Summer Fete at the Top Rec (circa 1950s)

 

Another photograph showing the many activities which took place on the "Top Rec". This is the greasy poll stall at a summer fete in about the 1950s, and the club house for the bowling club can be seen in the distance.

Pictured are George (Jimmy) Riddell (left) and Peter Savory (right) on the greasy pole stall.

The entrance to the Top Rec is on Kingsley Road.

Family Photo Album: 18 Kingsley Road

Thank you to previous residents for more family photographs, this time at 18 Kingsley Road (late 1940s?).

Standing: Florence Savory, Ernest Savory. Sitting (left to right): James Williamson (Jim), Barbara Savory, Peter Savory, Flora Williamson (nee Savory).

Ernest and Florence Savory moved into number 18 in about 1931. Ernest was born in 1873 and had been a railway clerk. Florence was born in 1878.

From Rowheath Farm to Rowheath Pavilion

Rowheath Farm, c. 1900. Held at Birmingham Archive.

Rowheath Farm with the barns behind, 1913, when purchased by BVT.
Held at Birmingham Archive.

Rowheath Farm was situated at the top of where Oak Farm Road is now, opposite Franklin Road. Part of its barn survives, is grade II listed, and is converted into residential properties. 

The barns at Rowheath Farm, c. 1966. Held at Birmingham Archive.

The farm was originally part of the parish of Northfield rather than Kings Norton, until parish borders changed in about the 1920s. 

Worcester Journal, 18 October 1810.

In 1810 the tenant was Robert Cotterell, whose tenancy ran out in 1813 (newspaper clipping, above). From at least 1841 (and possibly 1820)* the farm was run by the Grigg family, passing through three generations, the last generation retiring in 1918 (see here).** Bill Dargue states that the name Rowheath came from the ancient word ruh meaning rough or uncultivated, making it better land for grazing, and the farm seems to have predominantly been run as a dairy farm. 

Before the last Grigg farmer retired the farm, then 130 acres, was purchased on 29 October 1913 for £13,000 by Bournville Village Trust and the Cadbury Firm for development into new recreation grounds which opened in 1924.*3*

The shape of Rowheath Farm purchased by BVT in 1913.
From the Bournville Works Magazine. 

By the 1930s the farmhouse was used as the groundsman's house for the Rowheath Pavilion Grounds which then included several cricket pitches, 30+ tennis courts, rugby and football pitches, and bowling, croquet and putting greens (map below). 

Click on the map to enlarge.

See more on the Pavilion once it was developed, here.

NOTES

Please feel free to share any of the images used here, but it would be appreciated if a link to the site was provided with them.

* Samuel Grigg, Farmer, Row-Heath, in: Bentley's Directory of Worcestershire, 2 vols (1842), II; The land of the farm was originally owned by the Moore family and Samuel Grigg can be found in rate books as 'occupier' from 1848 to 1864: Ancestry.com. Birmingham, England, Rate Books, 1831-1913 [database on-line]. Samuel Grigg's younger children were born in Dudley, but his youngest child was baptised in Northfield early in 1820, so the family moved to Northfield but it is uncertain if they moved to Rowheath Farm.

** Information from the Grigg family is taken from Ancestry.com. The Grigg family appear on censuses from 1841-1911. William Grigg advertised the farm stock and surplus farmhouse furniture for sale, stating that he was 'retiring from farming' in: Birmingham Daily Post, 1 March 1918.

*3* Sale recorded in: Birmingham Daily Gazette, 30 October 1913; Bournville Works Magazine (1913).

- MS 3375/1/1/233

Bikes in the 1950s, Hawthorne Road

This photograph has been sent by Derek Kyte, who still lives in the area, and depicts him and his friend Noel Booth outside the house where Noel lived.

The bikes were Christmas presents, and bought at Kings Norton Cycles in Cotteridge in the late 1950s.

Green Spaces: The Triangle

Click to enlarge.

A photograph looking down Kingsley Road across the Triangle, in about 1910.

The image was taken by Mr. Dyer junior from the bedroom window of 30 Hawthorne Road. This was Charles Dyer, who lived with his parents, and was about 18 in 1910. Both he and his father worked at Cadbury's; Charles junior was a clerk, and Charles senior was an advertising clerk.


By the 1940s, the trees which had been planted around the triangle had become overgrown (see below).

Image: 'Cutting the hedge round the Triangle by voluntary labour of Tenants during the War, in July 1943. The Corporation was unable, owing to shortage of labour, to cut the hedge, & a S.O.S. brought an abundance of helpers'.

The caption attached to the photo includes some of the names of the residents, but it is difficult to distinguish who is being named. From left to right there is: J. N. Bluck [61 Kingsley Road], Miss. Smith, R. W. Price [7 Hawthorne Road], H. Titley [36 Hawthorne Road], G. L. Short, L. Bruce, R. Brannon, W. H. Griffiths, A. Gibson, B. D. Wilkes, F. Birchley, Per. Roberts [51 Kingsley Road], K. Sinclair. [addresses added where known]

Bournville Tenants Ltd in 1909 (Booklet)

In the early years of the Bournville Tenants Estate a promotional booklet was produced filled with photographs of the new housing and information about the society, published in about 1909. A copy of the booklet is owned by a local resident, and is reproduced below, but other copies are held in Birmingham Archive (see here). There are some differences between the two copies, and those held in the Archive were probably produced a year or two later.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Page 1.

BOURNVILLE TENANTS LTD
Registered Office: ESTATE OFFICE, NORTHFIELD RD, KINGS NORTON

Page 2.

The "Garden City" has come to stay. It provides ideal conditions for English homes: it enables the workers to live amid beautiful and healthy surroundings. In the future the people may work in the city, but they will live in the country, and the homes of the children will be where there are fresh air, sunshine, trees and flowers.

Page 3.

THE BOURNVILLE TENANTS LIMITED

Page 4.

PAIR OF COTTAGES, WOODLANDS PARK ROAD.
Each Cottage stands in 600 yards of ground: the house is set back 10 yards from the road, thus giving a good garden plot or lawn in front. The accommodation afforded includes two sitting-rooms, large kitchen, three bed rooms, bath-room (hot and cold water), w.c., and the usual outhouses.

Page 5.

 NORTHFIELD ROAD, SHOWING THE APPROACH TO THE ESTATE FROM THE STATION.
The Estate is most conveniently situated, being from six to ten minutes' walk from the King's Norton Station (Midland Railway), with a frequent and convenient service of trains to New Street, Birmingham.
[NB: This is actually looking towards the station]

Page 6.

NORTHFIELD ROAD, SHOWING FRONT GARDENS.
The large gardens provided with the cottages on the estate afford opportunities for pleasant occupation after a day spent in the city. The tenants are enthusiastic gardeners, and during the summer months the front gardens present an attractive and pretty appearance, with a large variety of flowers and evergreens.

Page 7.

THE BOURNVILLE TENANTS LIMITED IS A CO-PARTNERSHIP BUILDING SOCIETY.

Page 8.

ENTRANCE TO WOODLANDS PARK ROAD.
The road winds gracefully down the side of the hill towards the north-west, running at the further end into Bristol Road. This position commands a view of the well-wooded Worcestershire and Warwickshire countryside, towards Bournville and Harborne, to the famous Frankley Beeches and Warley Woods, the latter being about seven miles distant.

Page 9.

A FEW HOUSES IN NORTHFIELD ROAD.

Page 10.

WOODLANDS PARK ROAD.
The Society began to build in Woodlands Park Road, on the site here shown, in November 1906.

Page 11.

COTTAGES ON KINGSLEY ROAD
The Society has secured the services as Architect of Mr. W. Alex. Harvey of  Birmingham (Consulting Architect to the Bournville Village Trust), who is one of the foremost experts in Garden City Development. Mr. Harvey's site plan combines the advantages of picturesque grouping of the cottages with economy in road-making, and also provides most efficiently for the residents' use of open spaces and recreation grounds provided in the village.
[NB: The top-left photograph shows 170 & 168 Northfield Road, not Kingsely Road]

Page 12.

 QUADRANGLE, KINGSLEY ROAD.--A group of twelve cottages, in three blocks, designed in a simple character, and arranged on three sides of a common green. Breaks the building line in a pleasing manner, and forms an attractive feature of the road.

Page 13.

EDUCATION AND RECREATION.

Page 14.

 COTTAGES IN COURSE OF ERECTION, HAWTHORNE ROAD.

Page 15.

FINANCE.

Page 16.

Designed and produced by J. Charlton & Co., Ltd.

Design & Illustrations
The back page is printed with 'Designed and produced by J. Charlton & Co., Ltd.', but this is underlined in pencil, and the text 'Stanley Williams, Lench, and Charlton is written. Presumably, 'Stanley Williams' and 'Lench' were the '& Co.'. James Charlton, an illustrator and wood engraver, lived at 12 Woodlands Park Road, probably moving in as the house was built, and remaining until the early 1930s, when Stanley Williams moved into the same address. No-one called 'Lench' has yet been found on the estate. 


Copy of the Booklet in Birmingham Archive
The booklet in Birmingham Archive is almost identical to the one owned locally, but the colours of the front cover are inverted, and a new photograph of the top recreation ground has been added to page 13. Apart from this, the booklet is the same, but photos are included here for reference.

Processions & Parties: Celebrating the 1953 Coronation

Click on the images to enlarge.

Five photographs showing the procession, events and parties which took place to celebrate the Coronation of Elizabeth II on 2nd June, 1953. As can be seen above, many of the houses were decorated with bunting as the procession started in Northfield Road. Children and adults dressed in their best, and many children were in fancy dress as they followed the car, which can be seen with a loud-speaker on its roof.

The two images, above, show the procession as it turned from Northfield Road to Woodlands Park Road (the road-sign in the background says Middleton Hall Road). The gentleman in the fez was possibly an entertainer.

Later in the day there were activities for the children, such as fancy-dress and races at, probably, the top rec (above). A tea-party for the children was also held at Woodlands Park Hall, seen laid out below.

The activities of the 1953 Coronation seem quite similar to the Coronation of George VI in 1937. A programme from 1937 can be seen here.

The Top 'Rec'

Click to enlarge.

Above: The grand opening of the top recreation ground, known more fondly as the top 'rec', on Saturday 3rd July, 1909. The crowd includes many of the first residents of the estate, and the man speaking was Mr. T. Bryan (Tom Bryan, Bounville Tenants' first chairman), and George and Elizabeth Cadbury were seated to his left (our right). The six houses in the background are the backs of (I think) 36 to 46 Kingsley Road.

The Tenants Estate was built on twenty acres of land, with two acres of that being leased rent-free from Bournville Village Trust for 'the purpose of providing permanent open space and recreation grounds'. There were two the recreation grounds, the bottom 'rec' (see here), and the top rec', with the latter being the first to be opened; it contained provision for 'games of Bowls, Croquet, Tennis etc'; and the whole area being fringed with trees and shrubs 'with charming effect'.*1 Originally, the top recreation ground was for adults and the bottom recreation ground for children, which is why the bowls, tennis and croquet areas were set up here.

An article in the Birmingham Daily Post (5 July 1909) described the recreation area as:

'a triangular plateau with a charming outlook from all points of the compass. Citywards can plainly be seen on the horizon Warley Woods, while Frankley Beeches stand out prominently on the skyline in a south-easterly direction'. 

Above: Invitation card to the grand opening, which began at 3.30pm with speeches (top photo), where Mrs. Cadbury and Mr. Bryan were both presented with 'an album of views of the village' (it would be nice to find out if these still survive). After the presentations the group took a tour of the village, and then played 'sports and pastimes on the green'.*2

Above: The areas laid out for the bowls and tennis courts in 1909 (the houses in the rear are Northfield Road).*1

1930s

Above: A top 'rec' running event for young children in the late 1930s. The boy on the right is Brian Court, who still lives on the estate. The girl second from the right is Margaret Paxton (later Cowe) who lived at 12 Kingsley Road and 49 Kingsley Road.

About 1950s

Above: A Summer Fete at the Top Rec. Pictured are George (Jimmy) Riddell (left) and Peter Savory (right) on the greasy pole stall. Thanks to the Savory family for the photograph.

See more about Woodlands Park Bowling Club (situated in the top 'rec') here.
See more about the Tennis Club, now gone, here.

Thanks to Brian Court & Pete Done for the photographs.

*1: From the 1909 prospectus.
*2: From Birmingham Daily Mail, 5 July 1909.

The Tennis Club

Click to enlarge.

From the beginnings of the Tenants Estate in the early 1900s there was provision for a range of sports on the top 'rec' (between Kingsley, Woodlands Park and Northfield Roads), including a bowls green and a tennis court. Clubs formed to utilise both, which flourished, but by the 1990s membership of the tennis club had waned, the court had become run-down, and, despite interest from Kings Norton Boys School, it was decided to remove the court and replace it with a second green for the bowls club.

Due to its closure, and the court being removed, not much is known of the club, but the photo (above) shows some of the members in the early 1950s. They are, from left to right, Bill Tallis, Vic Clark, Hetty Willetts, Grace Clark, Charlie Evans, Arthur Hodgkins, Marjorie Parker and Alison Hodgkins. They're standing on the Quadrangle, outside 30 Kingsley Road, where Alison grew up; the visible house being 34 Kingsley Road.

Bournville History: Bournbrook Hall

Click to enlarge.

Above: Photograph of the ornamental pool in the old 'Girls' Recreation Ground', taken in about 2011.

If you go exploring around the Bournville area, one of the old remnants of George Cadbury's original village design is an ornamental pool situated at the far end of the old Girls' Recreation Ground off Bournville Lane.

It was originally a quite retreat for female employees at Cadbury's, framed by the rural landscape of the early 1900s.

Below: Two postcards depicting the pool in about the 1920s.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Near to the pool was also a walled-garden, which is still there today, and gives the sense that the area was once the grounds of an eighteenth-century villa. This villa was sometimes called Bournbrook Hall, at other times Bournbrook House, and occasionally Barnbrook, but the park around the pool was once its grounds, and the pool itself was its cellar.

The house was still standing when the Cadbury's arrived, and can be seen in early photographs, where it was situated on Bournville Lane, facing the men's sports grounds (see below).

Click to enlarge.

Above: Men's sports grounds, Pavilion club house, and Bournbrook Hall to the rear on the right, 1902. The house had been demolished by 1910.


The Cadbury's bought the Bournbrook Hall estate in 1895, which included lands which later became both the 'mens'' and 'girls'' grounds. The walled-garden which survives was the kitchen garden, and the premises also had stables, which are still standing, and Grade II listed, although getting little care and attention at present. The map (below) shows the area in the 1880s, just as Cadbury's was moving in.

Bournbrook Hall area in the 1880s. Click to enlarge.

Bounbrook Hall was a gentleman's residence, and would have been a fine building in its day.

Bournbrook Hall area in the 1930s. Click to enlarge.

Close-up of Bournbrook Hall, 1902.

History of Rowheath Playing Fields & the Pavilion

Click to enlarge.

Image: An undated picture postcard of 'A CORNER OF THE RECREATION GROUNDS AT ROWHEATH, BOURNVILLE'. Probably dating from the 1940s or 1950s.

Before the area around became built up, Rowheath was a stretch of farm land between Rowheath Farm and Haygreen Farm on Haygreen Lane. It had an old public footway running north-east through it, which later became Heath Road, and another running north-west, which still forms the main route through the playing fields. At the rear of Rowheath Farm was a marshy pool, possibly mentioned in a charter of AD 699, which was signed by Offa. The charter described the route of a boundary passing through this area, and mentioned 'spa thaet cume in Usan Mere' [then it comes to Usan Pool].*1 Whether over 1000 years old or not, the marshy pool became the fishing pond in the Pavilion gardens (see maps below).

In the 1920s the land was purchased on the behest of George Cadbury, with the intention of creating grounds for a variety of sporting activities. The Pavilion was built to supply the need for a clubhouse and changing rooms, and the garden and pool of the Pavilion was landscaped for leisure activities. The site was opened in July 1924.

In the 1930s Rowheath Playing Fields spread over about seventy-five acres, and included 'eleven grounds for association football, three for rugby and seven for hockey, eleven cricket pitches, three bowling-greens, two croquet lawns, and forty-one lawn tennis courts. But not only is provision made at Rowheath for the out-and-out athlete; for the benefit of others there is a Garden Club, occupying nine acres, where there is a pavilion, together with gardens, shrubberies, ornamental waters (used by the Works Model Yacht Club), and facilities for playing gentler games as clock-golf, bowls, and croquet. A shallow pool is provided on which children may sail their boats'. The 'shallow pool' was probably the smaller pool on the other side of the arched bridge.

Idyllic view from c.1930. Click to enlarge.

Some of this land has since been built on, so the area does not have quite as much sporting activity as it once had. In 1931 it was thought that more than 5,600 hours of tennis had been played in the year 'at Rowheath alone'.*2

In July 1937 an outdoor swimming pool was also added to the area, called the Bournville Lido (which has its own post here).

History in Maps

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

References
*1. Bill Dargue, 'Row Heath' from A History of Birmingham Places & Placenames 
*2. Iola A. Williams, The Firm of Cadbury 1831-1931 (London: Constable and Co. Ltd., 1931)