in coal in 1898 the site at Lifford was not operational until 1917. The furnishing department opened in 1915. A Hairdresser (1926), a chemist (1928), and the Funeral Department (1932) were also opened. The laundry moved from Mary Vale Road to Bewdley Road where it opened in 1939 at a cost of £36,000. The building was a target in 1940 air raids. The Co-Operative movement had an ethos of Education and Social Activities. A sports pavilion was erected on ground purchased near Lifford. By 1951, the membership had grown to over 60,000 and the office staff to 192. After a short period of administration by the Co-operative Wholesale Society in 1971 TASCOS was absorbed into the Birmingham Co-operative Society. The co-op food store ceased trading in Stirchley on 25 January 2020, ahead of Morrisons supermarket taking over the building. Housing Much of Pershore Road from Cotteridge to Pebble Mill is lined with artisans houses built from the 1870s. Many of the side roads have similar houses and there are also unique terraces, Derwent Cottages, and Rose Cottages that lie behind the Pershore Road. The main builders were Grant’s Estates and they often gave the terraces names and the date of construction. Grant’s Estates was founded by brothers Thomas James Grant and Henry Michael Grant in the 1890s. Groups of terraced housing in Cotteridge and King’s Heath, stable blocks, and other jobbing work in 1897 can be traced to the company. They concentrated on buying building plots on green field sites, laying out the roads and drainage, and letting the properties. Their business premises were next to the railway bridge in Cotteridge. Sewell’s acquired the business in 1961. The family lived in a house called Falcon Hill which became a police station in the 1960s and was replaced by Grant’s Court ten years later. The family name is preserved in the Grant Arms pub. Mrs Ellen Grant Ferris bought Harvington Hall, in 1920, which she gave to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham. The houses on the East side of the Pershore Road from Ten Acres heading towards Pebble Mill are known as the ABC houses as they are named in alphabetical order after places in Britain. The ambitious project only got as far as J for Jarrow. Parks and open spaces Stirchley Park is a pocket park between Hazelwell Street and Bond Street. There is mown grass with mature as