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Birches Green House Kingsbury Road 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It was knocked down to make room for a petrol station,now that as been replaced by houses.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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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.;)
 
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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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
 
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?
 
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.
 
Kitty said:
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.
Click to expand...
I remember that the site of what is now Highclare next to the Abbey church used to house a catholic school known as 'the Abbey'.
 
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