Paradise and other Dudley Streets

[GarethGrainger]

Hello all.
I am interested to learn more about Paradise an area in Dudley.
Many of my Grainger ancesters lived there in the early 1800's,
most, especially the males were coal miners.
I find it quite unusual, that given the living conditions at that
time,the name Paradise hardly seems fitting for an area in the
centre of the coal and iron industry.
My feeling is that most of inhabitants of Dudley lived in utter
squaller, bearing in mind that there was no sanitation at that
time.
I would be very greatful if anyone could help me discover a little
more about the living conditions at that time in our history.
Any old photo's or prints would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
ps. excuse my ignorance as I'm new to this, but I'm not sure what a pm is

[linell]

Hi Gareth, as far as I am aware Paradise is just the name of the Street, yes we really should find out why it was called Paradise? It does back onto Buffery Park. PM is a Private Message, on the right side of your postings you should see PM, you can PM another Member of the Forum for anything you want to keep out of the public domain.

HTH from Linell.

[linell]

Don't forget that the BC folk had a real dour sense of humour, that could be where the 'Paradise' name came from.

Linell.

[Northern Lass]

There are lots of books on Dudley
not sure if any of those would have something in about Paradise ...is it Street?

The archives might have something too.

[MarkCDodd]

Sanitation problems are why I am rather proud to have quite a few "Night Soil Labourers" in my tree

[mallosa]

Gareth, I know you would have liked to see the area as it was around your ancestors time but, I took a photo of Paradise a couple of years ago but for the life of me, can't find the original

Sorry but this one is very blurred

Paradise 2007.jpg (47.55 KiB) Viewed 24141 times

[linell]

Minutes from an Inspection of Dudley Streets Undertaken in 1852.

The Mambles King Street:- Fifty to sixty houses, no water. All dirty pallid, diseased, and some idiots. The people complain even in the midst of their filth, of want of water. All so bad as to be indescribable, a man almost dying, a woman with half a face, children devoured with filth, prostitutes and theives. The physical and moral condition of this place is indescribable.

Flood Street:- All drainage on the surface.

Brandy Row:- Mrs Shakespeare says there are 20 bad girls in the Yard. The other Occupants say they cannot get a nights rest, the language is disgusting. The privies very dreadful, some are under a house, no water for any of the houses.

King Street Ravenscroft Yard:-Large quantities of dung and manure, liquid and solids from Stables, much complained of by a poor woman at the bottom of the Street.

Wilkinson's Lane Queens Cross:- No water, a nasty unpaved, unchannelled place with abominable Court Yards, many of the people appear in a filthy barbarous condition, many children with serofula, a very populas neighbourhood, and large families.

Greystone Street:- Back Yards, very foul bad surface, the filth runs all the way down into the High Street.

Pitts Fold:- A very bad surface, unpaved, stagnant and filthy chanels close to the doors of the houses.

[linell]

Shore's Yard:-Very bad pavement, and defective drainage. The Stones are randoms, with very wide joints full of filth. Further up the Yard there are large heaps of refuse and manure in a solid state.

Queens Cross Hill:- has the most abominable privies, and refuse passing under the buildings, the houses are all moving and the coal underneath is on fire.

Mrs Sarah Jones, Pork Butcher:- has drains under her house to the street, filthy black drainage comes through her Yard, causing the most frightful stench.

The Hope Tavern has a cesspool and pump, the refuse is pumped out once a week, and every night when it rains, it then runs along the surface into Stafford Street, and to the corner of the High Street, the smell is very offensive.

Not much fun to be had then in Dudley of yester-year

Linell.

[Northern Lass]

That is a great find Linell where is that from?

I never realised it was as bad as that

[mallosa]

Wow! That has really opened my eyes!!

[Tonibunny]

I'd love to read more of this report!!! I had ancestors in Greystone Street and Queens Cross at this time

I'm so tempted to look on the 1851 census to see if I can identify any of the "20 bad girls" living in Brandy Row yard.


ETA: I don't want to disparage anyone's memory but there are quite a few unmarried women in their 20s living together in Brandy Row, who come from various places outside the Black Country including Ireland and Wales. Some of whom are listed as "formerly servant" but no current occupation is mentioned. Hmm!

[BC Wench]

Hello Gareth,

My Dad and his siblings, plus his Mother and Grandparents (1870s) were all born in Paradise. Dudley Archives have a couple of photographs of Paradise taken in 1928.

Paradise was the name given in the 1870s to this row of cottages which then stood in open ground outside the town. In 1892 Buffery Park was created on the site of old clay and coal pits and the park gates were, of course, known to the local wits as the 'Gates of Paradise'.

Most of the houses in that area of Dudley were demolished in the 1960s known as the "slum clearance" When I was at secondary school in the early 1960s one of my friends lived on High Side, Dudley (just below the 3 Crowns Pub and Hanson's Brewery by St Thomas' Church) and to use their loo we had to walk up the backyard. It was a proper loo but the loo seat was like a wide board with a hole in the middle (it did have a proper flush) but you couldn't bend your knees 'cos it was sooo wide. When the clearance was about to take place my friend and her family moved on to the Russells Hall Estate.

I'll send you a pm Private Message.

[linell]

Thanks for the potted history on Paradise and the Dudley Loo's BC Wench, most interesting, the info NL came from a Dudley History book, I know from reading other local History Books, that there was no drainage until the late 1800's, when it became obvious that the lack of sanitation was a serious health hazard. These places were slums in every sense of the word. Linell.

[GarethGrainger]

Many thanks to everyone who has commented on this subject
I'm finding it to be a fascinating journey into the social history of
the Black country area.
Although life was unbelievably grim, to say the least, I get the impression
that the families and general communities were very close knit.
In my particular case the Grainger's were living in "Paradise" in both
the 1851 and 1861 census, and had quite large families.
Also cholera and typhoid was rife at around this time, in the Dudley area due to the squalid
conditions that have been mentioned.
But by the mid 1870's it seems that the majority of the Grainger clan
upped sticks, along with the in-laws and moved to Spennymoor County Durham , where
new coal mines were being discovered and new housing built to accomerdate the workers and their families.
You can't blame er for that,
Any further info would greatly accepted
And thank you all once again
Regards Gareth

[WSPenwell]

Hi,

I read a bit about these area of Dudley. My great grandmother was born at Gospel End, not too far away from Paradise Street according to Google Maps. Seems like she was the only child out of 6 that survived infancy. As far as my research I have found there was a Cholera epidemic in around the 1840's - 1850's in that part of England. My question or inquiry was Cholera a killer to newly born children or could there be another reason why they didn't survive infancy? I was going to start a new post about this subject. If anyone can help me out it would be much appricated.

WSPenwell