• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

St Agatha Sparkbrook

Yes it's still there, it's Grade I listed I think. You'd see it on the various bus routes along the Stratford Road.

Mainly an Asian area now.

Ladypool Primary School is next door to the right. A supermarket to the left.

Google Maps Street View

St Agatha Sparkbrook.jpg
 
This is one of those times when several posts have very personal memories. This is my old parish church and played quite a big part in the life of our family.
I wouldn't say we were goody goodies it was just part of what we did. I went to Sunday school, Boy Scouts, Church Lads Brigade, Alter Boy (acolyte) etc.
From my teens the main reason for attendance was the Youth Club, this supplied friends, girl friends etch too much to say and some best not said.
Also went to Stratford Rd School from pre-school to age 11, from 1943.Again too many memories to share.
Cheers Tim
 
The only memory I have of St Agathas is of the funeral of my youngest uncle at aged 49. It's a quite large church and it was the first time I had ever been inside the church. As large as it is we had to squeeze the congregation in, my uncle although not a churchgoer or a religious person used to drink with the ex vicar of the church in The Hereford Arms a short distance away. The vicar had moved to another church down south somewhere but he came up for the day to take the service for my uncle as they were good friends.

The point of this story being that even though this was some 2o years ago now, when talking to the vicar after the funeral (in the Hereford) he said that the congregation that day had been the biggest he had seen in the church for years and it was such a pity to see such a good church hardly being used. So if as been stated here it has a Grade 1 status, then that is probably the only thing that is stopping it being demolished.
 
Here's the listing https://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101210221-church-of-st-agatha-sparkbrook-ward#.WluGHzfLiUk

Listing Text
STRATFORD ROAD
1.
5104 Highgate B11
Church of St Agatha
(formerly listed under
Sparkbrook)
SF 08 SE 12/59 21.1.70
I
2.
1899-1901 exaeptionally fine and original church by W E Bidlake dominated
by its great tower, in a Perpendicular style freely reinterpreted in an
Arts and Crafts idiom and of very fine workmanship. Fine quality red brick
with stone dressings. Aisles and clerestory. The west front with vestibule
porches to aisles flanking the magnificent lofty tower containing the low
baptistry apse at its foot. The tower has slender octagonal corner turrets
with their upper stages composed of red and white chequerwork surmounted
by open work turret/pinnacles crowned by lofty original wrought iron finials.
The stair turret on the south face also has an imaginatively designed top
stage and in carefully proportioned to emphasise the soaring scale of the
tower and the powerful belfry openings. Above the baptistry is a fine
sculptured sweeping frame work to the west tower window and equally inventive
sculptural and carved decoration enlivens the cambered stone arches and
jambs of the flanking vestibule doorways. The Gothic of the fenestration
to the aisles and clerestory is more conventional. The interior, restored
after the the war and thefire of 1957, is a remarkably sophisticated original
conception, faced in pale buff brick blending with the stone dressings.
The arcade hood moulds have Bidlake's typical finesse of detailing, almost
dying into the piers but with a scrolled curve carved over the vestigial
ribs of the pier, the latter is then carved up to divide the large clerestory
windows and terminating in richly and freely carved foliage corbels; the
timber ribs of the roof carrying on the lines of the masonry. The chancel's
pointed barrel vault is born by stone arches springing from very richly
carved corbels. The sophistication of the carving and quality of the moulded
detailing is consistent throughout. Bidlake's furnishings were destroyed
in the 1957 fire.

Listing NGR: SP0866884777

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.
 
Don't usually take photos of this church or of Sparkbrook, but took this one of St Agatha from the bus.

 
St Agatha's took some blast damage in WW2
The clock face on St Agatha's Church, Stratford Road, was almost shook off the tower during the WW2 bombing ....
View attachment 106491
But it's a survivor and suitably repaired is still there today ....
View attachment 106492
index.php

index.php

images only visible if logged in
 
Last edited:
106491 became part of our gang's extended play areas. Did anyone else take the precaution of holding your left hand around your neck so that the rats could not bite your throat!
No fear of falling into cellars or having staircases collapse under you but we were wary of rats ( as big as cats!).
Cheers Tim
 
Forget about the baby bits, but the sound is as most people would pronounce it. Think of Agatha Christie.
Thank you, that's the way I have always said it.
 
190E1E39-8F49-478D-B259-B33A2F8CB437.jpeg


Birmingham buildings; the architectural story of a Midland city by Little, Bryan D. G (1971)

“Dominant over a section of Stratford Road, Bidlake's splendid Arts and Crafts Gothic tower at St Agatha's is the finest feature of the church built in 1899-1901. Decorated tracery blends with a somewhat East Anglian impression and a
'Hertfordshire spike’.”
 
View attachment 177296


Birmingham buildings; the architectural story of a Midland city by Little, Bryan D. G (1971)

“Dominant over a section of Stratford Road, Bidlake's splendid Arts and Crafts Gothic tower at St Agatha's is the finest feature of the church built in 1899-1901. Decorated tracery blends with a somewhat East Anglian impression and a
'Hertfordshire spike’.”
Thanks Pedro for posting such a great picture of an area that I knew well. My brother was christened there in 1955 when we lived in Auckland Road (Camp Hill end of Stratford Road). I later went to the Cubs there although I wasn,t too impressed and left after a few weeks (too formal). My brother (1960 - 1966) and I (1957- 1963) later attended the school next door known as Ladypool Primary School (although older members will remember it as Stratford Road School). Norman Francis was a plumbers merchants & my father had them fit out the spare bedroom into a bathroom, (a proper indoor toilet & bath!! Made us feel like royalty)
Dave
 
Back
Top