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Kings Norton

Brum Burgin

Brum Burgin

knowlegable brummie
Edit. Many photos from this thread have been lost. If anyone has copies please let a moderator know. Thanks.

Replacement images below, may vary from originals posted here. The first three are from Birmingham Library archives. The fourth is a 1956 postcard view.

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These 4 photos were sent to me by a relative in America.I think they are all from Kings Norton Green.Can anyone confirm this for me please?
 
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The Plumbers Arms, first pic, was by the mid 1980s when I lived on the Green reduced to a single storey building and was a chip shop, later a Chinese take away. Gone and replaced by new build now.
The Saracen's Head is still there, no longer a pub but a local community centre now.
The Bulls Head in the photo was replaced by a new one (1930s??) on the same site, almost next door (on the right) to the Saracens.
The cottages were next door (on the left) to the Bull's head - one of them belonged to the Cox family.

The replacement cottages, the 'new' Bulls Head and the Saracens Head (the white building on the right in the distance) can be seen in this view.
The building which replaced the Plumbers Arms is here, and the cottages next door to it can be seen to be still there.
 
Lloyd You appear to have knowledge of the Kings Norton area . I wonder if you could help me?

I'm trying to find out if there was a farm called Broard Meadow Farm in the 1915..1918 time. I know there is now a road called Broad Meadow L ane just off Liford Lane. but of course the farm I mention would in more recent times be under new housing. Thanks in anticipation !!!!
 
anvil man said:
Lloyd You appear to have knowledge of the Kings Norton area . I wonder if you could help me?

I'm trying to find out if there was a farm called Broard Meadow Farm in the 1915..1918 time. I know there is now a road called Broad Meadow L ane just off Liford Lane. but of course the farm I mention would in more recent times be under new housing. Thanks in anticipation !!!!
Click to expand...

This may help anvil man it shows the current view of King's Norton and an Ordnance Survey map dated 1921 https://billdargue.jimdo.com/placenames-gazetteer-a-to-y/places-b/broadmeadow/
 
Pipped by a couple of minutes! As m. humphries link shows, Broad Meadow farmhouse site is now under houses in Peplins Way. Are you looking for someone there? Do you have a name?
 
Don't know if this c 1884 map is of interest. The road junction at mid bottom is the roundabout where Parsons hill meets Monyhull Hall road

map_c_1884_Broad_meadow_farm.jpg
 
Thanks all for those rapid replies

Mike..................I must admit I'm very new to compters and can't yet "down load" anything. but the map seems very interesting .


Lloyd..................The name I have is KIND S.C., a relation I believe lived in one of the Farm cottages with his wife and three children c1915--1918


Mikejee...............Thanks for the map. I assume Broad Meadow is the complex of buildings in the centre of the map. My relations lived in one of the Farm cottages. I have a photograph of the family taken in a field nearby with a large house in the background....but it could be almost any field!!!
 
Do you have his Service number?
Samuel Charles Kind 107591 Gnr.70th Co,R.G.A.
Moved to 233 Fordhouse Lane by 1922 and then 166 Hole Lane by 1939
Married Florence Mary Green in 1903
 
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Here are two maps of around your period, one similar to the earlier one, and the other magnified to show the farm better, Not sure if the hatched buildings were farm houses or work buildings, but don't seem many in the are that could hold farm workers other than on the central farm.

map_c_1916_Broad_Meadow_Farm.jpg


map_c_1916_Broad_Meadow_Farm_on_larger_scale.jpg
 
Broad Meadow Lane (and Lifford Lane, which it becomes a little further north) follow the line of the Roman Ickneild Street, so allowing for the length of the drive my earlier assesment of the farms position is about right.
Samuel Charles Kind (1877 - 1957) must have moved to the farm cottage after 1911, when he was a wages clerk at Cadbury's and lived in Kingsley Road, Cotteridge.
 
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Ladylinda.... .Thanks for the info, It's almoat frightening the detail you came up with.

If you don't mind me correcting you , I think you got confused with the surname Green (actually his wife's ) ,it should read Kind . The results ,however, of his Service No. are as far as I know correct. My sister tells me she could only obtain this from one of his medals . All we know about him is that he served in India during the WW1 , it would be amazing if you could find out more of his service !!!
My grandfather ,I presume , moved to Ford House Lane ,with his wife and three children , on leaving Broad Meadow Farm Cottage.
Behind Ford House Lane was an extensive area of allotments. On marriage my father moved on to Witherford Way (1932 ?) where my sister and I were born . During 1940-1946 the family cycled to the allotment with my sister in a carrier on father's bike. We would return with bags of potatoes and apples hung from handlebars and cross bars. the war was raging and food scarce so this endeavour became a necessity.
As a child I visited Hole Lane house.


Thanks David
 
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Mikejee..........many thanks for info.


I find both maps of great interest. The first one seems to confirm the snippets of info my father made of the general layout of the farm and cottage .
The first map shows the farm and at the junction of the two lanes at the bottom , could well be the cottage where my grand father and children lived. ( after 1911 and up to 1922 )
The enlarged view is particularly interesting as it also seems to fit the impression my father gave of THE BIG HOUSE . He also spoke of the walled garden.
The actual cottage must have been quite large ,as during WW1 when my grandfather was in army service in India ,my grandmother took in Belgian soldier lodgers to help pay the rent


Lloyd...........My father was born at 5 Kingsley Rd. He told me the family moved to Broad Meadow because the house was too small !!!
Marvellous how you found out my grandfather worked at Cadbury's




Thanks BHF for amassing some of my lingering thoughts
 
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Not to outdo Lloyd for saying your granfather worked at Cadbury's, 5 Kingsley road, was/is and was what was known as a Cadbury house, now known as Bournville Village Trust (BVT) and you had to work at Cadbury to get a property in one of those properties.
 
My grandparents lived at 22 Kingsley Road in 1922 and moved over the road to number 11 in 1925,where they remained till their death in the 1980's.
We lived at 42.
None of our family ever worked for Cadbury's.....grandad was an Area Manager for Singer sewing machine company.
He started off as a salesaman for Singer, and he met gran at the leather glove factory in Worcester when he was there selling needles!
 
I stand corrected ladylinda, I was always under the impression that a family member had to work at Cadbury to get a house on Bournville estate. Just to illustrate my point I used to have a pal who sadly died at a very early age but lived with his dad in Old Barn Road,one of his parents had worked at Cadbury and he was a plumber with BVT. The spooky bit is that a another pal of mine married a girl who worked for Cadbury in Franklin Block and they moved into the same house when they married.
 
This probably explains it!
The Bournville Village Trust came into being in December 1900 and its purpose was to oversee development of the model village for the benefit of the residents.
By 1905 315 houses were built.
In 1906 a Workers' Housing Co-Operative called Bournville Tenants Limited leased building land and added another 398 houses.
The 1920s and 1930s saw rapid expansion of the land by various co-operatives and societies and private arrangements.
 
It was always George Cadbury's intent to have a mix of tenants . It is stated thta about 40% in the early days actually worked for Cadbury's. I got the impression in the late 1960s and the 1970s that it in the core area it was probably about the same, though obviously now it will be much less.
 
Mikejee...Could I prevail upon you once again regarding Broad Meadow Farm ?

On the smaller of the two maps shown on page 14 there appear to be three areas , within the lane bondaries of the farm , of inhabited buildings. I cannot make out the names which appear to be associated with them ,other than a few gueses. The buildings at the bottom of the map , at the lane junction , could they be The Laurels ? The buildings to the far right , on the same lane , could they be Broad Meadow Cottages ?Buildings at the top of the map I cannot even make a stab at !!

Would it then be possible to obtain details from the Electoral Roll of these properties , for say 1915-1920 ,to confirm my grandfather and family lived in one of them ?

My father died in 1971 and ever since my sister and I have been trying to solve the promblem I have portrayed on the BHF and thanks to you and others I feel we are a hair breadth from a final result .
 
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1918 Absent Voters List
Samuel Charles Kind 107591 Gnr, 70th Co RGA
Broadmeadow cottage,Broadmeadow Lane
1919 Absent Voters List
Samuel Charles Kind 107591 Gnr, 70th Co RGA
Broadmeadow cottage,Broadmeadow Lane
 
Ladylinda.....You have cracked it!!!!!

I've only been on my own computer for ten weeks and joining the Forum and meeting such knowledgable people as you and associates has solved 40 years of wondering . thank you ALL so Very much .

Regards .............David Kind.
 
On the map, the names you asked about were The Lsurels, Lindsworth cottage and the only wording at the top is Sherborne Mill . I think Broadmeadow Cottage must be within the central comlex
 
Mikejee....Thanks for the names supplied . Ithink you are correct in suggesting that Broad Meadow was in the main complex

Thanks again for solving the riddle

David
 
Re
Cadbury Houses

I lived in a Cadbury house in Witherford Way . It was leasehold and bought for about £320 in 1932 ( built c 1916 ). There was no requirement to be employed by Cadbury's but as it happened both of my parents were . The lovely thing that Cadbury's did require the builders of all the properties in many developments , when these houses were built, was to plant fruit trees in the gardens which were all divided by privet hedges. There were 7 apple trees and 2 pear trees in our garden and in spring time looking through the bedroom window , the whole area seemed like Evesham ; a real uplifting experience in those times .
 
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anvil man said:
The results ,however, of his Service No. are as far as I know correct. My sister tells me she could only obtain this from one of his medals . All we know about him is that he served in India during the WW1 , it would be amazing if you could find out more of his service !!!
Click to expand...

He was part of the Aden Brigade that went to India in about 1916 and once there as part of the southern Indian army under Major-General Bell. Although there was the fourth Afghan War 1919-1923 in the north Charlie Kind, being in the south near Karachi, probably didn't see any action.
 
Here are a few photo's of King Norton Green.




The first one is Kings Norton island looking from Wharf lane direction and taken in 1950
Image1.jpg



The second is of the same island taken in 1950. The newsagents shop on the corner of Masshouse Lane
and The Redditch Road was formerly The Providence Chapel.

Image2.jpg



This photo was taken in 1937 and is just off the island at Kings Norton Green.

Image3.jpg



The Old Bulls Head at Kings Norton Green photo was taken in 1896 and
was demolished in 1901 when the present one was built.

Image4.jpg


Regards Stars
 
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