Winterbourne House & Garden

[Astoness]

what a lovely day ive had..many thanks phil and mike..great company i can highly recommend visiting winterbourne house and garden...what a delightful place...the upstairs rooms are now open to the public....found the little gate nick..amazing what it leads to...phil and mike took photos of this trip so hopefully when they have time they will post a few...

lyn

 

[Phil]

We set off at the crack of dawn this morning (11.30.a.m.) but first we had to collect Mike from his country cottage and we trekked through the steamy jungle looking for our other intrepid traveller, no matter how hard she tried to evade us we still found her deep on the jungle.

I knew the Nettlefolds lived at Winterbourne, but I never read that Mr Charles Chaplin was still in residence.

I'll leave it Mike to post his pictures of the house before I post mine, because he has to be a better photographer than me, and the house deserves be shown at it's best.

 

[Astoness]

ha ha very funny phil...that hat was way too big for my head although some may disagree and i forgot to twirl the walking cane around lol...god that hot house was hot and steamy but lovely plants in there...

 

[mikejee]

Will show some photos of the visit taken by me:
My version of Charlie Chaplin,
Exiting the nut tunnel (hazels I think -i'm not a plant person). Unfortunately, as I overheard one of the gardeners saying to his colleague, the squirrels (or which we saw a number) got all the nuts.
Looking back at the cottage which serves as an entrance to the garden

 

[mikejee]

They are not coming out in the right order, but never mind.
Scenes from the ordchid house, and the cactus house

 

[mikejee]

Looking back at the house as you go down to the bottom of the garden towards the big lake, which is not part of Winterbourne, but which you are allowed to access.The exact date the lake was first formed is uncertain, but it would have been to provide a hea dof water to the mills , probably in the 17th century. In the early 20th century , when Edgebaston hall was converted into a golf club (waste of good space) it was necessary to lower the lake so that th e18th hole could be built. thus you can see brickwork of the dam. The water drained through a sluice, into a stream. Possibly this was the original stream to the mill.

 

[mikejee]

Having come back to winterbourne land, at this time of year the leaves are many colours as we went down to the "swamp" with large chinese rhubarb (also has an unpronouncable latin name)

 

[mikejee]

Up through the nut tunnel towards the main house and some of the rooms and contents. one thing I particularly liked was that the house, which was built for John Nettleford about the same time as his firm merged to form Guest Kean & Nettlefords, has been laid out as it would have been. You can touch things, open drawers and wardrobes , and inside them will be sheets and coats as there would have been. There are also displays of games , etc used by the children and a collection of ancient projectors , though I was not clear if they had been collected by the Nettlefords or not.

 

[mikejee]

Some of the rooms and other items including a figure made of Nettleford screws

 

[Phil]

Nice photos Mike, and I was right yours are much better than mine.

 

[pjmburns]

Wow - must make a date to visit. It looks excellent. Thanks for sharing the photos with us.

 

[Phil]

I have to say the thing that I liked most about this house was nothing was behind barriers and you were almost encouraged to handle the exhibits. There were one or two pieces like chairs that you were asked not to sit in because they were so fragile and there were some items under glass, but other than that you could pick up end examine most of the display objects. I don't know if that was the idea, but there certainly were no notices saying differently.

 

[Astoness]

great photos mike..janice it really is a lovely place to visit and not expensive to get in either...i guess as far as the gardens go and although still lovely at this time of year i think they would be best strolled around on a lovely summers day

lyn

 

[farmerdave]

The BBC weather forecast this morning came from Winterbourne Gardens. I don't think that I have ever been there so must try and visit the next time that I'm in Birmingham. Dave.

 

[Pemby]

Wendy, I said I was going to visit two years ago and I have only just got there! The exhibition on the children ends on the 29th April.
Although the garden is pretty at the moment I would imagine in the summer it is really beautiful.

According to the information on display it seems it was very common for wealthy people to go travelling not long after the birth of a baby. Perhaps it was because the woman had been confined to the house during pregnancy - I am not sure.

I must admit it is quite nice to feel I have a connection with some of these families through the Rylands - although with the Nettlefords and the Chamberlains it is rather distant. (anyway - I seem to remember your tree is rather interesting too!)

Hi Pollypops,
I have been reading your family history discoveries with great interest. I too am related to Louisa Anne Ryland. Her mother Anne Pemberton was my 3x Gt Grandather’s, Thomas Pemberton, sister.
I have been researching the Pemberton Family for many years and it always nice to find new connections.
Regards
Pemby

 

[suemalings]

A friend of mine lives on the Moor Pool Estate in Harborne which was established by Nettlefold. I have visited Winterbourne House and there is a plan of the Moor Pool Estate in one of the rooms in the house. Also my father-in-law worked at GKN for a while.

 

[Morturn]

One of the lake at Winterbourne

 

[Jason Ellis]

Hi Pollypops,
I have been reading your family history discoveries with great interest. I too am related to Louisa Anne Ryland. Her mother Anne Pemberton was my 3x Gt Grandather’s, Thomas Pemberton, sister.
I have been researching the Pemberton Family for many years and it always nice to find new connections.
Regards
Pemby

Hi Pemby,
I also have Birmingham Pembertons in my family tree. It's a fascinating family to study. The best known part of the family is the famous family of brassfounders, but their branch was originally from Leicester. There were other earlier Pembertons in Birmingham: The goldsmiths who were related to Samuel Lloyd (of Lloyds bank fame) and another who was the manager of Vauxhall Gardens at Duddeston, but after extensive research I conclude that the earlier Pembertons of Birmingham and the brassfounders who migrated to Birmingham from Leicester are two different branches. If you have any unresolved Pemberton family history questions please share them and I will do my best to help.
Jason

 

[Pedrocut]

Birmingham Daily Post, May 1939…Winterbourne.

 

[mikejee]

The bridge is still there, or rather was there 5 years ago

 

[mikejee]

For those interested, there is a free Zoom Talk about John Nettleford, the man behind winterbourne, on Thursday. You have to Register to get link:

John Sutton Nettlefold: The Man behind Winterbourne

Henrietta Lockhart, Collections Officer at Winterbourne House, Birmingham explores the personality of this pioneering housing reformer.

www.eventbrite.co.uk