Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings are currently in the process of reconstructing and interpreting an old nailer's cottage that once stood on the Old Birmingham Road, Lickey End, Bromsgrove. It was moved to Avoncroft in 2014.

 

This cottage was not in a conservation area, was not listed and so had no statutory protection. If the museum had not saved the cottage it would have been demolished to make room for two new detached houses and its story would have been lost forever.  

 

Why did Avoncroft want to save and rebuild this cottage? 

 

This cottage is of significance because it was found in such an unaltered form. There was no bathroom installation, the orginal dogleg staircase had survived and the living room still contained a range. Rescuing and rebuilding the cottage gave Avoncroft the opportunity to show this regionally important trade in a new light. Having this cottage allows the museum to show that the nail industry was mainly a cottage industry practised at home involving all the family. The saving of the cottage also allows us to demonstrate the domestic setup from the 1930s of a nail-making family after the trade had all but died out; the severe poverty that nail-making families had to live with and to refocus the interpretation on the individual people who were involved in the trade rather than just the process of nailmaking. Click to to see pictures of the demoltion and rebuilding of the house by Avoncroft Museum

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The history of 79 Old Birmingham Road, Lickey End and its neighbours.

 

There is clear evidence that the cottage was part of Bromsgrove's nailing history due to information collected from census returns, maps, archaeological finds and oral histories. It was situated in an area historically known as Staple Hill, which was densely occupied by nail-makers. We know that the cottage was built sometime between 1841 and 1851as a one up, one down property with a workshop attached to the side (this is one of the characteristics that show that cottages were once nailer's houses, the presence of a small workshop attached to the side of the house). The plot of land it occupied was listed on the 1840 tithe map as a 'garden' owned by James Chapman, a nail-maker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to the 1851 census, the Wootton family were the first residents of the cottage. Both William Wootton and his wide Mary were listed as nailers. By 1861 Thomas Crump, also a nailer, was living in the cottage with his wife, Sarah, a seamstress.

 

From 1871 there is a direct chain of occupancy in the same family from Edward Webb to his son-in-law Alfred Homer who died there in 1960. The property passed to his daughter, Irene, who lived there until 2008. The cottage had been abandoned for four years before the msueum was approached with a view of rescuing it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edward Webb (1838-1916) was a nailer and was listed as living at the property on the 1871, 1881 and 1891 census with his wife and children. By 1878 there were eight in the Webb family. Around this time, probably in order to accommodate a growing family, the existing workshop was converted into a domestic living space and a second storey added. A larger, single storey workshop was added.

 

Edward Webb's daughter, Elizabeth, married Alfred Homer in 1893. It is likely that Elizabeth's parents moved to Birmingham Road, Lower Marlbrook, in order to make room for them and their growing family in the cottage. By the 1901 census no-one at the cottage was listed as a nailer. At this time Alfred Homer was a brickyard labourer. Nail-making on the site had come to an end and the workshop was left abandoned. By 1911 Alfred had moved into market gardening. He was still married to Elizabeth and have five children, Annie (17) working in a boot factory, Joseph (15) doing gardening, Jessie (13) helping at home, Mabel (11) and Cicily (9) both at school. Alfred's father-in-law, Edward Webb diedin 1916, leaving him the cottage and land at Fairfield in the will.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following Elizabeth's death, Alfred Homer married Amy Penrice in 1925. Amy had a heart condition and she found climbing the stairs too difficult and so, in 1930 Alfred converted the abandoned nail workshop into a ground floor bedroom. From that time onwards, the cottage remained largely unchanged. Alfred and Amy had two children, Joyce, born in 1925 and Irene, born in 1927. Joyce lived at the property until her marriage at the age of 20. When Alfred died in 1960 he left the cottage to Irene, where she continued to live until 2008.

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Saving the cottage.

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After six years the nailers cottage project is near completion and will be opening this summer, 2018. Once permission for dismantling had been agreed, the first job was to clear the house which had been unoccupied for around 5 years and which had previously been lived in by an elderly couple.  A team of intrepid volunteers helped with the difficult job of quickly (within 3 days) sifting through items to be disposed of, while trying to retain any belongings which might have a longer association with the house.

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Until the interiors were clear, it wasn’t fully possible to appreciate what original features were still present or understand the construction of the house.  However, an amazingly complete property emerged, with remarkably few changes of any material significance since the middle of the 20th century.

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Dismantling (undertaken by Holland Contracting Ltd ) was largely the reverse of building a building, with each course of bricks dismantled and their position recorded by the team. They worked down the building from roof to ground level, until little more than an outline remained. Please look on the Media page on this website for a video and pictures of the dismantling and rebuilding.

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Following the publicity about the rescue of the cottage Avoncroft were approached by Joyce Homer, Alfred’s older daughter and sibling of Irene, and her family who wanted to help.  She was already in her late 80s having been born in the house in 1925.  She was able to fill in much of the later history about the family from her childhood there in the 1930s onwards. Please look on the Media page on this website for a video about Joyce's life in the cottage.

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Please keep looking at the Avoncroft website for announcements on opening details.

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