seanlutwyche
proper brummie kid
Good Morning,
This is my first time posting in 17 years (back when I was 23)!
I've accumulated a wealth of information on my surname Lutwyche, and my other family names, over the years - but I still manage to find out new stuff about my more immediate family.
I'm originally from Birmingham, but due to circumstance, I moved to Walsall last January - currently living in Pelsall. Yesterday, I was applying for a job in Burntwood. As I was looking on Maps to see how I'd navigate to and from work, I realised it was a stone's throw from where my father was born in Chasetown. Then I started wondering (again) what made my grandparents move all the way from Wheeler Street, Birmingham to Chasetown, Staffordshire! I never got to ask my grandparents or my father that question before they all passed.
So, I got chatting to Google AI (!), and I ended up being presented with, perhaps, the very possible reason for their relocation...
From what I learned, in the 1950s and early 1960s, Birmingham began its demolishing of old back-to-back housing to build modern tower blocks. To cope with the displaced population, the government created what was called "overspill agreements" with surrounding Staffordshire towns. Chasetown itself was expanding rapidly on old agricultural land (like Springhill Farm).
At the time of my grandparents marriage on Boxing Day 1961 at St Chad's Cathedral, both were living at '6 back 68 Wheeler Street, Lozells'. I assume this to be my grandfather's family home, as his brother was noted as still living there in 1964.
Between 1962 and 1967, I believe, the houses on Wheeler Street were being cleared. My grandparents and family would have been facing imminent demolition of their courtyard house, and would have been offered a "clean break," and perhaps would have taken up the Chasetown overspill offer.
Subsequently, my father was born on 'Plot 97 Springhill Farm Estate, Chasetown, Walsall' on 8 April 1964. My aunt, almost a year later on 14 April, was also born there. Eventually, they all ended up back in Birmingham, but I really don't know when. Before then, definitely in 1976, my grandparents were landlord/lady of the Albion Inn, in Tividale Road, Tipton. Then, at some point shortly after, they all ended up in Wyrley Road, Witton.
At the point of my parents marriage in 1985, my mother was living in George Road, Erdington with her parents, and my father was still at Wyrley Road with his. Then in early 1986, when I was a few months old, we moved to Deykin Avenue, Witton (round the corner from Wyrley Road). My parents split around 1990-1, and my father ended up living off Unett Street for the rest of his life, in the residential housing that would have been erected after the back-to-back demolitions 20 years previous!
And now here I am in Walsall, applying for a job half-a-mile from where my father lived his early years!
Anyway, I'm curious as to where 68 Wheeler Street was actually situated, if anyone's got any old maps from the 1960s.
Thanks for reading
This is my first time posting in 17 years (back when I was 23)!
I've accumulated a wealth of information on my surname Lutwyche, and my other family names, over the years - but I still manage to find out new stuff about my more immediate family.
I'm originally from Birmingham, but due to circumstance, I moved to Walsall last January - currently living in Pelsall. Yesterday, I was applying for a job in Burntwood. As I was looking on Maps to see how I'd navigate to and from work, I realised it was a stone's throw from where my father was born in Chasetown. Then I started wondering (again) what made my grandparents move all the way from Wheeler Street, Birmingham to Chasetown, Staffordshire! I never got to ask my grandparents or my father that question before they all passed.
So, I got chatting to Google AI (!), and I ended up being presented with, perhaps, the very possible reason for their relocation...
From what I learned, in the 1950s and early 1960s, Birmingham began its demolishing of old back-to-back housing to build modern tower blocks. To cope with the displaced population, the government created what was called "overspill agreements" with surrounding Staffordshire towns. Chasetown itself was expanding rapidly on old agricultural land (like Springhill Farm).
At the time of my grandparents marriage on Boxing Day 1961 at St Chad's Cathedral, both were living at '6 back 68 Wheeler Street, Lozells'. I assume this to be my grandfather's family home, as his brother was noted as still living there in 1964.
Between 1962 and 1967, I believe, the houses on Wheeler Street were being cleared. My grandparents and family would have been facing imminent demolition of their courtyard house, and would have been offered a "clean break," and perhaps would have taken up the Chasetown overspill offer.
Subsequently, my father was born on 'Plot 97 Springhill Farm Estate, Chasetown, Walsall' on 8 April 1964. My aunt, almost a year later on 14 April, was also born there. Eventually, they all ended up back in Birmingham, but I really don't know when. Before then, definitely in 1976, my grandparents were landlord/lady of the Albion Inn, in Tividale Road, Tipton. Then, at some point shortly after, they all ended up in Wyrley Road, Witton.
At the point of my parents marriage in 1985, my mother was living in George Road, Erdington with her parents, and my father was still at Wyrley Road with his. Then in early 1986, when I was a few months old, we moved to Deykin Avenue, Witton (round the corner from Wyrley Road). My parents split around 1990-1, and my father ended up living off Unett Street for the rest of his life, in the residential housing that would have been erected after the back-to-back demolitions 20 years previous!
And now here I am in Walsall, applying for a job half-a-mile from where my father lived his early years!
Anyway, I'm curious as to where 68 Wheeler Street was actually situated, if anyone's got any old maps from the 1960s.
Thanks for reading
