Thanks. Great stuff Viv...love the MI pic and Watts' statue..
And now for a ramble round Holloway Head and the narrow still functioning (just) alleys and back Streets round there, like
Ernest Street, Bow Street, Windmill Street etc......and speaking of which of course, the History of
Chapman's Windmill...as a start...
On the hill overlooking Holloway Head was Chapman's windmill. It succeeded at least one earlier mill on this site. Gordon Roe in his biography of the Birmingham artist, David Cox, writes, "Joseph Cox's first wife, David's mother, was born Frances Walford, the daughter of a miller and farmer who gave his name to the mill which he had built himself on a high gravelly hill near Holloway Head."
The usual date given for the construction of Chapman's brick-built tower mill is 1745. It was probably built by a member of the Clark family who were millwrights in Deritend until late into the 18th Century. Chapman was still in possession of the mill in 1774, when he made his will, but two years later his executors sold it to John Griffiths. Griffiths put his brother Thomas in as miller while he ran the business as a baker and miller at 114, Hill Street. In April 1778 the mill was struck by lightning. The main beam, one of the sails and a cog wheel were "shivered in pieces, and it was otherwise materially injured, the miller was struck down by the violence of the shock, and remained senseless for some time.”
William Martin took over the mill from the Griffith family, four hundred pounds having been expended on repairs. Originally the mill had a tail-pole, as is seen in an early engraving, but now this was replaced with a fan-tail gear mechanism. During1820's and early 1830's Thomas Lucy of the Stratford-up on-Avon milling family worked Chapman's mill with his sons. After him came the millers Sandbridge Kendrick and Bridges. With Bridges' death the mill fell into decay. The land surrounding it was laid out as a bowling green and pleasure garden. The mill was used as a camera obscura, and from time to time for firework displays under the direction of "Signor Castileo.” In 1873, with the aid of gunpowder, Chapman's windmill was demolished.
The area in the above picture, where once this row of buildings stood, is little changed even today. The buildings shown were positioned between
Windmill Street and
Florence Street on
Holloway Head, a short distance from the present twin tower blocks and the Radisson Hotel.
The layout of the streets in this area have changed little since the photograph was taken. In 1870 there was little more in the area than can be seen in the photograph. Behind the cottages was open land which was farmed during the 18th and 19th centuries and a windmill, known as Chapman's Mill, after Samuel Chapman who built it in the 1740s, it lent itself to the name of the nearby Windmill Street.
Ernest Street was cut through the middle of this row of buildings shortly after their demolition, as was
Florence Street which is just off the right hand edge of the image. The current petrol station is built on the site of the old Dog and Duck Inn (the building with the canopy on the left). In 1869 this row of buildings consisted of
The Dog and Duck (no.89), a Baker (no.86-7), a Butcher (no.84-5), a Greengrocer (no.82), a General Basket Maker (no.80) and the
Bowling Green Inn next door at number 79 (nearest the camera).
The area changed from mainly rural and became industrial in nature, many small factories sprung up in the 1870s and 1880s, producing allsorts from lamps and bonnets, metal works, a brass foundry and sewing machine parts.