• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

I know this is slightly out of the area but...

G

Graye

proper brummie kid
...I'm hoping someone can help me anyway. I am looking at an area just outside Redditch on the way to Studley via the "bottom" road which used to be called Salts Hill.

I'm researching a book and want to locate a house long since demolished. I have struggled to find it on ANY map but now have it on a very poor copy of a section of 1955 Warwickshire map. I need to approach the Land Registry for title information and they want an OS grid reference. It is absolutely impossible to work out where the house used to be by looking at a modern OS map, it's completely enveloped by the new town development. I believe the house was demolished in around 1965, although it had only been built in the 1930s.

If anyone has a better map than the one I'm struggling with I would be grateful for a copy of the relevant section, and any pointers to the OS reference would be wonderful. Looking at the map showing the area from Studley to Redditch the house stands all alone on the left hand side of the road, on the Redditch side of the Griffin Inn and sideways on to the road in a square plot. Across the road is the Redditch UDC Sewage Works - which probably accounts for it being on its own! I am also looking at Poplars Farm, another demolished property, which was directly across the Redditch Road from the Griffin Inn and similar information on this would also be welcome!

I've noticed people posting bits of maps from the old maps site as thumbnails but I can't work out how to do it - if anyone has pointers please?
 
I'm nor sure if I can help. I don't know the Redditch area at all, and haven't even passed through for 20 years. Below is a closeup of the the Griffin c 1955. there doesn't seem to be a Poplar farm on the other side of the redditch road. Similarly for other years. There is also a larger map of the area north of the Griffin from c 1938. Is the house you want the one on the right slightly nearer road than the one marked Brooklands ? There doesn't seem to be a sewage works marked on any of the maps that i can see. I'm not into OS references, so can't help. As to the oldmaps site, i use the snipping tool on Vista.

mapgriffininnstudley1955.jpg
mapnorthofgriffininnstudley1938.jpg
 
That is the right area. I lived on what is now called The Redditch Road where the Wapping used to be for about 25 years. A lot of the farms were compulsorily purchased for the New Town development. My husband had his taken on the other side of Redditch. He can recall a large house in that vicinity where a man called Rushden lived, who burnt his house down and shot himself. He also remembers the Freeman family who owned Shakespeare Farm around that area. There is a High School on that side of the road now and The Griffin Inn is derelict. Hope this helps. Anne
 
Thank you for that, I really appreciate you taking time to look.

The map is very slightly deceptive as the Griffin Inn itself is in that little triangle of land and Poplars Farm is just below where "Griffin Inn" is written! Those buildings you can see there are it and the tree symbols are its fields. By 1955 there were some extra trading unts built and I think those are what are alongside.

With regard to the other one, the house I am looking for is a bit further along than Shakespeare Farm, in fact it's the next property on the left, although it must be the same distance again as Shakespeare Farm is from the Griffin. I have Windows 7 and just can't see how to get a copy of the image off the screen and in to anything I can save it with. I will have to investigate...
 
When I get home, I'll ask my husband, he's Studley born and bred and has a pretty good memory. I don't know of any buildings before the Griffin on the way to Redditch except a row of cottages and their gardens facing on to Green Lane. He still sees some of the Freeman lads so he might be able to find out more for you. (Not that they're lads any more). I'll let you know. Anne
 
Thanks for those OS maps, the area is right in the middle, well worked out! Can you tell me the year they are from as I can't see the second house marked on them (or the sewage works).

This newer house (Broad Oak) was compulsorily purchased too, I think at that point it was lived in by Dr Dow. I suspect it's about where Rushock Close is now butI can't be sure. It was supposedly haunted and the people in the new houses/flats called in a priest to exorcise whatever was there but this may not be true! I'm interested in the family prior to Dr Dow, the lived there until around 1946. They also owned the premises at Poplars Farm but this didn't fall under the new town. I think the farmhouse was just so very old it was demolished (I'm surprised it wasn't listed as I think it was several hundred years old) and some other buildings were erected on the land and used as industrial units before the newer units were erected in the last few years. Once again I am looking at the 1930s/40s.
 
On two separate sheets, which apparently were surveyed at slighgtly different times, despite date (1938). Had to skew the map to get both the inn and the house in on the scanner after joining them. I take it it is the house in the top left hand corner. i als attach the enlarged area around the house, where it is slightly clearer. I am pretty sure the house was where the green roofed buildings in the centre at https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&...286081,-1.913627&spn=0.00189,0.00346&t=h&z=18 are now

mapnorthofgriffininn11938.jpg
 
I think you may be right! I've had a look at street view and the only clue I have is my mother's memory that the drive was just about on the crest of the hill (this area was named Salts Hilll) and this is about where this is. I need to identify that green building but I think we can just go along and look at it now we know where to look. Thank you for that!
 
I didn't know about that at all! I've found Broad Oak, as large as life. Amazing! Can anyone tell me how to work out the co-ordinates please? Poplars Farm is there too, although a little smudgy.

I must admit I can interpret OS maps but I can't work out map points on them... The house should be on those OS maps John, but I can't even see a little mark. I suppose it was built too late to be included!
 
I managed to work out the conversion with the help of a little program I found. I can now go back to Land Registry armed with exactly what I need to locate the titles etc.

Can I just say thanks to everyone who came up with ideas on this, especially as it wasn't even in Birmingham. The city generally is only on the very periphery of my research but every time I have a question I receive lots of help and find exactly what I need. Cheers!
 
It's fairly easy to do co-ordinates.
You start off with the larger N ational Grid square usually 2 letters on the map such as SO and go into the smaller squares and divide them into 10 vertically and horizontally, locate your place and counting from the bottom left corner of the square count along to the left,(known as Eastings,) and up (known as Northings) to the place, which gives yo the position ie: such as SO 7E 5N.
Hope this makes sense.
 
Graye said:
Thank you for that, I really appreciate you taking time to look.

The map is very slightly deceptive as the Griffin Inn itself is in that little triangle of land and Poplars Farm is just below where "Griffin Inn" is written! Those buildings you can see there are it and the tree symbols are its fields. By 1955 there were some extra trading unts built and I think those are what are alongside.

With regard to the other one, the house I am looking for is a bit further along than Shakespeare Farm, in fact it's the next property on the left, although it must be the same distance again as Shakespeare Farm is from the Griffin. I have Windows 7 and just can't see how to get a copy of the image off the screen and in to anything I can save it with. I will have to investigate...
Click to expand...
My Mum's family lived at Broad Oak before Dr Dow. The family name is Wharrad. They also owned The Poplars which you also mentioned. So interesting.
 
My great-grand-parents lived at Broadoak before the Dows, my Great Grandfather, Lionel Wharrad owned The Poplars which was also a spring factory as was the The Towers which was a spring factory too, my grandfather worked there.
I have a doll's house built for my mum, which was made to resemble Broad Oak. My uncle (Bill Hunt) was born at Broad Oak.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top