Bits and Bobs: July 2022

I began the day by stopping into St. Phillip's Church, completed in 1715, to view the Pre-Raphaelite-inspired stained glass windows designed by Birmingham-born artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones.

I then took the 50 Bus to St. Anne's Church in Digbeth, a neighborhood which is currently undergoing redevelopment. For much of its history, Digbeth has been Irish and poor. If my information is correct, St. Anne's Church is where my parents first met, at a dance. The church was built in 1884 on the site of an old distillery. The writer J.R.R Tolkien attended service at St. Anne's, when he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1900. I stopped into the Birmingham Irish Association, next door to the church, and spoke with a woman who explained that the Irish dances in the 1950s took place in the building adjoining the Birmingham Irish Association. She could not show me the hall just then because it was being used for a meeting, but I snuck a peek.

I then walked to Mosely Road, only a few minutes away. Before my parents moved to the neighbourhood of Aston, they rented a room on Mosely Road presumably in Digbeth. Today, I discovered, traversing it via the 50 Bus, that Mosely Road is a very long road. Close to St. Anne's Church, Mosely Road is a neighbourhood with a lot of Irish. Then, for a very long stretch, Mosely Road morphs into a north African neighbourhood, occupied mostly, it seems, by Moroccans. Finally Mosely Road ends up in a gentrified area, where I stopped for a salad and an Americano at Maison Mayci, manged by two brothers from France.

This evening I am going out for a pint at the Shakespeare Inn, which a taxi driver recommended, telling me to put away my camera and meet some people. Tomorrow I return to London. What a wonderful few days it has been in this amazing city, home of, among other things, Bird's Custard, HP Sauce, Cadbury Chocolate, and Black Sabbath. I hope to return again before long.

Entrance to St. Anne's Church

The Building on Far Left was the Dance Hall

Entrance to the Dance Hall

Building with a Cross was the Dance Hall
Where my Parents Reportedly First Met

Black Sabbath, Four Lads from Aston

Back in the City Centre

Entrance to Primark Store

Today I went looking for something that no longer exists, in the city of 1,000 trades, and found all that remains. I was interested in the proximity of places that have gone, to places that have remained.

28 Loveday Street is no longer. The maternity hospital in the Gun Quarter, where guns were once openly manufactured, sold and traded, has vanished. In its place is a non-descript modern building on the corner with a large banner advertising "MF Handbags." This was once a sacred portal into this world by countless crying babies. Within a few blocks of this site are a few Victorian public houses that my parents would have likely passed at one time or another. These include The Bull, the Queen's Arms, and the Gunmaker's Arms. Also close-by is St. Chad's, a Roman Catholic church familiar to my parents as I believe they used to attend dances there.

In the Ward of Nechells, I tired to find 115 Aston Hall Road. There's barely a neighbourhood there now. It's mostly warehouses and industrial plants. There are scant visible addresses. "Is it safe to walk here?" I asked a few people who seemed surprised at my query. "Aston is very safe," I was told. Indeed, I felt more safe walking around Aston, than I did in most neighbourhoods in San Francisco. There is a growing population of Chinese people in Aston. 115 Aston Hall Road is gone, but nearby Aston Tavern remains open for business. Also nearby is the beautiful Aston Parish Anglican Church. My parents must have regularly heard its church bells ringing. Finally, my parents lived close to peaceful Aston Park, with its grand old mansion-house, Aston Hall.

Built in the reign of James I, son of Mary Queen of Scots, Aston Hall is huge. King Charles I, son of James I, once slept at Aston Hall, before he had his head cut off for treason. With a plenitude of rooms and old staircases, and all the floor boards creaking, no one was appreciating the house more than the children I saw inside.

Still in Nechells, I visited St. Joseph's Church on Thimble Mill Lane. The church was closed, but I could see inside through the entry door's glass. Behind the church in a small building adjoined to the church, I heard voices and entered a room where a group of men were meeting. It appeared to be some kind of support group. One of the men stepped outside and spoke with me. He told me that his name was Michael, that he was Irish, that St. Joseph's was his church and that the priest was away. I would have liked to see the baptismal fount, but I was just pleased to see the church. And what a beautiful church. St. Joseph's opened in 1850 as a mortuary chapel for the newly opened Roman Catholic cemetery, the only one in Birmingham at that time. Within a few decades the gothic building was enlarged and St. Joseph's School opened beside the church. After WW1, much of Aston was slums, with many homes destroyed or uninhabitable because of the war. The area was slated for redevelopment, but redevelopment did not start until years after WW2. The quaint church today is surrounded by trees and gravestones, and it is very quiet. I felt as if I were in the countryside.

I then visited St. Joseph's School, now on Rocky Lane, not far from the church. The friendly woman in the office, told me that old St, Joseph's School, which was close to St. Joseph church, was demolished in the 1990s.

I took the 67 Bus via Litchfield Road, back to the city centre. I remember my parents once speaking to me of Litchfield Road but I forget what they said.

An old Pub on Lichfield Road

The Swan and the Mitre

An Interesting Building on Litchfield Road

The Aston Tavern at 10 Aston Hall Road
Aston Parish Anglican Church is behind the Tavern

Aston Hall Road
My parents' old neighbourhood is now an industrial park.

I surmise that where these industrial and warehouse units
are now located (close to Aston Tavern but on the opposite side
of the road) is where 115 Aston Hall Road was located.