Conditions in 19th century West Bromwich

[homeguard]

Hi, I wonder if any one would be able to help in knowing what type of area Parsonage Street and All Saints Street were like in the 19th century, working or middle class areas of the Parish, terraced housing or villas that type of thing. I have tried to look at the maps of the area with no luck. With help from people on this site I have a better general idea of what life was like but it would be good to narrow things down a bit, perhaps its not possible but many thanks anyway.

[BumbleB]

Take your pick!!

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=18&lat=52.5308&lon=-1.9885&layers=6&right=BingHyb

[BumbleB]

Just a thought, I'm assuming that you have people living there in the various census years - occupations ?

[Vimto]

Perhaps check out the wealth of historical resources available at Black Country History:
http://blackcountryhistory.org/

[homeguard]

Yes I have them from 1841 through to 1871, at various times Parish Clerk, Provision Dealer and finally Annuitant, and in January 1860 in the court of insolvent debtors [found through the kindness of people on here ] and in Stafford Gaol !    Though out by the census of 1861 when back trading as Provisions Dealer .  Thanks I will have a look at the suggested links.

[ciderdrinker]

Hello
When i was a child in the 70's the area was terraced housing.Quite rural and countryfied. Allotments by the old workhouse in Hallam St.The lodge for Dartmouth Hall at Church Vale.Posh working class.
By the Chruch at the top of All Saints St was the big Vicarage with it's own wash house and stables.
There were several big houses around the Church itself.Victorian Villas -The Elms  was one  just north at Holyhedge lane.
Google the Ring of Bells pub and you can see houses in All Saints St behind.It was quite nice.Dagger Lane was posher but Parsonage St  seemed to be small houses for the servants in the 'Big Houses'.
Nice countryside nearby even if the houses were small.Not a poor slum area.

Ciderdrinker

[homeguard]

Thank you, it seems to have been not too bad a place to live considering how industrialised the surrounding area was at the time, many thanks.

[PaulStaffs]

The terraced housing still standing around Church Vale is late 19th/early 20th century. That area was always seen as one of the better off places when I lived in West Bromwich in the 1960s onward. That said, I think some of the properties in nearby Tenscore Street were rather more down-market! The Ring o' Bells as you'll no doubt discover was the pub "where beer is sold by the pound" (that is, it was next to an old animal pound/pinfold).

If you look back at the start of the century, the area around Parsonage Street was very sparsely populated - the 'centre' of West Brom was at nearby Lyndon but of course All Saints has been in existence for at least a millennium. This photograph shows a range of cottages adjacent to the church and no doubt many houses in the area in the first half of the 19th c. were very similar.

[homeguard]

Thanks PaulStaffs, your description helps to fill in some of the background detail to where they lived, thanks.