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Pinfold House Mansfield Road Yardley

Looking at the pictures of the rear bears no resemblance to the front in that from the front you can't see the double pitched roof line. Was the frontage added at sometime to "modernize" the look of the house as you would think looking the back it was two cottages made into one?
 
English Heritage are silent on the stucco front brick back issue, Dwilly, & just report that Pinfold House is 17C altered. The brick at the rear of the property might form the altered part or then again a few buildings had stucco frontages & exposed brick at the back and even the side. 35 York St is one example of this. 73 Frances Rd Edgbaston only has a stucco front, though that may be the mere original facing on a property which has otherwise been rebuilt. I wish I had thought to look closer.
 
Just didn't realise what was round the back, assumed it was flat all round and on top! Just goes to show you can't judge things from the outside
 
Thanks for replying to my postings lingard. The pear tree was very mature 55 years ago. The "Tales from Pinfold" lady is my cousin. Our Grandparents George Edward Huntley and Ada Amelia (nee. Mansfield) were the last of many generations of Mansfield's to live in the house. All of the Census records list them and other occupants at 1,Mansfield Rd (Pinfold Farm). As has been mentioned earlier the following website is a brilliant source of information. https://aghs.jimdo.com/ The earliest reference I have found is under 'Yardley Freeholders 1775' where Great Great Great Great Grandfather Thomas Mansfield is listed at this address. It's a long time since I last browsed the site but there is quite a bit of information listed. From memory, about 70 acres of land was sold to extend the nearby cemetery, and the front of the house was a later alteration. I am confident it was always one dwelling. Very little else appears to have been done before 1955.
We lived at 263 Yardley Rd. about 100 yds away, it was a flower shop then,'Huntley's Artistic Florists' (that's another story!). When I visited Nana, Grandpa, Great Auntie Lil and (Auntie) Muriel in an evening we sat in the small room beyond the main hall. The one with the french windows with a few stone steps leading up into the back garden. The very first editions of 'The Archers' would be on the radio and I would have the pack of cards playing patience or clock patience. Here is a contemporary picture of Auntie Lil, my younger sister and Grandpa in that room. Also a couple of 263, Yardley Rd and my Mum.
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All for now, John
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Hello have joined because of Pinfold house too as I have relatives from there !!! can not seem to access any of the photos others have included ??
 
Hello tiglula, were your relatives members of the Leonard family or the Mansfield family? My grandmother was Ada Amelia Mansfield, and was married to George Edward Huntley. Ada was the last in the long line of Mansfields in the house dating back from at least the 1700's until she and my grandad died. The house and adjoining industrial estate was then sold to Roger Leonard in 1955. It will be interesting to comunicate with you through this forum if you wish or make a private contact if you prefer. looking forward to your reply, John
 
Hello mansfield-huntley, thanks for your message. I am related to the Mansfields, my great-great grandad married elizabeth Mansfield born 1836. I have been tracing family since receiving a subscription to ancestry for xmas and came across this and the acocks green website and have had lots of information through both. Just wish I could access the numerous photos that have been put on here ??? Would be good to gain even more information but do not want to put personal emails and numbers up on here.
 
Hi again long lost relative, very pleased you have made contact, it's a shame the pictures have gone missing and hope they manage to retrieve them, I can always resubmit the ones that I posted. I like the idea of chatting about the house and its history on this forum, but quite appreciate it makes sense to communicate privately when exchanging our personal details, I don't even know if you are a him or a her!! I have a couple of maths exercise books which Great Great Great Grandad Thomas Mansfield wrote in 1832, the handwriting is beautiful copperplate font and the school address is Alvechurch Academy. I haven't managed to trace the existence of such a place and I suppose it didn't have to be in Alvechurch. I bet Dr Carl Chinn would know! I have started updating the tree on the ancestry site, a lot of the provious info I built up seems to have gone missing. It's an easy family to follow through the census records 'cause they didn't like moving and the house looked frozen in time until 1955. When it rained, buckets & bowls were strategicly placed in the large scullery area where, if you looked up, daylight could be seen peeping through the tiled roof. I haven't mentioned the polterguist yet but my cousin has in another pinfold thread... spooky. Keep in touch, John.
 
Oh thankyou for your reply, have been checking the site each day to see if you would !!! I really have done loads of research with this side of the
family and its so exciting for me. Am planning to go to all the sites and visit the area to see it all, have got maps from 1902 from ordnance survey and a book of old yardley and also some really old maps from the 1700s and it helps to fit all of it together in my mind. Are you on the Ancestry site then because if so I will look for you and then we can exchange a little more and I can give you my personal details okay. Many thanks again.
 
oh dear cant find you on ancestry its sooooooooooooooooo not happening like there are thousands and none of them you ??? so want to be able to get info and
stuff to you and really communicate is there any way we can do this without revealing our own details to all on here ???
 
Have been looking too for your academy and only came up with The Alvechurch Grammar School Trust established 200 years ago in alvechurch and Barnt Green for poor laws for the needy. It became the grammar school .It closed in 1892 and the children were then sent to King Edwards foundation school in Birmingham. It is now the Post Office /Bear Hill/. Alvechurch. If you think it is the one then google street it and have a look !!And by the way John I am a girl !!!! ha ha
 
Have just read your replies and thought I would at least acknowledge them & promise to follow this with a more detailed message as soon as I have chance. You seem to have a much greater ability to find your way round these sites than I do, I reckon you could be a very good ally. The tailpiece to your last message gave me a fit of the giggles, I love your sense of humour. My ancestry.Co site is currently very skimpy I'll try to post you my oldest sisters site details she has got more info on it. Should give you something else to get your teeth into! Bye for now John.
 
Why thankyou kind sir that would be good. I will need a sense of humour as our rellies seem to have had considering all the dissapearing acts and marriages and
changes of name and age etc.etc. sometimes its a minefield of info and then after what seems like hours and days of nothing I get some information that makes sense and feel charged up to look again !!! its like a rollercoaster but so much fun and so interesting. Its so true what they say about not being far away from a relative all the time !!! Just found out that am also related to Richard Neville the "Kingmaker" who also owned lots of our rellies land originally !!!!!!!!!!!! ha and also
noticed that you live in Pershore which is where my son lives !!!!!!!!!!!!!! how cool is that ??
 
This is all too much, I can hardly take it all in !! Your son lives in Pershore? Naaa ' don't believe it!! Tell him I'm the local tv aerial man from Three Springs Road, although I've retired now & my son runs the business, probably been to your sons house, ' small world aint it !! Next time you're over you must come to see us. My younger sister and family live local as do my grown up children and 5 grandchildren, my wife usually caters for 16 around the table most Sunday lunchtimes. I've got a feeling our subject has moved away from Pinfold House, or to be correct, Pinfold Farm as it was always called. It could be time to move to another medium to air our descendants dirty washing or do we create a new thread and let it all hang out ?
Are you on Skype, now there's an idea we really could get to know one another. You got more info on Alvechurch Academy than I achieved and I'm intrigued about the links with King Edwards School. Would you believe, I went to King Edwards School, Five Ways, in Birmingham before we moved to Worcestershire in 1955. Finished off at Prince Henrys Grammar in Evesham where they had girls:playful: . Did you receive the private message I sent you through this site ? I did it by clicking on your name & following the instructions, could be useful for personal details, ie. your name, your son's name etc. atb for now, John.
 
My father used to work for the Leonards family when they bought Pinfold House and was involved with the restoration work and getting and laying the parquet floors which came from a local cinema, they had 2 hours to remove them and Roger Leonard got the whole staff to come down and they filled every vehicle they could with it, there was a lot left over and I believe was put in storage for future use.....
The polterguist was always about around Halloween night and Malcolm Leonard recorded it once, the BBC also set up recording equipment one year, when the house was being repaired secret passages were found behind the fireplaces that linked them together, the strange noises hear were put down to the wind blowing through these!
 
Hello again bilsat, I would be interested to speak to Malcom to catch up on things. The last time I saw his mum was when my Aunt Muriel died and I went to her funeral across the Yardley Rd. I called at Pinfold after the funeral and she invited me in to have a look around. My Great Aunt Lil' and Muriel were the last of the family to live there before Roger Leonard bought the place along with the adjoining yard. Do you remember Chambers & Cook rented a unit there to house their pantechnicon lorries. My dad Seba worked for them at one time, early '50's, I remember travelling up to Arbroath in Scotland with him a couple of times. It took 2 days to get there and 2 more to travel back. No motorways then and crawler gear up Shap-Fell in an old bull nosed Bedford. I'm pretty sure Roger ran the Jowett garage next door, it's just visible in one of the earlier pictures I posted. If the pictures on this site cannot be recovered I may re-post the ones I submitted. At that time there was some open ground a bit further down Mansfield Rd beyond the shop where there are now some newer houses. In the middle stood a genuine old stagecoach which we would play on, it just stood there and decayed over the years, but it was never vandalised. My aunt Muriel told us she had ridden on it years before and the horses had bolted. I really hope lingard will get back on this forum as I am hoping he'll show me round the house when it is finished. Keep in touch, John.
 
Hi there

I am trying to find out anything I can about the barns on Mansfield Road - the connection with the Jowett Jupiter (I believe it was a dealer), when it became Yardley Tools and any historical facts I can find pre and post these two pieces of information I have. A swift response would be most appreciated.
 
Hi, I am doing some research about Mansfield Rd and although I have found out quite a bit, I am now trying to discover who PA Leonard is? If anyone could shed any light on this, I would very much appreciate.
 
Mr leonard was named Roger, his son Malcolm, don't know about PA!
I spoke to malcolm some time ago and asked him if he had any photographs but I haven't heard from him since. He now lives in Dickens Heath having built an oak timbered house there.....
 
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