On 11th April 1921, Patrick Larkin, formerly a Private with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, died of tuberculosis at 6 Back 60, Bordesley Street, Birmingham. He was 25 years old and, according to his death certificate, had had TB for 12 months before his death. The local connection with Solihull is that he is buried at Olton Franciscan Friary.
Continue reading “11th April 1921”Opening of Chelmsley Wood Shopping Centre 1971
On Wednesday 7th April 1971 Her Majesty The Queen officially opened the new shopping centre at Chelmsley Wood, which was described as having space for around 70 shops, six stores and a number of boutiques.
Most of Chelmsley’s 40,000 population turned out for the Royal visit. Large crowds gathered along Bosworth Drive and the precinct itself to watch as the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh toured the centre and unveiled a commemorative plaque on the clock tower in Greenwood Square. Building firm Bryants, co-developers of the shopping centre with Samuel Properties, had provided local schools with six gross (864) of flags.
Continue reading “Opening of Chelmsley Wood Shopping Centre 1971”Cliff Joiner (1898-1973)
In its “Know your neighbour” feature of 3rd December 1960, the Solihull News focussed on Mr Clifford Arthur Joiner, the village photographer.
Continue reading “Cliff Joiner (1898-1973)”John Burman (1889-1955)
One of Solihull’s most notable historians, John Burman, was born in Eccles, Greater Manchester on 19th March 1889 and was the eldest of the four children of parents Edwin Guest Burman (1855-1920) and Gertrude Mary Wood (1866-1950). Edwin had been born in West Bromwich but moved to Lancashire c.1881.
Continue reading “John Burman (1889-1955)”Women’s History Month
In 2019, the Heritage Gallery at The Core, Solihull featured an exhibition of notable female Silhillians for Women’s History Month (pictured above).
Continue reading “Women’s History Month”18th February 1921
Former Private Leslie William Lively died at home in Shirley on 18th February 1921, aged 29. He was born in Birmingham on 28th May 1891 and was baptised at the parish church of his mother’s home town, Snitterfield, Warwickshire on 2nd August 1891. His parents were William (a painter and decorator) and Ellen (née Tallis), who had married in Hockley in 1890. The parish register lists William and Ellen’s abode at the time of their son’s baptism as Soho parish, Birmingham.
Kingshurst Hall Estate
The housing development at Kingshurst Hall Estate was the first time that Birmingham Corporation had ever built dwellings outside the city boundaries. It was also the first time that the council had a housing scheme that included owner-occupied housing as well as council housing.
It was an “overspill” housing estate, one of many created in the 1950s on the outskirts of large towns and cities to help relieve overcrowding in urban areas. The intention was to move people from decaying inner cities to better conditions in more rural areas.
12th February 1921
Henry James Fell, a former Private with the 1/8 Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, died on 12th February 1921 as a result of pneumonia following malaria. Known as Harry, he was born in Knowle in 1892 and was the only child of parents Stephen Henry Fell, a jobbing gardener, and Fanny Rebecca (née Fisher), a charwoman.
Continue reading “12th February 1921”11th February 1921
Hubert Lindsay Kearne, formerly a Private with the Devonshire Regiment, died on 11th February 1921 having drowned at Hastings. The coroner recorded a verdict of death by drowning, declaring that there was insufficient evidence as to how the young man came to be in the water.
Solihull Post Office Robbery, 1884
On Tuesday 29th January 1884, a man drove a horse and trap up to the Post Office on Solihull High Street and asked the postmistress to cash some postal orders. Whilst she was talking to him, another man in the shop seized £49 in gold from the counter, then jumped into the trap and both men rode off in the direction of Birmingham. A policeman followed them but did not managed to overtake them.
