The new website is coming along nicely. We’ll be adding a list and photos of all the residents (Gunmakers/smiths & the pubs of course). We’ll also include the Proof house etc.
The other items that are moving along;
Gunsmith Academy
In discussion with South Birmingham College to create a recognised Gunsmithing course. We know that the traditional manner of serving an apprentice has been the way for years, we don’t want to deviate too much from this. However a recognised qualification under written by an accredited body such as ‘City & Guilds’, ‘BTEC’ etc will allow an educational provider to obtain grants per student per academic year from the Government.
The grants can then be diverted to semi retiring gunsmiths to teach the next generation. The students get the best of both worlds and we can select the tutors who deliver the best training. The students will also spend time doing general ‘Engineering’ and learning CNC techniques from different industries, this will bring new ideas from outside of the trade.
Once we know more, we’ll be approaching various Gun related organisations for support – yes this means dipping into cash reserves and helping out the next generation!
Exciting stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Gun trade rental incentives
With a handful of units available in the Quarter, the focus is now on bringing gun trade businesses back into the area. With units from as little as £850 per year and 12 months free rent (available to gun trade only). The area and wider Birmingham is crying out for a good Air Gun retailer.
Well that’s it for now, if you have any questions please get in touch through the website, facebook or twitter.
Birmingham Gun Quarter 
My old man Leslie Charles Bracey lived in various back to back courts in Shadwell Street and Lower Shadwell Street in the shadow of the magnificent Augustus Pugin (the man who designed and the architect of The Palace of Westminster) St Chad’s Roman Catholic Cathedral and worked for a sporting Gunsmith in Price Street (He worked for a firm called W Gittens Ltd who made electrical engineering transformers for manufacturing companies in Birmingham) but also worked carrying completed sports guns to The Birmingham Proof House at Proof House Junction adjacent to the oldest Railway Terminus in the world The Terminus of the London to Birmingham Railway built in 1834 Curzon Street Station which hopefully will be incorporated into the new Curzon Street Station as part of the Curzon Gateway Development for High Speed Rail 2 .
My Dad Les as he was,known to the Bracey Family of Grandad Wilfred Bracey Grannie Elsie May Bracey nee Freeman whose family owned a shop in Kyrwicks Lane, Sparkbrook and the eldest son Leslie Charles Bracey born on February 13th 1922 and died from a massive heart attack at around 1am on November 17th 1989 aged 67 years…..God rest my Dad’s Soul……
Brother Norman Stanley Bracey born 1926 (?) and died again from a heart attack in 1981 aged 54 ad youngest sister Edna May Bracey who was born October 18th 1928 and married Ronald Herbert in 1954 with two girls Jean Herbert now 62 and married Norman Mullins in 1975 and Susan Herbert now 58 married to Tony Hill……
I have a younger brother Richard William Bracey who is 54 and married to Kath Croughton with two children Ellie Bracey aged 14 now born on July 3rd 2002 and Sam Bracey aged 12 born on February 13th 2004……..
My youngest sister Gillian Elizabeth Bracey now 52 born on July 5th 1964 and divorced from Paul John Collins (married June 6th 1986) has one son Stuart Leslie Collins now 29 and married with one daughter Lacie Collins……
I am married to Mary Helen Sherwood on 13th July 1991 $o we celebrated our Silver Wedding Anniversary in 2016 with our two children Adam Richard Bracey aged 23 born on 8th March 1993 and Sarah Catherine Bracey born on June 6th (D Day) 1996……My children never met my Dad Les Bracey but had a good relationship with their paternal Grandmother Leslie Charles wife Dorothy Angela Merriman born on 24th March 1928 and died of pneumonia in Bearwood Nursing Home ( the former British Pens Factory Offices……British Pens run by the family of William and Richard Mitchell, once in the Edwardian period employed over 1000 people, mostly women working small metal nib presses, in my home town of Bearwood…..
I was born in St Chad’s Hospital in Hagley Road Edgbaston on April Fool’$ Day 1958 and taken home to a bedsit in Rotton Park Road , Edgbaston near Edgbaston Reservoir and thence moving to a flat above The Bearwood Chop Suey Bar in Three Shires Oak Road in Abbey Hill Bearwood not far from my favourite places in Bearwood Warley Woods and Lightwoods Park in whose Lightwoods House has benefited from £5.3 million Heritage Lottery Fund monies for a complete regeneration and refurbishment creating a fantastic heritage space and place.
I am a Brummie born in BEARWOOD in Birmingham not flippin Smethwick, where I volunteer at Smethwick Museum…..The Smethwick Heritage Centre…..The Museum in the Park…..in Victoria Park next to Smethwick Council House on Smethwick High Street……
We have a,Smethwick Heritage Centre Roadshow showcasing the “Lost Industrial Giants of Smethwick” like Birmid, Mitchell’s and Butler’s Brewery, Smethwick Drop Forgings, Chance Brother’s Glass, Hercules Cycles, Webley Revolvers and Gunsmiths, Jensen Motor Cars, Smethwick Carriage Works, Kunzle Cakes, Wimbush Bakery, Firkins Bakery, British Pens, British Industrial Plastics (BIP) and last but my no means all Hudson and Wright and Guest Keen and Nettlefold, the screw nut and bolt maker whose owner Joseph Chamberlain was the “Father of Birmingham” and the “Maker of Modern Municipal Birmingham” and the founder of the first of the Redbrick Universities in Birmingham University out of Birmingham’s Mason College in Edwardian Britain in 1900. Chamberlain was also Lord Mayor of Birmingham and Colonial Secretary in the Liberal Asquith Government and was the driving force behind the Second Boer War as Colonial and Trade Secretary when Birmingham was at the centre of British political life thanks to the power wielded by the Chamberlain dynasty with “Old Joe’s” brother Sir Austen Chamberlain becoming a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate for his work as the Baldwin National Government’s Foreign Secretary on the Locarno Pact which led directly to the formation of The League of Nations and youngest son Neville Chamberlain who founded the Birmingham Municipal Bank….a Brummagem institution which enabled my Mom and Dad Les and Dot Bracey to borrow the money to purchase the Bracey Family first home at 116 Willow Avenue, in Edgbaston
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