Nechells

Nechells

The grade II listed public baths, opened 22 June 1910, on Nechells Park Road.
Nechells
 Nechells shown within the West Midlands
Population 33,957 (2011 Population Census)
   – density  32.20 per ha
OS grid referenceSP095895
Metropolitan boroughBirmingham
Metropolitan county West Midlands
RegionWest Midlands
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town BIRMINGHAM
Postcode district B7
Dialling code 0121
Police West Midlands
Fire West Midlands
Ambulance West Midlands
EU Parliament West Midlands
UK ParliamentBirmingham Ladywood
List of places
UK
England
West Midlands

Coordinates: 52°30′04″N 1°51′36″W / 52.501°N 1.860°W / 52.501; -1.860

Nechells is a district ward in central Birmingham, England, with a population of 33,957, according to the 2011 Census.[1] It is also a ward within the formal district of Ladywood. Nechells local government ward includes areas, for example parts of Birmingham city centre, which are not part of the historic district of Nechells as such, now often referred to in policy documents as "North Nechells, Bloomsbury and Duddeston".[2]

Origins of the name

Early recorded versions of the name include Echeles (about 1180), Le Echeles (1290) and Le Necheles (1322). The latter form of the name derives from "atten Eccheles", "belonging to the Eccheles", an Old English word meaning "land added to a village or estate".[3] The philologist Eilert Ekwall speculated that a more precise meaning could be "land added by clearing," or "land added by draining a marsh".[4] In the Middle English period, following the process of language change known as metanalysis,only the "n" in "atten" remained in oral usage and became assimilated to "Eccheles". So, n+Eccheles became the "Nechells" (pronunciation niːt͡ʃl̩z) of modern usage. However, the pronunciation net͡ʃl̩z was also current, as indicated by the spelling of Tomlinson's Map of Duddeston and Netchells, published in 1758.[5] This pronunciation was also to be heard in the 20th century amongst some older inhabitants of the area.[6]

The name "Nechells Green" originally referred to the triangle of land at the meeting point of the present Nechells Park Road, Nechells Place, Bloomsbury Street, Walter Street and Thimble Mill Lane. On Tomlinson's 1758 map the area was indeed shown as a village green surrounded by a few lanes and fields.[7] In the 1950s and 60s the name was adopted for the re-developed area of Ashted, Duddeston and Vauxhall to the south-west of Nechells itself.[8]

History

The 19th century

Nechells Primary E-ACT Academy, formerly Nechells Primary School and Hutton Street Board School, on Eliot Street.

Nechells became a densely populated area during the 19th century, with mass development of houses and factories taking place. Mass immigration occurred from Ireland. In 1868 it was described thus:

...a hamlet in the parish of Aston and borough of Birmingham, county Warwick. It is united with Duddeston, and forms a populous suburb of Birmingham. Here are extensive workshops for building railway carriages, also a lunatic asylum. The living (i.e. the position of vicar of the parish) is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Worcester, value £59. The church is dedicated to St Clement.[9]
St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Long Acre.
St Josephs' cemetery, with Aston Manor Brewery in the background.

Developments in the Victorian era include the opening of the aforementioned St Clement's Church, designed by J. A. Chatwin, in 1859;[10] St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in 1872 (incorporating the former chapel of the Roman Catholic cemetery, designed by A. W. Pugin and opened in 1850). The later church was designed by Pugin's son, E. W. Pugin;[11] a board school situated in Hutton (later Eliot) Street in 1879;[11] the building of almshouses adjacent to St. Clement's church to accommodate "31 inmates, widows, single women, and married couples - whose age is above 60"[12] and Bloomsbury Library of 1892 on Nechells Parkway, described as "a typical vigorous example of the red brick and terracotta school for municipal building at the end of the 19th century."[13]

Bloomsbury Library on Nechells Parkway. As of 2014, it was out of use due to the condition of the building. Library facilities were being provided from a mobile library.[14][15]
The surviving buildings of the former St Clement's Church on Stuart Street, now used by the Birmingham Victory Unity Centre.
The entrance to the Wing Yip complex on Nechells Green.
1970s housing on Nechells Park Road.
The Villa Tavern at the junction of Nechells Park Road and Holborn Hill.

The London and North Western Railway's line from Stechford to Aston cut across Nechells Park Road and neighbouring streets when it opened in 1880,[16] as had the Grand Junction Railway from Liverpool and Manchester to Birmingham in order to reach its temporary terminus at Vauxhall in 1837.[11][16]

The 20th century and Later

After World War II, further immigration occurred from parts of the Commonwealth, mostly the Caribbean and the Indian Sub Continent.[17]

By the 1950s, however, many of the homes in Nechells had been reduced to "slums" and were unfit for human habitation. People were living in homes without electricity, running water, bathrooms or indoor toilets. The Gas Works caused a continuous unpleasant smell. The bulk of the area had been designated as a redevelopment area in 1937, but its regeneration was put off by some 20 years due to World War II.[18]

The face of Nechells changed dramatically during the 1960s, with the decaying Victorian terraces being cleared and the area redeveloped with new houses and tower blocks. Some families remained in the new homes that had been built around Nechells, but there were insufficient new homes to rehouse all of the area's original residents, and as a result some families moved to new housing estates like Castle Vale and Chelmsley Wood. The new homes were certainly a big improvement on their predecessors, but the area still suffered from rising unemployment and crime.

The development of high rise flats in Nechells had actually started in the 1950s, and it was the home of Birmingham's very first tower block - Queens Tower, on Great Francis Street[19] - which was completed in 1954 and is still standing today.[20] However, many of the tower blocks in the Nechells area were demolished in the 1990s to make way for new low rise private and rented housing.[21]

Two primary schools in Nechells have acquired academy status.[22][23] They are Nechells Primary E-ACT Academy (the successor to Nechells Junior and Infants school and Hutton Street Board School before that) and Nechells Church of England Academy (the successor to St Clement's Church of England Primary School which opened next to St Clement's Church in Stuart Street in 1859).[24] Nechells Secondary Modern school, for pupils aged 11–16, which was incorporated into the existing Eliot Street Junior and Infants site after the passing of the 1944 Education Act, and with additional buildings on the adjoining Crompton Road, was closed and its buildings demolished in the 1980s.

The Siege of Austin Street

Events in Nechells have rarely attracted the attention of the national news media, but in 1961, the then vicar of St. Clement's, the Rev. Elwyn Evans, was called upon by police to assist them in negotiating with a man who had fired an air rifle from the window of his house in Austin Street. According to the Sunday Telegraph, 500 people had watched the police try to arrest the man who had effectively laid siege to the street. The Rev. Evans eventually persuaded the man to give himself up and accompanied the unemployed man as he surrendered to the police. It was reported that Rev. Evans, who served in Nechells from 1952-64,[25] had been taking a bath when the police arrived at his vicarage on Stanley Road.[26]

Austin Street itself, situated between Aston Church Road and Trevor Street at right angles to Nechells Park Road, no longer exists, having been built over by new housing.

Industrial and Commercial Development

Early evidence of industrial, or rather small-scale craft activity in Nechells is given on Tomlinson's 1758 map which shows a slitting mill used as a stage in the manufacture of nails situated at a point towards the northern end of what was to become Nechells Park Road.

On Ordnance Survey 1:2500 maps of 1902 and 1904 there is much evidence of industry in the early 20th century: Nechells Chemical Works and Birmingham Paper Mill were located adjacent to the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal at the eastern end of Cattells Grove; a Tube Works, Stove Works and Varnish Works were situated in an area bounded by the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, Holborn Hill and Long Acre; and a building shown as "Park Mills (Edge Tool)" is shown on Wharton Street, again adjoining the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal.

Later in the 20th century Nechells was chosen as the location of two gasworks, in Windsor Street and Nechells Place,

Demolition of Nechells gasometers, August 2015

and two coal-fired power stations situated on land now occupied by the Star City complex. The first power station was opened by the Prince of Wales in 1923 and a larger plant, known as Nechells "B", opened in 1954. A small railway network was used by both power stations for the transport of coal from the main line railway at Saltley and within the plant. The power stations closed in 1982, but a steam locomotive used at the site, "Nechells No.4", has been preserved and is operating on the Chasewater Railway in Staffordshire[27][28]

The second of the two gasworks was the setting - in an "obscure suburb on the eastern side of Birmingham", according to one historian,[29] - for the so-called Battle of Saltley Gate in February 1972, a confrontation between striking mineworkers, the police and the West Midlands Gas Board over the picketing mineworkers' attempt to prevent the transport of coke from the gasworks. In labour history and mythology, the name "Saltley Gate" (or "Gates") has persisted, despite the locale for the incident being in Nechells.[30][31]

Nechells played a part in the development of the petrol-driven internal combustion motor car. At the age of twenty and with no formal qualifications, Frederick William Lanchester so impressed the owner of the Forward Gas Engine Company of Birmingham that he was offered the position of assistant works manager at their factory near Bloomsbury Street where he made various improvements to the equipment produced by this company. Lanchester resigned from the company in 1893 and went on to produce the first all-British four-wheel petrol car.[32] A sculpture, the Lanchester Car Monument, was built in Bloomsbury Village Green to commemorate Lanchester's work.[33]

Nearby, on Lingard Street, close to Bloomsbury Library, was situated another branch of the motor vehicle industry. David Haydon Ltd manufactured bodies for fire engines until the closure of the firm in the 1960s.[34]

Foundry Services Ltd, later FOSECO, moved into premises on Long Acre in 1933. The company had been created by two German Jewish refugees, Eric Weiss and Kossi Strauss, and specialized in the manufacture of fluxes and compounds used in the iron foundry industry. The firm moved to Tamworth in the 1990s and is now a multinational business.[35][36]

At the corner of Long Acre and Plume Street stood the large factory of Verity's Ltd, a manufacturer of electrical motors, fans and electrical fittings. The company went into voluntary liquidation in 1959.[37]

Flights Hallmark, a coach and corporate vehicle operator, has its head office and a depot on Long Acre, on the site of the former Aston motive power depot.[38]

The privately owned St Clements Nursing Home at the junction of Nechells Park Road and Stanley Road was built on land formerly occupied by St. Clement's Vicarage.[39][40]

A notable feature of the commercial life of present-day Nechells is the headquarters of the Wing Yip Chinese food and restaurant business which occupies a site at Nechells Green bounded by Thimblemill Lane,[41] Long Acre, Nechells Park Road and Railway Terrace.[42] This site opened in 1992, was expanded considerably in 1996 and now includes a business centre serving the Chinese community and a food superstore.[43]

Also on Thimble Mill Lane, the Aston Manor Brewery started production in 1993 and produces beer, cider and perry. It is capable of producing 24,000 bottles per hour.[44]

On 7 July 2016, five workers lost their lives when a concrete wall collapsed at the plant of Hawkeswood Metal Recycling on Trevor Street.[45]

Demographics and Health

The 2011 Population Census found that 33,957 people lived in the ward with a population density of 3,400 people per km². The broad ethnic breakdown of the population is: Asian 38%; White 27%; Black 24%; Mixed 6.5%; and others 5%. The largest ethnic groups are: White British (22%); Pakistani (19%); African (10%); Caribbean (8%) and Bangladeshi (7%).

The Census also shows that Nechells has a young population with 29% of residents under 18 years old (compared with 25% in Birmingham as a whole). The median age of Nechells residents is 25 years as opposed to 32 years in Birmingham as a whole. Only 7% of people are 65 years or older (compared with 13% in Birmingham as a whole). More than half of the children growing up in Nechells are in families defined as being in child poverty.

Whilst it is notable in Birmingham for being the area with the highest rate of unemployment, crime and poverty, it has been the focus of a great deal of urban regeneration by Birmingham City Council and the former Birmingham Heartlands Development Corporation.

However, a report published in 2010 by the Birmingham Public Health Information Team concluded that:

Transport

Nechells is served by Duddeston railway station and Aston railway station. From 1856 to 1869, a station named "Bloomsbury and Nechells " was situated slightly to the north of the present Duddeston station.[47]

The main bus service serving Nechells is the National Express West Midlands bus route 66 from Birmingham city centre to Kingstanding via Erdington. This route is the successor of trolleybus route 7, which ran from the city centre to Nechells from 1922 to 1940 and the motorbus route 43 which replaced it in 1940.[48][49] The West Midlands bus route 8, the "Inner Circle", also serves the western part of the area.[50]

If the proposed HS2 high-speed rail line from London to Birmingham is constructed, it will skirt the south-eastern edge of Nechells, running alongside the Birmingham-Derby and under the Aston-Stechford railways and Aston Church Road before continuing to Saltley and a new Curzon Street station.[51]

Places of interest

Nechells is home to Star City – a vast entertainment complex that houses shops, restaurants, a 22-lane bowling centre (Tenpin, formerly Megabowl), a casino, a hotel and Vue Cinema which, with thirty screens, is one of the largest multiplexes in Europe. Star City has been described as a "palace of pleasure...feeding and entertaining groups from families to young couples to children's parties".[52]

As well as Bloomsbury library, other community facilities include Nechells Play Centre and the Nechells Green Community Centre. Sports facilities are provided at the Heartlands High Community Leisure Centre and the Nechells Community Sports Centre.

The Villa Tavern pub at the junction of Nechells Park Road and Holborn Hill displays the date "1897" as the year in which it was built. However, the present building dates from 1924–25 and is a rebuilding of the original pub on this site by the architect Matthew J. Butcher. It is a Grade II listed building.[53]

Nechells Baths on Nechells Park Road is also Grade II listed. Plans for baths to be constructed in the Nechells ward came about in 1900 when representatives from the ward pressured the council into providing public baths for the ward. However, the Birmingham Baths Committee were already committed to other projects in the city and were unable to immediately attend the matter.

In 1903, a site at the corner of Nechells Park Road and Aston Church Road was acquired and in 1908, approval was given for the construction of baths on the site. Construction commenced that year and the baths were opened 22 June 1910. Facilities provided included a large swimming bath with a spectators' gallery and suites of private baths for men and women. The baths were immediately popular among the locals.

Refurbishment work to the baths was completed in May 2007 by Welconstruct. It cost £5.5 million, with funding from Advantage West Midlands, the Heritage Lottery Fund and ERDF.[54]

People

Politics

Nechells ward is served by three Labour councillors; Tahir Ali, Rashid Chauhdry and Yvonne Mosquito.[66]

Nechells has adopted a Ward Support Officer with the current holder of the title being Maz Dad.

References

  1. ↑ Nechells UK Census Data 2011.http://www.ukcensusdata.com/nechells-e05001197#sthash.2XnR6Fv6.dpbs
  2. ↑ Nechells Community First - Plans for Community First in Nechells 2013-2015.http://thecommunityfirst.net/nechells/files/2013/02/Nechells-Community-First-Draft-Plan-for-consultation.pdf
  3. ↑ Ekwall, E. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names, 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960, p.169.
  4. ↑ Ekwall, E.,"The English Place-Names Etchells, Nechells" in Mélanges de Philologie, offerts à M. Johan Vising par ses élèves et ses amis scandinaves, à l'occasion du soixante-dixième anniversaire de sa naissance, Gothenberg: N.J Gumperts and Paris: E.Champion, 1925, 105-6.
  5. ↑ Chinn, C. The Streets of Brum, Part 4. Studley:Brewin, 2007, p.3.
  6. ↑ Chinn, C. One Thousand Years of Brum. Birmingham: Birmingham Evening Mail, 1999, p. 103.
  7. ↑ Chinn, The Streets of Brum p.3
  8. ↑ William Dargue, A History of Birmingham Place Names http://billdargue.jimdo.com/placenames-gazetteer-a-to-y/places-n/nechells-green
  9. ↑ The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland. London: James S. Virtue, 1868.
  10. ↑ Dent, R.K. Old and New Birmingham. Birmingham: Houghton and Hammond 1880, P. 578
  11. 1 2 3 Victoria History of the County of Warwick, Vol. VII. London: Oxford University Press, 1964
  12. ↑ Dent,R.K. Old and New Birmingham. Birmingham: Houghton and Hammond 1880
  13. ↑ Pevsner, N. and Wedgwood, A. The Buildings of England: Warwickshire. London: Penguin, 1966.
  14. ↑ "Bloomsbury Library Opening Times"http://www.libraryofbirmingham.com/article/bloomsburylibrary/bloomsburylibrary-openingtimes
  15. ↑ "The Future of bloomsbury Library in Nechells". https://birminghamlibrariescampaigns.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/the-future-of-bloomsbury-library-in-nechels/
  16. 1 2 Clinker, C.R. Railways of the West Midlands: A Chronology. London: Stephenson Locomotive Society. 1954
  17. ↑ Jones, P. N., Colored Minorities in Birmingham, England. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 66(1), 1976, pp89-103. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2562021.
  18. ↑
  19. ↑ Bartlam, N. The Little Book of Birmingham. Stroud: The History Press, 2011, p.108.
  20. ↑ Jones, P. "The suburban high flat in the post-war reconstruction of Birmingham, 1945–71". Urban History (32), pp.308-326 (2005).
  21. ↑
  22. ↑ Nechells Primary E-ACT Academy http://nechells.hazwebs.co.uk//
  23. ↑ Nechells C of E Academy http://www.stclemce.bham.sch.uk/
  24. ↑ Victoria County History of Warwickshire, Vol VII, p.529
  25. ↑ Crockford's Clerical Directory 1965,Oxford University Press, 1967, p. 384.
  26. ↑ http://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-sunday-telegraph/20110710
  27. ↑ Nechells Power Station http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/misc/nechells-power-station.htm
  28. ↑ Clawley, A. Birmingham Then and Now, Batsford, 2013, p.98
  29. ↑ D.Sandbrook, State of Emergency - The Way We Were: Britain 1970-1974. Allen Lane, 2010, p.121
  30. ↑ R. Kellaway. Re-examining the Battle of Saltley Gate: interpretations of violence, leadership and legacy. University of Bristol, 2010. http://www.bristol.ac.uk/history/ug/ugdissertations/2010kellaway.pdf
  31. ↑ The Battle of Saltley Gate - Close the Gates! http://www.saltleygate.co.uk/
  32. ↑ Dictionary of National Biography, "Lanchester, Frederick William", http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34388
  33. ↑ A. Clawley, Birmingham Then and Now, Batsford, 2013, p.103
  34. ↑ Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/David_Haydon
  35. ↑ about-foseco/foseco-history/foseco-history.html.
  36. ↑ http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/cs/Satellite?c=Page&childpagename=Lib-Central-Archives-and-Heritage%2FPageLayout&cid=1223092755614&pagename=BCC%2FCommon%2FWrapper%2FWrapper.
  37. ↑ Grace's Guide to British Industrial History http://www.gracesguide.co.uk
  38. ↑ About - Hallmark http://www.vipcaoch.co.uk.
  39. ↑ Old Ordnance Survey Maps, Gravelly Hill 1902, Alan Godfrey Maps.
  40. ↑ St Clements Nursing Home http://www.housingcare.org/downloads/facilities/generated-brochures/132155-st-clements-nursing-home-nechells-england.pdf
  41. ↑ See Chinn, 2007, pp3-4 for the origins of this street name.
  42. ↑ Birmingham - The Photographic Atlas. London: HarperCollins, 2002, p.57.
  43. ↑ http://wingyip.com/page-531.html
  44. ↑ http://astonmanor.co.uk/about-us/history/
  45. ↑ Five men killed as wall collapses at Birmingham recycling centre https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/07/five-killed-by-wall-collapse-at-birmingham-recycling-centre
  46. ↑ http://www.bhwp.nhs.uk/Files/Content/L/339/Priority%20Neighbourhood%20Health%20Profiles%202010%20-%20North%20Nechells,%20Bloomsbury%20and%20Duddeston.pdf
  47. ↑ Quick, M. Passenger Railway Stations in Great Britain: A Chronology. Oxford: Railway and Canal Historical Society, 2009
  48. ↑ Mayou, A., Barker, T. and Stanford, J. Birmingham Corporation Trams and Trolleybuses. Glossop: The Transport Publishing Company, 1982.
  49. ↑ Keeley, M., Russell, M. and Gray, P. Birmingham City Transport. Glossop: The Transport Publishing Company, 1977.
  50. ↑ Hanson, M., Harvey, D. and Drake, P. The Inner Circle - Birmingham's No. 8 Bus Route. Stroud: Tempus, 2002.
  51. ↑ HS2 Phase One Draft Environmental Statement. Community Forum Area Report 26: Washwood Heath to Curzon Street.http://www.hs2.org.uk/draft-environmental-statement/document-library?cfa_dropdown=351
  52. ↑ P. Farley and M.S. Roberts, Edgelands - Journeys into England's True Wilderness. Vintage Books, 2012, p.217. ISBN 9780099539773.
  53. ↑ "A pub with a nationally important historic interior."http://www.heritagepubs.org.uk/pubs/national-inventory-entry.asp?pubid=173
  54. ↑ "Makeover is complete for Nechells Baths". Birmingham Post. 2007-05-10. Retrieved 2007-05-11.
  55. ↑ At Home with Vanley Burke https://ikon-gallery.org/event/at-home-with-vanley-burke/.
  56. ↑ Ikon Gallery: How the Gallery will celebrate 50th Birthday. http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/ikon-gallery-how-gallery-celebrate-8386774.
  57. ↑ D. McKittrick, S.Kelters, B. Feeney, C. Thornton and D. McVea, Lost Lives - The stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the Northern Ireland Troubles. Mainstream Publishing, 2007, pp.499-500.
  58. ↑ MMU Alumni Stories Health, Psychology and Social Care http://www.mmu.ac.uk/alumni/stories/
  59. ↑ Fell, P. (2004) "And now it has started to rain: Support and advocacy with adult asylum seekers in the voluntary sector" in Hayes, D. and Humphries, B. (eds) Social Work, Immigration and Asylum: Debates, Dilemmas and Ethical Issues for Social Work and Social Care Practice. London: Jessica Kingsley
  60. ↑ MAPPING OF MIGRATION, REFUGEE AND ASYLUM WORK IN AND FROM THE CATHOLIC COMMUNITY IN ENGLAND AND WALES – A REPORT SUMMARY http://www.csan.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/MAPPING-REPORT-Final-Summary.pd
  61. ↑ What it's really like to be an asylum seeker in Manchester. //http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/asylum-seekers-greater-manchester-life-10835421
  62. ↑ "Edith Maud Pitt" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biographyhttp://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/70451?docPos=1
  63. ↑ Knight of Passion, Times Educational Supplement, 11 May 2008. http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=312791
  64. ↑ Obituary http://www.bmdsonline.co.uk/23375242?s_source=tmmi_bmem
  65. ↑ My brother was a good man. Why was he killed? The Guardian, 20 March 2001. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/mar/20/zimbabwe.features11
  66. ↑ "Councillors' Advice Bureaux - Nechells Ward". Birmingham City Council. Archived from the original on 2008-05-10. Retrieved 2008-05-30.

Further reading

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