The story of Acocks Green, by C.J.G. Hudson
(This was published in 1966 for St. Mary's, and is reproduced
with permission from the Vicar. Where things have materially changed,
we have indicated that fact, but we have not changed the text
in other ways except to remove minor errors. The part of Mr. Hudson's
text which deals specifically with St. Mary's church can be found
in that section of our website.)
1966 is the Centenary year of the Church of St. Mary, Acocks
Green. It is also, in effect, the Centenary of Acocks Green itself,
for the building of the Church led to the formation of a separate
Parish of Acocks Green, which had hitherto been part of the Parish
and Manor of Yardley.
A hundred years is a very short time compared with the age
of most of our towns and parishes, but the story of Acocks Green
goes back far beyond 1866.
IN THE BEGINNING
Two thousand years ago almost the whole of the South Birmingham
district was covered with forest - a thick, often impenetrable
jungle of oak with a tangled undergrowth of holly and elder, bramble
and ivy. The only inhabitants were the wild animals.
So it remained until Saxon times, when settlements were gradually
made in the more open parts, at Gyrdleah (Yardley), at Ulverlei
(Ulverley), at Cintone (Kineton) - but there is no evidence of
any settlement at Acocks Green. Yardley is mentioned in a charter
of 972, when King Edgar confirmed ownership of Yardley to Pershore
Abbey.
After the Norman conquest the manor of Yardley was part of
the County of Worcestershire, It was a large manor, and included,
besides the present Yardley - Stechford, Acocks Green, Hay Mills,
Tyseley, Greet, Sparkhill, Hall Green, Yardley Wood and Billesley.
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM
The Saxon settlement at Yardley flourished and Yardley is here
today. Kineton (King's Town) gradually declined and practically
nothing is known of it after 1086. Ulverley (Wulfhere's clearing)
flourished until late in the 12th century, when it was abandoned
and a new town built - the present Solihull. All that remains
is its name in Ulverley Green Road, and Olton (Old Town).
In the early part of the 12th Century Geoffrey de Limesi held
the manor of Yardley under the Abbot of Pershore. It subsequently
passed through many hands, and was finally purchased in 1768 by
the Birmingham manufacturer, John Taylor, in whose family it remained.
It is not known how the manorial system originated, hut in
Norman times, the manors were estates held by Lords from the King
in return for services, which included supplying men-at-arms,
horses, forage, etc., in times of trouble. The manors varied greatly
in size, but each was divided into three parts: the demesne or
holding of the Lord; the arable and meadow, in which the villeins
(or tenants) had a share; and the woods and commons (or waste
lands) in which all had the right of pasturage. The villein's
land was divided into strips, each having an equal number. In
return for these strips they paid their Lord certain dues - usually
in kind - and were bound to work for him for so many days a year.
The villein's land was usually divided into three fields. One
was ploughed and sown with crops; the second was used for grazing
and the third grew hay for winter feed. Yardley originally had
three fields - Church Field, Stichford Field and Wood Meadow.
Church Field lay to the north of Church Road, roughly between
Yardley Fields Road and Blakesley Road. Stichford Field was the
other side of Station Road, and Wood Meadow lay on the Castle
Bromwich side of the Church.
As the population increased, further clearings had to be made
in the forest, and new fields enclosed. This was done either by
individual or communal activity. New land was brought into cultivation
in places where the forest was not so dense and clearing would
be easier; Crabtree Field lay between Alexander Road, Sherbourne
Road and Rookwood Road; Stock Field lay between the canal, Stockfield
Road, Douglas Road and Yardley Road; Acocks Green Field stretched
from Yardley Cemetery to Malvern Road on the South of Yardley
Road.
The "Greens" were originally clearings, usually for
pasture, and the names that remain today give some indication
of the extent of the forest area to the South and East of Birmingham.
There are some twenty "Greens" between Wylde Green and
Bartley Green. Acocks Green got its name from the Acock family,
which had held land in Yardley at least since the 15th Century
and probably much earlier. In 1420 John Akoc was a witness to
a Yardley deed. Richard Acocke and his wife Matilda were living
at Gilbertstone House in 1495. In 1626 a William Acock, son of
Richard Acock of Acocks Green (described as a gentleman) was given
as a marriage settlement "Acocks Green house and other estates".
In 1697 Alice, daughter of William Acock, Gentleman, was baptised
at Yardley Church. In 1774 a Richard Acock was buried at Yardley,
aged 91. The family seems to have left the district about this
time. In the same year there is evidence of a Richard Acock, grand-nephew
of Richard above, in Poplar, and there is reason to believe that
one of his sons, at least, went to America.
The Manorial system gradually decayed. Many left for the towns;
clearings were made by individuals or families, and in the fields
that were formed, the villagers held no rights. It began to be
realised that strip farming on the open field system was not the
ideal method. The Manor Court kept strict control of the farming
activities. Rotation of crops was rigidly enforced. Harvesting
and hay-making had to be done at times to suit the general convenience.
People with new ideas had no chance at all of trying them out.
The strips began to be exchanged or sold, as the tenants tried
to bring their strips together in one field. Sometimes the common
pastures were parcelled out among the villagers, and individual
farms and small-holdings replaced the open fields. Where agreement
could not be reached, an Act of Parliament was needed to enclose
the land. Between 1709 (when the first Act was passed) and 1867,
some five million acres of common land were enclosed in England
and Wales. In the latter year another act was passed forbidding
any further enclosures, as the public began to realise what the
loss of these open spaces would mean to themselves.
The Yardley enclosure act was not passed until 1841, and the
apportionment did not take place until 1847, when the fields were
divided up among the landowners in proportion to the amount of
land they held. Nothing now remains of Crabtree Field; of Stock
Field, only the name in Stockfield Road; and of Acocks Green Field
only some allotment gardens backing on to the canal.
ROADS
Until the eighteenth century, the roads through Acocks Green were
nothing but dirt tracks. Very little road making was done between
Roman times and the reign of George III when a serious attempt
was made to improve communications. Many hundreds of Turnpike
Acts were passed, providing for local re-building and maintenance
of roads, the cost to be met by tolls. The roads were gated at
intervals, and a tollhouse built alongside where lived the toll
keeper who collected the dues.
The Birmingham-Warwick Turnpike Act was passed in 1725. A toll-house
was built at the corner of Woodberry Walk, and a toll-gate crossed
the Warwick Road from there to the Dolphin Hotel. A weighbridge
was installed later when the tolls, which varied from time to
time, were reckoned according to the weight of the vehicles.
Until well into the eighteenth century there was very little
wheeled traffic; on the roads, travellers went on their journeys
on horseback and goods were mostly tarried by pack-horse or mules.
The Industrial Revolution brought more traffic, and the roads
began to improve between the important towns. Carriers' wagons
began to appear, then more private carriages and the Stage Coach
service. Finally in 1785, John Palmer started the Post Office
Mail Coaches, and from that time until the coming of the railways,
the main roads were very busy.
The long distance stage coaches, and particularly the Mail
Coaches, kept remarkably good time. It was unusual for a Mail
Coach to be more than five minutes late on its run between London
and Birmingham.
In 1836 a Mail coach ran between London and Birmingham via
Bicester, Banbury, Southam, Warwick and Solihull - a distance
of 119 miles - in 11 hours 56 minutes, nearly 10 miles an hour.
This would include all stops, with about a dozen changes of horses,
The maximum time allowed to change the horses on a mail coach
five minutes, but it was often done in less than three. The best
time was said to be a minute and a half.
Besides coaches, there were long distance wagons and local
carriers, also private carriages and carts, traders' carts and
wagons, packhorses and horsemen. Most inns kept horses for hire,
and were able to serve meals at any time. Blacksmiths were plentiful
- there was one opposite Stockfield Road near the Britannia Inn
until about twenty years ago.
CANAL AND RAILWAY
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the people of Acocks
Green witnessed a tremendous engineering feat. In March 1793 King
George 1111 gave Royal Assent to an Act of Parliament permitting
the construction of a canal from Birmingham to Warwick, and shortly
afterwards work began.
If you stand on the canal bridge in Woodcock Lane (the last
remaining original canal bridge in Acocks Green) and look down
at the water, you will have some idea of the tremendous amount
of work involved. The whole of the cutting was dug out by hand,
by huge gangs of "navigators", as they were called -
soon abbreviated to "navvy". The total length of the
canal is 22½ miles, from Digbeth in Birmingham to Saltisford
in Warwick, yet it was opened in 1799, six years after the Act
was passed. Much heavy traffic must have left the Warwick Road,
and no doubt the coachmen were glad to see fewer of the great
lumbering wagons, which were often pulled by six or eight horses.
In the spring of 1847 the construction of the Birmingham and
Oxford Junction Railway was begun and for the second time Acocks
Green saw huge labour gangs at work.
Three years before, a meeting had been held in Oxford attended
by members of the university, directors of the Great Western Railway
Company, and their chief engineer, Mr. I. K. Brunel. It was proposed
to extend the railway from Oxford to Banbury, and from there either
in the direction of Rugby or Worcester. It was also suggested
that a branch might leave the Oxford-Rugby railway near Fenny
Compton, to run north to Leamington, Warwick and Birmingham. Finally,
a resolution was carried in favour of a line from Oxford to Rugby,
and an Act of Parliament was obtained in August 1845. Work started
soon afterwards, and the line was opened as far as Banbury on
2nd September, 1850.
The Rugby line never proceeded further than Fenny Compton,
for in 1845 the Great Western Railway and the Grand Junction Railway
agreed to proceed with an extension from Fenny Compton to Birmingham.
So in the autumn of 1846, work commenced under the supervision
of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, one of the greatest engineers of the
19th Century. The contractors were Peto and Betts, and they had
plenty of first class labour available - men who had been employed
in making embankments and cuttings for canals and earlier railways.
Digging was still all done by hand, and the amount of work
involved can be gauged by the section of line through Acocks Green
to Olton, which required a cutting nearly a mile long and 30 ft.
deep and an embankment more than a mile long and up to 40ft. high.
The line was opened for passenger traffic on October 1st, 1852,
and for goods in February 1853. Acocks Green was then the first
station from Birmingham. It consisted of one or two wooden sheds
on the platforms.
HOUSES
The opening of the railway station at Acocks Green was one of
the main causes of the quick growth of our Parish. Very soon more
houses were being built, and wealthy business and professional
men were moving out of the smoky and dirty city into what was
then a clean and pleasant country district, with easy journeys
by rail to and from their work. People also began to move out
to Acocks Green on retiring from business.
Notice that most of the old Victorian Houses in Warwick Road
have a coach-house where the carriage or two-wheeled dog-cart
was kept. Often there is a room above for the "Coach-man"
who was usually also the gardener and general manservant in all
but the largest establishments.
There are still many Victorian houses in Acocks Green, although
the larger ones are in danger of being pulled down and replaced
by blocks of flats or smaller houses.
The larger pre-Victorian houses in and around Acocks Green
have, with one exception, been demolished. Hyron Hall, Broome
Hall and Tyseley Farm all had moated sites (there is a record
of Juliana Hyron making a grant of land to Agnes Fulford in 1350).
Fox Hollies Hall was modernised in the middle of the last century,
and pulled down some thirty years ago; only the pillars of the
entrance gates now remain. Acocks Green House was the last to
go; it too had been rebuilt several times, and in its last few
years it housed a social club! It was finally demolished to make
way for the blocks of flats in Woodcock Lane. Hay Hall, near Tyseley
Station, is now the office block of an engineering firm. One of
the oldest buildings still remaining is 196 Yardley Road, part
of which is of half-timbered construction. (DEMOLISHED c. 1977
(ed.)) There are some old cottages in Arden Road, but little else
remains.
STREET NAMES
Some of the names of streets and roads are interesting. Warwick
Road, as mentioned above, was a turnpike road from 1725 until
1872 when the turnpike acts were repealed. Until about 1830 it
ran through three distinct hamlets: Flint Green at the top of
the hill - Flint Green Road has kept the name; Westley Brook,
now known as "The Green"; Acocks Green, a group of farms
and cottages by the Dolphin Inn.
Gospel Lane - until the 1930's "Beeches Lane" - led
to Gospel Oak Farm and on to the Stratford Road. The Gospel Oak
was a very ancient tree which marked the meeting point of the
parishes of Yardley, Solihull and Bickenhill (Lyndon). It used
to be the custom for the Parish Priest, Churchwardens and other
parish officials to walk round the parish boundaries accompanied
by boys who beat the boundary stones with boughs. The ceremony,
known as Beating the Bounds, took place in May on Rogation day
preceding Ascension Day. At suitable spots a portion of the Gospels
was read. A large oak tree marking an important part of the bounds
would have been an obvious place. The Gospel Oak was felled in
the eighteen-forties, and sixteen horses were needed to drag it
away.
Dolphin Lane (originally Green Lane) and the Dolphin Hotel
are named after the Dolphin family, who were landowners in Yardley
parish from the Middle Ages.
The Vineries was named after a nursery and market garden that
occupied the site of the Rover Works until that part was developed.
Large quantities of grapes were grown there.
Several roads have changed their names. Hazelwood Road was
originally Dog Lane; Arden Road was once known as Quality Lane;
Oxford Road, from Roberts Road to Warwick Road, was known as Clifton
Road at the beginning of the century. Lincoln Road was mentioned
as long ago as the 17th Century as Rowe Leasowe Lane. Westley
Road was originally Well Lane. This was changed to Florence Road
about 1876, and to Westley or Wesley Road in 1879.
THE 1870s
St. Mary's was not the first church to be built in Acocks Green.
Seven years before it was finished, the foundation stone of the
Congregational Church at the corner of Stockfield Road had been
laid. Designed to accommodate 450 people it was opened on the
20th June, 1860. Nevertheless, the building of St. Mary's Church
marked a very important stage in the development of Acocks Green,
for within two years of its opening the parishioners had begun
to lay plans for the building of a school.
At that time the only schools in the district were two private
schools for girls - Miss Martha Bywater's " SCHOOL FOR YOUNG
LADIES ", and the "LADIES BOARDING SCHOOL" in Warwick
Road run by Miss Ann and Miss Emma Dixon. The congregation of
the new church were determined to have a school for boys and girls
where education would be free, and by 1871 enough money had been
raised to enable a start to be made. A site was obtained in Broad
Road (then Broad Lane) and building commenced in December 1872.
The school was formally opened on March 10th, 1874. It had cost
£1,595.
Meanwhile a third church had been built. In 1868 the Wesleyans
opened a chapel and Sunday School in Shirley Road at the corner
of Botteville Road, and in 1872 a second building was added.
In 1870 the first horse-drawn omnibus ran from Birmingham to
Acocks Green. It was driven by Charles Lane from High Street to
the Dolphin Inn. Another bus ran on Sundays only, operated by
Whitehouse from Dale End. It left Birmingham at 2.30 and continued
on to Solihull and Knowle, where it left at 7.15 for the return
journey. In addition there were regular carriers' vans conveying
goods and people to and from Birmingham and the surrounding villages.
These ran mostly on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, Thursday
being Market-day in Birmingham.
The carriers and the buses started and stopped at the inns,
as the stage coaches had done. The inns were truly "public
houses", where people would go after business or market to
wait for their conveyance, where they could get a meal or a snack
or a drink, or just sit and gossip with their friends. With the
coming of the railways the habit persisted, and if there was no
inn near the station, one was built. Most towns and villages served
by the railways have a Station Hotel" or a "Railway
Tavern". Acocks Green has the "Great Western",
built alongside the railway as soon as the station was opened.
Even today you will hear people travelling by bus asking for tickets
to the "Mermaid", or the "Dolphin" or the
"Barley Mow".
There were at this time five other inns in Acocks Green, all
of them in the Warwick Road; the Britannia, the New Inn, the Red
Lion, the Spread Eagle and the Dolphin. The majority brewed their
own beer, and they provided meals and catered for banquets and
parties and meetings; they acted as head-quarters for societies,
clubs and associations; in fact, they were the social centres
of the country villages. The New Inn, the Great Western and the
Dolphin have been rebuilt. The Britannia was "modernised"
at the beginning of the century (SINCE REPLACED BY A NEW BUILDING
in 1973 (ed.)) The Spread Eagle (one of the oldest inns in (THE
AREA (ed.)) at the corner of Victoria Road, opposite the Dolphin,
was pulled down in 1929 for the widening of Warwick Road. Only
the Red Lion remains in its original state (REPLACED BY A NEW
BUILDING in 1982 (ed.)).
THE SOCIAL SIDE
There were many clubs and societies in Acocks Green in the latter
half of the 19th Century, although the population was only 3,800
in 1900. One of the earliest was the Acocks Green Choral Society,
which was first formed in 1867. On December 10th 1874 it gave
a performance of Handel's Messiah with a chorus of 100 voices.
In 1878 the Acocks Green Institute was founded, and its head-quarters
built at the corner of Sherbourne Road and Dudley Park Road, at
a cost of £3,000. The principal room - 74ft. by 30ft. by
30ft. high - was used for many years as a meeting place for Yardley
District Council, and a magistrate's court was held there for
a time. As a consequence, it became known as "The Public
Hall". The Institute was a very ambitious undertaking, which
flourished for many years and achieved some remarkable successes.
This building was pulled down in 1965.
In 1881 its President was G.W. Hastings, M.P. There were eleven
vice-presidents, including the Vicars of Acocks Green, Yardley,
Olton, Bickenhill and Solihull, the Acocks Green Congregational
and Wesleyan ministers and three J.P.s. There were eighteen Council
members and eight committees covering Finance, Education, Literature,
News Room, Lectures and Entertainments, Music, Library and "Mutual
Improvement". Its aims were given as "The extension
of literary, scientific and artistic knowledge, improvement in
public speaking and debating and the provision of wholesome recreation
for its members".
The winter programme included three concerts, two literary
evenings, a debate, four lectures, an exhibition of models of
machinery and scientific apparatus, and an exhibition of works
of art lent by the South Kensington Museum, Earl Beauchamp, Lord
Leigh, Lord Lyttleton and many others, and an address by Joseph
Chamberlain.
The Educational Committee organised classes in French, Drawing,
English Literature; History, Music and the History of the New
Testament, with competitive examinations in December 1881 and
April 1882, with prizes and certificates of merit.
In addition, there were children's parties, dances and social
evenings, The programme for the year was a 24-page printed booklet.
The subscriptions ranged from 7s 6d to 45s for a family ticket
(there were some large families in those days).
THE END OF THE 19th CENTURY
All this time Acocks Green was growing steadily. Houses were spreading
along Westley Road, Shirley Road, Greenwood Road (now part of
Olton Boulevard), Botteville Road, Victoria Road, Flint Green
Road and Broad Lane. By 1880 the church was becoming so crowded
on Sundays that a Mission Room large enough to accommodate 100
people was erected in Spring Road. It was opened on the 30th January,
1881, under the name of St. Gabriel's, and the Rev. W. K. Cox
held regular services there. It was enlarged four years later.
In 1882 the Wesleyans, too, were in need of more room, and their
chapel in Shirley Road was doubled in size. In 1892 a Primitive
Methodist Chapel was opened in Station Road.
Industry first appeared in Acocks Green in 1887. There had
been a tannery for some years in Speedwell Road, off Stock field
Road - in the part now known as Amington Road - but this was not
strictly speaking in the parish. The new venture was a factory
opened by Messrs. Waterhouse & Blantern at the corner of Fox
Hollies Road and Warwick Road (where the new flats arc now built).
It was known as "The Birmingham Woven Wire Mattress Co. Ltd."
Later it was extended for the manufacture of furniture, the extension
being called "The Pioneer Cabinet Works ". The works
closed down in 1933, and a year or two later the factory was demolished.
By 1890 houses had spread down Dog Lane (renamed Hazelwood
Road), Summer Road, Yardley Road, Florence Road, Augusta Road
and the Avenue. In 1895 there were 25 shops in Acocks Green -
22 of them in Warwick Road.
In the same year Acocks Green got its first fire brigade, although
it was actually stationed outside the parish boundary. Earlier
in the year Messrs. George Muscott and Sons, of the Tannery In
Speedwell Road, had a serious fire which could have been easily
controlled had the necessary appliances been available. So they
started a fire brigade of their own and provided themselves with
a fire engine - a "manual" capable of throwing about
70 gallons a minute - and five hundred feet of hose. Muscotts
let it be known that the brigade and engine were at the service
of anyone in the district. For those in a position to pay, a fee
was to be charged. It is not known whether they were ever called
out.
In this year, too, the Congregational Church was enlarged and
new Sunday Schools built. A memorial stone was laid on the 29th
May, and in a cavity beneath it were placed copies of that day's
"London Standard", and "Daily News", a copy
of the "Acocks Green Congregational Church Monthly"
and a history of the church from the year it was built.
Queen Victoria's Jubilee was celebrated in 1897 by a fete.
Children assembled in Station Fields (where Oxford Road is now)
and each boy was given a flag, and each girl a fan. A procession
was formed headed by cyclists in fancy dress followed by a brass
band. After parading the principal roads, the procession made
its way to Knight's Field (where Mayfield Road is now). Here each
child was given a souvenir book of the Queen's reign, and "heaps
of good things were provided for grown-ups and children".
There followed an afternoon of sports and all kinds of competitions,
also Maypole dancing by tile senior class of Broad Road School,
and an open-air dance in the evening.
A field bounded by Broad Road, Westley Road and Fox Hollies
Road was given by the Yardley Charity Trustees in October 1898
to the people of Acocks Green for use as a recreation ground.
It is still a popular playing field for children today.
THE 1900s
The population in 1901 was 3,836, an increase of 900 in ten years.
Thereafter the growth of the parish accelerated swiftly - in the
next ten years the increase was nearly 6,000 - and houses were
built in Elmdon Road, Malvern Road, Arden Road, Flint Green Road,
Oxford Road, Alexander Road and Douglas Road. It is interesting
to compare the speed of house building and "development"
today with that of sixty years ago. Alexander Road was opened
in 1903 and 84 houses were built and occupied by the summer of
1904. By the end of the following year, no less than 210 had been
built.
Meanwhile St. Gabriel's Mission in Spring Road was faced with
a crisis. The land on which it stood was required for the building
of the North Warwickshire Railway. Another site was found in Summer
Road and in 1905 the Mission Room was dismantled and re-erected
in its new position. In 1906 it became the temporary Parish Church
for Tyseley, and the Rev. Donald Moore was appointed Priest-in-charge
of an area bounded by Stockfield Road, Fox, Hollies Road, Shaftmoor
Lane, Reddings Lane and Wharf Road. It was intended that this
should be part of a new parish of Tyseley, but by an Order-in-Council
dated August 18th, 1907, the boundaries of the Ecclesiastical
District of Acocks Green were extended to include this area.
Another mission room was opened in 1905 in Francis Road. This
was known as "St. Faiths ", and meetings were held there
for some years.
In 1905 too, the Convent of Our Lady of Compassion was established
at Wilton House in Warwick Road (now Crosby Hall School (NOW SAFEWAY
(ED.))). And in July 1906 the first chapel was constructed from
a greenhouse at the back of Wilton House, which was given a wooden
extension and an iron roof. Mass was said there for about eighteen
months, until a chapel was opened in the upper floor of a new
school built next door. The foundation stone of this was laid
on the 2nd April, 1907, by the Earl of Denbigh, and was blessed
by Mgr. Ilsley (not then an Archbishop). The nuns from Wilton
House taught here until they moved to Olton in 1948.
The building of the permanent Church of the Sacred Heart and
Holy Souls commenced in 1923, the foundation stone being laid
on the 18th April. The first part was opened in March 1925, but
the building was not completed until 1940, and the consecration
ceremony took place in 1945. The architects were Messrs. Harrison
& Cox.
In 1908 a new Council School was built between Warwick Road
and Westley Road - the date can still be seen above the entrance
in Warwick Road. By 1908 the population had grown to more than
7,000 and St. Mary's School was not big enough to cope with all
the children. The new school was built on the site of a large
house - Camden Lodge - where the Johnson family had lived for
many years. Today the school also includes another large house,
Stone Hall - once the residence of Mr. J.F. Swinburn, one of Acocks
Green's earliest benefactors. (STONE HALL BECAME AN ADULT EDUCATION
CENTEE IN 1973 (ed.))
Next door to the school (in Warwick Road) is a building which
was once the police station and later the fire station. (DEMOLISHED
IN THE 1990s (ed.)) In 1909, a new and much larger Police Station
was built in Yardley Road - again the date can be seen on the
front of the building.
In 1900 the Yardley District Council, in response to many appeals
from local people, had provided a fire-escape, which had been
housed in a shed at the corner of Warwick Road and Flint Green
Road. A small hand pump was added later, but main reliance still
was placed on Muscott's fire brigade. When the police moved to
their new premises, the escape and the pump left their shed and
moved into the old police station, where they remained until 1911.
In 1911 the work of doubling the railway line from Acocks Green
to Olton was begun. Tyseley Station had been opened and the new
North Warwickshire line to Stratford was carrying many passengers.
Acocks Green Station was re-built (IN 1906/7 (ed.)) - a very
necessary work, for the original building was quite inadequate
for the growing number of people using the railway, and bitter
complaints had been made for some time.
PART OF BIRMINGHAM
The manor of Yardley and with it the parish of Acocks Green became
part of the city of Birmingham under the Birmingham Extension
Act in this same year, and was transferred from Worcestershire
to Warwickshire. Our parent - Yardley - was replaced by a more
powerful and energetic foster-parent, and the days of rural contentment
were soon to be over.
Little development took place during the period of the Great
War, but soon afterwards the character of the parish began to
change. The wealthy families started to move further afield to
Olton and Solihull, and most of the new houses put up were smaller
and more suited to those who now began to overflow into the new
suburb of Birmingham. In the years between the wars Acocks Green
grew apace. Denham Road and Dalston Road, Bramley Road and Beeches
Avenue covered the site of the old Stock Field. Hyron Hall and
Redstone Farm and Pool Farm were pulled down and their fields
disappeared under the houses round Gospel Lane and Dolphin Lane,
Pool Farm Road and Circular Road. Fox Hollies Hall was demolished,
and Fox Green Crescent and Hartfield Crescent grew up on its lands.
(STRICTLY SPEAKING HARTFIELD CRESCENT WAS NOT IN THE GROUNDS OF
THE HALL (ed.)) Houses and shops and schools were built and people
flooded in.
The first cinema was opened in Acocks Green in 1914, on the
corner of Warwick Road and Station Road. It was called "The
Acocks Green Picture Playhouse", and seated about 500 people
in stalls and circle. It was closed in 1929 when the Warwick Cinema
opened in Westley Road.
The Public Library, opened in 1932, was at that time the largest
branch Library in Birmingham.
THE POST WAR PERIOD
The Second World War left some scars. The church was badly damaged,
and one or two houses were destroyed or damaged, but Acocks Green
got off lightly compared with some other districts. Development
continued afterwards, but the pace slowed down as available land
became scarce. Old Victorian houses became the target of the "developer",
and many have already disappeared and been replaced by blocks
of flats or shops.
Although industry has partially surrounded it, Acocks Green
has remained almost wholly residential. Shops have increased from
six in 1855 to well over two hundred today. But for a population
of nearly 30,000, there are only five public houses - the same
number that served a population of just over 3,000 in 1900.
Amenities generally have not increased in step with the population.
In the last fifty years the only additions have been the branch
library (30 years ago), a Youth Centre, and a - bowling hall,
with Fox Hollies Park on the boundary.
What of the future? There is now little land available for
further house building, but the trend has been set for flats to
replace houses, and doubtless this will continue. As the population
can only increase slowly, shops are not likely to increase to
any great extent.
Road widening, especially parts of Warwick Road, is already
planned. A crying need at the moment is for car parking facilities
in the shopping areas, and this need is sure to increase as the
years go by.
It is certain that Acocks Green will not grow much more, but
there is no doubt at all that it will change!
C.J.G. HUDSON.
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