Category Archives: trades

Bit of a Bore

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Last night in the Horse & Jockey on Sandford Street, the Holden’s Golden Glow and the football were in full flow. The former was definitely more satisfying than the latter. As Spain made their millionth pass around the forty minutes mark, my mind started to wander. It wandered back to Bore St, where I was still trying to work out which of the ward banners belonged to this Lichfield ward and why (some of the name plaques underneath the flags were obscured when I went back to check).

Bore St ward banner?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It dawned on me that this flag showed the city maces, which are used in civic processions and date from 1664 and 1690. The centre of civic events in Lichfield is of course the Guildhall on Bore St where of course the flag is hanging. So I should probably  have worked this one out a bit quicker!

The maces being carried in the 2012 Lichfield Bower procession

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whilst we’re on the subject of football, what about the golden balls of the Lombard St ward banner? I didn’t know until now but Lombard is another name for a pawn broker, and of course this type of business has long been identified by this symbol. Wikipedia explains that the concept originated in the Lombardy region of Italy.

Lombard St was once known as Stowe St infra barras (i.e. the part of Stowe St inside the barrs (or gate) of the city). Did the name change occur when this kind of business was set up in the street? Or is there another reason?

Lombard Ward banner

A Flag Post

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Hanging in the main hall of Lichfield’s Guildhall are banners representing the city’s wards. I’ve read on an information sheet about the Guildhall that these flags were created in 1975, by students from Lichfield’s School of Art. However, I’m wondering if they are based on anything earlier or if they are just recent(ish) designs? It does seem possible that each ward may have had its own symbol in the past – talking about The Court of Array in 1805, Thomas Harwood said,

“The public officers of the city attend and various processions are made by the constables and dozeners of each ward who in these processions anciently bore tutelary saints but which are now converted into garlands of flowers or emblems of their trade”.

 

Now, I had written down which flag in the Guildhall related to which ward on a piece of paper but I left it at the pub over the jubilee weekend (Ye Olde Windmill in Gentleshaw where I had a lovely steak & ale pie.  In fact, as the name suggests there is a ruined old windmill in the grounds, so the pub probably deserves a post of its own). I’ve been back to the Guildhall several times since, but haven’t been able to get into the main hall for one reason or another.

I can remember all but two. I think. Some are definitely more obvious than others. I reckon the best thing to do is put the photos up and see if anyone has any ideas about which flag relates to which ward and why. In the meantime I’ll try and get back to the Guildhall to make another list and hold onto it this time!  

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By the way, there is no flag for Leomansley, so I’ll just have to design my own. If anyone from the Lichfield School of Art Class of 1975 wants to get in touch to give me a hand with this, or to share the story of how the other banners came to be made,  that would be fantastic!

(1) History, Gazeteeer & Directory of Staffordshire William White 1834

A Short Account of the City & Close of Lichfield’ by Thomas George Lomax, John Chappel Woodhouse, William Newling (1819)

Lichfield: Town government, A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14: Lichfield (1990), pp. 73-87

 

Shopping Daze

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Dam St is one of the most wonderful places in Lichfield, offering a winning combination of varied architecture, independent shops, duck feeding and ice-cream on route to the Cathedral. 

Three small signs above the shops at the Market Square end may well go unnoticed. They say ‘J Dean Putney Maker’ and have little hooks on them. A quick google search leads to the website of ‘Deans Blinds & Awnings’ established 1894 and tells how the company was started by a policeman’s son called Tom Dean, and was taken over by his brother John. It seems John Dean and subsequent generations of his family were involved in the ownership of Fulham FC as well as manufacturing blinds and awnings.

 

J Dean Putney

 

The listed buildings describes them as ‘late C19 shop fronts with bracketed cornice and canvas canopies’. Another look at these buildings and you can also see the chains attached to these awnings, which presumably must still be there, tucked away from sight. I wonder when they were rolled shut for the last time? What kind of shop was this when these canopies were added? There was a drapers & silk merchants in this area of Dam St in 1914, could this have been it?

J Dean 2 with Metal erm thing

On the second photo, there is also a metal….thing. I first came across these in Tamworth, where nearly every shop seems to have one albeit slightly newer looking.

Tamworth version of 'the metal thing'. They have lots of interesting things on buildings in Tamworth including mermaids.

Someone got in touch on flickr and suggested they were holders for flags or Christmas trees. I was in Bakewell in Derbyshire last week where they seem to be using them for the latter, as you can see here in the Matlock Mercury. Looks pretty, doesn’t it! I’m guessing the Dam St one was a flag holder but am more than happy to be proved wrong by memory or photographic evidence or just a convincing argument as to what else it might be 😉

You can also have a look at the Street View here, perhaps whilst eating a mincepie by a roaring fire (although it is out of date, as The Staffs Bookshop is now Realwoods).

Last weekend someone spotted something else interesting high up on another building in the city centre. I’m not saying anymore, as I’m hoping that they might consider doing something on this themselves. No matter how well you think you know your surroundings, there are always still things to discover. So whilst out and about shopping in the 8 (is that all!) shopping days left until Christmas try looking at Lichfield from a different angle. Who knows what you might notice…..

Edit 23/12/2011

Pat’s been on googlemaps and has spotted not only a whole load of these brackets on Tamworth St but also one actually in use outside the Scales! So I think that definitely answers this little Lichfield mystery!

A Cock & Bull Story

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Somehow I’d not spotted these cockerels on Tamworth St before! The cockerels (or chickens as I originally thought they were!) reminded me of some carved cow heads that BrownhillsBob spotted on an old Lichfield butchers shop a few months previous (the old Savers shop) and posted on his great #365daysofbiking blog .

The keystone says that the building was built in 1865.  16 years later the 1881 census for Tamworth St shows the following household:

Name  Relation Marital Status Gender Age Birthplace Occupation Disability

 Henry WELCH Head M Male 54 Rugeley, Stafford, England Poulterer  

 Elizabeth WELCH Wife M Female 56 Harefield, Middlesex, England    

 Louisa WELCH Dau U Female 25 Lichfield School Mistress  

 Arthur WELCH Son U Male 20 Lichfield Poulterers Assistant  

 Alice Mary WELCH Dau U Female 19 Lichfield Dressmaker  

 Elizabeth WELCH Dau U Female 17 Lichfield Pupil Teacher  

 Mary Ann WELCH Dau U Female 15 Lichfield Pupil Teacher  

A poultry dealer on Tamworth St! I think there’s a good chance Mr Henry Welch and his family may have been the occupants of this building? By the way, the rear of the building is also interesting as there is a cart entrance.

Roger Jones (@ziksby on Twitter) very kindly did a bit of investigating on the great historical directories website but could only find general butchers on Tamworth St. However, Henry Welch does turn up as a ‘grocer & poulterer’ in an 1870 directory on Market St, Lichfield. So, it seems at some point between then and 1881 he moved the business to Tamworth St. Did he add the cockerels at this time?

By coincidence, earlier that day I had a look at the mosaic on the landing at Lichfield Library.

Information alongside says:

“This mosaic was rescued by the Lichfield Civic Society in 1985 from the stallriser of 13 Tamworth St. It was restored by Adam Cecconi of Cecconi & Son, Small Heath Birmingham with monies granted by the Swinfen Broun Charitable Trust and is on loan to the college.”

I also found a couple of old adverts for butchers on Tamworth St in a January 1891 edition of the Lichfield Mercury.

HP Craddock Family Butcher, Tamworth St, Lichfield
Fresh Meat daily. Pickled tongue always on hand.

Quantrills Est. 1872
2 Tamworth St, Lichfield
Pork pie & sausage establishment. A great display of hams, porkpies & sausages which surpass any in the city for quality & cheapness. Pure leaf lard, pickled pork etc.
All orders promptly attended to.

Richard Bratby (@RichardBratby) also got in touch via twitter to say that he had seen a photograph of Quantrills and it was on the corner of Bakers Lane, but demolished when the Three Spires shopping centre was built. Richard also said that the photograph is in Heritage Centre collection, so I’ll have to pay them a visit.

I think it would be really interesting to see if any of the other shopfronts & buildings in Lichfield City centre still have clues to the trades that were carried on in them (I think I already found an old branch of Burtons!). If anyone does find any, please get in touch.