Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
Re: Some great men of Birmingham..
Thanks bernie. As a fellow Small Heathen, you may be interested in Louisa Ryland. She gave us Small Heath park, amongst other things...we musn't forget we had Birmingham's great girls either...
And so may I introduce to you a Victorian lady of Brum who deserves a whacking great Muntz Medal for generosity and fortitude of the highest order. The benefactor of one of my favourite spots in all of Birmingham, Cannon Hill Park.
Cannon Hill Park was given to the city by Louisa Ann Ryland, a millionairess who remained true to a youthful love, and died a spinster in 1889. The Ryland family has given more names to Birmingham Streets than most of the city’s families. The first Ryland to make an impact on Birmingham was John, who lived towards the end of the 18th century in Baskeville House, Easy Hill – forerunner to Easy Row. Of him, contemporary historian William Hutton wrote that he “had done more public business than any other within my knowledge, and not only without reward, but without fault”. However, John Ryland found his private business ventures more rewarding. He also married a wealthy heiress, Martha Ruston, and though his home was burned to a crisp during the Priestley Riots, because he was a Unitarian, he was still able to leave a considerable fortune to his only son Samuel.
Samuel Ryland married Anne Pemberton, daughter of Samuel Pemberton of 280 Hagley Road, ‘the Laurels’, Edgbaston, a house that later became Edgbaston High School for Girls for a while.
The Pembertons were mentioned as goldsmiths as far back as 1553 when a survey of Birmingham was carried out. In the succeeding years they became very wealthy ironmongers, and in the early 1700s it was John Pemberton who initiated the development of The Old Square and the adjoining streets. A well-known member of the Society of Friends, his wife was Elizabeth Lloyd – whose brother and nephew co-founded Taylor and Lloyd’s Bank in1765.
Their only child was Louisa Ann Ryland, born on 17 January 1814 in Birmingham. The family moved to the Priory, Warwick, while Louisa was a girl, but when the GWR was cut through his grounds, Samuel bought the Sherbourne Estate south of Warwick, where he lived like a country gentleman at a house called Barford Hill. Still there , thank the Lord.
He had great ambitions for Louisa of marriage into a titled family. He was thought to be in favour of Lord Brooke, the owner of Warwick Castle, but Louisa had made her own choice – Mr Henry Smith, of whom it was written by J. Thackrey Bunce, historian of the Corporation of Birmingham, that he was deserving of honoured remembrance in Birmingham “for the eminent services he rendered to local government in promoting, and afterwards as Mayor (1851-52), in executing the “Improvement Act”. Henry loved Louisa, but her father’s opposition proved insuperable, and he married Maria Louisa Phipson, a relation of the Rylands instead. Henry’s family were quite wealthy and leading brass founders, and his father was a Street Commissioner, but this was obviously not posh enough credentials for Samuel.
Louisa Ryland remained faithful to Smith, and, though at Samuel Rylands death in 1843, she was left more than £1million, making her a very attractive wife propostion, she never married, living peacefully at Barford Hill with her companion Charlotte Randall, and making many gifts to her native Birmingham at her leisure. In 1875 she gave Cannon Hill Park, laying it out at her own cost, and refusing to allow it to be called Ryland Park – the same modesty behind her refusal to allow a statue to be erected to her honour. In 1879 she gave Victoria Park, Small Heath, with £4,000 towards the cost of laying that out too. She bequeathed £25,000 to the General Hospital in Steelhouse Lane; gave £10.000 towards the Midland Institute; and £10,000 to augment the salaries for teachers at the School of Art. She also helped out the Women’s Hospital, where I worked for 8 years before we transferred to the QEH site in 1968. In 1878 when it outgrew its original premises she offered one of her properties rent-free for the In-Parients Dept in Showell Green Lane. What she did anonymously will never be known. Her benefactions to Churches included a reredos (Altar Screen) at St John’s Sparkhill, and in 1864 she rebuilt Sherbourne Church, where she now lies beside her old house companion. Charlotte died in 1882, aged 88: Louisa on 28 January 1889, aged 75.
Faithful unto death, Louisa left her huge fortune to the son of the man she had loved all her life, on condition that he adopted the surname of Ryland. So Charles Alston Smith, born1859 to Henry and Maria Smith, became Charles Alston Ryland-Smith. His grandson, alderman Charles Smith-Ryland, became Chairman of Warwick County Council, and lived in in Barford Hill as squire of Sherbourne, in 1970, and his family are still active in the upper raches of Sherbourne society and business today, viz:
https://www.sherbournepark.com/
What a girl!
Thanks bernie. As a fellow Small Heathen, you may be interested in Louisa Ryland. She gave us Small Heath park, amongst other things...we musn't forget we had Birmingham's great girls either...
And so may I introduce to you a Victorian lady of Brum who deserves a whacking great Muntz Medal for generosity and fortitude of the highest order. The benefactor of one of my favourite spots in all of Birmingham, Cannon Hill Park.
Cannon Hill Park was given to the city by Louisa Ann Ryland, a millionairess who remained true to a youthful love, and died a spinster in 1889. The Ryland family has given more names to Birmingham Streets than most of the city’s families. The first Ryland to make an impact on Birmingham was John, who lived towards the end of the 18th century in Baskeville House, Easy Hill – forerunner to Easy Row. Of him, contemporary historian William Hutton wrote that he “had done more public business than any other within my knowledge, and not only without reward, but without fault”. However, John Ryland found his private business ventures more rewarding. He also married a wealthy heiress, Martha Ruston, and though his home was burned to a crisp during the Priestley Riots, because he was a Unitarian, he was still able to leave a considerable fortune to his only son Samuel.
Samuel Ryland married Anne Pemberton, daughter of Samuel Pemberton of 280 Hagley Road, ‘the Laurels’, Edgbaston, a house that later became Edgbaston High School for Girls for a while.
The Pembertons were mentioned as goldsmiths as far back as 1553 when a survey of Birmingham was carried out. In the succeeding years they became very wealthy ironmongers, and in the early 1700s it was John Pemberton who initiated the development of The Old Square and the adjoining streets. A well-known member of the Society of Friends, his wife was Elizabeth Lloyd – whose brother and nephew co-founded Taylor and Lloyd’s Bank in1765.
Their only child was Louisa Ann Ryland, born on 17 January 1814 in Birmingham. The family moved to the Priory, Warwick, while Louisa was a girl, but when the GWR was cut through his grounds, Samuel bought the Sherbourne Estate south of Warwick, where he lived like a country gentleman at a house called Barford Hill. Still there , thank the Lord.
He had great ambitions for Louisa of marriage into a titled family. He was thought to be in favour of Lord Brooke, the owner of Warwick Castle, but Louisa had made her own choice – Mr Henry Smith, of whom it was written by J. Thackrey Bunce, historian of the Corporation of Birmingham, that he was deserving of honoured remembrance in Birmingham “for the eminent services he rendered to local government in promoting, and afterwards as Mayor (1851-52), in executing the “Improvement Act”. Henry loved Louisa, but her father’s opposition proved insuperable, and he married Maria Louisa Phipson, a relation of the Rylands instead. Henry’s family were quite wealthy and leading brass founders, and his father was a Street Commissioner, but this was obviously not posh enough credentials for Samuel.
Louisa Ryland remained faithful to Smith, and, though at Samuel Rylands death in 1843, she was left more than £1million, making her a very attractive wife propostion, she never married, living peacefully at Barford Hill with her companion Charlotte Randall, and making many gifts to her native Birmingham at her leisure. In 1875 she gave Cannon Hill Park, laying it out at her own cost, and refusing to allow it to be called Ryland Park – the same modesty behind her refusal to allow a statue to be erected to her honour. In 1879 she gave Victoria Park, Small Heath, with £4,000 towards the cost of laying that out too. She bequeathed £25,000 to the General Hospital in Steelhouse Lane; gave £10.000 towards the Midland Institute; and £10,000 to augment the salaries for teachers at the School of Art. She also helped out the Women’s Hospital, where I worked for 8 years before we transferred to the QEH site in 1968. In 1878 when it outgrew its original premises she offered one of her properties rent-free for the In-Parients Dept in Showell Green Lane. What she did anonymously will never be known. Her benefactions to Churches included a reredos (Altar Screen) at St John’s Sparkhill, and in 1864 she rebuilt Sherbourne Church, where she now lies beside her old house companion. Charlotte died in 1882, aged 88: Louisa on 28 January 1889, aged 75.
Faithful unto death, Louisa left her huge fortune to the son of the man she had loved all her life, on condition that he adopted the surname of Ryland. So Charles Alston Smith, born1859 to Henry and Maria Smith, became Charles Alston Ryland-Smith. His grandson, alderman Charles Smith-Ryland, became Chairman of Warwick County Council, and lived in in Barford Hill as squire of Sherbourne, in 1970, and his family are still active in the upper raches of Sherbourne society and business today, viz:
https://www.sherbournepark.com/
What a girl!
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