I lived in something similar for almost the entire 1950s. Dad went to work, and Mum ran the shop, while my brother and I concentrated on growing up. The shop was slightly more than a front room and possibly could not have supported a family, but on top of Dad’s money provided a pleasant life with few concerns about paying bills. I am sorry it wasn’t within the B’ham boundary, but since my memory of those times is good, I hope this is of interest.
The premises was a Butler’s Brewery (Wolverhampton) tied house, with three storied living accommodation with seven bedrooms and an indoor bathroom plus an outside loo. There was a large lean to kitchen, with two storerooms leading off, a brick and glass greenhouse, and two large stables with haylofts above. As this was before the days of such places as B & Q, Dad started a timber business, selling timber cut to length, either planed or rough. The stock was bought in from merchants and collected by Dad in a trailer behind his car. 12 foot planks were delivered by the suppliers and stored through a trapdoor between the stable and the hayloft.
I think that the place might have been a small commercial hotel in the past as the doors on the (unused) top floor rooms had numbers screwed to them. There was a cellar beneath the shop, with appropriate built up stillages for barrels, and a beer engine in the shop, which Mum had removed to provide more counter space as the pumps stirred up the beer in the small barrels causing complaints about cloudy beer from the jug sales customers. Apart from the beer, she sold anything from biscuits, (Elkes of Uttoxeter), sweets and chocolate from Wilcox’s of Burton, and “Old Betty Plant’s” of Stoke, and general goods like washing powder and such bought from Belding’s of Walsall. Mum was always favoured with a visit from one of the Beldings for her order. Cigarettes, tobacco and “twist” came via Dobson of Stafford, and the relatively few perishable items were provided by Price and Webb in Stafford. I think that these wholesale businesses and their like must have now all disappeared as things changed in the 60s. Pop came from Corona, and was sold off the back of their lorry, no advance ordering but a monthly account as a trader.
One final recollection, the great day that the freezer arrived. Midland Counties Dairy from W’ton, eager to encourage ice cream sales, provided a freezer and Mum, ever the entrepreneur, expanded her empire to include frozen peas and fish fingers as well. My brother and I were almost in heaven at the thought of limitless ice cream, but we were kept on a very tight rein!