The history of the church of St. Mary the Virgin, Acocks Green
St Mary's in a postcard by George Lewis of Acocks Green,
c. 1905
St Mary's is the parish church of Acocks Green. It is not the
oldest church in the area, however. That distinction goes to a
Congregationalist chapel of 1827 on Stockfield Road, later replaced
in 1860 by a church at the Warwick Road end of that same road.
There are several useful pieces on the history of the church,
and we have decided to transcribe them instead of amalgamating
them. They were written at different times, and reflect those
times in style and content. The differences are also useful because
St. Mary's was bombed in December 1940, and some features were
lost. In 1966 the church celebrated its centenary, and C.J.G.
Hudson wrote a booklet about Acocks Green, which was partly intended
to celebrate the centenary and bring the history of the church
up to date.
St. Mary's used to have several outlying buildings. The Church
House opened c. 1908 at the corner of Arden Road and Rookwood
Road, and since about 1983 has been in the hands of Birmingham
City Mission. A mission room was opened at Spring Road in 1881,
and was moved to Summer Road as St. Gabriel's when the North Warwickshire
Line was about to be built, c. 1905, as the line would have gone
through the chapel. This mission room was replaced by a Memorial
Hall in 1928/9. The idea had been to have a permanent chapel there,
but it was decided that a room for social and recreation purposes
was needed. Another room, the Jubilee Hall behind the Memorial
Hall, was opened in 1936: money for it was raised in part by Leonard
Skan, a well-known local milkman. There were tennis courts and
other sports facilities on site (thanks to Kath Huckfield for help with this
information). Around 1938, a Railway Mission
Room opened next to the railway at Spring Road, but it did not
belong to St. Mary's. It is still there, as a Congregational chapel.
The Memorial Hall site was eventually sold to ROSPA. Bishop Westcott
Hall at the end of Greenwood Avenue opened in 1936. That was used
for church activities. It was leased to the City Council in the
1980s as a community centre.
One curiosity is that St. Mary's got into the Guinness Book
of Records! "The fastest white wedding on record and hence
the most frustrating for any mother-in-law was one on 22 Sept.
1939 between Mr. & Mrs. T. G. Franklin when 71 hours elapsed
between proposal and solemnization at 4.30 p.m. at St. Mary's
Church, Acocks Green, Birmingham two hours after obtaining a special
licence. The brides' white and bridesmaids' lavender dresses surprised
the bridegroom."
There are several graves particularly worthy of note in the churchyard. There
is a tall marble column, which at a casual glance might be thought to
commemorate some local bigwig. However it is the name of Emily Palmer which is
prominent. She was shot in the White Hart pub on 27th December 1884 by a man
called Henry Kimberley, whose common law partner Harriet Stewart had left him.
Kimberley had already shot Miss Stewart, and Mrs Palmer tried to intervene, and
got shot for her pains. Harriet Stewart survived but Emily Palmer did not, and
she died on 8th January 1885. The funeral was on 14th January, and many boys
stayed away from St. Mary's school to go to it, according to the
log book. The murderer was hanged in Winson Green on 17th
March 1885. Thomas Palmer, presumably her husband, is also on the memorial: he
died three years later.
We have received an interesting message from Arthur Smith and Rachel
Bannister:
My wife
and I have taken a keen interest in Emily over the last few years as she is one
of the main characters of our Birmingham Ghost Walk - my wife leads the walk in
the character of Emily. Henry Kimberley is 'reported' to haunt the site of the
White Hart in Paradise Street (now the site of Fletchers Walk) and was the first
person to be hanged at Winson Green Prison (it opened in 1849). We also talk
about Emily's funeral in our Crime and Punishment Walk - Emily's husband owned
several pubs in Birmingham city centre and both he and his wife were well known
- and apparently well liked. The funeral procession started at their pub in
Steelhouse Lane and went all the way to Acocks Green. The local papers heavily
reported the death, trial and funeral and the local licensed victuallers
association paid for the memorial.
Another other grave belongs to Philip Perks, a local builder,
who died in January 1933. In contrast to other graves, his is rather prominent
in black marble. However its appearance is spoiled somewhat, as it has a corner
missing due to wartime bomb damage. Some of the other splendid graves are
visible here, including the railings surrounding the grave of the Rabone family
of Stockfield House.
In an article for the Sunday Mercury in 1975, the late
journalist and historian Vivian Bird, who lived in the area, wrote about the
unmarked grave of Frederick Joseph Trevelyan Perceval, next to Philip Perks'
grave. This man was descended from Spencer Perceval, a British Prime Minister
shot dead in the House of Commons in 1812, and was the rightful 10th
Earl of Egmont. Articles appeared in Birmingham newspapers on 17th and 21st May
1932, after Frederick Perceval's death following a car crash on 16th. He had moved
back to England from Alberta in Canada after the death of his cousin, the
9th Earl. He had claimed the earldom and succeeded after legal investigations
lasting a year,
and had lived a simple life with his son at Avon Castle, Ringwood, in Hampshire.
"Father and son lived a lonely life at Avon Castle, and washed, cooked and
laundered for themselves", the Birmingham Gazette wrote. Frederick Perceval was
described as the Rancher Earl in the articles. Vivian Bird posed the
obvious question: why is the grave unmarked? There is a fascinating story
to tell, which reveals much more of an association of the Perceval family with
south Birmingham than has been hitherto recognised.
Family history researchers will be interested in the index
to the Monumental Inscriptions at St Mary's.
|
