Photographs from a 1940s wedding in Acocks Green, Birmingham

Don't you love a mystery? So when this small book of wedding photographs from the 1940s was auctioned on Ebay, I couldn't resist. There are no names of the happy couple or any details other than the photographer was a Stanley Hewitt, Studio 85, Warwick Road, Olton, Birmingham 27. Can you help name them and so that I can hopefully return this book to the family that ended up in Exeter.

Just a few of the photographs are going to be shown and the first is of the happy bride and groom. Who are they? When the photographs arrived the church was a mystery but there are some clues.

Groom with his best man waiting by the church door before the wedding. Quite a distinct carved entrance that reminded me of the church that my mother was married in. So out came her photographs but none showed the carved head above, but the stone work looked very similar.

Three lovely bridesmaids with glorious bouquets in their hands. Its a pity the photographs then were not in colour. Would love to know the colour of their dresses.  Wonder how long it took them to curl their hair just right ready for the big day. Curlers in over night and a hot curling iron warmed on the fire to finish of the tight curls maybe. 
Now as we were transcribing war memorials and visiting churches. I visited the St Mary, the virgin church in Acocks Green, Birmingham to look for a match and it so happens to be the church that my parents got married in during the late 1950s.

 
We found that the door and entrance matched these mid to late 1940s wedding photographs.

Hence this radiant bride and her beaming groom were married in St Mary, the virgin church in Acocks Green on the Warwick road.
Here are them with the main family. I love the way that the mothers were sat down. Probably because their shoes were hurting by this time or because it was a correct etiquette thing to do. I am not quite sure. 

The whole wedding party photograph seems to have been taken elsewhere. Can not name this building as yet?  It looks like the reception was at a hall somewhere. Maybe this was the church hall or one of the working mens clubs in the area. It was usually quite close in those days, as many people did not have a car, so would have been walking or catching the bus. How we take things for granted nowadays on distance.

Do you recognize anyone. My mom lived in Acocks Green as a young girl and she couldn't, but some one might.
Here is a photograph inside with the wedding cake. Love the tiered cakes that were traditionally decorated. One part was put away for the first christening with the icing and marzipan removed first.

Then lastly the going away car and happy couple or wedding car with loads of paper confetti. No clues to the street from this photograph. It could either be outside the St Marys church or the wedding reception. See the little boy in the background scooping up the confetti from the floor. Kids don't change do they! He would be in his 60s or 70s now.

So can you help? Just email us via our website or post a comment to the bottom of this blog. We do look at them before publishing and would not publish anything with an email or phone number on - because of the spam that follows!