A History of Moseley Village: Volume One

By Norman Hewston

Situated two and a half miles from the sprawl of Birmingham City, it might seem strange today to think of Moseley as the possession of royal favourites and the country retreat of entrepreneurs and the upper middle class alike; yet it was. In this first volume, A History of Moseley Village, Norman Hewston has used an eclectic variety of sources including old maps, land documents, newspaper archives, photographic records, to trace its origins from the Saxon folk who established the first hamlet here right down into the present day. Here is charted Moseley's long history of resistance to change and interference from the outside, seeking to protect and retain its own heritage and identity. Nevertheless, changes have inevitably encroached upon 'The Village' as it is still often affectionately referred to by locals and these are well documented in the wealth of pictures and illustrations throughout this book. In many ways, Moseley Village has always turned within its own orbit, quite independent from the outside world. This is due at least in part to its diverse mix and the eccentric element of its population, which has long earned the suburb the reputation of Birmingham's Bohemia. It is no mere coincidence that given the concentration of cultural interest and creativity fostered in the area, that much of the city's artistic talent has, at some time or other trodden the streets of Moseley village. Here the reader has the opportunity to unravel Moseley's past and anticipate its future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amberley Publishing
• Release date: Dec 15, 2009
• ISBN: 9781445626352

Book preview

Foreword

Most of my life I have lived in and around Moseley. Mom and Dad moved from rooms in Newton Road, Sparkhill to 26, Westlands Road just before I was born in 1956. We grew up in what was like a little village made up of Westlands, Eastlands, Southlands and Northlands Roads, along with part of Billesley Lane. Our friends lived round the corner, people like Jane Albutt, Brian Jobson, Gareth Nicholas, Trevor Smith and others, and we’d play out safely on the streets till late in the light nights. We had a poisonous brook, or so we thought, that stopped us from getting into the unknown world of Moseley Golf Club from the bottom of Northlands, and we even had our own nurse. Nurse Legge was a retired woman to whom you could always run for help and advice. To us as children, most of the neighbours were known as Mr or Mrs, and then their surname, but we were very close to Jane’s mom and she was always Aunt Nancy to us. She was a very special neighbour and a very special family friend.

The village feel locally was enhanced by our own shops. My first errand on my own was to Blenheim Stores, now Mill’s Stores, just across Billesley Lane. That’s where Mom bought some of her groceries, although she also shopped a lot down the lane, the Ladypool Road where Dad came from. There was a sweet shop alongside the stores which had a Lucky Dip. Here we could spend coppers on black jacks and fruit salads, flying saucers and kayli. On the opposite corner, across Blenheim Road itself, was Sims the greengrocer’s. When I was a toddler I loved strawberries so much that they had to cover them up when they saw Mom approaching the shop with me and Our Darryl, or else I’d be picking up all the punnets for Mom to buy.

We even had our own butcher at the end of our road, Mr Nickless, whose shop proclaimed ‘Home Killed Meat’ and a few yards away on the corner of Southlands Road was an ‘outdoor’ (off-licence). Just a bit further along Billesley Lane was Greenhill Garage, which is still providing a fine service; and then came a little sweet shop on the corner of Greenhill Road.

If we needed something other than these shops could provide, Mom would send us up Cambridge Road to the Co-op in King’s Heath Village, where we would also go for Saturday matinees at the ‘Kingsway’ to see films featuring the likes of Morecambe and Wise, and Norman Wisdom.

Our world stretched out when we started school at Moseley Church of England. This was at the old buildings, since knocked down, in School Road. It was a strange experience as my great grandfather, Richard Chinn, had gone there in the 1870s when it had been set amongst fields. As we got older, a teacher would sometimes send us into Moseley Village to fetch something for them. It’s not something you would do today. Shops I recall well are Simpson’s the fishmonger, Gascoigne’s the funeral director’s, Drucker’s with their cakes, and the Stoneleigh Dog Shop. Of course, however, the dominant building in the village was St Mary’s Church, where we had ancestors buried in the churchyard and to which we would go from school at Easter and Christmas especially.

When I was ten, Mom and Dad moved near to the Ford at the River Cole by Sarehole Mill. Technically the new address still came under Moseley, but we now felt closer to the adjoining districts of Springfield, Sparkhill and Hall Green. Still, Moseley continued to be important in our lives as Darryl and I both went on to attend Moseley Grammar and supported Moseley Rugby Club. I still live close to Moseley and I am delighted to have had the opportunity to learn more about this vibrant and distinctive district in Norman Hewston’s deeply researched book. This is a monumental work that is a tribute to Norman’s determination and vigour as a researcher. It brings together in an exciting way both text and photographs and in so doing highlights the history of a thriving modern suburb. I congratulate Norman on his achievement.

Carl Chinn MBE

Introduction

It is no easy task to write a history of a district, which has, for the most part, remained open fields and pasture until relatively recent times. Even harder is it to construct such a narrative from the often sketchy details that have survived in the public records — scant details of landowners and the faded memories of local people of bygone time — and still make the story interesting.

Whether or not I have succeeded in this endeavor is, of course, for the reader to decide. But, fortunately, the Victorian village with ancient roots has, as always, some very interesting and colorful characters to illustrate its history.

Having been a member of Moseley community for the best part of a decade, since a quarter of a century ago, like so many who have moved away, I have never forgotten the spirit, particularly at that time, of its diverse population and what the locals often referred to as the ‘Magic of Moseley’.

This was nothing you could put your finger on — that is, it was not tangible — and was something that could only be experienced by living in Moseley, not just as a visitor passing through.

In the years since my departure, images of the old village have continued to fascinate me, and as I sought after them I gradually built up a large collection of photographs and postcards of the area along with other related documentation and ephemera, much of which illustrates this book.

On setting out to gather information for this project, however, the first thing I became aware of was just how little has actually been written about Moseley compared to that of its neighboring areas. A valuable source of reference has been Alison Fairn’s A History of Moseley — this being the only other book on the subject that I am aware of. Readers familiar with that work will no doubt recognise that I have consulted many of the original sources of information that she utilised, but also there is much which was unavailable to her at the time of her writing in the early 1970s.

In her concluding chapter, ‘Moseley 1945-1970’, Miss Fairn wrote that it was too early to write up a history of Moseley in the 1970s, ‘but there was confidence that some future historian would find it deeply interesting’. It is my hope that this work will prove to be a worthy companion to hers. Another valuable source has been the Moseley Society Journal, published under several similar titles between 1891 and 1933. This was so fascinating and informative that I have given the publication its own chapter within this book.

The Moseley Trail, printed in 1986 by Birmingham Urban Studies Centers Committee, took the form, as the title suggests, of a trek on foot through the village, describing the history and architecture of the area along the way. This is a very good and effective method, which I have employed in two chapters of this book, under the titles ‘The General Development of Moseley’ and ‘The Development of the High Street’.

I would like to make mention of two other books, which perhaps complete the short list of published sources on Moseley village. They are Moseley, Balsall Heath and Highgate, compiled by Marian Baxter and Peter Drake, and, number 6 in the series, Yesterday’s Warwickshire, which dealt with Moseley and King’s Heath and was written by John Marks, although these last two publications consist chiefly of photographs and postcards, with the relevant information being conveyed in captions.

Aside from providing the reader with a fascinating history of ‘the village’, as it is still affectionately known by locals, I have attempted to describe and illustrate what has been sadly lost to the passing of time. This has been done in the hope that it will make more people aware of, amongst other things, the rich architectural