------ By J. L. S.
---- WE ARE EXCAVATING GRICE. He was born in Harborne.
The wiki entry has the etymology as dubious:
"One of the more probable suggestions
is 'boundary brook', although
'high brow' and 'dirty brook'
are also possibilities."
--- so we may need to examine those.
The bit about 'brow' interests me. "High" seems to be a good antecedent for "har", and I wouldn't know what OE word may give "har" meaning 'dirty', for example, or 'boundary'. The thing predates the Doomsday book, they say.
---I've been saying that the transferrence
Harborne, Staffs ---> Harborne, Warw.
was 1889, but it was later than that: 1881. Wiki has it "by the Local Govt. Bd.'s Prov. Orders Conf. (No. 13) Act, 54 & 55 Vic. c. 161 (local act)."
One wonders what the locals felt at that time. I used to read "This England" and they can get very nasty if they cease to be Yorks, and become Lincs. etc. But I assume the Harbornians were pretty peaceful.
---- We have two members of the Grice Club who were born across that border:
Roger Bishop Jones was born in Burslem, Staffs.
Jason Kennedy was born in the Sorrento Hospital.
It was located in the Moseley area, for which he provides the link:
http://www.bhamb14.co.uk/index_files/sorrentohospital.htm
and notes it was in the Moseley area.
-- It's a BEAUTIFUL hospital, Jason. So West Midlands! And I'm enamoured that this Mr. Adams found Sorrento, in Naples, so fascinating. I can speak about Sorrento for hours.
But let's check the address and get how close we get to Harborne. Moseley area. Let's see. It was on Wakefield Road, Moseley as you say.
wiki ("Moseley") says:
"Moseley was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Museleie." for which they give a note.
An online source has the "Moseley Old Hall" as "Staffordshire", so whatever the later changes, it seems everyone is from Staffordshire:
Grice, born Harborne, formerly (i.e. pre 1891) Staffordshire.
Roger Bisho Jones, born Buslem, Staffordshire.
Jason Kennedy, born Moseley, Staffordshire.
Next? Just joking!
I have to find a few engravings of Harborne. I know I have them somewhere in the Swimming-Pool Library. A famous painter was from there. I did see the engraving and it's pretty good. Not the leafy suburb, but very 'urban' in ways. And then we have to assume he WAS born in the suburb (which is 5 km S of Brum's center -- whereas Moseley is 3 km S.)
R. B. Jones notes in one of his comments that he would bike the area often. Ain't that great?
---- I'm interested in riverways too. I see there's the Rea. And a few others, but I wonder if rivers were fun in those days in those areas. Etc. JLS
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I saw it listed as Wake Green Road, not Wakefield.
ReplyDeleteI'll get a Google Maps reference, do you have a street for Grice residence?
I used to visit Moseley a lot in my 20s, it was a place with a lot of subdivided housing for students, excellent large Victorian stock, but it then underwent the inevitable gentrification.
Sorry: Indeed "Wake Green Rd" -- don't know what I was thinking! It is a beautiful building, and the fact that he vacationed in that blessed spot of Sorrento is very touching. Since you are into rhymes, I guess I can quote the "Sorrento" thing. You HAVE to sing in in the Neapolitan dialect to get the right rhyme, which can be annoying for people who are not (I'm NOT!):
ReplyDeleteVide 'o mare quant'è bello!
Spira tantu sentimento.
Comme tu a chi tiene mente
ca scetato 'o fai sunnà.
Guarda, gua' chistu ciardino;
siente, sie' sti sciure arance.
Nu profummo accussì fino
dinto 'o core se ne va.
E tu dice: "I' parto, addio!"
T'alluntane da stu core,
da la terra de l'ammore
tiene 'o core 'e nun turnà?
Ma nun me lassà,
nun darme stu turmiento!
Torna a Surriento,
famme campà!
Vide 'o mare de Surriento,
che tesoro tene 'nfunno:
chi ha girato tutto 'o munno
nun l'ha visto comm' 'a ccà.
Guarda attuorno sti Serene,
ca te guardano 'ncantate
e te vonno tantu bene…
Te vulessero vasà.
E tu dice: "I' parto, addio!"
T'alluntane da stu core,
da la terra de l'ammore
tiene 'o core 'e nun turnà?
Ma nun me lassà,
nun darme stu turmiento!
Torna a Surriento,
famme campà!
Nay, I don't have an address for Grice. I KNOW it's safely deposited in the Grice Collection, but I don't know it. Chapman (who wrote his bio) saw it in a mimeo he had kept from those days, the 1930s. The paper is on "Negation". She gathers he was writing from Harborne. I don't think she has it either, since the collection is not especially circulating! But never to worry. We'll find out, eventually. Meanwhile any good spot from the area should do. We assume he was born in the cutest 'home'.
ReplyDeleteI actually have some contacts in Moseley, too! Should revise his address: he is a fan of Monty Python, and he taught me a lot about the Moseley area. Other people from the area I know are from Warley and Bearwood. Etc.
ReplyDeleteA Grice Cycle shop existed on Harborne High Street, next to Lloyds bank, about 1910; a relative ?
ReplyDelete