TODAY’S collection of hauntingly atmospheric photographs from about a century ago are of street scenes in a lost area of the historic heart of Worcester known as Birdport.
It lay between the west side of High Street and what is today Deansway and extended from the south side of Broad Street to Fish Street and St Helen’s Church.
By the time the photographs were taken the rows of centuries-old mainly half-timbered houses had become teeming tenements, housing families living largely in poverty and hardship.
The narrow historic streets of Birdport were mostly torn down between 1912 and 1922 and were later replaced in the main by the Georgian-style red brick city police and fire stations and, more recently, by the Chapel Walk half of the CrownGate shopping development.
The ample array of half-timbered properties making up Birdport and lying in the shadow of the cathedral had no doubt become squalid and undesirable homes by the time the photographs were taken, but if only they had been preserved and restored, and not pulled down, they would surely have added greatly to Worcester’s appeal as a historic black-and-white city today.
Local historian, the late Bill Gwilliam, wrote of Birdport in his book Old Worcester: People and Places: “The streets of this crowded area were always lively, for people got their entertainment there. With no parks or playgrounds, the hordes of ragged children played in the streets or on the nearby river quays, and older folk brought out chairs onto the pavement to gossip and enjoy the air.”
An elderly woman once sent Bill an account of life in Birdport in 1900: “As a child I remember a man coming round the streets with a large can selling pigs’ trotters.
"Another came with his bell selling muffins. The fish-man came round with fried fish in a huge basket.
"A very interesting thing used to be the barrel organs with a monkey on the top. The streets used to be alive when the organ played and, believe me, that is how we learned to dance.
"We had other musicians. One came round with a small table with glasses of water on it, and the tunes he played were very sweet. A lady used to come too, with a large harp. She took up a position on a stool and entertained the crowd. There were also plenty of street singers.
“On Sundays it was a pleasant sight to see the gentry coming out of the cathedral. The dresses were beautiful and much envied by the workers.”
(caption with engraving of Webbs’ Carpet Mill)
This old engraving is an illustration of the carpet mill of Edward Webb and Sons (Worcester) Limited which stood for a century (1835 to 1935) in the Birdport area and alongside Copenhagen Street.
In 1835, Edward Webb, then 27, bought a horsehair weaving factory at 8 Copenhagen Street and within a decade had 29 looms, weaving fancy crinolines and carpets, and a workforce of 70 weavers. Steam power was introduced in 1854 and the number of employees rose to more than 100 including a substantial number of children. Until 1914 women workers went to the factory at 6 a.m. and came trooping out for breakfast at 8 a.m. in their clogs and shawls.
In 1935 the site of the then dismal old Webbs’ factory was acquired for a new city police and fire station.
