• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

'Orse Road

Mayfield

Mayfield

Burbury Brummie
My son Tom was looked at me as though I had two heads yesterday.... He had need to cross a busy Tamworth road to go into a shop when I said to him without thinking, 'Be careful has you cross the 'orse road' (Horse road - Brummies seldom pronounce there H's).

His response was what is a 'Orse Road'........... he definitately needs some cultural training............

I haven't used that term for donkies years......... Mabz
 
My Dad often said to me 'Mind how you cross the 'orse road' when I went on an errand for him. He was born in 1906, so there were more horses around pulling wagons etc., rather than cars when he was little. He had a wide Brummie vocabulary - only wish I could remember some of his sayings. Anthea.
 
My mother, in her later years, used to enjoy telling the tale about me, as a lad of 7, watching her collecting the manure for Dad's roses, left in the road by the milkman's horse, and telling her off loudly saying "What's an old woman like you doing out in the 'orse road shovelling up 'orse muck?" She was 34 at the time!

Regards,

Maurice
 
My gran always used to say this when I left her house to visit my cousin. I never questioned anything she told me to do.......I knew better.For years I had no idea what a horse road was.....she was a bit posh and pronounced the H.
 
I don't think we realise how important horses were to human beings. They were really man's best friend. Before the Industrial Revolution (and we know where that started), if you weren't strong enough to do a job, you'ld get a horse to do it. And they did - anything from delivering milk to fighting a battle - and moreorless willingly. Rather like they still run in races.
I seem to remember coal and milk being delivered to us until the mid-1950s.
Near us in Croydon, South London we had tinkers doing a horse-drawn rag and bone trade until quite recently, and still I see the horses grazing only half a mile away, but I don't know what they are used or abused for these days.
We should remember how much horses have done for us in the past.
Peter
 
Last edited:
An interesting point to consider, a good friend of mine who is a Tammy born and bred (true Sandyback) recently referred to 'Orse road' as a Brummie term? Is he correct - did the term 'Orse Road' originate from Birmingham and spoken by Brummies?

Mabz
 
My dad told stories of clearing the 'orse roads of Sparkbrook and Sparkhill of 'orse muck, to sell to the occupants of the finer houses of those districts. My dad must have been responsible for some of the finest rose beds and rhubarb (I much prefer custard on mine).
Just, a few minutes ago, a horse drawn hearse passed by, and though a sad occasion, what a splendid sight to see. Someone's 'Mom'.

Ann
 
I too, remember my Mother telling me to " Watch what youre doing on the ,orse road ". A lovely old saying that means nothing to todays people. Barry.
 
If you born pre WW2 as i was you were always told to be careful crossing the "ors road", i still use it now as a joke. Len.
 
I know that a lot of Brummies used that term but I think it came from the old silk road to china originally ?
icon7.gif
 
hi mabz,
i lived in lawrence st in 40/60s every day you would see a horse,
the police horses from duke st station,
the brewery horses from woodcock st entrance to holte brewery,
& the railway horse carts from curzon st goods yard
& the midland counties milk cart + the old rag & bone man, terry
 
It's only just over 100 years ago that almost all traffic on the road was horse-drawn, and don't think there was any less than today! This fantastic film from the Mitchell and Kenyon collection was taken in Jamaica Street, Glasgow, in 1901.

[ame="https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kpWbp4kx7uQ"]YouTube - Jamaica Street, Glasgow (1901)[/ame]
 
I'll bet the rhubarb was six foot high, and the roses the size of dinner plates in those days!
 
My Grandad worked on railways Curzon street and surrounding areas, he had a horse that he used to bring home every lunch time (my mom tells me this).

I remember both him and my Nan always telling me to "mind the 'orse Road",
my mom still call the road 'orse road 'even now !
 
Yes Maggie my mom always warned me about the things you would catch. Can still smell them now and we had one outside our house. Pheeeew. Jean.
 
Sorry Maggie were you referring to the hoss .... or the drains. My mom and dad used to get me going out with the coal shovel and a bucket and yes we did have the best rhubarb in the road. Jean.
 
I've just been looking at this old thread.
Yes, Nan did say "Mind the 'orse road", and she used to tell me about someone she knew who had been playing in the gutter and had both legs cut off by a cart-wheel!! I suppose it was the scissor action of the wheel on the metal curb. Or maybe it was just a scare-story?? Either way I was always careful when the milkman came with his horse Blackthorn, he seemed huge but I was very young!!!
rosie.
 
I remember the horse drawn milk float. It did seem huge with an enormous horse pulling it. But like Rosie says, sometimes these things are bigger in the very young mind. I remember the horse pulled a cart which had no sides to it and the frame was painted green. I think it must have been a Co-op delivery, although not too certain about that. My nan also called it the 'orse road and always recommended collecting up the manure after the milk float had passed on its way. Viv.
 
Another expression used in olden times was You've got to go to the Orspital,my dear old Mother In law used to say that.
 
sospiri said:
And in his younger day, my father drove one of those carts from Curzon Street!

Maurice
Click to expand...

As did my Great-grandfather, Tom Farrell. I still have one of the old shoes off his carthorse - hung on the garden wall the "right way up", to catch the luck (according to my Mum!)
 
Hi Bryn,

I've no idea how many carters they employed, but this was way before I was even a twinkle in his eye, before WW1. When he returned from the Tank Corps - sounds great, but he was actually the Postmaster at Bovington Camp due to his poor health - his job had been given to someone else. He was still a single man, whereas his replacement was married with a child, so they were disinclined to re-employ him. He ended up with an inferior job making wooden packing cases at Perry Pens in Lancaster Street - knocked down in the 1960s and since knocked down again! Hang onto that horseshoe, it should bring you luck.

Maurice
 
Dianne said:
My Grandad worked on railways Curzon street and surrounding areas, he had a horse that he used to bring home every lunch time (my mom tells me this).

I remember both him and my Nan always telling me to "mind the 'orse Road",
my mom still call the road 'orse road 'even now !
Click to expand...

My Great-granfather also was a carter at Curzon street, but I believe on one occasion, he took his horse and cart home for the evening! I've already posted this on the thread for "Victoria Road", but I'll copy part of it here for you:

I grew up in Haseley Road in the 1950s and 60s, and my mother's family had moved there when the majority of the houses were new. My great grandmother, Louisa Farrell (does anyone remember midwife Nurse Farrell?) was sick of living with her husband and 5 daughters in cramped housing in Hockley, and discovered that her parents, Charlie and Clara Hollins, had found new housing in Victoria Road, and moved into No.110, next door to the Hampton family. With the encouragement of her mother, Louisa took on the tenancy of 32, Haseley Road, the garden of which backed onto her parents. She paid a shilling for the key, but I'm not sure of the weekly rent. My Mum used to tell me how Louisa's husband, Tom, went off to work one morning (he worked as a carter for the Great Western Railway, transporting goods by horse and cart, from the railway depot to shops and businesses in the Handsworth, Hockley, Aston areas) but returned home in the evening to find a note on the kitchen table, explaining that Louisa and the girls had moved to Haseley Road, and he could join them if he wished, but to bring the little furniture they had!!!! Meanwhile, Louisa had moved all their smaller belongings on the top of the pram (also containing baby Winifred and toddler Ivy Gertrude!) up to Haseley Road, with her other 3 girls lugging more bags. My grandmother, Clara Farrell (later Aston, and always known as "Dolly" because she was so pretty) was one of those little girls and was 12 at the time, so this must have been in 1910.
 
My maternal grandmother, Nan May, used to say 'Orse Road as well, but she also warned us kids about the dangers of the Kings Highway. Perhaps because she lived in Kingstanding at the end of her life?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top