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Salford House Erdington Birmingham

The old OS is remarkably accurate. Gosh a perfect match. Brilliant. I wish I could do that. The GEC Magnet Club is upper left.
 
Its not too difficult Rupert, just can be very fiddly, as you have to keep adjusting the magnification of the view on Google Earth until it is the same (as far as you can tell) as that of the map . The facility is built into google earth (not google maps). In seme parts of Brum it can be difficult because there are so few points remaining on the ground that occur on the map.
 
The past residents of Salford House (from post office directories - thanks to Shera)
1849 - Gammon Thomas - glass manufacturer - Salford House, Gravelly Hill (also found by horsencart post #16)
1866 - Chamberlain Joseph Butler esq - Salford House, Gravelly Hill
1868 - Lunt Mr. Richard - Salford House, Slade Lane
1872 - Clive Henry - Salford House, Gravelly Hill

1864 - Salford House was advertised to Let and stated 'Late in the occupation of Mr Chamberlain' so he may have already left by the time the 1866 directory was available (There was a Joseph Butler Chamberlain also listed at The Woodlands, Moseley in the same 1866 directory)
1889 - Salford house was advertised to be let or sold and stated that it was in the occupation of Mr. R H Clive.
 
The adverts give an idea of the size of the house and what it may have been like.
Birmingham Daily Post:
1861 - April 11th - cook wanted - used to managing a small dairy.
1862 - April 21st - strong boy wanted - accustomed to farm service
1862 - May 28th - to be sold 21 ewes and 32 lambs
 

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This advert from the Birmingham Journal indicates the size of the house and the estate.
1864 - December 31st - Salford house to let.
 

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1879 - August 14th - Lady recommending a nurse - apply Salford House, Gravelly Hill
1883 - September 1st - Lady recommending a cook - address Mrs R H Clive, Salford House
1889 - September 27th - Salford House, Slade Road, Gravelly Hill, to be let or sold - in the occupation of Mr R H Clive
 

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Birmingham Daily Post
1890 - September 27th - indoor Gardener wanted.
1891 - April 22nd - sewing maid wanted -must understand dress making - address Mrs Ratcliffe Hoare, Salford House
1891 - June 18th - Gardener wanted must understand vines and glass and youth wanted to help in garden and be generally useful.
1892 - February 9th - Gardner wanted - indoors - must understand vines and glass - apply R Hoare

I am not sure if Mrs Ratcliffe Hoare and R Hoare are the householders or possibly housekeeper and estate manager?
 

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Those job papers are really interesting to see many thanks for sharing them, so i guess no photos of the house have come to light as yet??

Many thanks Ricco,,
 
I was very interested to read about Salford house. The R H Clive mentioned was my gt gt uncle. And Henry Clive was his father. Henry made his fortune by being a gun barrel borer. He left Salford house, leaving Robert Clive to live there, and Henry went to live at Slade house. This house is now the brookvale club, I believe, on Anchorage rd. I have a copy of Henry's will which describes Slade house and his stable of horses and carriages. I would be happy to send anyone a copy of the will if they wished. Would love to see any photos of the house before it became a working mans club, if any exist that is.
 
When I was looking at the directory listings for Residents of Salford House I noticed the following listings for 'Clive'.
is this the same family at another residence - possibly close to Salford House?
1866 Mr. Henry Clive was listed at Highfield House, Gravelly Lane.
1868 Clive Henry Esq. Highfield House, Gravelly Hill
1872 Mrs Clive, Highfield House, Erdington
 
I cant believe all of this information has come to light, Im truly amazed! Its really appreciated because my mom was fascinated by the history of it. Unfortunately I lost my mom last year she was only 64 at the time. It would have been lovely to show her all of this, she really would have been delighted! Thankyou everyone :) :) :)
 
Interesting read, I knew the area like the back of my hand growing up, spent a lot of time knocking round the 'magnet club' (gec), there was a row of large lime trees (iirc) running down the middle of the hill in the direction of the main fields. I always thought they must have been a relic from a previous farm.
 
Theres also a small coppice which is enclosed by the triangle of roads Kegworth Rd/Hillside Rd/Chartley Rd. I think just like the lime trees this is a relic of the old estate.
 
I sincerely hope it's okay for me to have resurrected such an old topic, but I have a few questions, and a few things to add about this! I thought it best to post it here, rather than start a new topic as it is very much a continuation

I've lived in Erdington, and near the area where Salford House/Highfield would've been all my life, (changed even more in my time and unfortunately, it's never for the better..), and I couldn't believe the history to the land! Fascinating to read, or what we know of the place, but I do have a question to put forth to everyone, has a photo of Salford House since popped up? I found reference to one in a topic on here, in a book on Cadbury workers, but it was never posted. I've combed google, facebook, for years, every variation of the name (which I think could be part of the problem, given it had multiple out buildings under multiple names, and every reference I've found is by a variation of Erdington/Slade Lane/Slade Road/Gravelley Hill etc). Just before lockdown, I went through every relevant book I could find in Erdington Library, with no results, and went to the city library too, the only reference they could find was a receipt of sale of the land, but unfortunately, I couldn't view the documents before lockdown commenced.

I did find this on Facebook, from Birmingham Old Prints Photographs and maps, a list of residents circa 1887:

"1887 Map showing Salford House off Slade Road for Maxine Dean
Today the area would be about by Kegworth Road area
Who lived in Salford House …a member of the great gunsmith dynasty Henry Clive
In 1861 at Salford House
Henry Clive 42 Gun Barrel Maker, b Nr Kingsbury
Jemima Susannah Clive 56
Robert HenryClive 20 Gun Barrel Maker, b Aston
Mary Ann Hard 24 Cook-Servant, b Whittacre
Harriet Emma Evans 18 Housekeeper, b Sutton

In 1881 at Salford House, Slade Road
Robert H Clive 40 Hardware Merchant
Mary F Clive 37, b New York USA
Mary R Cocker 67 (Mother in Law) b Boston, Mass. USA
Gertrude Clive 12, Florence 11, Clifford 6, Dorothy 3, -elda 2
Jane Patchwork 34 Governess-Teacher –Private , b Durham
Martha Robinson 41 Nurse, b Staffs
Mary Tibbitts 26 Under Nurse, b B’ham
Ellen Whitworth 28 Cook, b Hockley
Mary Stevens 34 Housekeeper"

A lot we already knew, but still, fascinating to read (including american residents!). It seems so strange that, for a house so big, and so old, nearly nothing remains record wise compared to other similar buildings in Erdington (almost certainly because it's been gone around 85-90 years). Seeing some of the lovely photos of Brookvale Park from the 20's recently posted, I thought I'd try my luck in asking

One other thing I did find, before finishing, was online in the national library of scotland, of all places, in the form of os maps, whereby going back in time you could roughly chart it's development and how long the estate was there (it's there as of the earliest map on the land, unmarked but I believe around 1840, though it's no doubt much older, and disappears sometime before 1938, which fits as the housing estate was build around 1935, but it was present as recent, he says, as 1913). I took screenshots at the time, not entirely sure how legal it is for me to post haha, but it is interesting to note, as well as the previously known Hillside and Highfield, there was a lodge at the bottom, next to what is slade road now (where the road levels out at the bottom of Chartley road now), and next to the path up to those houses which was lined with trees (and remains in the form of the coppice to this day). Also interesting, is the path to Salford House started not where the turn in is now, but at the opposite end, where the power junction box is now next to the railway bridge! (This also explains, for anyone who has lived here, why that and only that particular section of road always floods in heavy rain).

(As an aside, it's interesting to note some photos of some of Thomas Gammon's work exists online, nice to see in many ways)
 
hi kavon and welcome...i think i have a book on cadbury workers but not sure if it would be the one you refer to with a photo of salford house in it....i will dig it out and check and if the photo is there i will happily post it

lyn
 
The Cadbury association with the area could have been Burlington House, given to the city by Barrow Cadbury in 1934. It became Copeley Hill Hostel.
 
I wonder if that is why the current island (roundabout) under the M6 (Spaghetti Junction) is called Salford Circus.
 
Hello and thanks for the replies everyone! That's really appreciated Lyn, and that's interesting about Burlington House too Pedrocut, I've ended up coming across a few things about the place including a few photos, as from time to time it's been mistaken for Salford due to it's location.

And indeed about the island, as well as Salford Bridge, Salford Park and a few other instances of the name locally.. the house certainly seems to have predated even the Aston-Sutton train line, so while I'm no expert, it certainly seems to predate any other usage locally.. and it's even appears to be visible on the earliest map I could find which is undated, but from the early 1800s. I wondered in fact, given it's age whether when it was built all that was really in the area was the house and it's out buildings, the canal, then what is the park on the other side which would make a degree of sense (as I've found reference to Salford Park as Salford Lake, though I'm not sure how old either is).

I hope this is okay to post, I know others have posted similar pictures, but I'll go ahead and post this screenshot of the map, as it gives the clearest idea of the land I've found so far, this was surveyed in 1886 and published in 1890, most of the buildings don't appear to change much over the documented history (apart from their names that is!):

50605719861_03fb5384c0_z.jpg
 
hi kavon...the book i have is called a century of progress of cadburys 1831 to 1931 printed in 1931 but sadly no photos of salford house

lyn
 
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