Rowheath Farm, c. 1900. Held at Birmingham Archive. |
Tour of Kings Norton & Northfield: History of Rowheath Playing Fields & the Pavilion
The Absent City Nᵒ.1: Grosvenor House by Cotton, Ballard & Blow (New Street & Bennetts Hill, 1951-3)
Grosvenor House. A rainy day in June 2012. |
On the west corner of New Street and Bennett's Hill stands Grosvenor House, built in the early 1950s. There are two previous layers known for this site.
'one of Birmingham's earliest post-war buildings, Grosvenor House by Cotton, Ballard & Blow, 1951-3. The first designs of 1949 were plain. Manzoni asked for some improvement in the architectural treatment and the result has rows of sawtooth projections, little pointed iron ballustrades on the corner, and a brise-soleil. Flashy but undeniably effective'. From: Andy Foster, Birmingham, Pevsner Architectural Guide (London: Yale University Press, 2005), p. 111.Grosvenor House replaced Charles Edge's row of shops and offices built in 1843, which were bombed during WWII. These were called the Post Office Buildings because they replaced the original Georgian post office. Although called Post Office Buildings, the post office had moved over the street.
Tour of Kings Norton & Northfield: Middleton Hall and the Manor of Middleton
The area around the Hall, including the Tenants estate, was part of Northfield until the 1920s. The parish of Northfield was anciently divided into several parts; the manors of Northfield and Selly (or Selley), and later Weoley, as well as the sub-manor of Middleton (later Haye and Middleton), and Middleton Hall was the manor house of Middleton. Middleton was the youngest of these sub-manors, with both Northfield and Selly being mentioned in the Domesday Book, but Middleton was formed in the latter part of the twelfth-century. It is thought to have been named after its position half-way between the villages of Northfield and Kings Norton.
Within Middleton were several farms including Rowheath Farm and Hay Green Farm; barns of the former surviving off Selly Oak Road and converted into housing. Middleton Hall itself had a sizeable farm attached called Middleton Hall Farm, which stretched along - what is now - Woodlands Park Road, out along Northfield Road, and down Popes Lane behind the Bunbury Road.
The Sub-Manor of Middleton
Ralph Paynel was the first known holder of Middleton in the late 1100s, and gave 'the land of Middletune and lahaie' to Bernard Paynel. 'lahaie' was later recorded as 'Le Hay', and was probably the Hay Green area.
In the 1200s the owners of Middleton took their name from the lands. John de Middleton was first mentioned in 1273, and the Middleton family held the lands until about the mid-1400s. After this, Middleton passed through the hands of several families.
Throughout the early centuries of Middleton's history there is no mention of a hall, although there would have been some form of manor house on the lands, most likely on the Woodlands Park Road/Bunbury Road site, which was near the roads running between Northfield and Kings Norton. This would have been a prime position to take goods to market, and to move around the rest of the manor.
Middleton Hall
The first known mention of 'Middleton Hall' was as 'Middleton Hall Farm' in 1596, when it was occupied by Henry Cookes. This was probably the timber-framed building which survived until the early 1800s, and was possibly moated, as traces of a moat were discovered during its demolition, but no archaeological survey was conducted so any evidence is now lost.
One hundred years after Cookes, the interior of Middleton Hall is brought to life through an inventory drawn-up after the death of its then occupant, Robert Fox. Fox was described as a 'yeoman', a gentleman farmer, and occupied Middleton Hall from at least 1684 till 1698, although in 1684 he would have been about 50 years old so he, and his wife Barbara, had probably been living there for several decades previously.
Fox's inventory shows that Middleton Hall had six rooms downstairs and five upstairs. Downstairs was a hall, parlour, kitchen, cheese chamber, back house and buttery. The back house had a malt mill, so was used for brewing, and the other rooms are pretty self explanatory. The parlour contained '2 looking-glasses' and the hall a 'brass candlestick' which were expensive items for the time, showing the wealth of the family. The five rooms upstairs all had beds in them, but some would probably have been used for entertaining guests, especially the chamber over the kitchen, which would have been warmer as it had a fire (meaning it had a brick chimney, another expense). This room also contained a 'closet of books', again showing a family of wealth as well as literacy (see Fox's full inventory here).
Middleton Hall probably bore several similarities to Selly Manor, which was moved from its original location in Selly Oak to its present site in Bournville Village between 1914 and 1916. Like Middleton Hall, Selly Manor was originally a manor-house, both were timber-built, and both a similar size, although Middleton Hall was possibly a little larger (although both probably had several additions made to them over the centuries). But the best way to get a sense of what Middleton Hall was like at this time is to visit Selly Manor (visit details here).
In 1789, the occupant of Middleton Hall was William Henshaw, another yeoman running the farm as well as residing in the house. His diary for that year survives, and outlines the maintenance of the farm from winnowing grain and sowing peas, to helping 'Cherry' the cow give birth (other cows were called 'Kurley' and 'Prat'). His story will be added in the farm section, below.
Henshaw's diary suggests that he struggled financially, and in the 1790s Middleton Hall Farm was bought by George Attwood, a wealthy ironmonger, and grandfather of Birmingham's first Member of Parliament, Thomas Attwood (whose statue was at the rear of the Town Hall, presumably to be replaced after the current works are finished). Attwood cared less about farming, and more that the land contained mineral deposits. He still owned the Hall in 1840, which was tenanted out to Robert Thornley.
It was perhaps Attwood, or one of his tenants, who remodelled Middleton Hall sometime in the first half of the nineteenth-century. The historian Leonard Day states that the front was 'encased in brick, which gave the Hall the external appearance of a gentleman's residence in the Victorian style'. Because the old building was beneath, the brick encasement (see below) gives a sense of the shape of the timber-framed Hall.
Click to enlarge. |
The 1911 census noted that the Victorian Middleton Hall had twelve rooms (excluding workrooms, landing, hall, closets and bathrooms), so had been slightly extended from its 1690s predecessor.
The Hall was demolished in 1952.
1880s, click to enlarge. |
1900s, click to enlarge. |
1910s, click to enlarge. |
1930s, click to enlarge. |
1960s, click to enlarge. |
Victorian Photo Album Nᵒ.10: Chaucer's Head Bookshop (New Street, c. 1870s)
Chaucer's Head bookshop at 74 New Street, c. 1870s. Held at Birmingham Archive @ Library of Birmingham. |
See more of the Victorian Photo Album.
Victorian Photo Album Nᵒ.9: Looking Through Windows - Ornaments & Things Inside (Part Four)
Tour of Lost Birmingham Nᵒ.61: A Regency Stay at the Hen and Chickens Hotel (New Street)
The Hen and Chicken's on New Street, with King Edward's school to the right, c. 1808. Coaches would enter the rear stables through the arch. Held by Birmingham Museums. |
Were you at the “Hen and Chickens,” from which I write, however, you would be very well content with your quarters [...] I am surrounded by vases of beautiful flowers, many of them the choice productions of the green house in our rude climate, which ornament and perfume the halls and landings of the staircases, and impart an air bordering on elegance, to the general neatness and comfort of the establishment. The inn at which we are, is said to be the best in this great work-shop of iron and steel [...].*So noted Charles Samuel Stuart, an American visiting England and Ireland in 1832. He did not remain long in Birmingham, he felt it very modern, and the manufactures that made it worthy of visiting made it smokey and noisy. But Stuart did remain long enough to visit some manufactories before he left. He popped to the Pantechnetheca over the street, and up to St. Philip's church to visit the nearby premises of Edward Thomason on Church Street. Find details of his visit here.
as to the noise, never did I sleep at that enormous Hen and Chickens, to which usually my destiny brought me, but I had reason to complain that the discreet hen did not gather her vagrant flock to roost at less favourable hours. Till two or three, I was kept waking by those who were retiring; and about three commenced the morning functions of the porter, or of “boots”, or of “underboots”, who began their rounds for collecting the several freights for the Highflyer, or the Tally-ho, or the Bang-up, to all points of the compass, and too often (as much happen in such immense establishments) blundered into my room with the appalling, “Now, sir, the horses are coming out.” So that rarely, indeed, have I happened to sleep in Birmingham.**
Front elevation and plan of stables for Hen and Chickens, 1836. Birmingham Archive: MS 3069/13/2/66. |
Advert for Wm Waddell's Hen and Chickens, 1830-1835. Engraved by J. Garner from a drawing by Samuel Lines. Held by Birmingham Museums. |
Victorian Photo Album Nᵒ.8: Looking Through Windows - Greenery in the "Slums" (Part Three)
Part three (of three parts) of Looking Through Windows (Greenery). See part one, here and part two, here. Please contact to use these cropped images in this way - mappingbirmingham@gmail.com
During the late Victorian period many of central Birmingham's poorer housing was earmarked for demolition in a drive to revamp the city centre and move those living in these houses out to newer homes in the outer parts of the town. Hundreds of photographs of 'slum housing' (Victorian terminology, not mine) were taken of the many courts of back to back housing in the town. These images were taken was to assert the reasoning for their demolition, that they were run down, so they "frame" the buildings to tell this story. This is only one story, though, as these buildings were filled with families living their lives and beautifying their homes, and if you zoom into the images you can find traces of this.
Paper Remnants Nᵒ.11: Billinge & Edwards Tool Makers on Snow Hill (c. 1810)
Trade card for Billinge & Edwards on Snow Hill, c. 1810. Engraved by Cottrell. Held at Yale Center for British Art. B1978.43.956. |
Object Focus Nᵒ.8: Catherine Hutton's Poem on Love & a Cosy Cottage
Held at Birmingham Archive in the Hutton Collection. |
Tour of Lost Birmingham Nᵒ.60: Turner's Brass Houses (Coleshill Street, c. 1740)
Interior Mr. Turner's Brass Works from R. R. Angerstein's Illustrated Travel Diary, 1753-1755. |
Reinhold Rücker Angerstein was a Swedish metallurgist from a family of iron masters, who extensively travelled Britain's industrial works in the early 1750s, including many in Birmingham and nearby. In 1754 he visited Turner's brass works in Birmingham:
The brass-works [...] belongs to Mr Turner and consists of nine furnaces with three built together in each of three separate buildings. The furnaces are heated with mineral coal, of which 15 tons is used for each furnace, and melting lasting ten hours. Each furnace holds nine pots, 14 inches high and nine inches diameter at the top. Each pot is charged with 41 pounds of copper and 50 pounds of calamine. Mixed with [char]coal. During charging I observed that a handful of coal and calamine was first placed on the bottom of the pot, then came the mixture, which was packed in tightly, followed by about a pound of copper in small pieces, and finally again coal and calamine without copper, covering the top. This procedure was said to lengthen the life of the pot both at the top and the bottom. [...] There are six workers for the nine furnaces and casting takes place twice every 24 hours.*1*
In 1782, William Hutton stated that the 'manufacture of brass was introduced by the family of Turner, about 1740, who erected those works at the south end of Coleshill-street' (see map, below). Although writing in 1783, Hutton first visited Birmingham in the 1740s and moved to the town in 1750, so would have some recollection of the early brass trade. He also said of the works that 'Under the black clouds which arose from this corpulent tunnel, some of the trades collected their daily supply of brass'.*2* Those 'black clouds' can be seen rising from the chimney's of Turner's 'Brass Works' on the 1753 East Prospect of Birmingham:
St. Bartholomew's Chapel and smoking chimneys of the brass works, from the East Prospect of Birmingham (1753). |
Section of the 1751 Map of Birmingham showing Coleshill Street and Turner's Brass House. |
The 'Mr Turner' noted by Angerstein was Thomas Turner.*4* It is possible that Thomas had made buckles before opening his brass-making works on Coleshill Street, as there was definitely a buckle maker called Thomas Turner working in Birmingham in the 1730s.*5*
Victorian Photo Album Nᵒ.7: Looking Through Windows - Greenery in the "Slums" (Part Two)
Part two (of three parts) of Looking Through Windows (Greenery). See part one, here. Please contact to use these cropped images in this way - mappingbirmingham@gmail.com
During the late Victorian period many of central Birmingham's poorer housing was earmarked for demolition in a drive to revamp the city centre and move those living in these houses out to newer homes in the outer parts of the town. Hundreds of photographs of 'slum housing' (Victorian terminology, not mine) were taken of the many courts of back to back housing in the town. These images were taken was to assert the reasoning for their demolition, that they were run down, so they "frame" the buildings to tell this story. This is only one story, though, as these buildings were filled with families living their lives and beautifying their homes, and if you zoom into the images you can find traces of this.Tour of Lost Birmingham Nᵒ.59: St. Martin's Parsonage (Smallbrook Street)
St. Martin's Parsonage, from a drawing by David Cox and engraved by William Radcliffe, published 25 March 1827. Hand coloured later. |
St. Martin's Parsonage was demolished in 1826. The image above was drawn in about 1825 or 1826 by David Cox, and the original drawing is held by Birmingham Museums (see here). The Parsonage housed a long line of the rectors of St. Martin's, and stood a little distance from the church, up Edgbaston Street and at the base of Smallbrook Street.
It was described in 1830, not long after its demolition, as an 'ancient, half-timbered edifice, coated with plaster' and that the 'entrance was through a wicket in the large doors of a long range of low building[s] next to the street'. The building had originally been encircled by a moat, as seen in snippets from the 1731 map of Birmingham below, but only dried-up parts of the moat remained when it was demolished despite the engraving including the moat filled with water.*1* An Act of Parliament was required for its demolition and acquired in 1825, which described the building as 'a most ancient and inconvenient building' which was 'very ill-suited for the residence of the rector'.*2* Parts of it were very ancient indeed.
Snippet from 1731 map showing St. Martin's church and parsonage. |
Snippet from Bernard Sleigh's version of the 1731 map showing St. Martin's church and parsonage. |
Close-up of the Parsonage from Bernard Sleigh's version of the 1731 map. |
Charlotte Brontë's copy of the 1827 engraving, c. 1832. Private collection. |
Victorian Photo Album Nᵒ.6: Looking Through Windows - Greenery in the "Slums" (Part One)
Original full photograph of 'slum housing', back of 52 & 54 Midland Street, late 1800s. |
Paper Remnants Nᵒ.10: G. Hougton & Son "Foremost High Class Gent's Hosier's" (New Street, 1899)
G. Houghton & Son on Birmingham's New Street, 1899. Printed by W. B. Hill & Co. |
Victorian Photo Album Nᵒ.5: Monumental Encounters - Framing the Theatre Royal (New Street from Bennetts Hill)
Demolition of the Theatre Royal in 1901. Held at Birmingham Archive. |
Towns have always been gathering points, and anciently the market was a primary draw, as well as other trade opportunities in manufacturing towns like Birmingham. Throughout the eighteenth century, though, the make-up of provincial towns, both architecturally and socially, was changing. Peter Borsay describes an ‘architectural renaissance’ beginning in the late 1600s and early 1700s, with provincial towns beginning ‘to appear visually more attractive and sophisticated’.[1] This occurred along with an increase in social activities as leisure became more in demand in the towns.[2] Wealthier residents and successful businessmen, with more free time, encouraged the building of increasing number of spaces within towns to be used for pleasure and entertainment, and these sites became focal points of the town. In Birmingham these included St. Philip’s with its elegant promenades and later the music festival, assembly rooms and later, in the early 1830s, the Town Hall.
One of Birmingham's most important buildings for its social life and entertainment was the Theatre on New Street, opened in 1774 (later patronised and called the Theatre Royal). The facade was built in 1780 by the renowned architect Samuel Wyatt and was described by one as ‘one of the handsomest theatre's anywhere’.*
The theatre, later the Theatre Royal on New Street. Image possibly from about 1800. |
When it was built the Theatre stood opposite the other side of New Street, a row of unassuming houses including the Georgian Post Office and its yard. In the early 1820s, though, the site behind the Post Office was redeveloped and two new streets were made, Waterloo Street and Bennetts Hill (see here). Bennett's Hill was deliberately designed to create a frame for the the admired Theatre Royal, and that "frame" is still visible as the theatre was being demolished in the photograph, although the Georgian Theatre Royal itself was very soon to be gone. A new Theatre Royal was to be built, which Bennetts Hill framed for a short time, and now that has been demolished too.
Framing tells us where to look. It takes a section of something, like the urban landscape, and singles it out for particular contemplation, and this is evident in the case of New Street's theatre. One commentator regretted, in 1830, that the theatre had not been built further back from the other buildings on the street to further enhance its prospect, but he cheerfully noted that it could be seen with full effect from the road called Bennett’s Hill which faced it.*
------------
NOTES
[1], [2] Peter Borsay, The English Urban Renaissance
[*] Other and full references on request.
~ The building on the right of the photograph is the Bennett's Hill face of the Post Office Building (never actually a post office but replacing the Georgian cottage post office, hence the name) designed by Charles Edge, and erected in 1842.
Victorian Photo Album Nᵒ.4: The Old Farrier's Arms (Lichfield Street)
Old Farrier's Arms, c. 1880s or 1890s. Held by Birmingham Archive - WK/B11/1264. |
The Old Farrier's Arms was a public house on Lichfield Street, a street which was removed as part of the Corporation Street development, completed in 1903. The buildings were constructed in the eighteenth century, and the pub probably opened in the 1840s.