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Handsworth Park Victoria Park Handsworth

Hi Folks, when aged 5 (1954) and living in Heaton Street, Hockley a trip to Handsworth Park was like a day out, always special, but one Sunday even more so when the day culminated with my mum buying me a pork sandwich at The Endwood, I can remember it like it was yesterday - a pub long gone, I guess.
Ah! Happy Days.

Regards,
Peg.

PS What a mansion the park keeper lived in?!
 
Pegmonkey, I went to the Endwood a few years back to listen to a folk concert. I think the folk club used to meet there on a Friday night. Do hope we don't lose another Grade II listed building. This ones coming up for it's 200th birthday soon. I believe the Muntz family had some connection to it.
 
Yes Lady P, it says in the Post article it was built in 1820 as a family home and called Church Hill House.
The Muntz family moved there in the 1880's
 
#56 - Handsworth Park - Visit by Mayor and Mayoress - 1913
#56 - Handsworth Park - Visit by Mayor and Mayoress - 1913.jpg

#57 - Handsworth Park - Visit by Mayor and Mayoress - 1913
#57 - Handsworth Park - Visit by Mayor and Mayoress - 1913.jpg

#58 - Handsworth Park - Visit by Mayor and Mayoress - 1913
#58 - Handsworth Park - Visit by Mayor and Mayoress - 1913.jpg

#59 - Handsworth Park - Visit by Mayor and Mayoress - 1913
#59 - Handsworth Park - Visit by Mayor and Mayoress - 1913.jpg

#60 - Handsworth Park - Visit by Mayor and Mayoress - 1913
#60 - Handsworth Park - Visit by Mayor and Mayoress - 1913.jpg
 
hi folks can anyone recall this building being in handsworth park please obviously on the edge of the park because we can see houses but which end of the park??

lyn

handsworth park query.jpg
 
Hi Oldbrit. The press cuttings are from the British Newspaper Archive, subscription needed https://www.britishnewspaperarchive...gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CKGq3N3MjtoCFUsaGwodxaoPoA

I've looked through the 1950/51 dates. Can't find any further reports. I wonder if this is because the cycle facilities in parks were just being developed in Birmingham. The focus in the papers at this time seems to be on the Salford track which was widely reported - it was in the process of being agreed and developed in September 1950. I've seen a press cutting which talks about the need for more cycle facilities in Birmingham parks at the start of the 1950s. Viv.
 
Lyn, in posts 150 and 151, of this thread, there are a few photos of this building. They might help you to place it.

thanks alan had a look but im still none the wiser as to the exact location of this building within the park i certainly cant remember seeing it before

lyn
 
Lyn. The house was Grove House, near Grove Lane - later became Park House. Found a reference to Grove House going back to 1830 - see attached below. Viv.

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According to this Historic England extract a villa existed there in 1780 built by Mr Bratt (presumably the husband of Mrs Bratt who lost her Pointer in the extract in #179) and is described as having a pleasure ground:

The Grove Estate comprised some 20 acres (c 8ha) of mid and late C19 pleasure grounds and meadows associated with a villa built in 1780 by William Bratt, a Birmingham steel toy manufacturer (ibid). The property had been improved by various owners in the 1870s and early 1880s, and a sale catalogue of 1883 describes pleasure grounds comprising shrubberies, a tennis lawn, conservatory, vineries, aviaries, an aquarium and fishpond, and a kitchen garden.

Following the purchase of The Grove, R H Vertegans of the Chad Valley Nurseries, Edgbaston, was approached to provide a plan 'shewing the way in which he would recommend the committee to lay out and plant the [estate] as public pleasure grounds' (Local Board Minute 284). Vertegans had already laid out several parks and recreation grounds in and around Birmingham, including, in 1879-81, West Park, Wolverhampton (qv).

At Handsworth, the new park incorporated The Grove and its gardens, the former walled garden and tennis lawn becoming a bowling green; a terrace walk and cricket ground were also provided (Birmingham Mail 1888). The planting of the park was undertaken by the Sheffield nursery of Fisher, Son and Sibray, and the completed park was opened on 20 June 1888, a year after Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee; by permission of the Queen, the park was known as Victoria Park. In the mid and late C20 the park has been known as Handsworth Park.


Link to Handsworth/Victoria Park's Historic England listing is here https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1001473

Viv.
 
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