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Haunch Lane Farm Kings Heath.

R

RobertS

master brummie
Hello folks

I'm looking for any reference to Haunch Lane Farm in Kings Heath.

My interest is from the 1880's through to the interwar years when the land was developed for housing.

I know from census returns that the farm was developed from the 1890s/1900's to be a Market Garden under Charles Lyons who was apparently also a Greengrocer.

As the farm could still have been there in the 1920's does anyone have any photo's or memories?

Thanks
 
Thanks Lencops,

know the site, facinating for working out where present day names come from but apart from fleeting reference to the haunch brook still looking for memories or photos that show the farm.

thanks again
 
Hi There.
I have searched all my pics but none of Haunch Lane Farm, I used to play in the ruins around 1960 before they built the bungalows on the site.
The building next door was called "The Haunch"
Pete
 
Thanks bilsat, I will look at the map I have for the Haunch. I should know where it is as I went to Kings heath Tech just at the back but it was a few years ago.

To anyone reading, l'm still looking,

(strange how bits of relativeley recent history just evapourate).

Thanks again bisat for the clue on the location.
 
In the early 50's my Friend's father used to keep his motorbike and sidecar in the old barn that was behind the shops on the corner of Haunch Lane and Hollybank Rd

Mike
 
RobertS said:
Thanks bilsat, I will look at the map I have for the Haunch. I should know where it is as I went to Kings heath Tech just at the back but it was a few years ago.

To anyone reading, l'm still looking,

(strange how bits of relativeley recent history just evapourate).

Thanks again bisat for the clue on the location.
Click to expand...

Just an idea, why not ask Carl Chinn if you can ask in his magazine leave a contact number to publish. You may be lucky as not everyone is on the computer.:)
 
Thanks for the suggestion Wendy. I may well do this when I can put a bit more meat on the bones.

So far I have been trying to pin down dates and places. The farm seems to have been there for some considerable time but went over to Market Garden production before its demise. (Possibly indicating a reduction in the size of the holding.) I think I have located the bungalows Bisat is referring to (and they could be spot on) and the barn Mike Fisher mentions.

The picture I am building so far, unless anyone can tell me different!

It appears that much of the building along Haunch Lane was there by the late 20's and was infilled by 1932. The 'Valley' development at the Yardleywood Road end was up and running with the Tudor cinema by 1935. Holybank Road was driven through and paved in 1932 separating what had been the farm land from Billsley Common. Barn Lane housing was complete by 35 and the 'infill in the triangle between Hollybank, Wheelers Lane and Haunch Lane was mapped out. I don't know when Holly Lucas, Chesterwood and Chamberlian Roads were actually built, but that did for most of the farmland. The exception is a patch of land that would have 'butted' to the farm. This was vacant in 1957/8 and I assume it had never been built on. The land was like that until the building of Boys Technical School in 1959/60ish and the school used the remainder of the land as playing fields. It is possible that this land was still used for 'Market Garden' production while the houses sprang up around it.

There must be people growing up in the area that still have memories and a photo or two.

With full credit to Barry Geens excellent book 'From Kings Heath to the Country' I have attached the map that dates from about 1895. (used for research purposes) Unfortunately I don't have access to the detailed OS maps up to 1913 ish.

Thanks again for the suggestion. Still searching.
 
Thanks Mikejee

I hadn't but I have now! Its useful because

*its at the start of the period I'm looking at and

*it has field boundaries that may hint at boundaries in susequent devlopment.

cheers
 
Took these pics today in Hollybank Rd looking towards the location of the Haunch Farm buildings that I remember from my youth!
The Kings Heath Boys School is to the right and Haunch Lane to the left of the first pic.
 
Thanks for the photo's Bilsat, very kind of you.

I suspect we must be contemporaries.

I don't know how I missed the remains of the farm buildings first time round. I went to the Wheelers Lane Junior School Annex on Chamberlain Road and played with mates on the patch that would have been the farm home field. I remember the top area vividly with the access from Haunch Lane and Hollybank but somehow I never went down to the farm end. I then went to the Boys School for 5 years and still missed it!

Needless to say I never thought I would have cause to examine the area these many years on or even thought it had a history.
 
On the map 2171 is "The Haunch" a grand house and garden which in my childhood was a home for "simple" women and 2172 was the remains of Haunch Farm.

Mike who played with Bilstat in the haunch brook in the 1950's and then 2007 to
 
Thanks Mike,

another piece of the jig saw. Just off to look for details of the Haunch. Still keep thinking there must be a photo.

Cheers
 
The large grand building known as the Haunch was quite rightly up until 1985 a home for people with learning diasbilities attached to Monyhull Hospital, it was demolished in 1985 when it was discovered that the foundations had gone. I know it has some history attached to it and believe it may have been a convent at some time or that it may have belonged to Quaker family. I think a photo was circualted on here a while ago.
 
Thanks Fergie

I have the map and some basic information about the Haunch but not about the given reason for its demise.

We know when it was aquired by Monyhull as part of the institutions farm development and when they brought it into use for patients. (WW1).

We have occupants for the census dates and I have reason to believe I have a relative who was apprenticed as a Blacksmith there in the 1890's. (He came from Haunch Lane Farm.)

The history of the building is however a bit clouded. It apprears to have been built around the time the Birmingham Taylor family extended their estates. There is hearsay that Johnsons Mother was born there and indeed a convent used the house neither of which I have been able to find evidence for. It is also not clear if the farm was operated separately to the house

Any ideas?


Thanks
 
I am pretty sure that the farm was down from the corner of Chamberlain Road toward Wheelers Lane on the opposite side to Taylor Road. Fowlers Dairy was there and I remember their floats were horse drawn. After demolition etc maisonettes were built. I lived in Brentford road and passed each day going to and from school. Hope this helps ?
 
Thanks Boatman

Yes sounds as though you are right with the position of the farm.

Got any dates for the memories of Fowlers Dairy? The whole area changed so quickly with the massive development, thats why I'm trying to pin things down as much as possible.

Many thanks
 
I have discovered from the 1861-1881 censuses that my great-great grandfather, Henry Cooper, was a farmer "employing 9 men and 2 boys on 186 acres" at Haunch Farm, so I am interested in any infomation about the old farm, or any hints as to where I can find out more. From what I've read on this therad it seems to have been an impressive building.

Thanks
 
Hello Dave A, its Zircon you have to thank for the map. My relatives had the farm down by where Chamberlain Road is (and a shop in Kings Heath to sell produce).

The connection with the Haunch Farm is that one of the 'Lyons' sons appears to have been apprenticed to a Blacksmith there.

(My relative George Herbert Taylor went to work for Charles Lyons and married his daughter Lily)

Keep posting any info you find

cheers
 
Hi

I am glad you found the map useful

My relatives Joseph Hill lived in Haunch Lane in 1871 and by 1891 was a Farm Baliff at Warstock Farm
 
My great great grandfather Henry Cooper, his wife Louisa nee Hobbins and their 13 children and several servants lived at The Haunch - 1861, 1871, 1881. Henry died in 1884. His occupation on his probate record states that he was a farmer and a metal roller. he left a considerable amount of money, no doubt dissipated amongst his children! I would love to see a photo or drawing of The Haunch as I am in the process of writing up my ancestry for my four daughters before my own demise! Henry's daughter Julia (my great grandmother) married George Frederick Lyndon JP and they lived at The Henburys - another house named elsewhere on the forum. (It was later to become part of the Highbury estate.)
 

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Henry Cooper and family were still living at The Haunch on the 1881 census. He died in 1884 leaving a personal estate of £23090 18s 9d which might suggest that he actually owned The Haunch at the time of his death. His widow Louisa nee Hobbins and my great grandfather George F Lyndon JP were the executors. (George's second wife Julia was one of Henry and Louisa's 10 daughters. They also had two sons.) They certainly needed a large house! By the time we get to the 1891 census, none of the family are living at the Haunch; Louisa died in 1889, all but two of the daughters were married and of the two sons, one was a metal roller and enameller and the other was 'living on his own means.' The attached file is a notice of sale of Henry's collection of paintings.
 

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Just been to the library and came across this book:
Billesley and Surrounds by John Lerwill & Pete Haylor [2018] NOT 1918 as first posted = apols
Well worth a read - masses of info on the area and lots of phots. Love these local books written by local people.

It contains a phot of Haunch Farm and I thought great but then realised that the author has posted on the forum as bilsat. Still may still be of iinterest to other folk.

IMG_20240125_0002 02.jpg
 
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