Chance Brothers made all the glass for the Crystal Palace
#CityOf1000Trades Chance Brothers glassworks were based in Smethwick but members of the family owned factories in Birmingham. This plate for a staircase window is in a 1867 catalogue. Ref – Birmingham trade catalogue collection @LibraryofBham @sandwelllibs @SandwellArchive

ALT A coloured plate - an arts & crafts frame around the plate. Text at the top of the plate reads - staircase window. Text at the bottom reads Chance Brothers, 1867. An ornate design chiefly consisting of images of flora and fauna. A rhombus in the centre of the illustration. Inside the shape is a relief of a female figure, possibly a mythical deity. She is holding a long garland in her left hand and has another in her lap. A large billowy cape is across her shoulders.
This of course has nothing to do with Birmingham’s recent productivity struggles.
The decline of the British car industry came in two Brexit stages.
1. Uncertainty post-referendum weakened the industry
2. Trade arrangements that replaced EU membership did lasting damage.
ukandeu.ac.uk/from-pace-sett…
If you go back to 1900 or so, the average Black Country worker was Methodist, relatively unskilled a trade union member, voted for the emerging Labour Party and worked for a big enterprise in coal or basic metal production with no chance of him becoming an owner. In contrast….
Evening
Chris Bell - You and your Sister youtu.be/m-yvdIHOdxw?is=Bodf… via @YouTube
Big up the twitten, now a regularly used part of my vocabulary
What do you call an alleyway? Across Britain, there are more than a dozen dialect words for a narrow passageway, with 'ginnel', 'cut' and 'snicket' among the most common
Alley: 84%
Passage: 31%
Ginnel: 14%
Cut: 7%
Snicket: 6%
Entry: 6%
Close: 6%
Gully: 4%
Jitty: 4%
Wynd: 2%
Vennel: 2%
Twitten: 1%
Tenfoot/eightfoot: 1%
Pend: 1%





















