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Hagley Road fountain

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deiseboy

proper brummie kid
Hello.
I am trying to find information about the large fountain that once stood at the junction of Hagley Road and Sandon Road.

I found a couple of ophotographs at

https://www.search.birminghamimages...&DateFrom=0&DateTo=2016&SortOrder=0&ThemeID=0

https://www.search.birminghamimages...&DateFrom=0&DateTo=2016&SortOrder=0&ThemeID=0
It appears on an 1888 map and the site is marked on maps up to 1955, though it is only labelled as a fountain until 1918.
A fire station is also shown adjacent on the 1918 map but disappears by 1921. Prior to that the Fire Station was located at the nearby Hagley Road Reservoir.

What I would like to know is who erected the fountain, why and when, and also what happened to it.

I would be grateful for any help or information.
 
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Great pics deiseboy, thank you. I went to school just down the road (1964-71) and there was certainly nothing at that junction at that time. I'd be interested in the replies that follow.
 
Hi desiboy ; mc ; as well
the fountain was at the front of the frontage of the huge big church in fountain rd edgbaston
and it was removed from there in the fifties prior to your years it was a big lovely fountan around the fioftie it was removed i cannot think what the churches name was it was around the sandon rd exit side rd of the church ;; astonian
 
Hi Astonian.
Thanks for your reply. Can you give a bit more precise information on the exact location you are talking about, please.

Fountain Road is a couple of hundred yards further east along the Hagley Road, towards the city centre, and I don't know of a church ever being there, though I stand to be corrected.

The fountain was originally located (1890 or earlier) inside the angle of the junction of Hagley Road and Sandon Road, between the two roads which form a kind of vee shape as they meet. There were very few buildings there at that time. It was at the very edge of the city and the Sandon Road side was just fields until around 1900 when houses were built there.

My guess, and it's only a guess, is that the fountain was built at the same time as the Hagley Road reservoir (now covered), which is on the south side of Hagley Road only a hundred yards or so away at it's nearest point.
 
Hi desieboy ;
i am just trying to recollect from my memory at this time
there was a church there it was a very grand dezigned church in a white ish or should i say a grey slate effect
stone work beleive me it looked more like a catheral if any think but it was not
there was a small rd coming off hadley rd and when you walked up his little side rd at the top of it
you was confronted by the sight of this huge church which had the fountain to it
and you would only have to walk around the church to admire itthere was two ways to it one as you walked up from the little rd coming off hadley rd so then you would walk around the pavement around the church and your are walking towards sandon rd
but for some reason i do beleive at the back of my mind it was in fact portland rd as i know of it for reasons which i will not go into at this moment and if i am correct its portland rd you are getting confused with it was coming onto this rd that you turned left it would take you to vernon rd so thats why i beleive it was portland rd and not sandon rd
i will have to come back to you on this matter today when i have got clear mind ' astonian;;;
 
I think the Church by Portland Rd. / Hagley Rd. was Church of the Redeemer. The Fountain was a lot further towards Bearwood where the triangle of grass is in Sandon Rd, near to City Rd. I don't remember

a fountain by Church of the Redeemer, but there was one by the Rainbow Casino on Portland Rd!!

rosie.
 
 
Hi deiseboy,
I had forgotten about St Augustine's, thanks for the link.
I hope you can find more about the fountain as it was your original query.
rosie.
 
On closer reading, the post from Astonian must be describing St Augustine's, as the Church of the Redeemer was actually on the corner of Hagley Road itself. Whether it was the same fountain, moved to St Augustine's, I just don't know.

I have just found a sentence in Showells Dictionary of Birmingham (1885) that confirms it was erected by the Birmingham Water Committee (Corporation) in connection with improving the piped water supply, which is why the Hagley Road reservoir was built (between 1853 and 1862), so the two do tie in.
Note that this is not Edgbaston Reservoir, which was built for the canal system and is, of course, not covered.

The earliest mention I have found is from the London Gazette of November 1885 in relation to proposed tramways.
Buses at that time were horse drawn and there was a trough at the corner of the two roads in front of the fountain.

I would be really interested to hear from anyone who can remember the site from around the Second World War, to find out if there was still anything there. The low wall around some of the site is still there and you can see the base of the railings, which were presumably removed during the war for scrap metal.
 
Hi desie ;
over the week end i shall make enquiryes and take a trip back in time in that area of the woods and retrace the postion ; ok astonian
 
The fountain, from which Fountain Road got its name, was in the triangle of ground between Hagley, Sandon, and a small section of Meadow roads. I grew up on Hagley Road a couple of hundred yards away, and knew the area well - it was only a grassed area then, with an electricity substation fronting the Meadow Road side. It was surrounded by a low brick wall, which had stone coping stones on top with small square holes in the top - they are still visible today in the surviving coping stones, and were where an iron railing fence was fitted, secured into the stones with lead (Poured in molten).
I was told by 'those who knew' (and who were considerably older than me) that it was put up to celebrate the area becoming turned over to housing (c1860-70) and the building of the underground reservoir mentioned above, and that it was taken down during "the Great War" by a traction engine - presumably one of those fitted with a crane on the front - possibly as the metal was wanted for the war effort, but more likely that the increase in housing in the area meant there was insufficient water to run the fountain.
 
Here is a picture of an early motor bus, operated by the Birmingham Motor Express Company, with the fountain in operation behind.

Early_BME_motor_bus__251_.jpg
 
Thanks so much for that, Lloyd and a great picture, too.
Do you know which year it was taken? I know motor buses were run on the Hagley Road for a short time between around 1904-7, but then sold as too unreliable and they went back to horse-drawn buses until 1912. I think it was the Birmingham Motor Express Co Ltd that ran the early buses.

My best guess is the fountain was erected around 1875/6 after the purchase of the water company by the Corporation, during Joseph Chamberlain's mayorship, but it could have been there earlier. It appears to be mostly brick or stone and built in the type of gothic style which would fit in with other buildings and monuments designed by city architects William Martin and John Henry Chamberlain (no relation to Joseph) around that time.

The difference between the 1890 map and the 1903/4 map is striking for the number of houses which have been built. My sister's house in Fountain Road was built in 1906.

Do you have any idea whether the fountain was simply demolished or could it have been re-erected somewhere else?
 
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