A bit about Botteville Road
Botteville Road is named after Thomas Herrivel Bott, a builder
who lived for a while on Warwick Road. He had moved to Stechford
by 1866, where he was listed as a 'Gentleman'. He lived until
c. 1904 at Russell House, Frederick Road. Bott was involved in
the building of many fine houses in Acocks Green in the decades
following the arrival of the railway in 1852. Later on he had
time to indulge in other interests. For example, in 1882 he had
published a 173-page book telling the story of Robinson Crusoe
in verse!
The information below is provisional, as it is based on maps,
voters' lists and directories, rather than deeds. Any additional
refinement of dating would be welcome.
Botteville Road itself did not exist in 1847 at the time of
the Tithe Map. However its eventual line is shown by a path.
Extract from the Tithe Map, 1847
Field number 1230 was called Foot Road Piece, appropriate considering
the path through the field, and number 1231 was called Four Acres.
Both fields were owned and farmed by John Horton, who owned much
of the area up to Fox Hollies Road south of Well Lane (Westley
Road) and north of March Lane (Greenwood Road, later Olton Boulevard
East). The road opposite the beginning of the path is Doge Lane
(Hazelwood Road).
John Horton's lands came up for sale in May 1875. Land partly
built on and formerly owned by Benjamin Cook, who had died by
this time, was also sold at the same auction. The sale catalogue
map shows what had been built on Botteville Road by 1875.
Extract from sale catalogue map, 6th May 1875
All the lots bore the ground rent date of 29th September 1859,
so that is the earliest potential date for any of the buildings.
However, it is not easy to prove that any of the buildings were
that early. In fact the Methodist chapel/schoolroom is the earliest
example we have so far, and that is not on the road itself. It
opened in 1863, and is still there, as the right-hand part of
the church on Shirley Road. Directories indicate that numbers
12 (Berne Cottage) and 14 (Alton Cottage) may have been occupied
in 1868. Numbers 4 (Cambridge Villa/?Ross Villa), 6 (Gloucester
Villa/Medina Villa/Washington Villa), 8 (Rose Villa), and 10 (Haldon
Villa/Oxford Villa) were definitely there in 1872. All these could,
of course, be earlier. The large house which became the British
Legion Club c. 1930 (Beaconsfield/Chalfont) was obviously there
in 1875, but is shown as part of the plot including houses on
Victoria Road. On the south side of the road the house shown is
number 7 (Poplars).
The First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1888 shows an additional
structure and grounds to the east of Beaconsfield. The building
itself was incorporated into the British Legion club when it was
substantially extended in the 1960s. On the other side of the
road, number 1 (Wesley House/Bradenshope) dates from around 1883.
It was bought by the Methodist church in 1895 as a manse, and
was demolished in 1933 for a new school and institute, as was
number 5 (Ellerslie), dating from around 1883 as well. Number
9 (Glenisla) dates from 1888 at the latest. Numbers 11 and 13
(Claremont Villas) date from around 1880. Numbers 19 (Elms), 21
(Ferndale) and 23 (Hollies) also date from around 1883, as do
number 25 (Cedars) and 27 (Woodlands).
Extract from the 1888 map
The 1904 Ordnance Survey shows no new buildings on the north
side of the road, but a pair on the south side. These are numbers
15 (Greenwood) and 17 (Lyndale). They date from c. 1903. The absence
of garden details makes the 1904 map a little easier to interpret.
Around 1905 a pair of houses was built to the east of Beaconsfield/Chalfont,
numbers 20 (Caversham) and 22 (Westwood House). These occupied
the grounds of the long, narrow building shown on the 1888 map.
Extract from the 1904 map
A postcard of Botteville road, showing Beaconsfield,
c. 1905
After World War One one major change was the replacement of
the large house on the corner of Victoria Road, whose grounds
stretched up into Botteville Road. This was known for most of
its life as Kingsmead Lodge (Thornlea was another name used at
the end of the nineteenth century). Dares semis and one detached,
were built there, producing numbers 34 - 40, and number 42. Planning permission
was granted in July 1934 (and also for other sites at Kilmorie Road and Lulworth
Road). The houses
were erected by 1935/6.
At the other end of the road, the Methodist church was becoming
heavily and successfully involved in social activities and serving
the needs of the new council estates. In the mid-1920s it wanted
to buy the freehold of the church and the manse, with a view to
extension, but discovered that these could not be purchased separately
from others on Botteville Road and Shirley Road. The block freeholds
were finally bought in July 1932. A year later a new school and
institute replaced the manse and the old number 5 (the new manse
was to be at 5 Sherbourne Road). There were three large classrooms
on the ground floor with cloakroom and kitchen, and a large hall
with stage upstairs. No less than 650 children were registered
for Sunday school in June 1934, and there were 85 teachers!
During the war, however, the church began to rent out the new
buildings, so there was only a brief period when they were able
to use the rooms entirely for themselves. Around 1943 the Ministry
of Labour and National Service (women's department) moved in,
and in 1946/7 Birmingham Council of Social Service joined them.
The Ministry of Labour had gone by 1953, but the Birmingham Council
of Social Service stayed on. In the late 1960s proceeds from the
sale of the church's sports club in Hazelwood Road were invested
in the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, but this proved worthless,
and the loss of so much annual interest income meant the school
premises had to be re-let to the City. As a result the church
itself had to be divided to form a hall and kitchen at one end,
and a space for worship with chairs not pews at the other. Margaret
P. Bryan's excellent book:
A church's story (1986), details
these and many other fascinating activities of the church. Sheila
Chisholm remembers her family using a way through the back gardens
to go down to the church, when she was a young child in the 1950s.
In the 1938 and 1939 directories, Jack Cooper's Botteville
School of Dancing was listed at number 9, but after that it moved
to 60 Shirley Road.
Mike Wood recalls:
Botteville Road Institute served at one time as an annexe to Acocks Green Junior
School, and I attended there for one year in 1959/60. Only two classes of our
second year were based there in what seemed to us an underused enormous
cavernous place. The teachers were Mr Worrall and Miss James. The site caretaker
was a Mr Hammersley, whose children Royston, Julie and Martin attended our
school. Our headmaster was a Mr Turland, who we called 'Turnip'.
One characteristic Botteville Road shares with a number of
roads in Acocks Green is that quite a few of the houses have been
in multiple occupancy as bedsits or been divided into flats. During
the 1970s half the houses were occupied in this way. This is actually
not a recent phenomenon. In 1932 numbers 5, 8 and 13 had more
then one family in residence. A year later number 5 had been demolished,
and numbers 23, 25 and 27 had also been divided. In 1934 numbers
7 and 12 also became multiple occupancy, and in 1936 numbers 9
and 11 also changed accommodation type. By 1937, however, it appeared
that 11, 23 and 27 had reverted, but number 14 was now in multiple
occupancy. 1938 saw the first year when number 20 was not single
household.
Numbers 4, 6 and 12 were in multi-occupancy in 1945. Number
4 reverted to a single home in the mid-1990s, as did number 6
in 1980. However number 12 has stayed as flats. Number 19 was
flats between 1947/8 and 1983. Number 17 was in flats from 1955-1976,
and number 14 was flats from 1955-1981. In 1959 number 9 was divided
up into flats, and it has stayed so. In 1960 number 20 changed
to flats, and this is how it has remained. Number 10 was in flats
between 1961 and 1978/9. Number 27 was multiple occupancy between
1964 and 1973, when it was bought as a family home, with part
use for a decade to house bed and breakfast guests in co-operation
with a local hotel. Number 13 was in multiple occupation between
1967 and 1969. Number 15 was divided into flats in 1975, and has
remained so. Number 23 was divided into rooms in 2004. Thanks to Sheila
Chisholm for help with this information.
These dates cover the last seventy years, and illustrate how
some larger houses go through quite long periods where they do
not function as single family homes. Use of the voters' lists
has required assumptions about occupancy, which may be incorrect
in some cases, of course. The road has become more diverse as
a result of flats and bedsits, and other interests apart from
those of home-owners have naturally made themselves felt. In addition
the presence of the Neighbourhood Office and the British Legion
club also provide function and ambience that is non-residential.
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