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peterdeeley

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I have so far failed ro use this very good forum because I cannot find out how to download messages. I feel its a bit like throwing a message in a bottle into the sea. Perhaps this one will wash up.
My Q is: In a 1849 book of the history of Birmingham there is reference to ASTON VILLE (as in the 'ville' for the French word 'town.') Can anyone explain what it refers to?
 
hi peter and welcome you seem to have been able to start a new thread and post a message so well done..takes time getting used to a forum..judging by the date you give back in 1849 aston villa was an area years later the area name of aston villa was dropped .many years later in that same area aston villa football team was founded in 1874 taking its name from the area aston villa..we also have the large aston park as well..here is an 1834 map you may find interesting the area aston villa is marked on the map..hope this helps oh could i ask are you from birmingham or is it just an interest to you..if you need anymore help just ask

lynaston villa area map 1834.jpg
 
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Some time ago I saved the following, Im not sure where from:

ScreenHunter 1950.jpg

Plan of lands at Villa Cross, 1818 [DV 689/458128]One of the Tuesday Lunchtime Local History talks earlier this year was on the history of Aston Villa Football Club. At the end of the talk the question was raised as to the precise location of the villa which gave its name first to a district in Aston, and then to the Wesleyan Chapel whose members formed the football club. It was suggested that there was a map in existence which gave this information.

This was a challenge which I could not resist, despite being a supporter of the opposition. In the event the map proved relatively easy to find, simply by working my way through the various early 19th century maps of Aston to be found in Birmingham Archives & Heritage.

J.E. & C. Robins map of 1820 (above), clearly shows Aston Villa at the junction of the roads to Bristnall’s End and to Aston, known today as Villa Cross. It also shows that Aston Villa was actually in Handsworth!

Villa Cross Inn [WK/H5/133]The Handsworth rate book for April 1837 and the Handsworth Tithe Apportionment of 1843 both confirm that at those dates Aston Villa was owned, although not occupied, by Richard Blood, a factor from Birmingham. The occupant in 1837 was Charles Perry, whose daughters, Elizabeth and Emma were, according to Pigot’s Directory of Birmingham 1833, running the Aston Villa (Boarding) School based there. They had taken this over some time around 1832 from a John Skally who had moved his own school there from Caroline Street in July 1825. By 1849 however the house had become the Villa Cross Inn, which the rate books for 1866 show as still being owned by the Blood family.


Showell’s Dictionary of Birmingham (1883) and a report in the Handsworth Herald dated 21st June 1907 both confirm that the Villa Cross Inn was originally known as Aston Villa School. An early photograph of the Inn suggests that this could indeed have started out as an early 19th century villa type house suitable for a boarding school and so could well have been the original Aston Villa.##

From another correspondent
My father was a member of the Church at/by what is known as Villa Cross, around 1929/30. The story goes that the Football Club played and trained at a place called the Gillie (or Jilly) Fields a bit further down Heathfield Road towards Aston, before they started at Trinity Road (Villa Park). When they finished playing they always came back to get changed at the Church and had to cross the road at the Villa Cross. The Church team was an amateur team and what is now Aston Villa FC separated from the Church to play professionally. The Church team were still playing in the 1930’s although I have no further records from my father. Interested to hear if you have any more details of this time.
 
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