A few images of this house which once stood in Victoria Park Handsworth. According to the Historic England extract below (italics) a villa existed in Victoria Park Handsworth in 1780. It was built by Mr Bratt (presumably the husband of Mrs Bratt who lost her Pointer in the Newspaper extract below) and is described as having a pleasure ground:
The Grove Estate comprised some 20 acres (c 8ha) of mid and late C19 pleasure grounds and meadows associated with a villa built in 1780 by William Bratt, a Birmingham steel toy manufacturer (ibid). The property had been improved by various owners in the 1870s and early 1880s, and a sale catalogue of 1883 describes pleasure grounds comprising shrubberies, a tennis lawn, conservatory, vineries, aviaries, an aquarium and fishpond, and a kitchen garden.
Following the purchase of The Grove, R H Vertegans of the Chad Valley Nurseries, Edgbaston, was approached to provide a plan 'shewing the way in which he would recommend the committee to lay out and plant the [estate] as public pleasure grounds' (Local Board Minute 284). Vertegans had already laid out several parks and recreation grounds in and around Birmingham, including, in 1879-81, West Park, Wolverhampton (qv).
At Handsworth, the new park incorporated The Grove and its gardens, the former walled garden and tennis lawn becoming a bowling green; a terrace walk and cricket ground were also provided (Birmingham Mail 1888). The planting of the park was undertaken by the Sheffield nursery of Fisher, Son and Sibray, and the completed park was opened on 20 June 1888, a year after Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee; by permission of the Queen, the park was known as Victoria Park. In the mid and late C20 the park has been known as Handsworth Park.
Link to Handsworth/Victoria Park's Historic England listing is here https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1001473
Viv.
The Grove Estate comprised some 20 acres (c 8ha) of mid and late C19 pleasure grounds and meadows associated with a villa built in 1780 by William Bratt, a Birmingham steel toy manufacturer (ibid). The property had been improved by various owners in the 1870s and early 1880s, and a sale catalogue of 1883 describes pleasure grounds comprising shrubberies, a tennis lawn, conservatory, vineries, aviaries, an aquarium and fishpond, and a kitchen garden.
Following the purchase of The Grove, R H Vertegans of the Chad Valley Nurseries, Edgbaston, was approached to provide a plan 'shewing the way in which he would recommend the committee to lay out and plant the [estate] as public pleasure grounds' (Local Board Minute 284). Vertegans had already laid out several parks and recreation grounds in and around Birmingham, including, in 1879-81, West Park, Wolverhampton (qv).
At Handsworth, the new park incorporated The Grove and its gardens, the former walled garden and tennis lawn becoming a bowling green; a terrace walk and cricket ground were also provided (Birmingham Mail 1888). The planting of the park was undertaken by the Sheffield nursery of Fisher, Son and Sibray, and the completed park was opened on 20 June 1888, a year after Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee; by permission of the Queen, the park was known as Victoria Park. In the mid and late C20 the park has been known as Handsworth Park.
Link to Handsworth/Victoria Park's Historic England listing is here https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1001473
Viv.
