Farm is a historic estate within the former manor of Bordesley, now situated in the area of

Sparkbrook Sparkbrook is an inner-city area in south-east Birmingham, England. It is one of the four wards forming the Hall Green formal district within Birmingham City Council. Etymology The area receives its name from Spark Brook, a small stream that ...

, a suburb of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, England. It has been described as the "focal point in family mythology" for the prominent and wide-spread Lloyd family,

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

s, iron producers and founders of

Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a major British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales. It has traditionally been regarded one of the "Big Four (banking)#England and Wales, Big Four" clearing house ...

History

The former 56-acre "Owen's Farm" with an Elizabethan farmhouse in the manor of Bordesley, now in the locality of

, was purchased in 1742 by Sampson II Lloyd (1699–1779) of nearby Edgbaston Street, Birmingham, an iron-master who later in 1765 co-founded

. He was descended from the ancient family of Lloyd of Dolobran Hall in Montgomeryshire (now Powys) in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. He retained the Tudor farmhouse and built near it "Farm" an eponymous mansion house, which survives as a

grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

building known today as "Lloyd's Farmhouse, Farm Park, 139 Sampson Road, Birmingham", one of the most important of the rare surviving Georgian buildings in the city of Birmingham. An English Heritage

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

is affixed to the building. The original "Owen's Farmhouse" still stood in the grounds of the Georgian house in 1907, "a very beautiful piece of Tudor architecture", possibly then the oldest house in Birmingham. Lloyd spent most of his time in his large town house in Edgbaston Street, Birmingham, returning to Farm, his rural retreat, at weekends. Over time the location became unfashionable and surrounded by housing, and the family moved to Edgbaston Grove, a home in a more fashionable location. Farm was donated to the City in the 1920s by John Henry Lloyd (1855-1944), of Edgbaston Grove, Birmingham, Lord Mayor of Birmingham in 1901-1902 (only son of George Braithwaite Lloyd (1824-1903) by his wife Mary Hutchinson) and the grounds laid out as a public park. One of his four sons, Alan Scrivener Lloyd (d.1916), MC, broke the family tradition of pacifism and was killed in action at

Ypres Ypres ( ; ; ; ; ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality comprises the city of Ypres/Ieper ...

in World War I. It is now a regional home for the Bromford Housing Group. "Farm Park" (bounded by Sampson Road, Kendall Road, Dolobran Road and a row of terraces on Dearman Road (all names connected with the Lloyd family)) within which "Farm House" stands today, is a public park consisting of part of the former grounds of the mansion, surrounded by the densely built urban landscape of

Sources

Lloyd Family History

Leading authorities

The three main authorities on the Lloyd family are as follows:Per Lloyd, Humphrey, 1975, Preface
Lowe, Rachel J., ''Farm and its Inhabitants with Some Account of the Lloyds of Dolobran'', London, 1883

Lloyd, Samuel, ''The Lloyds of Birmingham with some Account of the Founding of Lloyd's Bank'', 2nd Edition, Birmingham & London, 1907
(The author Samuel III Lloyd (1827-1918) was the owner and occupant of Farm in 1907 (per p. 32))
Lloyd, Humphrey, ''Quaker Lloyds in the Industrial Revolution, 1660-1860'', 1975

Other sources

Gilbert, T.R., & Boothroyd, J.B., ''The Lloyds of Lloyd's Bank'', Supplement to "The Dark Horse", Lloyds Bank Staff Magazine, June, 1951, 24pp.
* Anna Lloyd (Braithwaite) Thomas (1924). ''The Quaker seekers of Wales: A story of the Lloyds of Dolobran''. * Lewys Dunn (1846), ''Heraldic Visitations of Wales and Part of the Marches'', Vol 1, pg. 294. *Rees T. M.(1925), ''A history of the Quakers in Wales and their emigration to North America'' *''Lloyd family, of Dolobran, Mont.,'' Dictionary of Welsh Biograph

* John Burke (genealogist), Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, pp. 1392-3, pedigree of ''Lloyd of Dolobran''
Burke, John, ''A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland'', Vol.4, London, 1838, pp.107-114, pedigree of "Lloyd of Dolobran"
*Dolobran Estate Records, National Library of Wales, ref: GB 0210 DOLOBRA

*Lloyd, Alan, ''Cousins' Party at the Downs School, 29th May 2004'

(esp. re later descent of Farm)

References

{{coord, 52.4650, -1.8729, display=title, region:GB_scale:2000 Houses in Birmingham, West Midlands Grade II* listed buildings in Birmingham