Some history on South Road at Sparkbrook in Birmingham in the County of Warwickshire

Warwickshire | Birmingham | South Road

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"A fall downstairs caused the death of Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth Prentice [30], of 51, South Road, Sparkbrook. On Saturday night she was going to bed with a baby in her arms, when it is supposed she slipped and fell down a flight of stairs. The baby was not hurt, but the mother. had a scalp wound. She was taken to the General Hospital and an operation was necessary. Despite the efforts of the staff, however, the woman expired at five o'clock yesterday morning. An inquest will be held."
"Fatal Fall Downstairs"
Birmingham Daily Gazette : June 4th 1906 Page 6

"Mrs. Harriet Holland, aged 65, of 4, South Road, Sparkbrook, a G.W.R. cleaner at Snow Hill Station, is lying seriously injured in Selly Oak Hospital. Mrs. Holland, it is stated, was standing by the edge of the platform at Bordesley Station on Saturday when an engine passed, struck her, and flung her across the platform. First-aid having been rendered, the woman was taken to the General Hospital suffering from a fractured leg and collar-bone and head injuries. Mrs. Holland was later transferred to Selly Oak Hospital."
"Station Accident"
Birmingham Daily Gazette : June 4th 1906 Page 6

"Failure by an insurance company to pay him £874 awarded for the loss of a leg was held by a coroner's jury at Birmingham, today, to have contributed directly to the temporary insanity of a man whom they found murdered his wife and committed suicide. The inquiry was on John Tirebuck [52] and his wife, Jennie [50], of South Road, Sparkbrook, Birmingham. Sympathy was expressed with the four children. Leslie James Tirebuck [aged 18], a son of the dead couple, whose hands were bandaged, said that he and his brother [aged 20] and his sisters Irene [aged 16] and Jean [aged four] lived with his parents. Last October his father was involved in a motor accident which necessitated the amputation of his right leg, and in an action at Birmingham Assizes he was awarded £874 compensation. The insurance company concerned, however, went bankrupt, and his father did not receive a penny. He wore an artificial limb, but had been unable to work since the accident, and he had a fear that he might never be able to carry on his old employment, though it was always understood that the job would be kept open for him. Witness went on to tell the story of the tragic happenings of Sunday night, when he returned home at about 11 p.m. The younger daughter was in bed and the remainder of the family were going to have supper together in the living room. Everything was proceeding normally and there was no evidence of ill-feeling. His father went out of the room for a moment and then returned with a bottle, the contents of which he threw wildly about. There was a fire in the grate and when the liquid fell on it it blazed up and witness then realised that the bottle contained petrol. "My mother got most of it," said witness. "She was standing near the fire and caught alight. The table was ablaze. My father stood by the door to prevent us from getting out. He was excited and said something, but I could not tell what it was. I was the biggest in the room and I grappled with him and enabled my mother to get out. She ran into the kitchen and my brother tried to get out of the window." Witness said he threw bowls of water over his mother in order to put out the flames. Then his father came into the kitchen with a knife in his hand. Witness closed with him, but he did not see him inflict any wound upon his mother. He saw that his father had wounded himself and as witness struggled with him he himself was wounded on the hands. Later his father slashed again at his own neck and witness saw that his mother had been injured. He had no doubt his father was responsible for the injury. Irene Tirebuck said that when her father returned to the room he exclaimed: "I'll kill you all." She endeavoured to put out the flames, which were enveloping her mother, and she burned her hands in doing so. Nothing had happened that evening to upset her father. Returning their verdict, the jury expressed the opinion that the law should be altered in such a way that the funds of insurance companies are available in such cases before any allocation is made to other creditors."
"Double Tragedy"
Coventry Evening Telegraph : May 23rd 1935 Page 9

"Eric Hyde [26], South Road, Sparkbrook, was detained in the Birmingham Accident Hospital yesterday with severe injuries after his motorcycle had been in collision with a Post Office van in Medlicott Road, Sparkhill. After the collision the van struck a shop front. Its driver, Thomas H. Shakespeare [31], of 1, Dalston Road, Acock's Green, was treated at the hospital for cuts and abrasions, but not detained."
"Van and Motorcycle in Collision"
Birmingham Daily Post : April 14th 1956 Page 17

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