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Lyndhurst School Holly Lane Erdington

Lady Penelope

Lady Penelope

master brummie
Details of this property came from my neighbour - it's opposite our doctors and we've both been watching the development with interest.
The reason for posting is that I always thought it was the manse to the church on the corner but apparently not. I've only been able to do a print screen shot and I'm sure the developers won't mind me putting it on here. According to the blurb it was built by Josiah Mason at the beginning of the 20th century. I always thought Lyndhurst School was in Shortheath Road but it may have moved there. Also, I could be wrong. Does anyone have any ideas about this please?

This unique development was previously a building of historical interest. Lyndhurst School for Girls, built by Sir Josiah Mason in the early 1900s, it is now being transformed by Fanore Property Development with a light touch into a luxury retirement development of twelve one and two bedroom apartments.

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Thanks LadyP. Well there was certainly a Lyndhurst School in Holly Lane during 1914 and 1915. Need to find out if it was the building under renovation. Does anyone know the precise address please ? Viv.

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Morturn said:
I am sure there was a girl’s school entrance right in the corner of Holly Lane and Sutton Road on the site of Norwood House. That section of Holly Lane may have once been called Mason Lane.
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It is marked on a 1915 map as Mason Lane and on that map the property does not exist. I assume it was surveyed in 1914 before the house was built.
 
I’ve now traced the school via newspaper adverts being at the Holly Lane address through to September 1918. Each start to the new term was regularly advertised. I’ve found nothing yet after 1918. Viv.
 
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It was announced that the School was in new buildings in Holly Lane in January 1914. The advert seems to suggest it was somewhere else before this. If so the name Lyndhurst School was used before it moved to Holly Lane. Viv.5FD10AC8-F9A7-42F6-B817-BC3A7A2E9FA7.jpeg
 
Agree, shall see if I can find anything in newspapers. They already had the name Lyndhurst when they moved to Holly Lane, so there’s a good possibility the Sutton Road house was the school with the school taking its name from that house. Viv.
 
I think that's the case Viv. Well done Janice! tpos posted on the Sutton Road thread with a lot of information. I believe the houses along Sutton Road were built several years before the Holly Lane property.

Sutton Road Erdington

Edit. There’s now a specific thread about the Sutton Road large houses and their residents here https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/sutton-road-erdington-houses-and-their-residents.53246/ This thread deals with Sutton Road in general. Does anyone have any old photos of the...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk

Much of the land around here was owned by Josiah Mason so I expect he owned the Lyndhurst estate land too. We paid our ground rent to the Josiah Mason's trust before we bought the freehold and we live the opposite side of the Lyndhurst Estate to Holly Lane.
 
On the 1915 map the house labelled as Lyndhurst on the map in post #8 is a house called Norlands. Having said that - the footprint looks the same so it might just have been a name change. In the 1913 directory it is the Norlands but by 1915 it is Holly Mount - so just a name change.
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1913 directory lists
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Returning to the building in post #1 again. The blurb accompanying the house development says it was built by Josiah Mason in the 1900s. Impossible. Josiah died in 1881. The house definitively looks to be the early part of the 1900s or at least not as far back as pre-1880s. Maybe the ref to Josiah Mason meant the estate of JM ?

Having said that, there’s nothing to say it wasn’t a girls’ school for a while. We know the Lyndhurst School moved to newly built premises in Holly Lane around 1914, and the style of the house seems to me to fit with that. The school was there until at least 1918.

I wondered, given the house looks like a domestic premises whether one of the named teachers (eg Jordan and/or Coombs) owned it in 1914 ? They were both at Orchard Road in 1913. Viv.
 

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So what is special about it. ? Personally I wou;ld not hav esaid it had a special value over other houses. Not associated with Mason, not particularly old and, though pleasant looking, nothing special. That said, better than most modern buildings
 
So according to the Mail article: "It was originally constructed as a private playschool for girls, by the Josiah Mason trust”.Maybe that’s where the confusion lies. And as Janice points out, I t was built by the JM Trust - but not built by him.

It was definitely a school with presumably Coombs and Jordan and their school being the first occupants.

Viv.
 
Is there a record of Miss Jordon and Miss Coombs living at Orchard Road Erdington please ? This would be 1913 and before that date. If so is there any indication of a school at that address ? Just wondering if that’s where “Lyndhurst School” (or predecessor by another name) started off ? Thanks Viv.
 
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Thanks Mike and Janice. That confirms they had a school already up and running in Orchard Road directly before moving to Holly Lane. It also confirms they had no obvious connection with the other addresses such as “ Lyndhurst” or “Norlands” on Sutton Road (other than using the name Lyndhurst in the school name).

Viv.
 
Sorry Janice, I’d forgotten about your clip tucked in under the map in post #21. Couldn’t remember where I got it into my head about Orchard Rd ! It was obviously your directory extract. Although it didn’t tell us about the school, which helped when Mike posted too. So thanks both. Viv.
 
Edit - some text from this post now placed on the Sutton Road: houses and residents thread

Warning - note of cynicism coming. I'm sure it's more of a selling point for the property on the original post that Sir Josiah Mason built it rather than the trust.
 
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Lady Penelope said:
Warning - note of cynicism coming. I'm sure it's more of a selling point for the property on the original post that Sir Josiah Mason built it rather than the trust.
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Exactly, and I note that in Janice's link in post 39 some councillor was using his influence (not that any politician's opinion would influence me) to try and push the scheme. Councillors should always be very careful about supporting schemes and check the truth of any arguments, especially if made by estate agents or developers,
 
Kelly's 1907 Directory cites William E Clarke at 52 Orchard Road. No sign of the 2 Misses. Meanwhile there was Miss Sarah Spiking's preparatory school listed at 9 Holly Lane.
 
In 1913, a year before Miss Jordan and Miss Coombs moved to Holly Lane, this section of the Lane (as Morturn pointed out in post #5) was named Mason Lane. (The northern section that today goes from Sutton Road to Orphanage Road intersection). Thereafter it was Holly Lane). Perhaps this was an earlier recognition of the work of Josiah Mason in Erdington.

I’ve pieced together two 1913 maps to show Mason Lane. My guess is the house was built somewhere near to the label “Mason Lane” (red dots). This area seems to have been very active around that time. The church next door was relocated here in 1913 from another part of Erdington (it was subsequently rebuilt in the 1930s). It’s clear there was a lot going on
here just before the outbreak of WW1, including the setting up of Lyndhurst School on this site in 1914. The road name must have changed around that time to Holly Lane, to join it up with the existing Holly Lane to the south.

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The original (school) house is still there at 52 Orchard Road ( assuming house numbering is still the same). It’s a fairly typical Victorian house. But if the school was expanding, I can see why Miss Jordan and Miss Coombs needed larger premises, particularly if they had boarding pupils. Viv.
 
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