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SOLIHULL LOCAL HISTORY CIRCLEWelcome to www.solh.org.uk |
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SOLIHULL LOCAL HISTORY CIRCLEWelcome to www.solh.org.uk |
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INDEX:
January 16,2012 : YARDLEY WOOD through the CAMERA : Michael Byrne
December 19, 2011 : SLHC MEMBERS’ TALKS : Edna Handley: Solihull Now and Then
TREVOR ENGLAND :CHESSETTS WOOD WAR MEMORIAL
November 21,2011 Joy Woodall
October 17, 2011 Ian Dillamore: Middleton Hall
September 19,2011 Andrew Hamilton :"MEET at DAWN, UNARMED"
May 20,2011 AGM
April18, 2011 John Aitken: EDGBASTON and BOURNVILLE COMPARED
March 2011 Elaine Warner: A THOUSAND YEARS of KNOWLE
Feb 2011 Bob Burton: METAL DETECTING around BIRMINGHAM
For Reports on earlier meetings, click here
Talk given by Michael Byrne on 16 January 2012
YARDLEY WOOD through the CAMERA
Yardley Wood was the last part of the south of Yardley Manor to be cleared of forest and replaced by farms. These in turn were redeveloped for housing mainly by Birmingham city council, after WWI. An article in the Birmingham Gazette in 1933, entitled Farewell to Yardley Wood, looked back on its rural past, but found the 17th century Priory Windmill (with 60ft sails) still standing. Kate Cave had inherited it in 1931 and wanted to refurbish it as a dwelling (“rooms without corners would have no dust”), but it was blown up in 1937 for a bungalow estate. Billesley Farm (178 acres) and Quagmire Farm, both owned by Charles Reeves, had been demolished in 1924 and 1926 respectively. Daisy Farm (52 acres) was sold to the City for £7,800 in 1927 and Ivy House Farm (28 acres) went in 1930.
There are several different spellings of Trittiford (often without the first ‘r’). The main farm was part of the Taylor estate (John Taylor I had been one of the founders of Lloyds Bank) and was rented by the Reeves family 1909-37. A 1922 picture of its milk cooling equipment was fascinating. Tittesford House Farm was rented by the Cliff family 1885-1920; its farm buildings were converted into a garage, with Shell petrol pumps, and demolished in the 1960s. Trittiford Mill dated from 1783 and its pool covered 7.5 acres. Besides water power, a steam engine was also installed and the mill made steel pen nibs. It was sold in 1913 and the pool became a public open space in 1923. The City, in developing the area, was generous in providing open spaces between the housing estates – in contrast to Hall Green where private developers operated. This estate was built from 1938 and work continued until 1941. Priory Mill, also on the River Cole, was first recorded in 1495 as part of Colebrook Priory. Owned by the Woolaston family it was rebuilt in 1843 as a needle mill, but reverted to flour c1870 and closed in 1919. Its pool was filled in to become the Dingle Recreation Ground, but its extended tailrace caused the boundary between Birmingham and Solihull to be altered, and the curious kink still exists. The last of its buildings were pulled down in 1965.
Yardley Wood originally had a ‘Platform’ (superior to a ‘halt’ but less than a station) on the North Warwickshire Railway which arrived in 1907. The GWR ran distinctive diesel carriages on the line until 1941. Highfield Road bridge over the Cole was widened to reach the station. There were two fords across the river, at Scriber’s Lane and Slade Lane – both painted by Thomas Clark. Scriber’s ‘Water Splash’ was replaced by a bridge for buses to use. The Stratford Canal had humped bridges with weight restrictions of 8 tons. A Birmingham Gazette article in 1936 recounted how one bridge was tested to destruction, which did not occur until 126 tons had been loaded on to it.
John Taylor III gave land for Christ Church (and its parsonage) which was consecrated in 1849. Stained glass and a lych gate were added by the 1880s. Several rich people from Moseley attended the church, and were buried there. But the church had only one bell, so recordings of London’s Bow bells were used regularly. In 1914 there was a riot involving 500 people when the Anglo-Catholics, supported by the Guild of the Holy Cross, paraded their crucifix and were attacked by low churchmen, mainly from Kings Heath. A large body of police only just managed to restore order, enabling the crucifix to be returned to the church. St Caradoc’s Church in Highfield Road was started in two ex WWI Army huts. It was reconsecrated in 1954 after rebuilding as St Peter’s, as the Bishop of Birmingham refused to believe that any Welsh people still lived in the area. A fire necessitated a further reconsecration in 1964.
In 1877 James Ferne Webster (1821-1904), a metallurgist entrepreneur, built a factory in Yardley Wood where aluminium was first made in the UK in 1881. Further patents followed, and the Prime Minister (Lord Salisbury) visited. Manufacture was switched to Oldbury in 1888, but a new process by another manufacturer overtook Webster who, at one time very rich, died leaving only £2,000.
There were many pubs in the area including the Sherwood, Dog & Partridge, the Warstock, and Bagnall Arms but all have now gone, as have (in the early 1970s) the Co-op shops in School Road, Prince of Wales Terrace, and Priory Road. The Tudor Cinema, built in 1929, had 1,000 seats but was demolished in 1962. The Happy Valley Pleasure Grounds run by the Bardell family – with bands, dancing, and punting on the canal – where a toffee apple cost a farthing, closed in 1950.
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SLHC MEMBERS’ TALKS : 19 DECEMBER 2011
SOLIHULL NOW & THEN, by EDNA HANDLEY
The High Street The first known print (1829) by Ratcliff, towards the church. Warwick Rd, Mormon HQ
1947 photo of Tanyard cottages (demolished 1962). Yard closed 1867.
Hampton Lane, by Solihull Sch: Ivy Cottage (date unknown), but still there in 1951.
School Lane, Palmer’s Charity School. 1909 postcard, when it was Solihull School
Sanatorium. Built 1830, following a bequest in 1723 by Miss Martha Palmer
of Olton Hall. Converted by 1994 into 3 dwellings for Solihull School staff.
Beechnut Lane 1908 p/c with Charles Lines’ parents, brother & sister in wooded lane
Anchor Lane 1920 p/c showed Anchor Inn beside Solihull Wharf.
Olton Tavern 1920 p/c of Olton Hall, built 1824 on site of Hobs Moat. Tavern 1937
Warwick Rd, The Gatehouse 1907 p/c. Built 1798 by Sir John Soane. Converted to house in 1978.
Sold for £8,000 in 1987.
Sandals Bridge: 1948 aerial photo. Built by John de Sandal (Rector 1311-16), widened 1924. Brickyard 1896-1954,
with 6 pairs of houses on road frontage and large claypit behind. Flats built on brickyard 1975.
Sandals Cottage: 1947 in snow. Built c1785 by John Felton. Modernised in 1981.
The Oak Tree: 1907 p/c. Beside the path from New Road to Warwick Road.
New Rd, Old Police Station: 1920 p/c. Built 1851. By 1903 2 shops, inc. Sub PO. Rebuilt 2003.
Rectory Road: 1907 p/c, with field towards 1834 Rectory and its farm.
Church Hill/Whitefields Rd: 1907 p/c. Little changed, but fingerpost has gone.
High Street: 1907 p/c of Great Western Mews, run by Mr Ledbroke, fly proprietor.
Station Rd, John Lewis: 1946 picture shows the Co-op when built; also 1968 & 1999.
Station Rd, The Parade: 1920 p/c shows Sutton Grange, demolished 1926.
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CHESSETTS WOOD WAR MEMORIAL, by TREVOR ENGLAND
Many of the names recorded on WWI Memorials had no graves. That at Packwood lists not only those who died, but also those who served and survived. But there is no WWII Memorial, as the names were placed with those of Hockley Heath at the base of its WWI Memorial.
An expensive (gold, blue & green lettering) and heavy (27x17ins, x 6ins deep) stone WWI Memorial was erected in the Chapel of Ease at Chessetts Wood. It listed four names, all of whom lived there but were born in Aston or Nechells. Adams, Cottrell and Holt were single men; they were labourers who had served in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and were buried in Northern France. Astle was a married farmer who had served in the Hampshire Regiment and was buried in Belgium. The Chapel was deconsecrated in 1960 when it was converted into a private house, and the Memorial was dumped in Loach’s adjacent builders yard. When the latter ceased to trade, Mr Loach’s son took the Memorial to his home in Yorkshire. In 2010 he contacted the Vicar of Packwood, and the Memorial was returned. A Faculty is being sought to install it in the church
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MARKET TOWN, COUNTRY TOWN.
Talk given by Joy Woodall on 21 November 2011 to Solihull LHC
The Manor of Ulverley, whose main settlement was at Ulverley Green, was a large elongated manor bounded by Sheldon in the north, Elmdon in the east and Tanworth in the south. Settled by Anglo Saxons, it was owned by Edwin, Earl of Mercia, brother-in-law of Harold, who was killed at the Battle of Hastings.
William the Conqueror gave the manor to his kinsman, Ralph de Limesi, who owned 40 other manors. In 1066 Ulverley was worth £10, but by 1086 this had declined to £4. The Domesday Book recorded a priest, so that there must have been a church somewhere; there were 3,000 acres of woodland. Ralph’s son, Alain, wanted more income so he founded a new town on a flat piece of ground – where the Salt Road from Droitwich crossed the Warwick Road – close to the border with Longdon, hoping to attract people from that manor. It was 2.5 miles from Ulverley Green, and at the top of a soily hill, hence Solihull. A church was built, dedicated to St Alphege, the Archbishop of Canterbury who had been killed by the Danes in 1012.
Strips of ground were offered to prospective inhabitants on Burgage Tenure, with a rent of 1s a year, but no other obligations. The 1180 Tax return listed Solihull as paying 13s4d, whereas Birmingham paid only 4s. Alain de Limesi was succeeded by his son Gerard, and then his grandson John. The latter died in 1198 and was the last of the family. The manor of Ulverley reverted to the king who appointed Hugh Bardolf as Custodian. John’s sister, Basilia, wanting to keep the family connection, married him, but he died in 1204. A new Custodian was appointed so she married him, but he also did not live long, so she finally married Hugh d’Odingsell, a Flemish soldier. He had to pay £500 to acquire the manor from the Crown.
A new manor house had been built at Hobs Moat and in 1238 William d’Odingsell, their younger son, now lord of the manor, added a stone structure to this. He also, in 1242, secured a Royal Charter for a weekly Wednesday market and a three day fair around St Alphege’s Day on 19 April. William was away much of the time fighting the Welsh and Henry III appointed him Constable of Montgomery Castle. His son, William II who succeeded in 1204, helped Edward I to finally defeat the Welsh and then served in Ireland. He married Ela, daughter of the Earl of Salisbury, and was knighted. In the 1270s he rebuilt the chancel of the church and added the chantry, with its own priest who lived below the chapel, to pray for the family. Sir William was made Viceroy of Ireland but died soon afterwards in 1295. His only son Edmund did not survive him long, dying of cholera aged 27, so his four daughters were the co-heiresses. The manor was divided: William’s widow retained Hobs Moat and what became known as the Old Town (Olton), whilst their second daughter, also Ela who had married John de Bermingham, inherited Solihull. It was sold in 1320 to the Bishop of Ely and then passed through numerous other hands, so Solihull no longer had a resident manorial lord.
The main occupations of the townsfolk were clothmaking, leather (hung out on the tenters with hooks) and metal trades, including making nails and wire besides implements. Around the small ‘borough’ were the small settlements of Olton, Shirley Street and Shelly Green, and many farms – at least 20 of which were moated. Moats provided defence, drainage and fish. All were within the extensive parish of Solihull which included the manor of Longdon. In the 1332 Tax List 67 men who had assets of 10s or more were listed. But the Black Death 1348-50, which recurred up until 1370, caused great deprivation. Work on the church stopped in 1360, and would not start again until 1530, although a spire was added in 1470.
The Greswold family built what is now known as the Manor House in the High Street around 1475 as prosperity began to return. The funding of the chantry was diverted to local education before the Crown dissolved others, and Solihull Grammar School was founded in 1560. But by 1632 the market and fair had disappeared, and much of the 17th century was a hard time for the town. In 1871 the Hearth Tax revealed there were 83 households but, at 2s per hearth, 52 were too poor to pay.
The Rev. Henry Greswold (Rector 1660-1700), who had 13 children, started to buy property, including the land on which his son built Malvern Hall. A successor was Charles Curtis (Rector 1789-1829) who lived in the old Elizabethan Rectory but was also Rector of Birmingham at the same time. He was a keen hunter and the hunt met in the Square. The 18th century brought a revival to the town’s fortunes. In 1726 the Birmingham-Warwick road was turnpiked, and The Barley Mow was an important stopping point for coaches. In 1776 Thomas Archer, landlord of The George, died: his inventory revealed that he was owed over £130 by several prominent local people, which amounted to a third of his estate.
Mr Powell’s School, on the corner of the High Street and The Square, was a boys’ boarding school which had a high reputation in the early 1800s. It had a modern curriculum, unlike the Grammar School which continued to teach Latin and Greek, and hence was not well supported. The boys attended dancing classes, held on the upper floor of the Town Hall beside the church, with the young ladies (to whom they were not allowed to speak) of the neighbouring Lyndon House School. “The Limes”, a house on the Warwick Road opposite Poplar Road, housed a succession of doctors beginning with John Short in 1761 and ending with Paul & Doris Quinet in 1974, after whom it is now named.
The modern shopping centre, named after Touchwood Hall (demolished in 1966) on Dog (Drury) Lane, now filled with traders and customers, was the kind of profitable facility that Alain de Limesi wanted all those years ago when he founded his new town.
MIDDLETON HALL
Talk given by Ian Dillamore on 17 October 2011 to Solihull LHC
Middleton Hall is older and more fascinating than many historic houses in the West Midlands. The original stone house was built for Philip de Marmion in 1285. It was added to in four phases over the centuries: the Jettied Building and the Great Hall, with a gallery along the front linking the east and west wings, was built c 1530. John Leyland in 1542 described it as Sir John Willoughby’s fine house, and in 1575 Queen Elizabeth stayed two nights in rooms above a Gatehouse to the courtyard. In 1650 there was substantial modification with a new kitchen with lodgings over. There the great English naturalist, John Ray (1627-1705), who travelled across Europe with Francis Willoughby in the 1660s, wrote the first scientific book on ornithology and compiled a comprehensive listing of plants. Finally there were two Georgian phases: the main part of the West Wing with eight bays in 1720, and its south extension of three bays in 1824 by the first of a sequence of tenants, Sir Francis Lawley.
The 1st Lord Middleton, son of Francis Willoughby, demolished the gallery in order to construct the grand staircase. His main residence was Wollaston Hall, Nottingham (built by his father), but when he was ennobled in 1711 he chose his birthplace for his title as there was already a Lord Willoughby. He also unfortunately encased the 16th century structures in concrete, and converted the windows to sash frames to produce a Georgian appearance. Middleton house was let for long periods. One tenant, John Peel, filled in the moat and another, De Hamil, wrote a somewhat fanciful history of the house for the Victoria County History. His visitors included Gertrude Jekyll and Baden Baden-Powell. The latter, brother of the famous Robert, had constructed a man lifter contraption and this was used to photograph the Hall from the air (and later in the Boer War).
The Middleton family sold the house and its 3,600 acres (including the village) to pay death duties in 1925. It was bought by John Averill who demolished the Gatehouse to allow his lorries into the yard, created a garage in the south wing, and allowed the house to deteriorate. The gardener and housekeeper remember him stripping the panelling from the Jettied Building where they lived, revealing draughty gaps in the lath and plaster. His son, Dick, inherited but lived elsewhere. He sold the estate to Amey Roadstone who extracted gravel and by the 1970s the house was in a very bad state.
The Langley Brook had been dammed with a brick wall in the 16th century to create a pool to service the blast iron furnace on the estate (the second in the country after Cannock, and long before Coalbrookdale). The drive to the Hall ran along the top of the dam. Water lilies were used commercially in London and Manchester, but no longer grow as the pool has silted up. To avoid the expense of repairing the dam wall, Amey banked it up with large stones removed from the finer gravel and made the present grass verge. The Tudor stables were topped out in 1604 and were then unique in having accommodation over the houses and carts. These were used to transport the cast iron six miles to Hints Mill for further processing.
In 1977 local conservationists from Tamworth became concerned about the building, despite Atherstone District Council stating that it was too far gone to save. They persuaded Amey to support the foundation of the Middleton House Trust in 1980; the day after the announcement the fine staircase was badly vandalised. The Trust were granted a lease on the property until 2025 at a peppercorn rent. Amey sold the estate to Consolidated Goldfields who promised to donate the Hall to the Trust, but sadly there is no record of this. Hanson took over that company, and the current owners are property developers who want to break the lease.
The Great Hall has been restored, as has the Jettied Building (in 2000). For the latter only, English Heritage agreed that the concrete covering could be removed, revealing the timber framing in all its glory.
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Talk given by Andrew Hamilton on 19 September 2011 to Solihull LHC
Andrew Hamilton spoke about his grandfather’s War Diary August 1914-January 1915. Robert Hamilton (1877-1959) was educated at Glenalmond, where he played in the cricket XI. He served with the Norfolk Regiment (‘The Holy Boys’) in the Boer War. He left the Regiment in 1906, and married in 1907 Irene Mordaunt (1880-1969) of Walton Hall. They went to Trinidad but returned for Robert to join the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. All ranks wore a distinctive badge, an antelope, which had been the Regiment’s mascot since 1707. The 1st Battalion (500 men) left Folkestone on 22 August and landed at Le Havre. They did not have steel helmets as none were issued until 1916.
There were three versions of the Diary. The first was what Robert wrote in a diary (each day had a page) on the spot; the second was his transcription, with additions on to plain paper afterwards; and the third was a typed version. Apparently he offered the transcription to a Hereford printer for publication but the charge would have been £5, so Robert got one of his clerks to type it. Amongst Robert’s friends were Bernard Montgomery (about 10 years younger) and Bruce Bairnfather, whose cartoons (which he preferred to call sketches) were part of Andrew’s presentation, along with maps and photographs gleaned from the Imperial War Museum, etc.
The weather was very hot in August/September, which meant that carrying 30 kilo packs for up to 34 miles a day was exhausting. Prolonged rain in the autumn made liquid mud a problem, so the freezing weather (with snow) in December/January was welcomed. The Warwicks’ initial positions were to the NE of Paris towards Soissons, in the Marne Valley, but they soon began moving north following the Germans. They stayed on farms – the officers in the house, the men in the barns – which had food to supplement basic rations; and in caves in quarries previously occupied by the enemy, where regimental crests (eg the Hampshires) were carved on the rock. The first trenches were dug (a practice from the Boer War) in September. ‘Crib sheets’ with useful French words and sentences were issued to all ranks, and rum was provided for warmth. At one point the men took a much needed bath in a brewery.
The Warwicks were part of a Brigade which also had Seaforth Highlanders (often drunk but superb fighting men whom the Germans feared), Irish Fusiliers and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. On 13 October there was major action near Meteren as part of the 1st Battle of Ypres when the Warwicks lost 400 men. Many were buried temporarily in a mass grave in a muddy hopfield, before being reburied later in a cemetery. Montgomery was wounded and returned to the UK. The adjutant was Lt Jackson whose sketch maps proved useful, but he could not spell; Robert, now a Captain, disliked the man.
The mail was vitally important (one million items were posted a day). Christmas gifts and cards arrived for the Warwicks on 20 December, and a present from Princess Mary (6 cigarettes, pipe, tobacco and matches) was distributed to each man. Music was heard more often: Robert played the cornet and acquired a German concertina – as shown in a Bairnfather sketch. On Christmas Day, during the truce, each side shouted to the other to come into the middle (the trenches were 70 yards apart). Private Gregory did so and was met by two Germans from the 134 Saxon Corps. Many others soon gathered, with the Germans exchanging their cigars for English cigarettes. A football match was proposed but never took place. Apart from Robert’s, there were 18 other descriptions of the truce, including one from the German Lt Zahrni. Robert wrote "it was unique in the world’s history", and Private Tapp said it was as if the clock had stopped ticking. Private Pratt described how a star shell fired by the Germans towards evening lit up all the men in the middle as well as the trenches. During the interlude a mass grave was dug in no-man’s land and the dead from each side buried.
Many adjacent commanders on both sides disapproved of the fraternisation, and when they heard of it the Generals were furious. There was no truce in 1915 (Gen. Dorrien-Smith threatened Court Martials for breach of this order) or in 1916, but one did take place at Christmas 1917. Some officers bought a duck from a farmer to supplement their Christmas rations, which included plum pudding, and drank ‘The Boy’ (champagne). On New Year’s Day a dog jumped into the Warwicks’ trenches with a message from the Germans, including a request to send it back. But the dog was given some corned beef and did not want to return.
By January Robert’s hearing had been affected and he was sent on sick leave. Thus he missed the 2nd Battle of Ypres in which another 400 Warwicks died, including Private Tapp. Robert was sent to Hereford to command the Detention Barracks, which was filled with conscientious objectors. He hated the job. After his family sold Avoncliffe in Tiddington, Stratford-on-Avon, in 1921, Robert became a farmer near Tavistock. The Secretary of the local Golf club sent him an unpleasant letter alleging that his sons had played more holes than paid for, and had damaged the greens. Robert Died aged 81 in 1959.
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SOLIHULL LOCAL HISTORY CIRCLE
Minutes of the AGM held on 20th May 2011
1. Apologies
Apologies were received from Sue Maskell, Mary Riley and Margaret Frlan
2. Minutes of the AGM on 21st May 2010
These were approved and accepted by the meeting.
Proposed: Allan Evans Seconded: Nigel Cameron
3. Matters Arising
Trevor England reported that the Conservation Advisory Committee had been disbanded due to funding cuts
4. Director’s Report 2010/11
Laurence Ince noted that we had 53 members this year compared with 55 last year including 4 life members and 2 multiple members. Average attendance at meetings was 34 compared with 43 last year and may have been due to the bad weather. We cancelled our December meeting because of snow. The average number of guests was 8. Meetings are well publicised in the local press and on our website.
We publish Newsletters regularly around September, January and April and close contacts continue with SAG, Knowle LHS and the SSA.
Two outings were held, namely to Winterbourne House and Gardens in October and the Jewellery Quarter Museum in March. Our photography project continues.
Conservation plays an important part in our activities and several members visited and inspected Longdon Hall, which has recently come on the market.
Laurence said that the activities of SLHC continue due to the hard work of the committee and he thanked them for their efforts during the year.
Proposed: Allan Evans Seconded: Trevor England
5. Treasurer’s Report 2010/11
Adam Pearce reported that the Circle continues to be financially stable, with a surplus of £161 over the year.
The visitors’ fees increased from £2 to £3 this year and almost balanced the loss in income from subscriptions, showing that the trend away from joining for a year to choosing particular meetings to attend has continued.
Bank interest remains low, but we had a good increase in Gift Aid repayments from the SSA to £164.
The balance carried forward is £2,309 and expenditure for the year was £1,481.
Adam thanked his Deputy Joy Whitehead for her help, especially in understanding accruals.
Proposed: David Patterson, who thanked Adam for his work.
Seconded: Nigel Cameron
6. Subscription Level
The annual Subscription will remain at £14 and guest fees at £3 per meeting.
7. Election of Officers
The committee was re-elected en bloc
Proposed: Peter Handley Seconded: Diana Mitchell
Members retained their positions with Sue Maskell taking on Outings and Sue Irons becoming Membership Secretary.
8. AOB
Nigel Cameron stated that he was self-appointed archivist for the SSA, and since the beginning of the year has been writing part two of their history, covering the sections. Part one will be about the SSA itself and should be ready for publication next year, with the SSA Executive Committee deciding on the actual date.
A lot of papers were lost in transit to the Warwickshire Record Office in 2005, but others can be read in Solihull Library. Nigel thanked Vernon Batsford and Adam Pearce for their records.
24 SSA silver challenge cups have also been lost.
Following a question from David Patterson it was acknowledged that the Knowle Local History Society and the group which is part of Knowle Society do not officially co-operate, but Laurence Ince said he has contact with the breakaway group.
Joy Woodall said that Longdon Hall has a buyer and John Shepherd was in negotiations with them, but Nigel Cameron said that Copt Heath Golf Club members had not been told.
David Patterson asked about the composition of the Conservation Advisory Committee and Trevor England replied that members had had extensive individual experience of building, architecture, local history and Parish Councils. He also said that relevant matters could still be referred to him and letters should be written to Ward Representatives of the Council.
Talk by John Aitken on 18 April 2011 to the Solihull LHC
The Calthorpe Estate was developed mainly between 1790-1890, with plots rented to the middle class. George Cadbury developed Bournville from 1890 selling freeholds to provide as wide a social mix as possible. Both estates had green policies.
Although some building had taken place from 1786, it was the 3rd Lord Calthorpe (1807-51) who developed his Edgbaston country estate. He left the Hall (now the Golf Clubhouse) to live on his Hampshire and Suffolk estates. Unlike other local landowning families (eg the Gooches), the Calthorpes did not sell land but rented out plots. Because of the Napoleonic Wars and economic recession, the initial take-up was disappointing. An early terrace on the Hagley Road dates from 1810, and the small firms that built it and others often cut corners. Manufacturers never had much disposable income and it was not until the 1820s that the professional classes began to show interest. Individual houses were built on George Road and Frederick Road, but the Birmingham middle class grew only slowly. By 1858 only one household in ten had three servants.
The Estate stipulated that there could be “no houses for the poor, no shops, and no place of public amusement whatsoever.” Industry was not permitted, and the environment was to remain green. Lord Calthorpe did not want to emulate The Crescent, a 1780s development copied from Bath, which had failed because of the activities of the nearby canal wharf. The canal and railway through his estate were tightly controlled, as was the main road: buses were tolerated, but not the cheap trams (despite the need to/from the working class areas of Harborne and Selly Oak).
Houses dating from 1840 in Carpenter Road have insurance plates and Chinese style porches. There were grand houses in Calthorpe Road (to which John Cadbury, his wife and six children – including George and Richard – moved in 1850) and Harborne Road where Joseph Chamberlain lived before moving into Highbury. Westbourne Road was also prestigious, and the first house in Victorian Gothic was built in Ampton Road. Bidlake designed Garth House in 1890, and J.L.Blore built Winterbourne for the Nettlefolds in 1903. Many residents were Unitarians or Quakers, imbued with philanthropic and public service ideals. In the late 19th century up to half the Birmingham Town Council lived in Edgbaston.
The Calthorpe Estate supported local charities. It ensured that the Botanical Gardens (1832) were open to the working classes for 1d, and Calthorpe Park was free for “the six working days”. An elementary school was provided in 1847; there was a School for the Deaf (1815) and the blind Institution dated from 1851: all paid very low rents. A site for the University was made available in 1900.
Industrialists had built villages before Bournville (eg Saltaire in 1850, though that was not a garden estate). The first 15 houses were for supervisors in the new factory (1879), but these were later demolished due to its expansion. It was never a company village, and the Bournville Trust has always been independent. George Cadbury intended that good housing should be provided for all sections of the community, and that 10% of the land should be open space.
He re-erected Selly Manor and a mediaeval barn on to the estate, and the Rest House (1914) was modelled on the 16th century yarn market at Dunster. The Friends’ Meeting House was built in 1905 and St Francis of Assisi Church in 1925, but there were to be no pubs or cinemas. Cadbury won his battle against the Education Authority that classrooms should hold no more than 40 (as opposed to 60), and the junior school was erected in 1902 with its famous carillon of 48 bells. Alexander Harvey, the Trust’s first architect, designed all these buildings, and also much of the housing whose frontages were deliberately varied. Some of the early houses had no separate bathroom, but the bath was built into the floor, or a cupboard, of the kitchen. Many houses were placed back from the road, or at right angles to it.
In 1900 40% of the houses were owner occupied (now it is 50%), and the 1901 Census revealed that half the heads of households were skilled people. The Cadbury Brothers (John and Benjamin) were shrewd – siting their factory next to canal and railway; proclaiming their company was based in “London and Birmingham” (when the former had only a tiny office); and emphasising the popular French version of chocolate, and hence Bournville.
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Talk given by Elaine Warner of the Knowle LHS on 21 March 2011 to SLHC
Knoll (meaning hill) is 418ft above sea level. Its first written record was the Grant of Dower in 1208 when the Lord of the Manor gave it to his wife. King Edward I bought it in 1284. When his wife (Eleanor of Castille) died in 1396 he gave it to the monks of Westminster Abbey to pray for her soul. In the same year Walter Cook (Treasurer of St Paul’s and pluralist Canon), a native of the village and its greatest benefactor, founded a chantry chapel, the north transept of the church which was consecrated in February 1402/03. The exterior of its east end is very rough as it was built up to the boundary where there was an adjacent building. As ecclesiastical processions were not allowed to leave consecrated ground but had to circumnavigate the church, a subway was built under the chancel. This has been filled in, but the doorways on each side can still be seen. A buttress now supports the east end as the foundations had been weakened by the subway. A college was founded in the church in 1416. The church (and its chantry) had its own priests but nevertheless remained a chapel of ease within Hampton-in-Arden. It was a Peculiar, which meant that it was under the jurisdiction of the Lord of the Manor and not the Bishop. Its incumbent could therefore legally marry couples without banns being called. Out of 274 marriages in one period, 200 were outsiders and many were not even named in the registers. It was not until 1859 that Knowle became an independent parish.
The Guild of St Anne, a religious guild with its own priest, was founded in February 1412/13. Its second register covering the period 1451-1535, now in the Birmingham Central Library, contains 15,000 names – so membership was clearly popular. Along with the College, the Guild was dissolved in 1547, but the church was saved as villagers argued that, because of the flooding of the River Blythe (the original reason for its construction), they could not reach Hampton-in-Arden. In 1912 Mr Jackson bought the 15th century Guildhouse, restored it, and gave it back to the church.
Following the dissolution of Westminster Abbey in 1540, Knowle Manor passed through several owners, including Queen Elizabeth, until the Grevilles (created Earls of Warwick in 1759) acquired it in 1623. They built the Hall in the 1660s, but the building has been much changed since. They also established the Free School, and Thomas Treherne – followed by his son – were its Masters from 1721 to 1800. Thomas also ran a boys’ boarding school in the village which the poet Walter Savage Landor attended from 1778 to 1783. The Grevilles remained Lords of the Manor (although sharing it with the Greswolds for a period) until the 19th century, when William Wilson of Gumley (near Market Harborough) bought it. He was extravagant and had to sell the estate in 1849. But the family retained the Lordship until it passed to the Everitts, who retain it today.
The village contains many fine buildings. Chester House was originally two adjacent buildings dating from c1400 and c1500, and joined together c1600. It became the library in 1975. Milverton House was reputedly the birthplace of Walter Cook. The High Street has many timber framed 17th century structures, many of which were faced with brick in the 18th century. There were several inns, all with their own bowling greens: the White Swan and the Red Lion were ancient establishments, as was the Rising Sun, renamed the Wilson Arms in 1839 in honour of the Lord of the Manor. The Mermaid was renamed the Greswolde for the same reason; it had extensive stabling and was where the mail coaches (eight a day between Birmingham and Warwick) stopped. The Grand Union Canal opened in 1799 (leading to several drownings), and Knowle had its own wharf used mainly by coal merchants. Many alehouses, both in the village and beyond, opened to serve the navvies. The canal passed close to Grimshaw Hall built in 1560 and the home of that family until 1700. It fell on hard times but had been restored by James Murray by 1913.
There was little open field system since the area was so wooded. The Enclosure Map was drawn in 1817 and the last common went in 1820. Up until then the village had expanded along the Kenilworth Road, but now it started to develop up the Warwick Road (created a turnpike in 1825), westwards, and around Knowle Station (opened in 1853). With fewer potholes, roads narrowed leaving grass verges at the side which householders sometimes took into their own holdings. Shops appeared in the High Street (including one in the Guildhouse in 1873), a new school was built in 1871 and the almshouses in 1886. In 1800 the Knowle Association for Prosecuting Felons was formed. It still holds its annual dinner today. 81 men did not return from WWI and the stables at Springfield were used as a hospital for the wounded.
The Playhouse Cinema in Station Road opened in 1924 and became popular with the cheapest ‘seats’ (benches) priced at 3d. It closed in 1954. The unusual Congregational Church was built in 1931-34, the Wilson Arms Garage was opened by Jack Johnson in 1933, and the Greswolde Swimming Pool a year later. It closed in 1965. Knowle had its own Fire Engine with a volunteer crew. At the start of WWII the village took evacuees from London and Coventry, but they (and their head lice) were not welcomed by the locals. Conversely the American medical team, which arrived for seven months immediately prior the 1944 invasion of France, left many broken hearts.
After the War many cottages, whose low ceilings and lack of a damp proof course were contrary to building regulations, were demolished. As no council houses were built in Knowle, their inhabitants were dispersed to Shirley, Solihull and Bentley Heath. The annual carnival started in 1949 to raise funds for the village hall, which was opened in 1962. The village’s population in the late 1940s was 4,600: it is now 11,000, but many of the old established shops (eg Maddocks, Sodens) have now closed
METAL DETECTING around BIRMINGHAM
Talk given by Bob Burton of Kings Norton on 21 February 2011 to Solihull LHC
Bob demonstrated his £400 Laser Rapier Detector which was lightweight and fitted with headphones. It bleeped when it found metal. More sophisticated detectors (costing £1,000+) have computers which can block out signals from unwanted metals and portray the object below ground – thus avoiding the need to dig unnecessarily. For Bob the pleasure was both the locating and the digging (he was a professional gardener). He has worked with several BBC Time Team digs, and contributed to both metal detecting magazines – Searcher and Treasure. The qualities needed for this hobby were an enquiring mind and persistence; one never knew what to expect.
Bob gave an amusing, lighthearted talk of his experiences and finds, illustrated with photographs and artefacts which he took round his audience. Musket shot was a common find but came in various sizes – small for shooting rabbits, larger for horses and humans. When the lead did not fit the gun, it was often chewed to size. Keys were also common, partly because they were needed to open the locks on the barrels of beer or cider provided for workers in the fields. Temperance Society badges were fairly frequent, along with pub tokens and medallions (eg to commemorate the alteration of Kings Norton boundaries).
Coins were common finds. Modern currency soon tarnished badly, but the metals of older items survived well. Bob had found several silver groats (a 4d piece) at Lapworth, a Henry III short-cross penny at Baverstoke School (Highters Heath), and a half crown of 1644 (although this proved to be a fake). Other coins had come from Harborne cricket ground, which had also yielded hunting whistles, ammunition and shrapnel from WWII.
Unusual finds were part of a mediaeval crucifix (gilded with amethysts) from Tanners Green, and a flat metal swan (a Victorian door fitting ?) from the White Swan at Wythal. Another find at Wythal were several very big horseshoes: research revealed that a local farrier had bred extra large Shire horses. Curious finds were the remains of a saddle (made by Toothil of Alcester), Chinese chess pieces, a bust of Shakespeare (in two separate bits, one found a few days after the first) and a WWI Chaplain’s badge, which had been blackened before he went into action. Bob ended his talk by showing two mystery artefacts: a small pharaoh (made of brass, it was probably a Georgian/Victorian handle) and a small lead receptacle (not an inkwell, but a mediaeval bird feeder).
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For reports on earlier meetings, go to Archives
