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Cock Sparrow Hall Ward End

Vivienne14

Vivienne14

Kentish Brummie Moderator
Staff member
Can't find much out about this building that was on St. Margaret's Road. It looks interesting, maybe part of a much larger building? Anyone remember it? In it's later years it was a timber merchants. Viv.
 

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I had a look on some old maps but can't find it marked on St Margaret's Road at all. (maps from 1880s to 1930s).

Janice
 
Thanks Janice. I wonder then if it was part of another building. I think there was a Cock Sparrow Farm, maybe it was connected to that. Whatever it was, it certainly doesn't look like a 'Hall' unless it was part of something else. Viv.
 
I saw something about Cock Sparrow Farm but it suggested it was at Nether Whitacre! There was a Ward end Hall in St Margaret's Road with a moat (so quite impressive) so I suppose it could have been part of that.

Am trying to see if I can come across anything on the censuses.

Janice
 
I have a slightly better copy and this shows the place in 1933 was F Janes & Co. The 1933 Kellys shows this as no 201, which can be seen on th emap below. Streetview mysteriously seems to miss out the centre of the road, but it can be seen that it is now modern brick houses. EArlier maps show a smaller building, but do not give any idea as to what it was

map_c_1951_showing_201_st_margarets_road.jpg
 
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Thanks Mike and Janice. The timber yard at the back , plus the building itself is quite some size. So maybe it was part of Janice's (post #4) Ward End Hall? And yes it is odd that Streetview misses the address out.

A Google search turned this up on BHF - post #26 suggests it was a 15th century gamekeepers cottage. So maybe it was called 'Hall' as it belonged to the hall, housed the hall's gamekeeper and was on the hall's land. All speculation. Viv.

https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2750&page=2
 
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Now I can see from Mike's map exactly where it was it is definitely nothing to do with Ward End Hall as that is further to the left. There is just a small building marked on the earlier maps.

Ward End 1886.jpgWard End 1912.jpg

Janice
 
Thanks for the maps Janice, very helpful.


Assuming it was a gamekeeper's cottage, I wonder if it was within the grounds of the larger house as tied accommodation, with the gamekeeper being its tenant. Gamekeeping became a profession in the late 17th century and was given recognised status by an Act of Parliament in 1671 allowing any gentlemen above the rank of esquire who was allowed to kill game the right to appoint a gamekeeper. And by the early 1870s a head gamekeeper had acquired special status in the rural community, outranking the local tenant farmers and the village schoolmaster. He'd rear thousands of pheasants and could even dictate the cropping patterns on the tenant farms to ensure planned game preservation.


The cottage (i.e Cock Soarrow Hall) certainly looks like a Tudor/Elizabethan building for someone with status and not one for a general farm labourer. And my guess is that it was 'tied' in some way to the large Ward End estate (whatever house/hall that might be). A very interesting little building, pity it's gone.


I think the plot of land is curious too. The modern buildings built over the Cock Sparrow Hall site are built further back off St. Margparet's Road and wonder why that is.

And the land behind the building marked on Mike's map in post #5 is shown as a Timber Yard, so I assume, as the building itself was once a timber merchants, the land at the rear must also have belonged to the cottage/house (Cock Sparrow Hall). It was a fair-sized plot. Viv.
 
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I found a reference to someone who worked in the timber yard and it said Ward End Timber Supplies was situated in Cock Sparrow Hall although there was not much left of the original building. Ward End history site suggests it was a gamekeeper's cottage built in 15th or 16th centuries. In the 1900s it was a sweet shop and then after a fire the remains were incorporated in the Timber Yard. I have "walked" part of St Margaret's Road on the 1911 census and found 201 (Harry Stevens a house painter) but have not so far found anywhere called Cocksparrow Hall. Will walk the rest later.
Coincidentally Cocksparrow Hall is a listed building on the Coleshill Road, Maxstoke (it looks like a large cottage)- but I wonder if the Ward End one was linked in some way?
Janice
 
I am not sure how relevant this is but Cocksparrow FARM seems to have been owned by the Wingfield Digby family - there are sales particulars at Birmingham Library. The family lived in Coleshill but according to the library archive list "until 1919 owned extensive property Sheldon, Yardley, Water Orton and neighbouring parishes. I wonder if this included the building named as Cocksparrow Hall and if there was a connection. I can't actually find it listed but you never know.

This may, of course, be a jump too far!!
Janice
 
Hi Janice. I like nice BIG risky jumps, that way you explore all sorts of things! Water Orton and Coleshill Road are geographically close. So a connection with the Wingfield Digby family is quite possible. I was wondering, if the family had such vast land, the main House/ Hall could well be some distance from its tenants. And maybe the properties on that vast land took their names from the main House to link them together. As there's a Cock Sparrow Farm relatively near to Cock Sparrow Hall (the house on St. Margaret's Road), it wouldn't take too much of a leap to suggest Cock Sparrow Farm and the Cock Sparrow Hall on St. Margaret's Road could easily be linked. Just need a bit more evidence. Easier said than done! Viv.
 
Hi, my mum has this book called ‘memories of Ward End’ Cocksparrow Hall is mentioned. Here are some quotes....Mr.Jim Peel, “ I bought popcorn from there, 2 Woodbine’s and 2 matches cost 1/2d.
Mrs. Dolly Jones, “an old lady sold sweets out of wooden boxes at Cocksparrow Hall for 1/2 penny, put in cone shaped paper-bags.
Mr. P Large, “we bought sweets from Cocksparrow Hall.
Mr. T Brooks, “Cocksparrow Hall, an old lady used to sit outside at a table with tea and they used to buy tea from her”
Mr.ASmith,”There was a post-office next door to the Barley Mow going up, and it finished at Cocksparrow Hall”
Mrs. Kerry,”Cocksparrow Hall, you went up some steps to the door and an orchid was where the wood is, and she used to have lovely homemade sweets. It was only a little house. She got one little kitchen which she did everything in and all her food, and one bedroom.”
Mrs E LGroutage”Right opposite is now the timber-yard, which belonged to Mr. James, and that’s where an old lady “Cocksparrow “ , as we all called her, had a little sweet shop. It was only a small place, she used to have the door always open and we used to knock when we went for sweets. There was always a gate and you had to wait outside.”
Mrs. Ballinger,”Cocksparrow Hall was kept by a relative of mine named Wright and his wife. They used to sell pig nuts , in a big bowl of water, and sweets. They were a very old couple. It was a real old cottage and they were very nice.”
Mrs. P. Band “we used to buy liquor ice sweets and gobstoppers from Cocksparrow Hall. It was like a house and the sweets on display in the little window.”
“Ward End Timber Supply was known as Cocksparrow Hall. In the early 15th Century it was a gamekeeper ‘s cottage, and 400 years later an old lady lived there, who sold sweets to the village children “.
 
Fashionz said:
Hi, my mum has this book called ‘memories of Ward End’ Cocksparrow Hall is mentioned. Here are some quotes....Mr.Jim Peel, “ I bought popcorn from there, 2 Woodbine’s and 2 matches cost 1/2d.
Mrs. Dolly Jones, “an old lady sold sweets out of wooden boxes at Cocksparrow Hall for 1/2 penny, put in cone shaped paper-bags.
Mr. P Large, “we bought sweets from Cocksparrow Hall.
Mr. T Brooks, “Cocksparrow Hall, an old lady used to sit outside at a table with tea and they used to buy tea from her”
Mr.ASmith,”There was a post-office next door to the Barley Mow going up, and it finished at Cocksparrow Hall”
Mrs. Kerry,”Cocksparrow Hall, you went up some steps to the door and an orchid was where the wood is, and she used to have lovely homemade sweets. It was only a little house. She got one little kitchen which she did everything in and all her food, and one bedroom.”
Mrs E LGroutage”Right opposite is now the timber-yard, which belonged to Mr. James, and that’s where an old lady “Cocksparrow “ , as we all called her, had a little sweet shop. It was only a small place, she used to have the door always open and we used to knock when we went for sweets. There was always a gate and you had to wait outside.”
Mrs. Ballinger,”Cocksparrow Hall was kept by a relative of mine named Wright and his wife. They used to sell pig nuts , in a big bowl of water, and sweets. They were a very old couple. It was a real old cottage and they were very nice.”
Mrs. P. Band “we used to buy liquor ice sweets and gobstoppers from Cocksparrow Hall. It was like a house and the sweets on display in the little window.”
“Ward End Timber Supply was known as Cocksparrow Hall. In the early 15th Century it was a gamekeeper ‘s cottage, and 400 years later an old lady lived there, who sold sweets to the village children “.
Click to expand...
i remember the timber yard
 
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Vivienne14 said:
We have a thread about Cock Sparrow Hall so I am moving posts dated 23/4/23 to the older thread. There may be earlier unseen posts. Viv.

Edit. Posts now moved to this thread.
Click to expand...
Viv - I don't think it is the place at Ward End. The children are baptised in Warwick - it seems to be possibly a road in Warwck near the parish church.
 
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