Church Weathervane, Priory Square Market, Birmingham
Posted by: 
mumbo jumbo
N 52° 28.862 W 001° 53.664
30U E 575082 N 5815116
A modern weathervane depicting a church atop a bijou clock tower in a small Birmingham market space.
Waymark Code: WM6AED
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 05/02/2009
Views: 8
This is not the most charming of Birmingham locations but it has an interesting history. As the waymark name suggests, there was once a monastic priory at this location. The priory was dissolved in 1536 and the buildings demolished in 1547. The site remained as ruins for 150 years until it was purchased by John Pemberton and became part of his Priory Estate. Over the next 150+ years, the area developed with the city and in the early 1880s the area was purchased and then demolished to make way for Corporation Street. The newly developed street contained many grand Victorian buildings, most of which have, sadly, been lost. The immediate vicinity of the waymark was then redeveloped in the 1960s, including the developement of an underground carpark linked to a shopping centre. The clocktower on top of which the weathervane is fixed is actually no more than a cover for a stairwell down to the carpark. It appeared in around 1993, replacing an advertising tower which did much the same job.
As for the church design of the weathervane itself, I can only imagine that it is designed to reflect the "priory" name of the area and may even be a representation of what the priory looked like before its destruction (I have not managed to find a picture of it to check). I did wonder if it might be a representation of St Martin's in the Bull Ring but I think the presence of what appear to be buttresses on the church in the weathervane suggest not. If you look closely you can see a figure in the doorway of the church - a nice detail.
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