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Church Lane Aston

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brenda Barr Phillips
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Brenda Barr Phillips

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l hope this is the right place to get some info, my mother Ena Coates was raised and lived at 33 Church Lane untill she married in 1929, goning down the lane from Lichfield Road on the right were 2 cottages which sat back from all the other buildings,and it was obvious they were biult in another era, mom always said she understood they were Aston Halls keepers cottages and she understood these cottages had tunnels leading to Aston Hall.?. Does anyone have anything to back this up. When Church Lane was cleared unfortunatley these cottages went to, thinking now if they were keepers cottages surely the council would have seemed fit to save them as they had quite a bit of historial interest. Hoping some one can enlighten me on this , its been nagging at the back of my mind for years. Brenda
 
Hi Brenda

If Aston Hall had secret tunnels leading from it, then nearly every home in Aston would have had one, Has a youngster growing up in Aston, I was told that a tunnel existed in a place called The Retreat, just up the street from where I lived, then I heard of another which was somewhere in Park Lane, and another that lead to Aston Church.......the truth is that the Hall had no tunnels, there is a hiding place behind a big chair somewhere in the house, by the main stair case I think......I haven't been there in over twenty years so my memory might not be up to speed with that fact.....another point worth noting is that the hall sits on top of a hill, I think it would have been quite hard to dig out an escape tunnel......

Has for the cottages....I cannot recall them, but they could have been homes for the hall workers pre 1850, I hope that this goes so far to put your mind at rest.........................John
 
John, thank you for the info, you are right perhaps the cottages did belong to the workers or were the keepers cottages, how could l find out the history of the cottages ???, could anyone out there put me on the right track!, John l knew the retreat quite well and some of the kids who lived there, but never heard about tunnels from there or Park Lane to Aston Hall. l knew the outlay of Church Lane quite well as my Grandparents had a newsagents further down from the cottages and every Saturday and Sunday l would visit. Would any one happen to have any pictures??, anyone who lived in the "Lane" would know what l'm refering to. l still think those cottages should should have been saved. Brenda
 
Brenda, I have a couple of photo's of the Alms Houses in Aston Lane and a photo of Aston Lane 1910 if thats any good
 
Brenda, here is some info that may be of interest to you. I will just post refs that you can click on and play around with.

First is Epoch one ref. ordenance survey ; https://www.british-history.ac.uk/mapsheet.asp?sheetid=10074&ox=4578&oy=3070&zm=1&czm=1&x=681&y=61
This map is 1890. Church lane seems to have a tram line running up it. Litchfield road has a double tram line. Probably steam trams. You can use the resolution keys to zoom and klick on the map to move around.

Most of the houses seem to be the typ. working class houses at that time but moving up church lane on the right the first few houses seem to be different. They are a fair distance from the manor house though.

This other post is that of a house that was on Aston Hall Road just above Church lane at the other end. You will be able to find it on the old map. I suspect that they were contemporary. I think it would have been a very long tunnel, to the Hall Building anyway.
https://www.pbase.com/image/35027753

Hope this works and is of help.

Regards

PS. Incidentally Conan Doyle who created Sherlock Holmes lived close by in a house that was pulled down for the overpass. It seems that destruction of historical buildings is elementary.
 
aston hall tunnel

Just spoken to my mom today,she's 82 and once again she mentioned a tunnel that came from Aston Hall and went near or under her former house in Bevington Road. Anyone else have any details about this or any other tunnels ?
 
Apparently there were many tunnels around Birmingham and Aston although I don't know if their locations were ever mapped. My grandparents lived at 191 Bevington Road they were Clarissa and Walter Jennings sadly they passed away in the late 40's early 50's.
 
tunnels

hi moma p
i notice your grand mother was a jenning
so was mine her name was elisabeth jenning ,
but i do not know whom was her mother, or father was
i truely would like to find out whom she belong too
you never know we may have some connection
the earliest time i can follow is she lived in parliment st aston
and also she lived in george rd erdington inthe early 1800,1900s
she had a couple of daughters and a couple of sons later in life
i think the oldest was floss , lily, maud edith albert , joeseph
and william ; she has been married twice before my father
albert went missing in one of the wars ,or got shot in france
on the subject of tunnels there as been a rumor for years
about a tunnel from aston hall
down to aston parish church
when a witch like lady appeared on a grave stone ,
she was lying across it ,she had long black hair looking like
a witch features holding two candlebra,s in her hand
dancing and screaming , it was one
winters night ,peoplegatherd around to watch
they brought the police dogs and the fire brigade with there
big search light ,scouring the church yard but no prevail
they never found her people was saying then
that there was a tunnel from the hall down to the church
and that was down in the earliest 1950,s
so is it true or not best wishes astonian ;;;;;
 
I think the hidey hole you mentioned JK was probably a priests hole. The guides in Aston Hall used to talk about it ,
 
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