THE OLD DYNAMITE SHOP

On the 5th of April 1883, police raided the premises at 128 Ledsam Street, Ladywood and arrested the occupier, Alfred Whitehead.

He was charged with making and distributing Dynamite.

Whitehead was a member of the Home Rule party, who thought that by committing massive acts of terrorism in England, they would succeed in making Ireland "Free".

Funded by money from sympathisers in New York, he quietly produced the explosive, obtaining the ingredients from several different sources.

The deliveries of the large amounts of materials attracted the attention of one Gilbert Pritchard, who had a working knowledge of chemicals.

He informed the police and the raid was carried out.

Although a lot of the Dynamite had been distributed to co-conspirators in London, there was still a massive amount left on the premises, in fact, if it had gone up, the street maps of Birmingham would have needed rewriting. Just going on sheer memory on what I remember about the Dynamite plot, which I read about a few months ago, and I did copy the pictures out of the newspaper of 1883 for future reference.

Alfred George Whitehead came over from Ireland and as a cover for his activities (He wanted home rule for Ireland etc) He rented a shop in Ledsam Street and set up a painting and decorating store, and put a chap in charge to run it.

His real reason was to make Dynamite to blow up various Government buildings and cause major panic, he had a number of co-conspirators in Liverpool and London also there was a house in Kyotts Lake Road where fellow conspirators Egan and Daley had rented.

To make Nitro Glycerine you need Glycerine and Whitehead needed large quantities of it, so pretending to be a Retail seller he bought a few gallon of the stuff saying he was going to sell it on to hairdressers.

After a few months the chap who was selling Whitehead the glycerine became suspicious and went to the police.

The house was watched and Whitehouse followed everywhere.

He took a large box from New Street Station down to London where he met 2 more men at a lodging house, during this time the house in Ledsam Street was entered by a detective using a skeleton key and large quantities of Nitro Glycerine were found so it was decided to round the gang up, which they did and unravelled the Dynamite plot.

Information courtesy of Aston-through-Aston Manor website

Ledsam Street 8-13 rear of 179

This fantastic photograph was sent to me by Roy White, many thanks

This photograph was taken in 1953 - Queen Elizabeth was being driven up Ledsam Street

The factory workers were standing in Ryland Street, the signpost says Essington Street / Broad Street about 10 feet on

Ledsam Street, April 1962