Birmingham to Lincoln

June 24, 2024

exploring the Jewellry Quarter

The main reason for visting Birmingham was to go a library in Smethwick, on the west side of Birmingham, to do some research about my late father's football career. The library has local newspapers on microfilm that will hopefully shed light on the games he played in for West Bromwich Albion during the mid to late 1940s. However, with us not staying here tonight because of the silly hotel rates, that plan has gone out the window and we settle on seeing some of the sights, focusing on those in the city's Jewellry Quarter, before getting a train north back to Lincoln.

We make our way through the city centre, with one eye out for a coffee shop, and call in at the Cathedral Church of St Philip. The structure got bombed during WW2 - when my dad was playing for West Bromwich Albion - but thankfully the superb windows by Edward Burne-Jones had been removed for safe keeping. We take turns in watching the bikes as we pop inside to have a look at them.

There's a coffee shop on the next block and we pop inside. It's not a Costa. We get stools in front of the big window and have our breakfast of bacon rolls while I look at screenshots on my 7" tablet, deciding where to head to just a little bit northwest in the city's Jewellry Quarter.

Cathedral window designed by Edward Burne Jones and made by William Morris Co

The area still has loads of jewellers, but its heyday followed in the footsteps of the Industrial Revolution, especially after an assay office opened in 1773 and a canal was completed around 15 years later. By the middle of the 19th century, jewellery was Birmingham's most lucrative trade, with many makers being small outfits working from homes in the northwest part of the city.

We soon find Graham Street and get our bearings. Many of the former large factories nearby have recently been converted into housing, with a few having been demolished. However, such is their importance to the city and country's history, many of the buildings are now listed.

It's a relatively small area and we cruise around, taking photos for a couple of hours, before deciding that we ought to head to the train station to check out trains back to Lincoln.

In the Jewelry Quarter in Birmingham - all that's left of a factory

Victorian houses that would have been where jewellry was made

Made in Birmingham - an Edwardian-era Ruskin brooch with a silver mount (part of my collection)

Gwenda Works on Legge Lane - jewellery works built for Sir Henry Manton in 1913

The former George and Dragon Public House

Door to Aquinus House on Warstone Lane - the property was built for a jewellery maker in 1882

The Pelican Works on Constitution Hill, Birmingham

Former engineering works on Constitution Hill

We can get our bikes on a train that leaves in over an hour, so after buying tickets, we pop outside to a Costa Coffe near the station and have lunch.

There are no direct trains to Lincoln and our journey is broken in Nottingham, where we have enough time for cold drinks in a cafe on Platform 3B that still has the original Victorian tilework, with a wonderful fireplace that's in surprisingly good condition.

The train is pretty much packed and while we have booked our bikes, it doesn't seem to make any difference with two other cyclists getting on before us. Ours get lent against the one that's been wheeled into the small space.

Once off the train in Lincoln, it's back along the familiar cycle path to Dave's place. We're back at his house earlier than expected, but it's my birthday on Wednesday, so we can organise a get-togther that will no doubt be a pub.

Today's ride: 18 km (11 miles)
Total: 944 km (586 miles)

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