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Newspapers : From Birmingham Post 150 years ago

Interesting reading, quite sad as well do we have any pictures of Duddeston Hall I wonder.
 
Wendy said:
Interesting reading, quite sad as well do we have any pictures of Duddeston Hall I wonder.
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i was thinking that wend but most unlikely to find any photos taken then. but we maybe lucky in finding a drawing of duddeston hall

lyn
 
Lyn that's why I said pictures, hopefully there may be a drawing, painting or etching fingers crossed.
 
Wendy said:
Lyn that's why I said pictures, hopefully there may be a drawing, painting or etching fingers crossed.
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This is all I could find...




Vauxhall and Duddeston

(From: The Vauxhall Society)

In 1783 Duddeston could boast about 80 homes, and the area was being rapidly built up. Following the 1791 Birmingham Riot, when the military had to travel from Lichfield, military barracks were erected near the Vauxhall Gardens. They consisting of handsome buildings, cavalry exercise area, parade grounds and a hospital. By 1795 a further 311 homes had been built. Soon urban sprawl from neighbouring districts linked up with the Duddeston/Vauxhall area

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Vauxhall Gardens, Birmingham

Vauxhall Gardens lay in an area which, at that time, was just outside Birmingham, called Duddeston. Dudda' s tun means Dudda' s homestead but it is not known who Dudda was. In 963AD a charter was granted to one Wulfget the Thane by Eadgar, King of the Angles, Nothing is known during the next 200 years.

The family seat of the prominent and wealthy Holte family was at Duddeston Hall. The name Holte is also Saxon and the family probably lived in the area before the Conquest but the earliest record is of Henry in the 13th Century. He must have been a wealthy man as his son Hugh married Maud daughter of Sir Henry de Erdington. Maud is known to have been living in the area in 1327 with her son John and his son Simon. Simon purchased the manor of Nechells. Simon's grandson John purchased the manor of Duddeston from his maternal grandfather in 1365. Two years later his mother bestowed on John, by charter, 'the fair manor of Aston' and so by 1400 the family owned at least 500 acres of land in Duddeston and Nechells as well as the area of Aston and they lived in a manor house in Duddeston. Five generations later Thomas Holte was appointed Chief Justice of Wales and also commissioner for the dissolution of religious Houses by Henry VIII. Thomas died in 1546 and an inventory of his possessions at Duddeston manor house gives an indication of his wealth.

The manor house stood on the left bank of the river Rea (pronounced ray). Thomas's grandson, also Thomas was knighted in 1603 by James I. Thomas was given a baronetsy for supplying the King with a small army for the Defence of Ireland, "especially for the security of the province of Ulster". Thomas later built Aston Hall (it still stands opposite Aston Villa football ground) but the family still used Duddeston Manor. It is known that Thomas's grandson's widow Ann was living there in 1725 and presumably lived there until her death in 1738.

In 1746 an advertisement appeared in Aris' s gazette for a cock fight at Duddeston Hall. These adverts appeared regularly and the name Vauxhall appeared gradually. There is no record of the old manor house being demolished and in 1758 an advert appeared. "Duddeston Hall, commonly called Vauxhall, near Birmingham in Warwickshire, is now fitted up in a neat and commodious manner for the reception of travellers….." It was quite common in the Georgian period for mediaeval houses to be built around and it would appear that this is what happened to Duddeston Manor. Advertisements for various functions continued to appear in Aris's Gazette. In 1751 the following appeared: "To be lett and entered upon immediately, Duddeston Hall commonly called Vaux Hall, near Birmingham, in the county of Warwickshire being a large and commodious house, with necessary out buildings, and a large bowling green. It lies within half a mile of Birmingham and greatly resorted to by the inhabitants thereof, as well as from other places, being used in the publick way, and in the summer season is a concert every other week. There is a closed cock-pit. The place is well known to most travellers…. " An old book of 1766 refers "near Birmingham there is a seat belonging to Sir Lister Holte, Bart, but now let out for a public house where there are gardens etc. with an organ and other music, in imitation of Vauxhall, by which name it goes in the neighbourhood".

There are many references to events at the gardens, with fireworks and military bands. Well known singers appeared there and balloon flights took place there. One man used to throw his dog over the side wearing a parachute! By 1837 Drake's 'Picture of Birmingham' says "Vauxhall. At the extreme east of the town, …. stand the house and grounds bearing the above appellation - once a favourite resort but now deserted as unfashionable….. There is an air of elderly respectability about the place. Etc"

On 16th September 1850 a farewell dinner was held to mark the closing of the Gardens followed by a Ball. When the Ball ended at 6a.m. the next morning, the first blow of the axe was stuck to the trees. It seems to me a great pity that the gardens were not kept as a park among the rows of houses that were built soon afterwards.
The Holte family baronetsy died out as there were no male heirs. The estate passed to the daughter of the last baronet, Sir Charles. Her husband used the estates as security but his business failed and the estates were sold to pay his debts.
In 1783 Duddeston could boast about 80 homes, and the area was being rapidly built up. Following the 1791 Birmingham Riot, when the military had to travel from Lichfield, military barracks were erected near the Vauxhall Gardens. They consisting of handsome buildings, cavalry exercise area, parade grounds and a hospital. By 1795 a further 311 homes had been built. Soon urban sprawl from neighbouring districts linked up with the Duddeston/Vauxhall area.

The first railway to Birmingham was the Grand Junction Railway. Its Birmingham terminus was to be Curzon Street but a viaduct was still under construction so the company built a temporary terminus at Vauxhall. On July 9 1837 an experimental train of six coaches and 36 passengers made the journey from Liverpool to Birmingham Vauxhall. So Birmingham Vauxhall had a railway station a year earlier than London Vauxhall (The Nine Elms terminus of the London and Southampton Railway was opened in 1838). The Birmingham station is still standing today 165 years later.

In 1932 the barracks which covered five and a half acres were pulled down by Birmingham Corporation to provide 180 massonettes which are still there. The area suffered from a lot of bomb damage during World War 2 due to its proximity to large railway sidings, gas works and factories. The area was rebuilt again in the 1960's and a school was built on the opposite side of the road to the site of the gardens. The school was named Vauxhall Gardens but closed due to falling numbers.

With grateful thanks to Val Preece for writing this article and to Eric at the Heartlands History Society.
 
Dennis that is a very interesting article the Heartlands History society have done some brilliant work. The hall seems to change names with Vauxall and Duddeston still the name of the station in the area. I wonder when it changed to an asylum as many of these large properties did.
 
If I remember correctly Duddeston Hall became a mental hospital for a short while and then it became St Annes School.
 

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Phil said:
If I remember correctly Duddeston Hall became a mental hospital for a short while and then it became St Annes School.
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Yes, and this is Phylis Nicklin's photo of same in 1960....and Billy Dargue does a nice piece on Duddeston and Vauxhall on his magnificent site....

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Lyn, I think that Duddeston Hall & Duddeston House are the same building, it only became known as Duddeston House after the Holte's had Aston Manor built and moved there. Of course I could be wrong, but Phylis Nicklins and D.J Norton both describe the building as Duddeston Hall on their original photos.
 
There seems to be a number of references stating that the Duddeston Hall that the Holte family lived in was demolished in the late 18th century and that the building that later became called Duddeston Hall, also Duddeston House, was a different building. However a number of other references do not mention any demolition, or, on occasion seem to say that the two halls were the same. I'm a bit confused.
 
im confused as well mike (dont take much) if you look at the bill dargue site hes says that duddeston hall was the medieval moated house of the holte family before they moved to aston hall in 1631...the hall was demolished in 1871..thats all i know mike...

lyn
 
It's all very confusing as there are so many different stories each with a little difference. In my opinion is that there is little doubt that Duddeston Hall & Duddeston House are one and the same. All the authorities agree that it was on the banks od the River Rea in Duddeston. Well this describes the house in the photo. As for it being demolished, well it was never completely demolished just great chunks of it flattened and many alterations over the year. There was a local mill & house that stood on Duddeston Mill Rd that was demolished, perhaps this led to the rumours of demolition.

I'll add to the confusion a bit more, this old map refers to it as Duddeston House, yet this advert calls it Duddeston Hall, mind you the advert calls the Rea the Tame so I wouldn't puy a lot of stock into what it says. So it shows that back then they were getting it mixed up as well.
 

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Thanks for posting that Phil. That area along with the house and gardens must have been a wonderful place.
 
18.9.1863
Never heard of a complaint about a decrease in the (equivalent of) council rates before !
This seems a bit strange. Surprised the conductor wasn't thrown from his perch.

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mikejee said:
The University college archives list a print of Duddeston hall and a watercolour (1825) of dudson house (https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo=="GALTON/1/1/9/1/1") ). The separate names and listing implies to me that they were different places. Not sure what the duddeston House was in this case. Unfortunately these are not online
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Thanks Mike, I wrote to Carl asking, as a University Professor, if he could beg, borrow or wangle a copy of that watercolour mentioned in the Galton book you researched....and this was his edited reply...he did say he was under pressure by the way...

[FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]From: Carl Chinn <carl@brummagem.fsnet.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 13:10:13 +0100
Subject: RE: Duddeston Hall...

Hello Dennis

Now there was a Duddeston Hall home of the Galtons and then there was also the original mansion of the Holtes in Duddeston – which can lead to confusion.

Below is an entry from my book The Streets of Brum. Part 2 that may be of help. Feel free to quote from it (Brewin Books is the publisher).
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Any road up, I hope this helps.

All the best

Carl
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[/FONT]Farmer Street

[FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial][/FONT]Later renamed Sand Street, Farmer Street was a short street linking Whittall Street and Weaman Street in the Gun Quarter. The lower part of the modern Printing House Street, as it turns on a right angle and enters Whittall Street, is close to the former Sand Street. Printing House Street was cut out in the 1960s and refers to the Post and Mail Building and its printing machines in Weaman Street. Farmer Street itself recalled a Joseph and James Farmer. Joseph was mentioned in 1701 in the local records of The Society of Friends (Quakers) and a year later he was based at a shop on the corner of Bull Street and the Minories. An ironworker, he became a gunsmith and from his marriage in 1711 to Sarah Abrahams of Bromsgrove until 1735 he lived in The Square (see Old Square). Newly-laid out, this was the most fashionable address in the town and it drew to it a number of wealthy Quakers because of the proximity of their Meeting House in Bull Street.
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[/FONT]After leaving The Square, Joseph moved to a part of Steelhouse Lane then called Whitehall’s Lane, where he lived in what was known as Farmer and Galton’s House and which became Galton’s Bank. Dying in 1741, he was succeeded by a son, James, and a daughter, Mary. James went to London in the late 1740s but was beset with major financial problems in 1755. In the ensuing years, he recovered his position and regained his prosperity. He returned to Birmingham a decade later to live in a mansion on the country lane to Halesowen, later to become Broad Street. This house was called Bingley House, its name harking back to the Binges – fields mentioned in The Letters Patent of the Free Grammar School of Edward VI in 1552. A mansion had stood on this site since at least the sixteenth century and it had been home to some of the leading families of Birmingham such as the Shiltons and Fenthams (see Fentham Road). Farmer’s Bridge over the nearby canal brings to mind James Farmer who died in 1773. The next year his only child, Mary, married Charles Lloyd, one of the Quaker Lloyds who had come to Birmingham from Wales (see Sampson Road). Then involved as ironmasters in Edgbaston Street, the Lloyds went on to co-found Taylor and Lloyd’s Bank. Mary and Charles lived at Bingley House after the death of her mother in 1796. Their eldest child, Charles, became known as ‘poet Lloyd’ and was a friend of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey and Lamb.
[FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]
[/FONT]Joseph Farmer’s other child, Mary, married Samuel Galton from Somerset in 1748. The betrothal caused problems, for Mary had been courting another Quaker, Joseph White, who was reluctant to give up Mary. After an investigation by a respected Friend, Henry Bradford (see Bradford Street), it was revealed that White had kept Mary’s letters at the same time as he had contrived to get back his to her. This ‘bad behaviour’ enabled the marriage of Mary and Galton. It seems that Galton had been associated with the Farmer’s gunmaking business for a number of years and that he became a partner of James, later taking over the concern. In 1777, after living in Farmer’s old home in Steelhouse Lane, the Galtons moved to Duddeston, where Joseph and later James Farmer had rented land from Sir Lister Holte. Samuel took out a 99-year lease from Sir Charles Holte, Sir Lister’s younger brother, so enlarging the old Farmer estate and upon which he had built a mansion. Years later his great-great granddaughter, Mary Anne Galton (Mrs Schimmelpenninck) described the setting of the house. It had a pond ‘or rather the lake, since the stream on which Birmingham stands runs through it. This lake occupied four or five acres and was of considerable length. It was truly beautiful, its borders indented, and clothed with the finest willows and poplars I have ever saw. The stillness was delightful, interrupted only by some sparkling leaping fish, or the swallow skimming in circles over the water, the hissing of the swans from their two woody islets, or the cries of the wild fowl from the far off sedges and bulrushes.
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[/FONT]Samuel the elder died at Duddeston in 1799 and left a fortune of £200,000.
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[/FONT]He and Mary had eight children but only one, another Samuel, survived. Educated at the Warrington Academy, where Joseph Priestley was a professor (see Priestley Road) Samuel inherited the gunmaking firm of Farmer and Galton. This led to difficulties with the Society of Friends. Staunchly pacifist, the Friends were against the production of weapons and in 1796, after a several years of agitation, Samuel was disowned as a member by the Society. He ignored this action and continued to attend meetings until his death in 1832. Samuel was married to Lucy Barclay of the great London banking family and it may be that this connection encouraged him to join Paul Moon James, who was married to a daughter of Charles and Mary Lloyd, in founding the successful bank of Galton and James. This venture ended in 1831 when James joined the newly-formed Birmingham Banking Company.
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[/FONT]Later living at Great Barr Hall (to become Saint Margaret’s Hospital) which was leased from Sir Joseph Scott, Samuel Galton the younger was an influential person. Deeply interested in science, he was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the Lunar Society. In particular, he was friends with Dr Joseph Priestley and Erasmus Darwin. Samuel and Lucy had seven children. The oldest was Samuel Tertius Galton. He married Frances Violetta, a daughter of Erasmus Darwin, and was the father of Francis Galton, who was born in Birmingham. Later knighted, Francis was a scientist and explorer who travelled widely in Africa and who is best remembered for his studies examining the connection between heredity and intelligence, which led to the field of study of eugenics. Another son, Hubert, inherited the Warley Hall Estate which Samuel had bought in 1792. This passed to Hubert’s only child, Mary Galton, who left much of it to her cousins, Leonard and Major Hubert Galton. They sold most of the land for development, and Galton Road and Barclay Road stillrecall the family. Closer to Smethwick town centre and by the Birmingham Canal, Galton Valley, Galton Bridge and Galton Street emphasise the involvement of then Galtons with the Birmingham Canal Navigation Company. In Birmingham, the Galtons were remembered in the short Galton Street in Vauxhall, not far from their mansion at Duddeston, and in Scott Street, probably relating to the Scotts from whom the Galtons leased Great Barr Hall. Both roads disappeared in the post-war redevelopment of Birmingham. Confusingly known as Duddeston Hall and Dodson House, the Galton’s home passed through a number of hands in the mid-nineteenth century, before becoming Saint Anne’s School in 1868. It was knocked down in 1972.
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That's useful Dennis. From his comments it looks like Carl thinks the two Duddeston Halls were separate entities, though they could, have course, been near enough on the same site.
 
19.9.1863
So King was preceded by the original, slightly smaller, version.
As the paper says, it is like a theatre farce.

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Like the word 'beadledom' (officious, excessive red-tape etc). Seems to have gone out of use, but how very useful that word could be today. Viv.
 
23.9.1863
Could this have been an actor looking for a Broadsword teacher, or is Broadsword the name for something other than a type of sword?
Must have been a sight, taken to the police station in a wheelbarrow.
Sounds like a Jules Verne idea. Of course steam carriages already ran on a metal syrface, it was called a train.

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24.9.1863
Incorrect coat of arms.
The sparrow & blackbird will be pretty lonely, if not eaten by some predator .

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25.9.1863
I know pubs were often used for inquests, but it seems a bit stiff if a condition of getting a licence was to have a room available to keep a body.
Description from a report of the Birmingham Onion Fair.
Seems a peculiar practice when making an order. I would be very suspicious.
Ouch. A bit harsh to say the least.
But now the French want to ban veils completely !

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mikejee said:
24.9.1863
Incorrect coat of arms.
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The old gatehouse at Winson Green Prison had an incorrect version of the City coat of Arms but this is now obscured (if it still stands) by the new gate house. If you wish to see another incorrect version of the coat of arms go into the back room of the Old Joint Stock pub into what was the managers office and the the etching in the window.
 
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