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st. michael st.

C

clareharvey800

Guest
hi folks,

can anyone give me some info on st mich street west brom pls...

is there a row of shops at st. michael st,

my g grandfather owned and ran a tabbaconist on this street, at a couple of different numbers, 16, 18 and 26. sometime between 1880 and 1920

his name was timothy doyle. born 1852 swinford, mayo ireland.

i would love some info on the street, type of housing , and the shops pls.

thanks to anyone that replies....

oh and photos would be good too...

clare x
 
clareharvey800 said:
hi folks,

can anyone give me some info on st mich street west brom pls...

is there a row of shops at st. michael st,

my g grandfather owned and ran a tabbaconist on this street, at a couple of different numbers, 16, 18 and 26. sometime between 1880 and 1920

his name was timothy doyle. born 1852 swinford, mayo ireland.

i would love some info on the street, type of housing , and the shops pls.

thanks to anyone that replies....

oh and photos would be good too...

clare x
Click to expand...


Here he is in 1892
 
Clare
Here is a photo of St michaels st in 1963. Seems to be all shops then . The map shows (red arrow, from where picture was taken. The chapelchurch is on the l.h.s. at the far end. Unfortunately the Staffs directory doesn't list a street directory, so have no idea as to where exactly the newsagents were, but in 1904:
Doyle Timothy Martin, tobacconist, 18 St. Michael's st
In 1924
Duffeld Maud F. (Mrs.), tobacconist, 22 St. Michael's st

No 32 is the newspaper office (chronicle sign) on the right of the picture

In the 1940 directory no 23A is Arthur Barnsley, hairdresser. This means that the shop with the cinema placards outside on the left might be 23A, but there is a long time between 1940 and 1962 when the picture was taken.


mike
 
I am the owner of the West Bromwich site mentioned (www.west-bromwich-photos.co.uk) and the photo mikejee has given in post #4# hasn't changed much from that apart from all the shops on the right have gone, the shops on the left are still there but with a change of use.
In it's time St Michaels St was really busy with local buses going up and down going to Paradise St and the shops were extremely busy.
The shops themselves were large buildings, some 3/4 floors high with grand windows and high ceilings and usually the shop owner lived above the shop.
Next time I am in this part of West Brom I will take my camera and give you a shot but I will need to work out which side of the road the even numbers were, if they were on the left as the mikejee photo shows then you are OK, but if the shops were on the right then they have all gone

Paul Swift
 
Mike Jee,
That is an interesting old map you produced - it shows the horse tram tracks as they were before electrification in 1903-4. And you can see the track going into the little 'depot' which was part of the undertaker B. Crowther's business. As a sideline he had a lease (I suppose we would call it a franchise today) to operate horse trams on the 'Lanes' route along Spon Lane from Smethwick, looping at Dartmouth Square via Paradise Street to run along Bromford Lane to Oldbury. By 1902 he kept 18 horses to draw his fleet of three horse trams, but he had held the lease (with some legal wrangling) since 1893, the owners (Birmingham and Midland Tramways Ltd) have given up running the steam trams they had operated since the line opened five years earlier - presumably because there wasn't enough traffic. The route wasn't exactly a money spinner either, but Black Country folk tended not to travel far in those days.
Peter
 
Peter #7#
I am impressed, How on earth did you know all of that and of course you are correct !

There was a chap (chris) who came onto our forums and his Graddfather, Henry Gadd was General Manager at Crowther's
Sorry Op if it's gone off topic a bit but I am really impressed with Peter !

Paul Swift
 
thanks folks for the replies, especailly swifty,, that would be great if you could take a photo for me.....you people are so good..


swifty?? i dont supose you are relatived to a george swift born 1824 in birmingham are you???

clare x
 
No Clare, our Swifts come from Lisnaskea, Northern Ireland !

Paul
 
ok,, thought i would ask... never mind...

thanks again

clare x
 
No problem Clare, there is another Family of Swift's in West Brom, when i see them I will ask if it's them !

Paul
 
Peter
Thanks for the information, full of interesting detail as usual. map was alan godfreys, as you probly realised
mike
 
Bad news Clare, 16, 18 and 26 St Michaels Street are not there anymore.
If you look on Mikejee's bus photo those shops on the left are still there but the even numbers on the right have long gone.
The shops on the right are odd numberes in their 20s so those shops you mentioned would be those shown on the right of the photo.
I was in West Brom this morning but forgot to take my camera, I will get a shot of the same spot next time I am up there and I will also take a shot of where those shops were
Sorry Clare, I was hoping those on the left were even numbers, but alas in the name of "progress" your Great Granfathers shops have gone :-(

Paul

www.west-bromwich-photos.co.uk
 
I find it quite challenging to research West Bromwich, Clare. I had family there & WB is less well documented than Birmingham, particularly with regard to photos. As a last resort you could access one of the map sites such as Google or Multimap & type in the address for a current view of the area. This strategy has been succesfull for me when I wanted the exact location of a shop at Carters Green.
I did look in the Alton Douglas book for St Michaels, but there was nothing so you can rule that book out.
https://www.multimap.com/maps/?zoom=15&title=Days%20Hotel&countryCode=GB&qs=B70%206JJ#map=52.51837,-1.99513|20|256&be=7441760|North&bd=useful_information&loc=GB:52.51542:-1.9889:15|B70%206JJ|B70%206JJ
 
#15#
You are quite correct, it can be challenging to find photos for West Brom, but there are some of them, but you have to dig hard
At Smethwick library (chas) they have HUGE collections of West Bromwich photos, documents, deeds, family records etc which people have donatedand there is a place in Stafford also which houses some West Brom bits & pieces, but I can't remember where just yet !

Here is the chas site
https://www.laws.sandwell.gov.uk/cc...itage/community-history-and-archives-service/

Here is another site showing West Brom photos, if you put in "West Bromwich" in the search box and tick the images tab they will come in

https://www.blackcountryhistory.org.uk/blackcountry/default.aspx

Now, I have recently come across another excellent site which archives films from all over Central England, they have loads of clips at hand but have only had a short time to add them to the site gradually.
If you put your area in the search box it will come in all that they have, if you choose the "Title with video" from the drop down it will show just the ones they have managed to put on the internet

https://www.macearchive.org/Home.html

The mace site will be interesting in a few years time when they have managed to add a few more

Paul

www.west-bromwich-photos.co.uk
 
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