People Associated with Castle Bromwich Archives - Page 3 of 3

John Gibson – the Castle Bromwich Architect

March 10, 2015 by William Dargue Leave a Comment

John Gibson was the second son of yeoman farmer Richard Gibson who rented a substantial acreage on the Chester Road opposite Whateley Green and was described as a horse breeder, grazier, cattle dealer and chapman. In a document of 1834 Richard is described as a gentleman, showing him to be a man of local status, wealth and influence.

He must have been successful and he certainly had ideas for his son who was not baptised at the local parish church of St Mary & St Margaret, but at the prestigious St Philip’s church in Birmingham where an annual rental had to be paid to secure a pew.

John showed early academic promise and attended King Edward’s Grammar School in New Street. He also demonstrated an early talent for architecture, designing a hen house of ‘extraordinary beauty and classic design’.

Apprenticed to Joseph Hansom and Charles Barry

On leaving school Gibson trained for a while in a Birmingham builder’s practice and was then successful in obtaining apprenticeship with Joseph Hansom who was building Birmingham Town Hall. On Hansom’s bankruptcy after 1832, he completed the remaining years of his pupillage under Charles Barry in Westminster contributing to the drawings of the new Houses of Parliament.

After finishing his apprenticeship, Gibson stayed with Barry, still working of the Houses of Parliament, until 1844 when he won a competition to design the Glasgow branch of the National Bank of Scotland and he set up on his own account. The building was designed in Italian palazzo style and made Gibson’s reputation. (When the building was threatened with demolition under redevelopment plans in 1903, it was dismantled with 70,000 numbered stones taken some three miles to be rebuilt as Langside Public Halls.)

(In March 1847 John Gibson’s father was declared bankrupt in the Birmingham District Court; he may have been one of the many victims of the ‘Year of Panic’, a combination of agricultural problems and stock market uncertainty.)

A Prolific And Varied Career

Gibson was a prolific architect and designed many high status buildings across the country: churches, banks, company offices and country houses. Of note is the work he carried out for the Lucy family on the church and hall at Charlecote Park in the late 1840s and, unusually, the laying out of Cannon Hill Park in Birmingham in 1873, setting a standard for public parks which were then in their infancy.

In 1864 he began work with the National Provincial Bank, designing the head office in Threadneedle Street and many branches nationwide, including the one in Bennetts Hill, Birmingham. His last work was in 1883 after which he retired.

John Gibson's Grave — John Gibson’s Grave

In 1890 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Gibson died in December 1892 at his Westminster home and was buried beneath a very large monument in Kensal Green Cemetery, London.

Images:
National Provincial Bank, Bennetts Hill, Birmingham; image by Tiger on Geograph reusable under a Creative Commons licence.

John Gibson’s mausoleum at Kensal Green Cemetery; image by Stephen C Dickson reusable under a Creative Commons licence.

Eric Birch: the first Castle Bromwich casualty of World War I

March 4, 2015 by William Dargue Leave a Comment

Over 16 million people died during the Great War. The first casualty from Castle Bromwich was Rifleman Eric Gordon Birch, a regular soldier aged 24, whose name is one of the 32 commemorated on the War Memorial on The Green.

Before he was born, Eric’s parents, Thomas and Clara had moved from Stechford to Castle Bromwich, both rural areas at that time. Thomas was a jeweller and was presumably doing very well as they moved to The Beeches, a large house on the Coleshill Road on the edge of Hodge Hill Common.

Eric Birch was born in 1889 and christened at Castle Bromwich church by Rev Richard Rigden.

The 1891 Census lists eight children in the family home aged between one and 18 years. Thomas was only two years old at the time and his name is not recorded in the census, he must have been away from home on the night the census was recorded.

Eric was only nine in 1898 when his mother, Clara died at the age of 46. His father remarried the following year, so Eric had a step-mother, Ampless Fox to care for him. The census of 1901 recorded Thomas’s job at that time as that of Foreign Stamp Importer.

Joins the King’s Royal Rifles

By 1911 Eric, now 21, had joined the army as a regular soldier and had been promoted to Lance Corporal with the 2nd Battalion, King’s Royal Rifles. He was stationed at Shorncliffe Camp in Kent which was soon to be used as a staging post for the British Expeditionary Force en route to France during the First World War.

The 2nd Battalion are known to have returned from India in 1910, so it is likely that Eric had served there. However, Eric’s service record has not survived; many were destroyed by bombing during World War 2. Brief information from his medal index card records that he entered the Theatre of War on 13 August 1914.

Britain had declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, Eric may have then been at Aldershot Garrison. One month later, Eric now aged 24 landed at Le Havre, a member of first British force en route for Belgium.

Halting the German Advance

Eric’s rifle corps took part in the battles of Mons and the Marne, part of a line holding back the initial German advance towards Paris. On 14 September at daybreak his battalion had orders to cross the Aisne river. The morning was wet and foggy and visibility was very poor.

The 2nd Battalion of the King’s Royal Rifles were part of the advance around the village of Cerny-en-Laonnois. The Germans had the geographical advantage and halted the British who were to lose 2000 men on that day, one of whom was Rifleman Birch. (Altogether it is thought that some 12,000 were killed during the Battle of the Aisne.)

The battle was inconclusive and, in order to keep their positions, the British dug trenches, the first of the war. And the Germans followed suit. It was the beginning of a type of warfare that would typify the Western Front of the First World War and would eventually stretch along the whole of the front line from the English Channel to the Swiss border.

La Ferte Sous Jouarre War Memorial — La Ferte-sous-Jouarre War Memorial

The dead were later buried in war graves; those who could not be unidentified had a gravestone marked with the words ‘Known Unto God’. The fatalities of this engagement are commemorated at the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial which shows the names of almost 4000 British soldiers who fell near here between August and October 1914.

In 1920 Lady Ida, the Countess of Bradford unveiled the War Memorial on Castle Bromwich Green, which also bears the name of Rifleman Eric Gordon Birch alongside that of her own son, Cmdr Richard Bridgeman.

Acknowledgements: This article has been developed from research by Terrie Knibb and the Castle Bromwich Youth & Community Partnership. For more information about the Castle Bromwich Graveyard Project go to http://castlebromwichgraveyard.co.uk/.

The photograph of Castle Bromwich War Memorial is By Carl Baker on Geograph and is reusable under a Creative Commons licence. The the image of La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial is in the public domain.

Richard Bridgeman, a Hero of the Great War laid to rest in Africa

March 2, 2015 by William Dargue Leave a Comment

Richard Bridgeman was the fifth child of George Bridgeman, 4th Earl of Bradford and Lady Ida. He was born on 15 July 1879 and baptised at Castle Bromwich church – the family lived at Castle Bromwich Hall. Richard ‘s godfather was the former prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, a close friend of the family who had recently been ennobled by Queen Victoria as Lord Beaconsfield from whom Richard took his middle name.

In 1898 Richard Bridgeman joined the Royal Navy. He sailed as First Lieutenant on the Royal Yacht, RMS Medina on the voyage of King George V and Queen Mary to India in 1911-1912, and was promoted to Flag Commander when that ship was put back into public service. (Richard Bridgeman’s mother, Lady Ida was a close friend of Queen Mary.)

Awarded DSO

When the First World War began he served in Africa and was made a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) by the King in 1915. His citation stated that he had ‘displayed great courage and coolness . . . though subjected to a heavy and accurate fire . . . worthy of the best traditions of the Royal Navy.’

He had been in command of two whaling ships with orders to board and destroy the SS Markgraf in Tanga Harbour, the military port of German East Africa, now mainland Tanzania. Due to heavy fire from German guns on land, Bridgeman was unable to carry out the task and the German ship was subsequently destroyed by HMS Severn which had been covering the raid.

Mentioned in Despatches

He also took part in the attack on the German cruiser SMS Königsberg in the Battle of the Rufiji Delta in German East Africa in 1915 and was mentioned in the despatches of the Vice Admiral of the Fleet.

In January 1917 Cmdr Bridgeman was undertaking reconnaissance flights as the observer around the Rufiji River delta in a seaplane operating from the depot ship HMS Hyacinth. Squadron Leader, Flight Lieutenant Edwin Moon was in the pilot’s seat. As they were making their way back to the ship, the seaplane’s engine failed and Moon was forced to land in a creek of the river. He was unable to get the engine started again and they decided to burn the plane.

Desperate Attempt To Evade Germans

The two men walked and waded and swam for three days making for the mouth of the river where the Hyacinth was moored. Finally they managed to make a raft from the resources of the jungle. Unfortunately the raft was swept out to sea and Bridgeman died of exposure. The raft then floated back to land where Moon was captured by German troops to spend the remainder of the War as a prisoner of war in Africa. He was awarded the DSO for ‘the greatest gallantry in attempting to save the life of his companion.’

Memorial Plaque — The Plaque in Christ Church Cathedral, Zanzibar

Richard Bridgeman’s body was recovered and later buried in the war cemetery in Dar-es-Salaam and, after the War, his family had a plaque put up in Christ Church Anglican Cathedral in Zanzibar.

In 1920 his mother, the Countess of Bradford unveiled the War Memorial on Castle Bromwich Green bearing the names of local men who had died fighting for their country in the Great War.

A Great War Memorial Plaque, Presented to — A Great War Memorial Plaque, presented to the the Bridgeman family in memory of their son

Her own son’s name is one of those carved on the Altar of Remembrance.

William Moorwood Staniford

February 25, 2015 by William Dargue Leave a Comment

William Moorwood Staniforth was born in Hackenthorpe near Sheffield in 1884. He had joined the army as a regular soldier before the outbreak of the First World War serving with the Queen’s Own Yorkshire Dragoons Yeomanry based in Sheffield. He rose to the rank of sergeant and was awarded the Long Service medal. When war broke out, he was sent with his regiment to France and Flanders on active service where he served until December 1915. In January 1916 William was enrolled with the Royal Flying Corps to be trained as a pilot with the 28th Reserve Squadron at Castle Bromwich. He was promoted to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.

Later that year William Staniforth was married. The details of the wedding were reported in the West Yorkshire Post on 1st July 1916. The previous Saturday William had married Gladys Burrows at St Mary’s, the parish church of Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire. The marriage was presided over by Rev A S Commeline, rector of Beaconsfield, coincidentally formerly of York.

It is likely that William had met Gladys while in Sheffield. Gladys was the second daughter of Mr and Mrs Sam Burrows, then living in Beaconsfield but formerly of Sheffield.

Short Lived Happiness

Gladys’s happiness was to be short-lived. The next year Gladys’s father died and was buried in Shepherd’s Lane Cemetery just along the road from the parish church where his daughter’s wedding had been celebrated.

And then in March, Gladys’s husband of only 9 months crashed his plane while training at Castle Bromwich aerodrome and was killed outright. He was 32 years old. William Staniforth was buried in Castle Bromwich graveyard with others who had shared the same sad fate.

William Staniforth Memorial Inscription — William Staniforth Memorial

A tablet was erected in William’s memory bearing the words: To the dear memory of Billie, killed while on flying duty in England, Gladys. Gladys also had her husband’s name inscribed on her father’s gravestone at Beaconsfield.

After the war ended Gladys remarried and was last heard with her husband in Southern Rhodesia at the site of a prospective gold mine.

William Hutton in Castle Bromwich

April 4, 2014 by William Dargue Leave a Comment

William Hutton (1723 – 1815) is noted as Birmingham’s first historian and he has a connection with Castle Bromwich.

Hutton published the first history of Birmingham in 1782; the book, which went through a number of editions, is one which is still referred to today for its take on the 18th-century town. As a non-conformist he was targeted during the 1791 Priestley Riots and escaped to safety in Castle Bromwich

18th-century Birmingham was a centre of non-conformity with a large number of chapels of all sorts of persuasions. Because it was a town with no ancient guilds or trade restrictions, it attracted influential thinkers, scientists and entrepreneurs, many of whom were dissenters. One such, Joseph Priestley, scientist, philosopher, activist and Presbyterian minister, declared in his ‘Sermon on the Slave Trade’ in 1788: “We should interest ourselves not only for our relations, and particular friends; not only for our countrymen; not only for Europeans, but for the distressed inhabitants of Asia, Africa, or America; and not only for Christians, but for Jews, Mahometans, and Infidels”.

This was very radical thinking for the time and genuinely disturbing for those whose self-interest was invested in the status quo.

Many non-conformists looked to the French Revolution of 1789 as having been a great blow for freedom, an event which shook off the shackles of a dictatorial monarchy and established church.

Friday 14 July 1791
On Friday 14 July 1791 some dissenting gentlemen arranged to meet at the elegant Dadley’s Hotel in Birmingham town centre. (The hotel stood on the present site of the House of Fraser department store, facing St Philip’s churchyard and opposite St Philip’s Place). For five shillings ‘friends of freedom’ were invited to share a dinner to celebrate the second anniversary of the French Revolution. They were careful to include in their advertisement in Aris’s Gazette, the declaration: ‘Vivant Rex et Regina’ – Long live the King and Queen.

Neither William Hutton nor Joseph Priestley was present at the dinner.

During the meal, stones were thrown through the windows of Dadley’s Hotel by a crowd of protestors outside whose cry was “Church & King”. It has never been proved, but is strongly suspected that these Birmingham working men were encouraged to riot. It is almost certain that they had been given money and alcohol, probably by members of the Anglican and royalist establishment who had real fears that what had happened in France might also happen in England. They were worried that their way of life was in serious danger should an English Revolution take place.

The riot outside Dadley’s was just the beginning. For three days gangs of drunken rioters burned and looted and the houses of wealthy dissenting families around Birmingham. A number of non-conformists chapels were burned that night and the next day Joseph Priestley’s house in Sparkbrook was destroyed along with his laboratory and scientific research papers.

Saturday 15 July 1791
On the Saturday morning William Hutton’s town house and book shop on the High Street (now the site of Waterstone’s book shop) went up in flames and Hutton fled to his country house on Washwood Heath (It stood on the hill on Washwood Heath Road opposite Bennetts Road).

018b William Huttons house Washwood Heath — The Hutton’s country house on Washwood Heath.

Hutton was warned that the rioters were going to destroy that house too, so he stored as much furniture as he could in the barn of a one of his neighbour’s. In the meantime the riotous mob arrived and his house was set alight. The neighbour, fearing that his own house would be burned, ordered Hutton to remove his furniture from the barn. His furniture was to suffer the same fate as his house.

Hutton then managed to secure the services of a coachman and the family made their escape along Washwood Heath Road and the Coleshill Road to the inn at Castle Bromwich. The inn was the Bridgeman Arms, a building which still stands on the Chester Road close to Castle Bromwich Hall. It is no longer an inn but is now divided into two private houses known as Delamare and Wayside.

However, Hutton considered Castle Bromwich to be too near the scene of the action and decided to move on. He ordered a post chaise to take him to Sutton Coldfield, some seven miles away.

The family booked in at The Three Tuns, an inn which is still open for business on Sutton High Street. However, by the evening, news of the riots had reached the landlady; she believed that her guests would cause her own house to be burnt and ordered then out. So the unfortunate family then took a coach to Tamworth where they spent the night at the Castle Inn, another hostelry which still thrives.

Sunday 17 July 1791
Hutton rose early on the Sunday morning thinking that he should go back to Washwood Heath and Birmingham to save what he could of his possessions. So he decided to return to Castle Bromwich. He was in despair. He later wrote:
‘The lively sky, and bright sun, seemed to rejoice the whole creation, and dispel every gloom but mine.’

It is difficult to know by which route the family returned to Castle Bromwich. Hutton says that they crossed the country to Castle Bromwich ‘by a road which never chaise went before, and of which we walked nearly a mile.’ While the turnpike roads were not always well maintained, they were certainly passable by coaches. Stage coach services ran regularly on roads between Birmingham, Tamworth, Coleshill, Kingsbury and Castle Bromwich. It may be that the Huttons used poorly metalled side roads and avoided the turnpikes either to avoid suspicion and detection or simply because they had not the money to pay for the tolls.

018c William Hutton and the 1791 Riots - Bridgeman Arms — Bridgeman Arms on the Chester Road, now private residences: Delamare and Wayside.
Photograph: William Dargue.

While the family were staying at the Bridgeman Arms in Castle Bromwich, a stranger was shown in. He was returning from a journey and had heard about the Hutton family’s misfortunes. He knew that they must be in financial straits and, although he had not much money on him, was happy to give what he had to tide them over their current difficulties. William Hutton described him as ‘a real gentleman.’

Hutton discovered later that the man was one John Finch, a banker of Dudley, a non-conformist and a man well-known in his own district for his charitable deeds.

After the Huttons had eaten, William decided to go and see what was left of his house on Washwood Heath. On the way he was unlucky to come across some of the rioters, who were pushing cartloads of goods stolen from Lady Carhampton’s house, Moseley Hall. Hutton was recognised and abused verbally, though not physically, the rioters shouting, “Down with the Pope!” In his memoir, Hutton commented on the sad ignorance of his abusers. As a non-conformist, Hutton was at the opposite end of the religious spectrum to the Pope.

Hutton found his house to be in ruins, still smouldering, and with nothing left to save.

When he returned to Castle Bromwich, he found more rioters at the door of the Bridgeman Arms with cartloads of stolen booty, some of the items, no doubt, being Hutton’s own possessions. He did not dare to enter the inn and hid behind a hedge.

He stayed hidden there until night fell, waiting for the rioters to move on. While he was still in hiding, some anxious villagers approached him. They were worried for their own safety and begged him to leave. However, with his family hidden inside, he would not.

After a while he was approached by a stranger who addressed him by name and informed him that he had seen soldiers of the light-horse brigade passing through Sutton on their way to restore order in Birmingham. Hutton’s immediate troubles were over, though it would be a long time before his house and fortunes were restored.

Monday 18 July 1791
The next morning William Hutton left Castle Bromwich with his family. Passing the burned out ruin of his house on Washwood Heath, he made his way into town to find his town house and shop on the High Street also in ruins. However, he was warmly welcomed back by friends, who were much relieved to find him unharmed, and no less than seventeen of them offered him accommodation in their own houses.