 
You must have been there when we moved into Tollhouse road in 1961 & our garden backed onto the convent grounds, I remember the horse ( or was it a Donkey?) that Charlie Chester had presented them with & you could hear the hum of the Austin factory all night long including the steam shunting engines in the goods yard
 
izzy eckerslike said:
You must have been there when we moved into Tollhouse road in 1961 & our garden backed onto the convent grounds, I remember the horse ( or was it a Donkey?) that Charlie Chester had presented them with & you could hear the hum of the Austin factory all night long including the steam shunting engines in the goods yard
Click to expand...
Hi ! It was a Shetland pony called Christmas presented by Chipperfield Circus The Convent has since been demolished to make way for a new housing estate. My biggest regret was not taking any photos of the place.
 
This is an old photo of a tram at Longbrige Island. I think Nazareth House is the building with the chimneys on the right side of Lickey Road (just above the Tram stop shelters).
I know this photo is older than the 60's but it shows the location.

I don't remember where this photo came from - maybe from this site.

I shall ask around locally to see if anyone has photos for you.

Polly :)
 
Here is a photo I took recently which shows Longbridge Isalnd and the Lickey Road.

The trees on the right hide all the 'new' buildings

Thr tram shelters would have been where the two red cars are parked in the middle - partly hidden by the crossing lights.

Polly :)
 
Thank you Polly, from the island I think Nazareth House would have been somewhere on the right hand side. I know it was opposite the start of the old Austin Works which was really vast. I remember walking with the nuns to the lickey hills, is Cofton Park on the left past the lonbridge works.I seem to remember quite alot but my memerois may be a little inaccurate as I was only nine years old!
Thanks again Polly, I hope you can find some others.
Tony
 
Hi Tony,
Your memory is very good! Going from Longbridge Island Nazareth House was on the right of Lickey Road and much further along (quite a long walk for a 9 year old) Cofton Park is on the left.
I will keep looking for photos for you.
Polly :)
 
Pollypops

Thank you for posting the old photo of the Island at Longbridge, it must have been taken pre about 1952 as I think it was around then that the last tram ran. Nazarath House was the bulding you can see just above the tram shelters, Nazareth House also had a lot of farm land which extended to the back of the road I lived in, there was a fence & hedges to keep us out but as children we took great joy in getting over the fence this was during the 1940's
 
pollypops said:
Hi Tony,
Your memory is very good! Going from Longbridge Island Nazareth House was on the right of Lickey Road and much further along (quite a long walk for a 9 year old) Cofton Park is on the left.
I will keep looking for photos for you.
Polly :)
Click to expand...
Hi Polly,
Hope you are well. Any luck with finding more photos of Nazareth House? Iv'e had a few responces but not as many as I hoped for.There must be some evidence of such a beautiful old building somewhere mustn't there?
Take care,
Tony.
 
Hi Liz!
Sorry for not acknowleding your reply to my thread. I have been on friends reunited without much success. Thank You for taking the trouble to help.
Regards. Tony
 
kryzwicki said:
Hi Polly,
Hope you are well. Any luck with finding more photos of Nazareth House? Iv'e had a few responces but not as many as I hoped for.There must be some evidence of such a beautiful old building somewhere mustn't there?
Take care,
Tony.
Click to expand...

Hi Tony, I am still looking for a picture for you. I was in Bromsgrove library on monday and asked the staff but they think if there are any pictures they will be at Birmingham Library.
I am still asking local people so something may turn up. Like you, I am sure someone, somewhere has a photo - it is just finding that person!
I will keep looking!
Polly :)
 
Tony, someone has given me this picture and said they think it is Nazareth House. As I do not know what Nazareth House looked like I do not know if it is or not.
Does it look familiar to you????

I am sorry if the quality is not that good - it is a scan of a photocopy.

Polly :)
 
Hi Tony,
I think this is a picture of part of the house which my sister was sent to in 1942 for three of or four months, when my mother was ill and in hospital.

My mother had been friends with one of the nuns there since about 1919 until the nuns death in 1944 and many letters, which my mother kept, exchanged between them. My sister was in fact named afer her.

Regards
Humph
 
WOW!
Yes this is it!!! Thank you so much. I feel quite emotional (how daft is that!) This was taken before the landscaping had matured I guess because when I was there it seemed more established. To the left of the building was where we used to play when we weren't in school. Behind the building I remember there was a laundry , we used to play in there and hide from the nuns! This was an early photo because there was a slightly more modern church built immediately to the right the brickwork didn't match the rest of the building.
Thank you so much Polly please keep in touch! Tony.
 
Hi Humph,
Thank you for the photo unfortunately this isn't the place I was at. Maybe it was a previous childrens home, was it run by the Poor Sisters? They moved to Lickey road Nazareth House in 1957 I read somewhere. Thanks again,take care. Tony.
 
Have you seen the photo posted by Pollypops? This is definately it ! Albeit a very old one, the gardens were much more mature when I was there with my brothers and sisters in 1961. The nuns weren't very kind but we wer not subjected to any physical or sexual abuse. I am hoping that I will be posted more photos, there must be lots taken over the years.
 
kryzwicki said:
WOW!
Yes this is it!!! Thank you so much. I feel quite emotional (how daft is that!) This was taken before the landscaping had matured I guess because when I was there it seemed more established. To the left of the building was where we used to play when we weren't in school. Behind the building I remember there was a laundry , we used to play in there and hide from the nuns! This was an early photo because there was a slightly more modern church built immediately to the right the brickwork didn't match the rest of the building.
Thank you so much Polly please keep in touch! Tony.
Click to expand...
Hi Tony, sorry I have been away and have only just noticed your reply.
I am so glad the picture was Nazareth House - I am not surprised you felt emotional when you saw it - it brought so many memories of your childhood back.
I thought the picture was probably taken some years before you went there but at least you now have one picture. I will keep looking for another one.
It is such a shame they knocked it down.
Polly :)
 
Hi Polly, It's good to hear from you Hope you had a good time away. I have since found out that the photo was taken in 1912..... quite a bit before I was there! I sought help from the "thing detectives" website. They found the same photo and an ex Austin works employee sent me an aerial view of the lickey road, Austin Works and Nazareth House but the quality is not that good but I am very grateful none-the-less.My ultimate wish is to find photos of a more recent time period......I hope I'm not being too ambitious. I cant believe that such a beautiful old building hasn't been documented more. Perhaps there has been more photos taken of it but I really wish I had taken some because the place has never been out of my mind over the years. I have found out that the Birmingham History Archives Department of Birmingham Library has at least one photo but it is a bit of a rigmarole to get access to the archives. I will need to apply for what they call a CARN ticket.Anyway Polly I am so grateful to you for all your efforts and hope you can discover more photos.
My very best wishes.

Tony.(-:
 
Hi .. I used to work at Nazareth House which was run by The Poor Sisters of Nazareth, I was only there maby a year or so... I worked on the top floor (4th I think) around 1976/77 ish... I often had to take 4 young children for a walk every day up to the Lickey Hills... or Cofton park.. I remember at the back of the huge house was a climbing frame which the children often played on... not much else in the playground really...

Angie x
 
Hi Angie.
Thank you for getting in touch. I was there for two spells inthe early 1960's with my brother and three sisters the youngest two were in the nursery on the 4th floor. I have vivid memories of the place and am now obsessed with finding photos and information about the place. I would guess it was demolished in the 1980's, although I'm not sure. Do you know when and why it was knocked down? I can't imagine why the church would sell the building but I can understand that they would maybe sell some of it's land because it had lots of farmland.A similar convent building near Coventry, where I now live did sell all of their land for new housing but the lovely old building remains intact and still inhabited by nuns.....so I remain intrigued! I remember Nazareth house had its own laundry, farm and kitchen garden we weren't allowed to go to these places but my brother and I did anyway. If you have, or know of any photos I would be so grateful Angie, any aspect of the place would be appreciated.

Tony.
 
Hi Tony... I was on the 4th floor.... l only remember I had charge of 4 little boys... two were twins.. not identical ... I often wonder what happened to some of the children...
As far as I heard after I left it stopped being a children home and it was a home for the elderly... then I heard they knocked it down... like you say tragic for such a building... I remember the huge big front door... and the dark wood downstairs do you remember any of the Sisters names?? the one I think of is Sister Alousious (I not sure of the spelling of her name) she was nice but sadly was sent off to Scotland .... I even went on holiday with them... it was to a place called Cliftonville by the seaside somewhere... kids loved it...
I will hunt out the photo I have for you tomorrow ... il be in touch again then..
I can understand your intrigue ... it was part of your life ... and such a building too..
Regards
Angie xx
 
Hi Angie, this is strange - in my quest to find a photo of Nazareth House for Tony I talked to someone who said her parents used to take twin boys from Nazareth House on days out at the weekend. I wonder if it was the same twins? This person told me that quite a few people in the area would regularly take children from there on day trips.

Polly :)
 
When I was a young signwriter working in Stafford Street in the 50's the sisters used to bring collection boxes in once a year to have the name signwritten on them,my gaffer used to charge them 6d when the proper price should have been 7/6.
 
Hi there Tony... well here you are I found more than I thought Id got... I have had to adjust the pictures as unfortunately they had faded somewhat.. so hope they are ok?.. also just to be on the save side I have had to block the children's faces as I don't have their permission to post them... The pictures are of the back of the home on the climbing frame and the swing which I had forgotten about...

Hope you like them..
 
Hi Angie....Thank you for the photos they are really good, they brought back memories. I remember that down steps to the left of the photos was the old school yard with toilets on the left. There was an entrance in the corner. when I stayed the first time we were taught in the convent, the classroom windows can be seen in the background of the photo with the swing in it.In my second stay we went to St James School. Both times I stayed there Sister Assumta looked after the boys but Sister Columbkill (not sure of the spelling) looked after the girls first time, Sister James the second.Do any of these names ring a bell?The last time I saw the building standing must have been in 1972. I went to see that awful Ken Russell film "The Devils" with my then fiancee at the ABC Cinerama down the road.We left halfway through so we walked up Lickey Road to show her where I spent some of my childhood.The last time I passed that way I was horrified to see it had gone and to see a new housing estate in its place! When it became an elderly persons home did the nuns still run it? what became of them in the end? Angie I hope you get this because I tried several times to contact you yesterday without success.
Please keep in touch. Thanks once again I really appreciate your help.

Regards. Tony.
 
Aren't the last two the same picture, other than a different shade of colour? I have taken the liberty of tweaking the colour a bit (and slightly reducing the digital size for the forum ). Hope this helps
Mike

N2520House25205_B.jpg


N2520House25204_B.jpg


N2520House25203_B.jpg



N2520House25201_B.jpg
 
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