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| Rowheath Farm, c. 1900. Held at Birmingham Archive. |
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| Rowheath Farm with the barns behind, 1913, when purchased by BVT. Held at Birmingham Archive. |
Rowheath Farm was situated at the top of where Oak Farm Road is now, opposite Franklin Road. Part of its barn survives, is grade II listed, and is converted into residential properties.
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| The barns at Rowheath Farm, c. 1966. Held at Birmingham Archive. |
The farm was originally part of the parish of Northfield rather than Kings Norton, until parish borders changed in about the 1920s.
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| Worcester Journal, 18 October 1810. |
In 1810 the tenant was Robert Cotterell, whose tenancy ran out in 1813 (newspaper clipping, above). From at least 1841 (and possibly 1820)* the farm was run by the Grigg family, passing through three generations, the last generation retiring in 1918.** Bill Dargue states that the name Rowheath came from the ancient word ruh meaning rough or uncultivated, making it better land for grazing, and the farm seems to have predominantly been run as a dairy farm.
Before the last Grigg farmer retired the farm, then 130 acres, was purchased on 29 October 1913 for £13,000 by Bournville Village Trust and the Cadbury Firm for development into new recreation grounds which opened in 1924.*3*
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| The shape of Rowheath Farm purchased by BVT in 1913. From the Bournville Works Magazine. |
By the 1930s the farmhouse was used as the groundsman's house for the Rowheath Pavilion Grounds which then included several cricket pitches, 30+ tennis courts, rugby and football pitches, and bowling, croquet and putting greens (map below).
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| Click on the map to enlarge. |
See more on the Pavilion once it was developed, here.
NOTES
Please feel free to share any of the images used here, but it would be appreciated if a link to the site was provided with them.
* Samuel Grigg, Farmer, Row-Heath, in: Bentley's Directory of Worcestershire, 2 vols (1842), II; The land of the farm was originally owned by the Moore family and Samuel Grigg can be found in rate books as 'occupier' from 1848 to 1864: Ancestry.com. Birmingham, England, Rate Books, 1831-1913 [database on-line]. Samuel Grigg's younger children were born in Dudley, but his youngest child was baptised in Northfield early in 1820, so the family moved to Northfield but it is uncertain if they moved to Rowheath Farm.
** Information from the Grigg family is taken from Ancestry.com. The Grigg family appear on censuses from 1841-1911. William Grigg advertised the farm stock and surplus farmhouse furniture for sale, stating that he was 'retiring from farming' in: Birmingham Daily Post, 1 March 1918.
*3* Sale recorded in: Birmingham Daily Gazette, 30 October 1913; Bournville Works Magazine (1913).
- MS 3375/1/1/233