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Mansion in Erdington

Frothblower

Frothblower

Lubrication In Moderation
My Brother and I remember playing in a big boarded up house come Mansion in Erdington on the corner of Spring lane and Kingsbury road, this was in the late 50's.
It's not Rookery house in the park or the big house where the prison is now.
It was knocked down to make room for a petrol station,now that as been replaced by houses. No one else seems to remember this house, have we been dreaming all these years?:redface:
 
Frothblower..I can't remember this house especially but it could have been
owned by a family member of the Spooner's who owned the land around Rookery Park and their main home was Elmdon Hall. As an aside, a daughter of the Spooner's married Sir William Wilberforce, Member of Parliament who was in part responsible for the abolishment of slavery. William Wilberforce
died a short time before the Slavery Act became law.

I remember another derelict mansion on Chester Road just up from Holly Lane where my brother and I used to climb over the fence and into the garden. It once was a grand house and had greenhouses and stables. The garden, which was large was overgrown and had once been a great garden I imagine. We never went into the house but it was like finding the Secret Garden. There is a school where it used to be.
 
Hi Jennyann would that be the school in Pitts Farm Rd? If so I watched that being finished of in the early 60's when we lived in Hayes Grove.
 
Hi Chris: The school I remember is Yenton Primary School between Poppy Lane and Orphanage Road on Chester Road. As you will remember Pitt Farm Road and Hayes Road are on the other side of Chester Road from there. The school you remember must have been St. Edmund Campion Catholic School which used to be on Pitt Farm Road but moved to Sutton Road on the corner of Holly Lane in l975. Looks like they needed more space. I think the Pitt Farm original school was demolished and houses built on the land.

Many large Victorian houses were pulled down along Sutton Road between
Station Road and Chester Road in the early l950's to make way for the
Lyndhurst Estate. I can remember the bonfires burning left behind furniture and probably other expensive materials from those substantial homes.
 
Frothblower said:
My Brother and I remember playing in a big boarded up house come Mansion in Erdington on the corner of Spring lane and Kingsbury road, this was in the late 50's.
It's not Rookery house in the park or the big house where the prison is now.
It was knocked down to make room for a petrol station,now that as been replaced by houses. No one else seems to remember this house, have we been dreaming all these years?:redface:
Click to expand...

Frothblower the house you are referring to was Birches Green House which was on the corner of Kingsbury Road and Spring Lane in the 50's
 
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jennyann said:
Hi Chris: The school I remember is Yenton Primary School between Poppy Lane and Orphanage Road on Chester Road. As you will remember Pitt Farm Road and Hayes Road are on the other side of Chester Road from there. The school you remember must have been St. Edmund Campion Catholic School which used to be on Pitt Farm Road but moved to Sutton Road on the corner of Holly Lane in l975. Looks like they needed more space. I think the Pitt Farm original school was demolished and houses built on the land.

Many large Victorian houses were pulled down along Sutton Road between
Station Road and Chester Road in the early l950's to make way for the
Lyndhurst Estate. I can remember the bonfires burning left behind furniture and probably other expensive materials from those substantial homes.
Click to expand...

Oh dear, Jennyann's post was so long ago that I doubt anyone will read what I'm about to write in reply but here goes;

Just to clarify the Edmund Campion thing, this school was established in September 1975 following the merger of three local Catholic secondary schools; St Agnes' Girls Grammar School, St Thomas of Canterbury Boys Secondary School and St Margaret Clitherow Girls Secondary School.

St Margaret Clitherow School was built on the Pitts Farm Rd. site around 1964 and in 1975 became St Edmund Campion Lower School; the new intake went there and most of the older girls moved to the Upper School. Recently the Upper School has been extended and the Pitts Farm site has, as Jennyann rightly says, been cleared and developed for housing. St Edmund Campion School is now housed entirely at the Upper School site on the corner of Holly Lane and Sutton Rd.

Before 1964, there had been an old mansion type house on the Holly Lane/Sutton Rd. site, it was Norwood House, built by Sir Josiah Mason and it was his final residence. I am speculating a little here but I imagine it was sold soon after his death as by the end of the nineteenth century the house was a convent occupied by an order of Dominican nuns. The convent was St Agnes' and around 1900 a private school for Catholic girls had been established there. In time this became St Agnes' High School; still a private convent school; and it remained as such for a number of years, with buildings being added as and when required. In the early '60s there were plans to build a new convent building at the top of the Rosary walk (the path leading from the Orphanage Road entrance,which is still there although somewhat changed.) However, the Education Department stepped in and, needing more state grammar school places, built a brand new grammar school instead. Demolition of the old buildings, including Norwood House, and construction of the new, took place whilst the High School was still open, meanwhile the nuns themselves moved into a house on Silverbirch Rd. This house, the new convent, backed onto the school site so a private entrance gate was knocked out of the wall at the top of the Rosary walk so that the nuns could come and go. The new grammar school; also called St Agnes' was officially opened in, I believe 1964. I do have a copy of the programme for the day but I can't put my hand on it at the moment. At the time of opening, the school's pupils were a mix of new grammar school girls and old high school girls, or so I'm told. However, the grammar school was not to survive for long, as in 1975, after much debate, it was merged with the other two schools already mentioned and St Edmund Campion Comprehensive School was born.

The third school involved in the merger; St Thomas of Canterbury; had a more complicated history, which I can't remember enough of, off the top of my head, to go into now. Suffice to say in 1975 the site became the annexe to St Edmund Campion but it's cards were marked as the building was very small and as far as I remember seemed more or less of the pre-fab variety. It was situated on Sutton Rd., behind the much grander building that now houses Highclare School. I don't know exactly how long the authorities had planned to keep the annexe open, but their plans were no doubt foreshortened by at least two arson attacks in, I think 1978. I won't mention the rumours that were going around at the time regarding the culprit or their reasons for carrying out the attacks! By this time anyway, the boys had all moved up to the Upper School site. I'm not sure when the annexe was finally demolished.

I am more than happy to stand corrected if I have got any of that wrong.

Finally, if anyone knows anything more about the history of any of these schools, or of Norwood House, I would love to hear it. The same goes for any memories anyone might have of the schools or the redevelopment of the surrounding area. However I wonder if any of you will ever manage to stumble across this post seeing as it is in quite an old thread. Should have put it on the schools thread I suppose...oh well :(
 
Hi Frothy
I remember climing a wall on the Kingsbury Road but thought it was on the other side of Kingsbury, across from the Wood End/Bromford Lane junction. It was an overgrown, huge (to my early 1950s eyes) garden and we scrumped fruit and dipped for newts and frogs in a pond.
Still, it might be the same one as you mention, after all if your brother and I were in the same class it might have been an "Erdington Hall" special!
BTW have you asked him yet.;)
 
Hi Kitty

I know nothing about the subject matter of your post but would just like to say Well Done, this is just the sort of thing this site loves, a very well written and informative piece of historical fact, any more :D


bren
 
davidfowler said:
Hi Frothy
I remember climing a wall on the Kingsbury Road but thought it was on the other side of Kingsbury, across from the Wood End/Bromford Lane junction. It was an overgrown, huge (to my early 1950s eyes) garden and we scrumped fruit and dipped for newts and frogs in a pond.
Still, it might be the same one as you mention, after all if your brother and I were in the same class it might have been an "Erdington Hall" special!
BTW have you asked him yet.;)
Click to expand...

I know where you was, it was the big house used for the asylum, it was knocked down to build the prison. We also went scrumping there :D
 
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Kitty that was great and you were right about the school in Pitts Farm road an the year it was built 1963/64. As I said I watched it being built almost every day on my way to and from work at the Moyle and Adams shop (Formally Hancox & Dodge) on Sutton Rd. The shop is still there, or it was last summer when I was over in the UK. It was a great old building at the back it had a 'Couch House/stable' that had been used to keep the horses and Delivery 'Cart' in where every thing was delivered by horse. When I was there it was used for a Store room and Garage for 'Dry Goods ' and the Van
View attachment 19265 View attachment 19266

Also don't worry about resurrecting 'Old Threads' because a 'New Post' on any thread pushes it back up to the top of the 'Posts List' and as you can now see others will once again add more memories to it.

Pom :angel:
 
Thanks to Bren and Pom for your kind comments :puppyeyes:

Most of the research for this was done at the archives at St Chads a few years ago and some of it was personal memory from the time of the merger.

Bren, there may be more, once I get started on something I think I know a bit about, it's hard to make me shut up. I think I might post a thread about these schools onto the school thread and refer whoever might be interested, to this thread - if that makes any sense. That way, anything I might want to add, I could add in the schools section and twitter on to my heart's content without any fear of being off-subject. As for other subjects, well as I've said, if I think I know a bit... A little knowledge is a dangerous thing!

Pom, where did you live in Erdington?

All the best,

Kitty
 
What number did they live at?
I remember the people who lived by us, but not all their names.
I also remember 'The Morley's' Chas, Les and their sister Janet (?) There was also a family on the corner of Pitts Farm Rd 2 Boys and three girls I think. The three eldest went to Grammar School at the time and the next was sitting her 11 plus.
View attachment 19379(click pic' to enlarge)
We lived at 39 the first house on the corner.

Pom
 
Not sure-- Irish family at least two brothers--remember someone else in that road who had quite a nasty accident on a BSA Bantam also Madeline Bullock in the road opposite that was also off Pitts Farm Rd. Malcolm (somebody) lived next door, virtually on the corner and Brian Bull in the flats.
 
Frothblower said:
My Brother and I remember playing in a big boarded up house come Mansion in Erdington on the corner of Spring lane and Kingsbury road, this was in the late 50's.
It's not Rookery house in the park or the big house where the prison is now.
It was knocked down to make room for a petrol station,now that as been replaced by houses. No one else seems to remember this house, have we been dreaming all these years?:redface:
Click to expand...

Hello Frothblower...is that a drinking term? I used to play in that house too.I went to Birches Green school and that somewhere for us to play when were werent in the park or scrumping from Glenthorne...wonder why a large house like that fell into disrepair....bet someone has some photos somewhere
 
suze said:
Hello Frothblower...is that a drinking term? I used to play in that house too.I went to Birches Green school and that somewhere for us to play when were werent in the park or scrumping from Glenthorne...wonder why a large house like that fell into disrepair....bet someone has some photos somewhere
Click to expand...

Nice to see this thread pop up again. It must have been early to mid 60's when I played in that big house and scrumped in Glenthorne. Wonder we didn't bump into each other suze:)
 
Pom just noticed ou lived off Pitts farm road. My aunt and Uncle lived in Pitts farm road and a friend still lives in a little grove off there. My aunt and uncle were Norman and Freda Taplin and my friend is Jean Fisher. Never know you may remember. Bye. Jean.
 
Frothblower said:
Nice to see this thread pop up again. It must have been early to mid 60's when I played in that big house and scrumped in Glenthorne. Wonder we didn't bump into each other suze:)
Click to expand...

We could well have done because it was the same time for me.Where did you live then? I was in Bromford Lane and at Birches Green,If I read one of the old postings ,your grandson goes there? I am going to look at it on Google Earth now to see if it has changed much
 
Just found this very accurate article on Norwood House and St. Agnes school...brilliant!!!! I was a pupil at the school in the 60's and that is exactly what happened. It was a crying shame that the beautiful house that was Norwood house, the home of Josiah Mason. was pulled down. I remember the polished staircase and the enormous hall way.Since then I have collected all the available books, prints etc. of and about Josiah Mason...and Brian Jones of the Pen Room has writen an excellent book about Josiah Mason with a photo of NorwoodHouse.A copy of this can bre seen/bought at the Museum....Thank you Kitty for the very informative article. (I would love to be able to see a copy of the opening programme if you have found it!!)
 
Hi all,

I think the original thread started with Frothblower talking about Birches Green House,on the corner of Kingsbury Rd and Spring lane.Did a picture ever surface? It would be lovely to see one,c'mon everyone ..dig deep.Somebody usually manages to find something.
Where was Norwood House then? Josiah Mason was a very important man,what happened that all the old irreplaceable buildings were destroyed. Planners have a lot to answer for dont they?
 
Thank you for the website...it is indeed very informative.
Suze, the article I'm refering to was written by Kitty,you can find it on this thread, page 1, dated Sept.9th 2008. It's about St. Agnes School...is that what you are referring to?? This wasn't the Orphanage school in caes anybody thinks it was...it was a private school run by Dominican nuns. Norwood House stood where Edmund Campion School is now. on the top of Holly Lane/Sutton New Road.The drive down to the school ius the original One...and nORWOOD hOUSE STOOD WHERE THE rECEPTION BUILDING IS NOW.( OPS...SORRY FOR TYPING..too much of a hurry...so lovely that this thread is up and running again !)
 
Hi all

I thought I would start a new thread on Birches Green House...how do I do it please?
 
Suze
Click home then click"homes hospitals workehouses" or anything that might fit the category then click "new thread"
 
i remember the house, we used to pass it on the way to the spring lane playing fields (kingsbury road entrance) on a bus from st. josephs leigh road washwood heath
the building was abandoned and falling apart, it was in the mid sixties, from the playing fields you could see the buildings of knocks brick works
 
Just read these threads. Pitts Farm Estate was known as Holifast estate after Holifast grange, which was on chester road opposite Poppy Lane. The grange was demolished in about 1966 to make way for Bicton Close. St thomas of Canterbury school still stands, well half of it anyway, it is now part of a residential home. I lived in Yenton Grove. off pitts farm road, for many years, my mother still lives in Yenton Grove.
 
Just read these threads. Pitts Farm Estate was known as Holifast estate after Holifast grange, which was on chester road opposite Poppy Lane. The grange was demolished in about 1966 to make way for Bicton Close. St thomas of Canterbury school still stands, well half of it anyway, it is now part of a residential home. I lived in Yenton Grove. off pitts farm road, for many years, my mother still lives in Yenton Grove.
 
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