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After the war, around 1950, Arthur Huckfield recalls an alarming
incident. He, Kath and their daughter were coming home one night
and found a body lying on the pavement near their house. They
were wary of intervening in case this was a trap, and so the two
women went into the house and Arthur remained outside. He took
a closer look at the body, and there was no movement, so he went
to phone the police by the shops across Fox Hollies Road. While
he was in the call box, two girls came round the corner, saw the
body, and started screaming. They then ran to the phone box. While
they were there, a car suddenly drew up, the body was bundled
into the boot, and the car drove off down the road. As if this
was not enough, the next Saturday Kath was horrified to see the
same man walking up the road carrying a mattress on his back.
It transpired that the man was a Lithuanian refugee, who had just
been thrown out of a house down the road for being drunk, which
of course is what he was the first time!
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The main change since 1945 is that the clubs and nurseries,
and some of the large houses, have been replaced by blocks of
flats or small estates. Glyde Court, strictly speaking at the
back of the land on Shirley Road, dates from 2002. Numbers 25
and 27, the first houses to be built on Hazelwood Road, were demolished
for the left hand side of Aspen Close. The rest of Aspen Close
and all of Sorrel Drive are on the site of Hazelwood Nurseries.
This development took place in 1976/7.
The occupant of number 49 bought a piece of land at the end
of his garden, which stretched along a few other gardens, and
made an ornamental garden and croquet lawn there by the 1970s.
Today the area is fenced off again. Indeed derelict garages opening
out to Westley Road are a security risk and eyesore.
As we have seen, number 63 was replaced by a new number 63
and the pair 65 - 67, and numbers 69 - 71 and 71A were built at
the same time as Green Acres, around 1970.
This development replaced
the Methodist Tennis and Bowling Club. Restrictions prevented
the houses having more than two bedrooms, in order to restrict
the number of occupants and thereby preserve the character of
the road, but they were built in such a way that they could easily
be converted into three bedroom houses, which has happened in
some cases.
Number 11 Green Acres, built on part of the back garden of
number 61, dates from around 1983. Numbers 15 and 21 date from
around 1984, and numbers 17 and 19 from around 1985 were built
on an enclosed piece of land behind the gardens of numbers 59
and 61. Number 11A was built over part of the garden of number
59 around 1997. The numbering of Green Acres went from 9 straight
to 23, anticipating the ability to infill. On the evens side,
there are no numbers 14 to 20: perhaps the yard next door will
be built over one day, although the business has recently bought
some houses in the road and is using part of the gardens. In 2008 seventeen
houses were built on Keepers Way, a new road off Green Acres between Hazelwood
and Westley Roads. Number
75 dates from around 1962. Plans were deposited on behalf of the
owner of number 73. The house was designed with two large bedrooms.
The semis numbers 103 - 5 were listed from 1953, although the
application to build was dated 25th August 1950. The land used
to belong to the Moodys of Clifton House.
Number 2 is a self-build dating from around 1992, and the new
number 24 and numbers 38 - 42 appeared around 1965, when Hazeltree
Croft was being built. The old houses at numbers 24 and 26, built
by 1904, were demolished. This development replaced the Hazelwood
Tennis and Bowling Club and Jones' nursery. The map below, from
deeds loaned by Valerie Chadd, shows that numbers 24 and 26 formed
part of the original parcel of land on which the tennis club existed.
The square block at the bottom is a former orchard. The land was
sold on 16th June 1922 by Henry Thomas Fellows to George Webb.
The far end of Hazeltree Croft beyond numbers 52 and 54 was built
on the nursery site.
Number 56 was replaced by Dogge Lane Croft around 1987, the
name of one of the fields near Fox Hollies Road in 1847. This
took place after prolonged legal problems over land ownership.
The Willows, off Dogge Lane Croft, goes beyond two houses on Olton
Boulevard East, which were built set back a long way from that
road when it was Greenwood Road. The ends of gardens on Olton
Boulevard East were sold off to enable this new development to
take place, but one person refused and still has the extraordinarily
long garden the house was built with. Numbers 92 and 94 Greenwood
Road thus became numbers 1 and 3 The Willows in 1996, and the
former access from Olton Boulevard East was closed off. The other
new houses were then built. One house on Dogge Lane Croft had
been built sideways on, which enabled a road to go through to
the Willows. Number 58, Holly Bank, was replaced by Hazelwood
Court around 1970. Numbers 60, 62 and 62A all replaced number
62 around 1980. Number 62 was formerly known as Hazel Glen (later
The Glen). The grounds became garages for Coppice Drive. Number
70 dates from around 1954. Plans were approved in April 1953:
two large bedrooms were built.
Clifton House at the Fox Hollies Road end of Hazelwood Road,
was sold to the City at auction in June 1960 for £10,200,
and the council flats had been built by late 1964. When the piles
were being driven in to support the block, the ground heaved and
the wall of number 104 was severely damaged and had to be repaired.
Clifton House is listed as belonging to Olton Boulevard East,
of course, but Clifton House is relevant to the history of Hazelwood
Road nevertheless. When it contained older people only, life was
more comfortable for the residents of Hazelwood Road, according
to Arthur and Kath Huckfield. Two fields, one of which was Dogge
Lane Croft, did not form part of the 1875 sale, and belonged to
the original Clifton House. These were sold later, probably in
the mid-1920s, and the Dogge Lane Croft of old has contained numbers
76 - 104 Hazelwood Road since the late 1920s.
Clifton House, 1950s, photo courtesy of Birmingham
Libraries
Hazelwood Road is now more mixed in housing but less mixed
in function, but remains a very pleasant road to walk down, and
to live in. The number of people living there has trebled since
the late 1950s, according to Doug Wilson of the Residents' Association.
It is difficult to imagine that much more change could occur through
further infilling, but experience shows that that is an unwise
assumption!
In 2007 Hazelwood Road entered the
Britain in Bloom
Neighbourhood Awards, and produced the booklet below to promote their
efforts. Fran Lee of the Residents Association won a Chevrolet Award for
exceptional community achievement, and the road itself was one of only 10 out of
the 52 entries in the whole of the Heart of England region to be assigned the
category Outstanding within the Neighbourhood Awards Standard.
This is what Heart of England in Bloom said about Hazelwood Road:
This entry epitomises the whole
ethos of RHS Neighbourhood Awards. A Residents Association formed and almost
without exception everyone has got behind the campaign. the road and environs
are a mix of private, rented and sheltered accommodation that have not only been
brightened by 'bloom' but street furniture painter, public art and planters
added etc. Sponsorship and help in kind is in abundance and it was a real
pleasure to be invited to judge what appeared to be the cleanest road in
Birmingham. Well done to all concerned.
And about Fran Lee's award:
Fran and a small team have totally
transformed her immediate neighbourhood using 'bloom' to galvanise exceptional
community spirit. A first time entry into the Neighbourhood Awards had all the
hallmarks of efforts shown from long standing entries into the main campaign.
Not only is Hazelwood Road surely the cleanest road in Acocks Green it also
boasts public art, new hard landscaping, painted lampposts and post boxes but
wonderful floral displays throughout.
Now the team has turned its attention to the library frontage and given it a
lovely makeover in keeping with the dignity of the War Memorial there.
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