West Heath is a residential area of
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
on the boundary with
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
. Forming the larger part of the ward of Longbridge And West Heath it is situated between
Kings Norton
Kings Norton, alternatively King's Norton, is an area of Birmingham, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Worcestershire, it was also a Birmingham City Council ward (politics), ward within the Government of Birmingham, Engl ...
,
Northfield Northfield may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Northfield, Aberdeen, Scotland
* Northfield, Edinburgh, Scotland
* Northfield, Birmingham, England
* Northfield (Kettering BC Ward), Northamptonshire, England
United States
* Northfield, Connec ...
,
Longbridge and
Cofton Hackett
Cofton Hackett is a village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove District of north east Worcestershire, England. It is southwest of the city centre of Birmingham and northeast of Worcester. In 2011, the village had a population of 1,893 but wit ...
and lies on traditional heathland formed in the 13th century as part of the Kings Norton manorial lands, and was historically in
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
.
Based on a small village formed in the early 1900s that was originally centred on the medieval Lilley Lane, the majority of West Heath's expansion and growth took place just after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The original expansion in the 1940s and 1950s consisted of large numbers of
prefab houses, most of which were eventually replaced by permanent housing estates in the 1960s and 1970s.
There are a number of buildings in West Heath that date to the 19th century and earlier. The suburb is adjacent to rural Worcestershire and a number of public footpaths allow open access to the surrounding fields up to Hopwood, Cofton Hackett and the
Lickey Hills
The Lickey Hills (known locally as simply ''The Lickeys'') are a range of hills in Worcestershire, England, to the south-west of the centre of Birmingham near the villages of Lickey, Cofton Hackett and Barnt Green. The hills are a popular countr ...
.
History
Early history
In early Anglo-Saxon times, West Heath lay at the northernmost border of the lands of the
Hwicce
Hwicce () was a tribal kingdom in Anglo-Saxon England. According to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', the kingdom was established in 577, after the Battle of Deorham. After 628, the kingdom became a client or sub-kingdom of Mercia as a result of th ...
, a people which occupied the former territory of the British tribe, The
Dobunni
The Dobunni were one of the Iron Age tribes living in the British Isles prior to the Roman conquest of Britain. There are seven known references to the tribe in Roman histories and inscriptions.
Various historians and archaeologists have examined ...
. As part of what would become Kings Norton, West Heath was positioned slightly to the north of the boundary between two tribes, the ''Pencersaetan'' and the ''Tomsaetan''.
There is evidence of the previous presence of
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
in West Heath – in 1949, Roman coins of the reign of Emperor
Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
were unearthed in Coney Green Drive in the
Austin Village
Austin Village is a First World War housing estate of prefabs between Longbridge and Northfield, Birmingham.
Herbert Austin, who created the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge in 1905, had to take on more workers during the First World War wh ...
and there was a further discovery of coins of the reign of the Emperor
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
in 1966 in Hawkesley Drive, also in the Austin Village.
One of the earliest mentions of West Heath is in the Saxon lease of land at Coston Hackett in 849 AD detailing a grant by Worcester's Bishop
Ealhhun __NOTOC__
Ealhhun or Alhhun was a medieval Bishop of Worcester
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible f ...
to King Berhtwulf,
King of Mercia
The Kingdom of Mercia was a state in the English Midlands from the 6th century to the 10th century. For some two hundred years from the mid-7th century onwards it was the dominant member of the Heptarchy and consequently the most powerful of the ...
. West Heath and parts of Kings Norton would remain part of Coston Hackett manor estates as late as the early 20th century. West Heath was mentioned in the manorial court roll of
Bromsgrove
Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England, about northeast of Worcester and southwest of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 29,237 in 2001 (39,644 in the wider Bromsgrove/Catshill urban area). Bromsgrove is the main town in the ...
and Kings Norton in 1267 when it was recorded that "Richard de Coſton has a purpresture (i.e. an enclosure of tenants land or an enclosure of waste land) upon Westhethe, Richard de Coſton holds four acres in Westhethe and does nothing in service to the King. Alexander and Gregory de Coſton hold land in Westhethe, Master John de Aluvechurch as (sic) 1 and half acres of purpresture upon "La Westhethe" by permission of Robert de Coſton". In 1494 it was recorded that "Baldwin Lyndon – banks in ruins between Hawkesley Pole and Westhethe...fined 2d" whilst the Abbot of Bordesley was fined 8d "through defect in cleansing the banks at West Hethe". In 1596, a woman called Joan was fined 6d because "she enclosed a parcel of the King's waste at West Heath".
Turves Green was known as Turvosland in 1490 and was the site for peat-cutting for fuel. There is a layer of
peat
Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...
a few feet below the surface and deeper still are successive layers of
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
and a
coal seam
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron fro ...
and a bloomery has been discovered – this is the first form of
forge
A forge is a type of hearth used for heating metals, or the workplace (smithy) where such a hearth is located. The forge is used by the smith to heat a piece of metal to a temperature at which it becomes easier to shape by forging, or to th ...
for
smelting iron from ore leaving less bulk to transport for further smelting to refine the metal. In 1442 Turves Green had been named Le Grene Slave, Greenway Lane in 1780 and Green Lane in 1877.
During the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
West Heath was on the border between royalist
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
and parliamentary
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
and there were regular minor skirmishes and conflicts between the forces of the two opposing sides. Situated off Turves Green, Hawkesley House, which belonged to the royalist George Middlemore and his family, was besieged and seized by parliamentary forces under Colonel
Tinker Fox
Colonel John "Tinker" Fox (1610–1650), confused by some sources with the MP Thomas Fox, was a parliamentarian soldier during the English Civil War. Commanding a garrison at Edgbaston House in Warwickshire – a location that guarded the main ...
in April 1644. The Parliamentarians fortified the building but on 13 May 1645 Royalist forces under the king’s nephews
Prince Rupert
Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, (17 December 1619 (O.S.) / 27 December (N.S.) – 29 November 1682 (O.S.)) was an English army officer, admiral, scientist and colonial governor. He first came to prominence as a Royalist cavalr ...
and Prince Maurice laid siege to Hawkesley House and were joined the following day by
King Charles I who had been staying at nearby Cofton Hall. The Royalists took the house on 16 May and expelled the Parliamentary forces and razed the house to the ground. The inhabitants of West Heath would also have been aware of other clashes close by during the Civil War. Two miles away at Kings Norton Prince Rupert with eight troops of horses and 300 foot soldiers was engaged on 17 October 1642 on Kings Norton Green by a Parliamentary force of 800 foot soldiers and horsemen on its way to join the Earl of Essex at Worcester. The Royalists were routed by the Parliamentarians under Lord Willoughby Of Parham and fifty Royalist troops were killed and buried in a unmarked grave in King's Norton Churchyard. On 10 July 1643 Queen
Henrietta Maria
Henrietta Maria (french: link=no, Henriette Marie; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until Charles was executed on 30 January 1649. She wa ...
arrived in Kings Norton with 3000 horsemen, 30 companies of foot soldiers and artillery and camped there en route to Oxford where she planned to join King Charles. She passed the night in the ‘Saracen's Head’ while the location of the site where the soldiers camped is said to be where ‘The Camp’ public house is now located.
This historic association with the Civil War is marked by the naming of several roads in West Heath such as Fairfax Road, Cropredy Road, Edgehill Road and a public house named "The Cavalier" on Fairfax Rd.
William Middlemore rebuilt Hawkesley House in 1654 but by the 19th century its status was simply that of a farm house, called Hawkesley Farm, until it was demolished in 1957. A municipal block of flats – ‘Moat House’ – was built on the spot of the original Hawkesley House in 1971. The ancient moat can still be seen near Moat House.
From earliest times, what is now known as West Heath Road had been a trackway until 1796 when it was surfaced to become part of the Stourbridge to Wooten Wawen turnpike road. It remained a
turnpike
Turnpike often refers to:
* A type of gate, another word for a turnstile
* In the United States, a toll road
Turnpike may also refer to:
Roads United Kingdom
* A turnpike road, a principal road maintained by a turnpike trust, a body with powers ...
until 1820 with a toll-house at the junction of what are now Alvechurch and Redhill Roads, recorded in 1813. National censuses for the 19th century reveal that the inhabitants were principally farmers, agricultural labourers or nail-makers. West Heath formed a part of Kings Norton, linking Kings Norton isthmus-like to Rednal which was also part of the district and the area was principally used as livestock grazing land. The land was jealously guarded – in the fifteenth century, during the reign of Edward IV, the manor court ruled that "No man shall take in foreign cattle to keep on the common" and in 1641, John Brookes of Cofton Hackett was fined five shillings for keeping a great flock of sheep on the common, "being a foreigner". Alan The Bailiff in the fifteenth century, had been charged to "drive" the common two or three times a year to discover the nature of the stock being pastured there and to ensure that no-one should keep above five colts, horses or mares upon the common. Inhabitants were sometimes fined for "encroaching" (enclosing small areas) on the common although these may actually have been payments to regularise a new practice rather than a form of punishment.
After the Civil War, a Parliamentary Survey of "The Manor of Kingsesnorton" produced in 1649 because the manor "was in the hands of Parliament by reason of the seizure of the lands of King Charles I", reported that "The soil of the heaths, wastes, and commons called.... West Heath, and the archery (and all of them do contain in the whole by estimate of 3,000 acres or thereabouts) are the lord's and the trees thereon growing and "the bitt" belong to the tenants".
By the 19th century there was considerable local poverty and those who lived on Cofton Common were described as "
peasant
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...
s" in a reminiscence of Alice Impey who lived at Longbridge House and who recalled that when someone died there it was necessary for her father to send a cart for the body to be taken to Cofton Church and buried in the pauper's section of the graveyard.
Nail making in West Heath
Apart from agriculture, nail making was the most notable industry in 19th century West Heath. Numbers of nailers in West Heath are included in figures for Northfield and in the whole district there were 122 employed in the industry in 1831. However the industry was already in decline – in 1841 there were 74 nailers and in 1884 there were only twenty three with only seven in West Heath. Nailers' workshops were present at Groveley, West Heath and Turves Green; the latter was still the site of hand-made nail production by Mr. Withers in Oak Tree Cottages as late as 1910 although the factory of The Patent Hob Nail & Rivet Company had been opened in Station Road in 1900. The nailers' workshops were usually little lean-to sheds built against the sides of the cottages with a brick-built small furnace.
20th century residents
As well drained open heath land, the area was not developed as a residential area until the early 1900s, containing only a few scattered agricultural buildings and latterly one or two grand houses in the Lilley Lane area. In 1907 Kelly's Directory Of Birmingham records that several middle class residents were living in the larger houses of West Heath including two professors of chemistry at the new
University of Birmingham
, mottoeng = Through efforts to heights
, established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...
–
Percy Faraday Frankland
Percy Faraday Frankland CBE FRS (3 October 1858 – 28 October 1946) was a British chemist.
He was the second son and youngest child of Edward Frankland, chemist, and Sophie Fick, sister of Adolf Eugen Fick. He was born at 42 Park Road, Haversto ...
F.R.S. (son of Edward Frankland, an eminent scientist who discovered chemical valency and also godson of the famous physicist,
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic inducti ...
) lived at The Dell and
Adrian John Brown
Adrian John Brown, FRS (27 April 1852 – 2 July 1919) was a British Professor of Malting and Brewing at the University of Birmingham and a pioneer in the study of enzyme kinetics.
He was born at Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire to Edwin Brown, ...
F.R.S. (whose chair at the university was actually that of Malting and Brewing and who became a pioneer in
enzyme kinetics
Enzyme kinetics is the study of the rates of enzyme-catalysed chemical reactions. In enzyme kinetics, the reaction rate is measured and the effects of varying the conditions of the reaction are investigated. Studying an enzyme's kinetics in th ...
) who lived with his family in West Heath House, which was the largest residence in the village but was demolished to make way for an Elderly Person's Home, situated at the junction of Alvechurch Road and Cofton Road. The replacement 1950's building was closed and demolished in 2016 and a newly built, 3 storey, 80 bedroom Residential Home, called "Austin Rose", was opened in Autumn 2017.
Groveley Hall: The earliest building on the site probably dated back to 1530 and had been a religious institution belonging to Westbury College in Bristol but it had been confiscated as a result of The Reformation and handed to
Sir Ralph Sadler
Sir Ralph Sadler or Sadleir PC, Knight banneret (1507 – 30 March 1587) was an English statesman, who served Henry VIII as Privy Councillor, Secretary of State and ambassador to Scotland. Sadler went on to serve Edward VI. Having signed the d ...
, Secretary of State to King Henry VIII, in 1536. In 1548 the property was bought by John Coombes and later by John Lyttleton and after 1600 by Francis Heaton. In the early nineteenth century the house belonged to Robert Middleton Biddulph from whose family John Merry obtained the property around 1820. It passed through the Merry family, eventually being purchased by Ambrose Biggs, a tobacco manufacturer and merchant who was also a mayor of Birmingham, in 1872. Biggs was declared bankrupt in 1883, at which point the estate was purchased by Joseph Billing Baldwin, paper maker of Kings Norton. The property remained in the Baldwin family until 1937. It became the home of Robert Jolly, a physician, and his wife Fanny (Joseph B. Baldwin's daughter), and Baldwin's son Major James Baldwin (d.1922). Neither Fanny nor James had children. Fanny left the property to the National Trust in her will, intending it to be a holiday home for distressed gentlefolk. The nearby Dingle Farm, formerly the farm house serving the Groveley estate, remains in National Trust hands as a private property.
Elsewhere in West Heath, Lieutenant Meynell Hunt lived at Groveley House. The only houses on Cofton Common which are mentioned in the Directory were both owned by women – Mrs. Higgins at Fern Bank and Mrs. Avery.
The surname Hobbis had been particularly common in the area in the 19th century and people with that name included farmers, agricultural workers and (in Kings Norton village) the publican of the inn, The Plumber's Arms, but no-one named Hobbis is listed in the 1907 Directory as owning property in West Heath although a small piece of land in what is now Alvechurch Road was known as Hobbis' Piece and was then owned by Adam Webb, chief clerk in an assurance company, another solid middle class inhabitant of that time in West Heath.
The only farmer recorded to be living in Turves Green in the late nineteenth century censuses was Thomas Morris, born in 1865, but in 1907 he was mentioned in Kelly's Directory as either living at Longbridge or Staple Old Road.
In 1874, the Impey family moved from Edgbaston to Longbridge House, which had been Prince Rupert's headquarters during the siege of Hawlesley House in 1645 during the Civil War. Frederick Impey was a partner in Messrs White and Pikes which owned a printing works in Moor Street in Birmingham and which was developing a method of colour printing on to tin. Impey opened a factory in the area to carry out this process but it was burned down in 1900 and not reopened.
Herbert Austin
Herbert Austin, 1st Baron Austin (8 November 186623 May 1941) was an English automobile designer and builder who founded the Austin Motor Company. For the majority of his career he was known as Sir Herbert Austin, and the Northfield bypass ...
subsequently bought the site to build a premises for motor car manufacture. In 1910, the Impeys moved to "The Island", a large house in West Heath situated between Turves Green and West Heath Road, but moved away when Frederick Impey died in 1920. Like the
Cadbury family
The Cadbury family is a wealthy British family of Quaker industrialists descending from Richard Tapper Cadbury.
* Richard Tapper Cadbury (1768–1860) draper and abolitionist, who financed his sons' start-up business
** John Cadbury (1801–1889 ...
who lived in neighbouring Northfield, the Impeys were
Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
and as well as being important developers of local industry, showed considerable interest in improving the lot of their factory workers.
The first post office in West Heath was opened on 5 June 1892 although the 1891 census records a rural postman, John Cook, to be living in West Heath. Mail was cancelled with the village's name by the use of a rubber canceller. The first postmaster of West Heath was William A. Jarvis who was recorded in the 1901 English census as also being a grocer at 37 West Heath Lane, the post office having been opened at that address in 1899 in the newly built "West Villas" and this coincided with the post office becoming a money office and savings bank on 1 May of that year. Jarvis's wife, Sarah, was described as "Postmistress" in 1901 and Jarvis remained the postmaster until 1912 by which time West Heath Lane had been renamed as Alvechurch Road and West Villas had been allocated the address of no. 53 Alvechurch Road. West Heath post office's status changed from that of rural post office to a town sub-post office on 20 August 1916. It continues to operate but with very limited services.
Hospital
West Heath Hospital was established as an infectious diseases hospital in 1889, became a tuberculosis hospital in 1910 and was refocused as a geriatric hospital in 1980.
Expansion
In 1900 visitors arriving via Northfield railway station could visit the skating rink on West Heath Road next to the bridge over the
river Rea
The River Rea (pronounced "ray") is a small river which passes through Birmingham, England. It is the river on which Birmingham was founded by the Beorma tribe in the 7th century. Since 2012, TA Media had obtained the rights and access to th ...
. Unfortunately the skating rink was used during the First World War as a munitions factory and following an accident the rink was destroyed by fire.
In the 1930s small terraced houses that were built along Alvechurch Road and Sir Hilton's Road, and slightly grander semi-detached and detached houses, along West Heath Road and Redditch Road began to change the traditional rural nature of West Heath. The newer high density housing estates built two decades later would complete the change.
The rapid expansion of West Heath and its transition from open farm land to residential suburb of Birmingham had commenced in the years immediately after the Second World War when several extensive estates of pre-fab houses were quickly erected to house returning servicemen and families made homeless during wartime bombing raids.
Another notable building of the area was ''The Bath Tub'' open air lido (now demolished), opened on 1 July 1937 in Alvechurch Road, where 20,000 people had gathered to watch the opening ceremony by
Gracie Fields
Dame Gracie Fields (born Grace Stansfield; 9 January 189827 September 1979) was an English actress, singer, comedian and star of cinema and music hall who was one of the top ten film stars in Britain during the 1930s and was considered the h ...
with
Mantovani
Annunzio Paolo Mantovani (; 15 November 1905 – 29 March 1980) was an Anglo-Italian conductor, composer and light orchestra-styled entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature.
The book ''British Hit Singles & Albums'' stat ...
and his orchestra and the M.P. for Northfield and Kings Norton,
Ronald Cartland
Major John Ronald Hamilton Cartland (3 January 1907 – 30 May 1940) was a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for King's Norton in Birmingham from 1935 until he was killed in action, aged 33. He was the ...
, the brother of
Dame Barbara Cartland, the novelist. The lido which had been built by Percy Hollier who intended it to be "Birmingham's brightest entertainment spot" and which included a 180 feet by 90 feet sized swimming pool as well as a putting green, lawn for archery and a children's playground, only operated for 3 years and was closed due to commercial failure. Laughtons took over the site with
Eddystone Radio during the war when its rural location helped it to avoid attack by German air raids. The lido site is now covered by a housing estate. There is also the art deco Man On The Moon pub on Redditch Road, which was built in 1937 (originally as The Man In The Moon but the name was changed in 1969 to commemorate the first moon landing).
Prior to 1938, when a school was opened in
Turves Green, children had attended St. Anne's Church School in West Heath. The headmistress of that school, Miss Mary Davies, was appointed to be headmistress at Turves Green where a junior school was first opened and then, in 1939, a school for seniors.
A Catholic Primary School linked to the parish of St. John Fisher was opened in Alvechurch Road on 5 September 1961 on the remaining part of an industrial estate next to Hobbis' Piece to accommodate the large number of local children of Irish Catholic origin (at the time 60% of children attending the school passed their summer holidays in Ireland). A tree was donated to the school by the Birmingham Tree Lovers charity but was cut down in 2010 to make way for a car par
In the 1950s the population of West Heath continued to increase and change considerably. Working-class families who had lived in central Birmingham in old unsuitable properties which were to be demolished and a considerable number of Irish immigrant families settled in the new homes on the newly built council estates around Cofton Common and the land between it and Turves Green. Local work was plentiful, especially at the Austin Motor Works at Longbridge and, for the women, at Cadbury's chocolate factory in Bournville or the Kalamazoo paper factory in Longbridge, which had been moved to the area by Oliver Morland and F. Paul Impey in 1913 from central Birmingham.
West Heath today
Services
![Phoenix prefab](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Phoenix_prefab.jpg)
West Heath has a small, somewhat neglected shopping area in Alvechurch Road and there is an Art Deco building which previously housed a Co-Operative store which closed in 2018. Other facilities include a Chinese Food Takeaway shop, a Fish and Chip shop, a sandwich shop, an undertaker's, a dry cleaner's, two pharmacies and an optician's shop. The post office with very limited services is still located at "West Villas" on Alvechurch Road. There is a “Tesco Express” supermarket located in the building which previously housed “The Fordrough” public house.
Located on West Heath Road is a primary health care centre, built in 2011, replacing the former surgery which had been situated in a 1930s detached house neighbouring the previous residence of a former general practitioner, Dr Anthony (Antek) Bobak who had set up his practice in 1954. Another general practitioner's surgery, that of Dr. Shan, was located for many years in Alvechurch Road.
A children's nursery is also located in West Heath Roa
There are other doctors' surgeries and nurseries in the area. West Heath Hospital is located in Rednal Roa
and nearby, in Ivyhouse Road, there is a rehabilitation hospital for people with brain injury
There are two elderly persons' homes, primary schools, a community centre in Hampstead House (a second community centre, Oddingley Hall, is actually situated in Kings Norton), recreation grounds and other basic facilities.
West Heath library, previously situated near the former Fordrough public house off West Heath Road, was closed by
Birmingham City Council
Birmingham City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local council area in the United Kingdom (e ...
in January 2014 despite a vigorous local community-based campaign to fight the closure. More than 110 local residents attended a public protest outside the library building on 12 April 2014 to further the aims of the campaign against closure. At the meeting the local Labour councillor strenuously reassured the campaigners that a local library service would continue but an announcement by Labour-run Birmingham City Council, made in mid-February 2016, revealed that plans for a new building had been withdrawn and that a library may be opened in the future elsewhere. Subsequently, on 9 April 2016, a rally of 50 people including the Member of Parliament for Northfield, the Leader of Birmingham City Council and the three Northfield City Councillors, was held at the site of the old West Heath library to call for a new building to be constructed on this site but nothing came of this. The area is now served by a weekly mobile library service but there is a move to relocate some library facilities to the West Heath Community Centre at Hampstead House.
Before moving to the Fordrough, there was a library situated next to St Anne's Church in a prefabricated building on Lilley Lane.
Events
For many years an annual West Heath Flower And Produce Show was held at the beginning of September. It was originally held at St. Anne's Church Hall but from the 77th Show in 2011 it was located in Hampstead House in Condover Road, West Heath's Community Centre. The holding of the annual Flower And Produce Show has now been discontinued. There is an annual West Heath Art Exhibition held at Hampstead House.
An annual summer fete for the local community is held in June at Hampstead House.
An annual West Heath Beer and Cider festival is held at Hampstead House usually in late September or early October.
The ‘Velo Birmingham 2019’ cycling event passed through West Heath on 13 May 2019 when cyclists rode through the area along Rednal Road, up Lilley Lane, around West Heath green and along Cofton Road and Groveley Lane. The same event was to have taken place in 2020 but was cancelled because of the
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
pandemic.
The area
There is a green which forms an island around which the roads from Kings Norton to Rednal and Northfield to Alvechurch pass and at the centre of which is a large and old oak tree. The green is planted with bulbs which provide a colourful display in spring. On either side of the green are St. John Fisher church and St. Anne's church as well as a residential home for the elderly and new housing. There is also a very large oak tree situated at the corner of Longbridge Lane and Groveley Lane which has been named "The Cofton Oak" and which was the subject of a campaign to preserve it when it was threatened by plans to have it removed.
Council estates were constructed after 1945, both at West Heath and Turves Green. Both areas feature a large number of
terraces and
semi-detached
A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single family duplex dwelling house that shares one common wall with the next house. The name distinguishes this style of house from detached houses, with no shared walls, and terraced house ...
houses with some
Tower block
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building
A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently ...
s at Fairfax Road which latterly have become known as 'The Poets' Blocks', each being named after a famous British poet (Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Tennyson). The first flats to be built in West Heath were 3 six storey blocks in Turves Green constructed in 1952 by Deeley for the then Birmingham County Borough Council in an Art Deco style. The three blocks, Oxford House, Aylesbury House and Buckingham House, were demolished in 1999.
A high-density private estate was built on the former grounds of West Heath Hospital. Turves Green at one time had nine residential towers, several blocks of low-rise flats, and an estate of pre-fabricated bungalows and brick semi-detached houses, known as the
Austin Village
Austin Village is a First World War housing estate of prefabs between Longbridge and Northfield, Birmingham.
Herbert Austin, who created the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge in 1905, had to take on more workers during the First World War wh ...
, which was built in 1916 to house First World War munitions workers. The Austin Village has been a Conservation area from the early 1990s but in 2019 Birmingham City Council decided to withdraw its special status though it has extended the time allowed for an appeal against this decision in the face of a campaign led by the Austin Village Preservation Society.
West Heath Park is located at the north-east boundary of West Heath with Kings Norton. Amenities include children's recreation facilities and football pitches and nearby is Oddingley Hall, the second of West Heath's Community centres, though this is located in Kings Norton.
Cofton Park
Cofton Park () is a park located in south Birmingham, England.
History
The 135 acres of land was acquired by Birmingham City Council in 1933 for £10,640 (equivalent to £ in ), from the trustees for William Walter Hinde. In his will, he bequ ...
, where
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...
attended a service for the beatification of Cardinal
John Henry Newman
John Henry Newman (21 February 1801 – 11 August 1890) was an English theologian, academic, intellectual, philosopher, polymath, historian, writer, scholar and poet, first as an Anglican ministry, Anglican priest and later as a Catholi ...
on 19 September 2010, is situated within the boundaries of the Longbridge and West Heath electoral ward. Various public events are held in the park including, annually, the Longbridge Pride event which celebrates the heritage of the Longbridge motor works.
Governance
Historical
Historically, in the Middle Ages West Heath was part of the upper division of Halfshire
Hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.
In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...
that also contained
Bromsgrove
Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England, about northeast of Worcester and southwest of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 29,237 in 2001 (39,644 in the wider Bromsgrove/Catshill urban area). Bromsgrove is the main town in the ...
,
Coston Hackett,
Dodderhill
Dodderhill is a civil parish, near Droitwich, Worcestershire, England, located on the River Salwarpe. The parish is bisected by the M5 motorway, constructed in 1962. It is home to the Droitwich transmitting station in Wychbold.
History
One o ...
,
Doverdale
Doverdale is a small village and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, to the west of Droitwich. It has a parish church. Doverdale Manor is one of largest properties in the village and is grade II listed.
Since 1973 there has been a combine ...
,
Droitwich
Droitwich Spa (often abbreviated to Droitwich ) is an historic spa town in the Wychavon district in northern Worcestershire, England, on the River Salwarpe. It is located approximately south-west of Birmingham and north-east of Worcester.
The ...
,
Elmbridge,
Feckenham
Feckenham is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Redditch in Worcestershire, England. It lies some south-west of the town of Redditch and some east of the city of Worcester. It had a population of 670 in the 2001 census and its immed ...
,
Hadsor,
Hampton Lovett
Hampton Lovett is a village and civil parish in the Wychavon district of the county of Worcestershire, England. It is just north of Droitwich.
The church of St. Mary and All Saints is noted for its Norman features. English Heritage lists the c ...
,
Kington,
Kings Norton
Kings Norton, alternatively King's Norton, is an area of Birmingham, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Worcestershire, it was also a Birmingham City Council ward (politics), ward within the Government of Birmingham, Engl ...
,
Northfield Northfield may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Northfield, Aberdeen, Scotland
* Northfield, Edinburgh, Scotland
* Northfield, Birmingham, England
* Northfield (Kettering BC Ward), Northamptonshire, England
United States
* Northfield, Connec ...
,
Salwarpe
Salwarpe is a small village and civil parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, England, less than two miles south west of Droitwich, but in open country. The name is also spelled Salwarp, and in the time of John Leland was recorded as S ...
,
Tardebigge
Tardebigge () is a village in Worcestershire, England.
The village is most famous for the Tardebigge Locks, a flight of 30 canal locks that raise the Worcester and Birmingham Canal over over the Lickey Ridge. It lies in the county of Worcester ...
and
Upton Warren
Upton Warren is a village and civil parish in the Wychavon district, in Worcestershire, England. The village is situated just off the A38 road between Bromsgrove and Droitwich Spa, and on the River Salwarpe. In the 2001 census, the parish, whic ...
. However, West Heath was incorporated in the City of Birmingham in 1911 when the Kings Norton and Northfield Urban District Council was abolished.
Westminster
The area is in the Birmingham Northfield parliamentary constituency and is represented by Gary Sambrook (
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
) who was elected on 12 December 2019.
Birmingham City Council
West Heath is represented on Birmingham City Council as part of the Ward of Longbridge And West Heath by two councillors:- Deborah Clancy (Conservative), re-elected 5 May 2022, and Ron Storer (Conservative), elected 5 May 2022.
Prior to May 2018 West Heath, apart from a small part at the southern edge from 2004, was represented on Birmingham City Council by the three Northfield councillors. Notable previous councillors from 1973 when local government boundaries had been considerably altered include Neil Scrimshaw who died in office to be succeeded by his wife, Margaret Scrimshaw (1984-1996 and 1999-2004), Reg Corns (1973-1994, re-elected 2000-15), Les Lawrence (1982-1995 and 1998-2012), Randal Brew (2004-2018 and previously Councillor for Longbridge,
Lord Mayor of Birmingham
This is a list of the mayors and lord mayors of Birmingham in the West Midlands of England.
Birmingham has had a mayor (and elected council) since 1838. The office was raised to the dignity of lord mayor when Queen Victoria issued letters pa ...
2007-8) and
Edwina Currie
Edwina Currie (' Cohen; born 13 October 1946) is a British writer, broadcaster and former politician, serving as Conservative Party Member of Parliament for South Derbyshire from 1983 until 1997. She was a Junior Health Minister for two years ...
(1975-1986, later Member of Parliament for South Derbyshire and government minister and famously mistress of Prime Minister
John Major
Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997, and as Member of Parliament ...
).
As part of the reorganisation of representation on Birmingham council, the Local Government Boundary Commission England released a report on 15 December 2015 which proposed that West Heath become a ward of the city with a single councillor to represent it. The suggested boundaries excluded West Heath village on Alvechurch Road from the proposed West Heath ward along with West Heath parish church, West Heath post office, West Heath Community Centre in Hampstead House, the site of the now closed West Heath library and West Heath medical centre. The village itself and the sites mentioned were all to be placed in a ward titled "Northfield East". It was proposed "Northfield East" be renamed "West Heath North" to reflect the reality that otherwise West Heath's most important sites would not be included in a ward named "West Heath". In response the Local Government Boundary Commission for England recommended on 10 May 2016 that the new wards be named "West Heath North" and "West Heath South" respectively but a final submission combined the two with part of Longbridge in a large ward with 2 councillors to be called "Longbridge and West Heath". The new ward stretches from Cofton Park in the south to West Heath Park in the north and includes West Heath village, Longbridge town centre, the Austin village, Cofton Primary School, Albert Bradbeer School, the Turves Green Schools, West Heath Primary School and St. John Fisher Roman Catholic School along with Bournville College (in Longbridge), St. Anne's Church, St. John Fisher Church and St. John The Baptist Church in Longbridge. The ward also includes Longbridge railway station, West Heath Community Centre, West Heath Hospital and notable buildings including the old railway workers cottages along Station Road, the old nailers cottage in Turves Green and The Man On The Moon public house. The ward is the most southerly in Birmingham.
Geography
Geology
West Heath is built on a well-drained stretch of gravel and sand that had been laid down under a prehistoric shallow sea and enriched by sediments from ice age glaciers. The natural heath land had grown on a flatter area between the nearby
Lickey Hills
The Lickey Hills (known locally as simply ''The Lickeys'') are a range of hills in Worcestershire, England, to the south-west of the centre of Birmingham near the villages of Lickey, Cofton Hackett and Barnt Green. The hills are a popular countr ...
and Redhill. The Lickey Hills area includes a wide
geological
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Eart ...
range of
rocks
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks form the Earth's ...
of various ages. The
stratigraphic
Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks.
Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithostra ...
sequence, which is the basis for the area's diversity of
landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
and
habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
, comprises:
*Barnt Green rocks –
Precambrian
The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...
tuff
Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...
s and
volcanic
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...
grits
Grits are a type of porridge made from boiled cornmeal. Hominy grits are a type of grits made from hominy – corn that has been treated with an alkali in a process called nixtamalization, with the pericarp (ovary wall) removed. Grits are oft ...
*Lickey Quartzite – a
Cambrian
The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized C with bar, Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million ...
quartzite
Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...
*
Keele
Keele is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It is approximately three miles (5 km) west of Newcastle-under-Lyme, and is close to the village of Silverdale. Keele lies on the A53 ro ...
Clay – a
Carboniferous
The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
*
Rubery
Rubery is a village in the Bromsgrove District and a suburb of Birmingham in the counties of Worcestershire and West Midlands, England. It is from Birmingham city centre and a similar distance from Bromsgrove.
Rubery was built on a sandstone q ...
sandstone – a fossiliferous sandstone of lower
Silurian
The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozo ...
age
*
Clent Breccia
Haffield Breccia, or Clent Breccia, (now known as the Haffield and Clent Formations)
consist of a texturally immature compacted gravel, rich in volcanic clasts with some sedimentary rocks, in a sandy or muddy matrix, which outcrops in the English ...
– a
Permian
The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleoz ...
breccia
Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix.
The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of di ...
*
Bunter Pebble Beds –
bed
A bed is an item of furniture that is used as a place to sleep, rest, and relax.
Most modern beds consist of a soft, cushioned mattress on a bed frame. The mattress rests either on a solid base, often wood slats, or a sprung base. Many beds ...
s of
Triassic
The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...
water-worn
pebble
A pebble is a clast of rock with a particle size of based on the Udden-Wentworth scale of sedimentology. Pebbles are generally considered larger than granules ( in diameter) and smaller than cobbles ( in diameter). A rock made predominant ...
s
The subsoil layers under West Heath and Turves Green also contains a coal seam that would indicate that a prehistoric tropical forest once existed here.
Waterways
The
River Rea
The River Rea (pronounced "ray") is a small river which passes through Birmingham, England. It is the river on which Birmingham was founded by the Beorma tribe in the 7th century. Since 2012, TA Media had obtained the rights and access to th ...
runs through West Heath on its way from its source to the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
.
The river rises in
Waseley Hills Country Park
Waseley Hills Country Park is a Country Park and Local Nature Reserve owned and managed by Worcestershire County Council's Countryside Service.
It consists of rolling open hills with old hedgerows, pastures and small pockets of woodland wit ...
and after dropping 70 metres in the first mile passes through West Heath and onwards to Kings Norton,
Selly Oak
Selly Oak is an industrial and residential area in south-west Birmingham, England. The area gives its name to Selly Oak ward and includes the neighbourhoods of: Bournbrook, Selly Park, and Ten Acres. The adjoining wards of Edgbaston and Harborn ...
and
Digbeth in the centre of Birmingham. Near
Gravelly Hill Interchange
The Gravelly Hill Interchange, popularly known as Spaghetti Junction, is a road junction in Birmingham, England. It is junction 6 of the M6 motorway where it meets the A38(M) Aston Expressway in the Gravelly Hill area of Birmingham. The inter ...
, about 14 miles from its source, the Rea becomes a tributary of the River Tame and its waters eventually discharge into the North Sea via later connections with the River Trent and eventually the Humber Estuary.
Although now often reduced to a sluggish trickle, due to changes in agricultural usage and other demands, the River Rea was once a major waterway and served several working mills in West Heath and provided water for the skating rink and open air lido (now both demolished).
Roads
The A441 Redditch Road, which runs between
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
and
Redditch
Redditch is a town, and local government district, in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district has a population of 85,000 as of 2019. In the 19th century, it became the international centre for the ...
, passes to the East, and the
A38 Bristol Road South, which runs between
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
and
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
and eventually
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
, passes to the West. The
M42 and
M5 Motorways are also close, providing national connections.
Demography
As part of the Northfield ward there are no separate demographic figures for West Heath.
In the 2011 UK census the total population of the Northfield constituency was about 101,400 living in approximately 43,000 households (in the 2001 census, approximately 25,000 people were resident in the Northfield ward, the population density being about 45 persons per hectare compared with an average of around 36.5 for Birmingham as a whole). In 2001 Northfield ward had an approximate average age of 39 compared with 36 for the city as a whole. The total population of Northfield constituency had increased by 3.5% between 2001 and 2011. In 2011, 15.1% of the population of Northfield constituency was aged 65 years and over compared with 12.9% for Birmingham as a whole.
In 2011, the White ethnic group accounted for 85.8% of the population (in 2001, 94% of all residents were White). In 2011, 4.2% of the population was recorded as being Asian in origin while in 2001, 1.5% were recorded as being of Asian Pakistani origin. Around 4.4% of the population was recorded as Black in 2011 (1.5% in 2001). The 2011 Census recorded that 8.5% of the population of Northfield had been born overseas compared with figures of 22.2% for Birmingham and 13.8% for England. In 2011, 1.8% of the population of Northfield did not speak English as their first language compared with 7.5% for the whole of Birmingham
In 2011, 60.7% of the population of Northfield (compared with 46.1% of the population of Birmingham) recorded that they were Christians, 28.5% recorded that they adhered to no religion (19.3% of Birmingham population), 6.8% did not state their religion (28.5%) and 2.3% described themselves as Muslims (21.8% of Birmingham population).
In 2011, 67.7% of the population of Northfield were economically active compared with 64.2% of the population of Birmingham while the unemployment rate in Northfield was 6.2% compared with 9.4% for Birmingham as a whole.
Economy
The early 1970s were difficult times for many of the West Heath inhabitants who worked at the motor works in Longbridge because of the severe industrial unrest which prevailed then with its accompanying "wildcat" strikes.
Derek Robinson – "Red Robbo" – at one time lived in Alvechurch Road and he was generally seen as one of the principal leaders of the industrial action that was frequently taken against the management of the company that was then known as British Leyland.
With so many local people working at the
motor works at the time the factory was of great economic importance to West Heath and there was even a pub on Longbridge Lane which was called "The Jolly Fitter" which depicted a happy-looking motor worker on its pub sign.
Since the closure of the Longbridge motor works there is little in the way of major industry in the area and West Heath serves as a dormitory area for central Birmingham.
There is a small industrial estate in Lightning Way off Alvechurch Road including a company which manufactures glass products, a local speciality.
Landmarks
*Man on the Moon Public House – This public house was built in 1937 and its name was changed from The Man In The Moon to its present name after the first manned lunar landing.
Education
* West Heath Primary School
* West Heath Junior School
* Cofton Junior and Infant
* Albert Bradbeer Junior and Infant
* St John Fisher Catholic Primary School.
*
Turves Green Boys' School
Turves Green Boys' School is a secondary school in the West Heath area of Birmingham, England. It is approximately 80 years old. The school is an all-boys school with Technology College and Humanities College status. It received Technology Col ...
*
King Edward VI Northfield School for Girls
King Edward VI Northfield School for Girls (formerly Turves Green Girls' School) is a secondary school located on Turves Green in the Northfield area of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England.
Previously a foundation school administered ...
Religious sites
![St John Fisher Roman Catholic Church, West Heath - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/St_John_Fisher_Roman_Catholic_Church%2C_West_Heath_-_geograph.org.uk_-_151873.jpg)
* St John Fisher Catholic Church – The large influx of Irish people in the 1950s led to the establishment of the Catholic parish of
St. John Fisher on 30 September 1956 with first masses being held by Father Philip Smith at Turves Green Girls School and afterwards at Archbishop Masterson Girl's School. Father Philip Smith cut the first turf on the land for a new church on 5 March 1962 and Archbishop Grimshaw laid the foundation stone on 25 June 1962 with the church being opened on 31 March 1964 and consecrated on 22 June 1972, the feast of St. John Fisher. The building was designed by the architect E. Bower Norris. Until it sustained damage and was removed in 2008 there was a large wooden sculpture of St. John Fisher dressed as Bishop of Rochester, sculpted by
Jonah Jones
Jonah Jones (born Robert Elliott Jones; December 31, 1909 – April 29, 2000) was a jazz trumpeter who created concise versions of jazz and swing and jazz standards that appealed to a mass audience. In the jazz community, he is known for his wo ...
(1919–2004), attached to the front of the church but it has now been replaced by the pattern of a cross in brick. The large Catholic population in West Heath amounts to about 900 families living in the area in 2010.
* St Anne's Church – The Anglican Parish of
St. Anne
According to Christianity, Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Gospel#Canonical gospels, canonical gospels. ...
covers a geographically small area with St. Anne's Church at the centre, the building consisting of the old church, called "The Mission Church" until 1942, which was built in 1900 and opened by the Bishop of Worcester on 1 December 1900 and now used as the church hall, and the new church. Work on the building of the new church began in 1968 with the consecration of St Anne's Church and St Francis’ Chapel taking place on 4 October 1974, St Francis’ Day. West Heath became the Benefice of West Heath in the Deanery of Kings Norton in 1966. The architects of the new church were Harvey and Wicks.
* St Nicholas Church – Prior to the building of St. Anne's, the medieval church of
St. Nicholas
Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-day Demre ...
in Kings Norton, had served West Heath as the parish church. Cofton Common lay within the parish of
St. Michael's Church at Cofton Hackett.
Sports clubs and recreation
* West Heath Football Club, West Heath Park – founded 2014 - Leisure Leagues Rubery Division 1
* West Heath Snooker Club, Unit 8 Lightning Way
* West Heath Community Centre, Condover Road
Transport
Buses
The suburb is served by several buses operated by
National Express West Midlands
National Express West Midlands (NXWM) is a bus operator in the West Midlands that operates services in Birmingham, Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton, and Solihull, as well as limited routes outside of the general area of Birmingham, su ...
, Kev's Cars and Coaches which serve several destinations including
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
City Centre (45),
Northfield Northfield may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Northfield, Aberdeen, Scotland
* Northfield, Edinburgh, Scotland
* Northfield, Birmingham, England
* Northfield (Kettering BC Ward), Northamptonshire, England
United States
* Northfield, Connec ...
and
Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Edgbaston (46), Allen's Cross, Rubery and Rednal (42) &
Solihull
Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe i ...
(49).
Rail
Northfield railway station
Northfield railway station serves the Northfield area of Birmingham, England. It is situated on the Cross-City Line, and is managed by West Midlands Trains, who also operate all of the rail services that serve it.
History
The station was open ...
on the
Cross-City Line
The Cross-City Line is a commuter rail line in the West Midlands region of England. It runs for from Redditch and Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, its two southern termini, to Lichfield, Staffordshire, its northern terminus, via Birmingham New ...
is located at the north end of West Heath, with trains operating to
Redditch
Redditch is a town, and local government district, in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district has a population of 85,000 as of 2019. In the 19th century, it became the international centre for the ...
,
Bromsgrove
Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England, about northeast of Worcester and southwest of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 29,237 in 2001 (39,644 in the wider Bromsgrove/Catshill urban area). Bromsgrove is the main town in the ...
,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
&
Lichfield
Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west o ...
at a 10 to 20 minute frequency during peak times.
Longbridge railway station
Longbridge railway station serves the Longbridge area in the south-west of Birmingham, England. It is on the Cross City Line. The station and all trains calling there are operated by West Midlands Trains.
History
Two previous stations serving ...
is located inside the Longbridge and West Heath ward close to Longbridge town centre and the Austin Village.
Notable people
*
Mike Skinner – the musician aka
The Streets
The Streets are an English music project led by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Skinner.
The project has released six studio albums: ''Original Pirate Material'' (2002), ''A Grand Don't Come for Free'' (2004), ''The Hardest Way to M ...
lived in and was raised in West Heath.
*
Freddie Farrell – Comic. Lived in and was raised in West Heath.
*
Ian Lavender
Arthur Ian Lavender (born 16 February 1946) is an English stage, film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Private Pike in the BBC sitcom ''Dad's Army'', and is the last surviving major cast member of the series following the ...
– actor of
Dad's Army
''Dad's Army'' is a British television British sitcom, sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard (United Kingdom), Home Guard during the World War II, Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft (TV producer), David Crof ...
fame (
Private Frank Pike) lived in Harpers Road in West Heath. In the TV show he wore the claret and blue scarf depicting a loyalty to his real life favourite local football team
Aston Villa
Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...
).
*
Dame Barbara Cartland – it is sometimes stated that the romantic novelist who had been born in Augustus Road, Edgbaston, lived in West Heath but no published evidence is available to support this belief. It is possible that her family moved to West Heath, less affluent than Edgbaston, temporarily after her grandfather's suicide in 1903 which followed his bankruptcy and the family's consequent loss of wealth.
*
Reverend Wilbert Vere Awdry – creator of "
Thomas The Tank Engine
Thomas the Tank Engine is an anthropomorphised fictional tank locomotive in the British ''Railway Series'' books by Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher, published from 1945. He became the most popular and famous character in the series, a ...
", was curate at St. Anne's West Heath from 1940 to 1946. It was during this period of his life that Awdry first told a railway story to his son Christopher in 1943 and published his first railway story, "The Three Railway Engines", in 1945. Awdry also held services at the Epiphany Church in the Austin Village.
*
Bruce Chatwin
Charles Bruce Chatwin (13 May 194018 January 1989) was an English travel writer, novelist and journalist. His first book, ''In Patagonia'' (1977), established Chatwin as a travel writer, although he considered himself instead a storyteller, ...
– as a young child during World War II, the novelist and travel writer often lived for periods in West Heath at the home of his widowed paternal grandmother, Isobel Chatwin, who lived at 198 West Heath Road. His uncle sometimes took him to sail boats he had built at nearby
Barnt Green
Barnt Green is a village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove District of Worcestershire, England, situated south of Birmingham city centre, with a population at the 2011 census of 1,794.
History
Originating from the development of the railway ...
Reservoir. Chatwin's mother Margharita had worked as an assistant to Ronald Cartland,
Barbara Cartland
Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland, (9 July 1901 – 21 May 2000) published as Barbara Cartland was an English writer, known as the Queen of Romance, who published both contemporary romance, contemporary and historical romance novels, the lat ...
's brother, who was
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
for
Kings Norton
Kings Norton, alternatively King's Norton, is an area of Birmingham, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Worcestershire, it was also a Birmingham City Council ward (politics), ward within the Government of Birmingham, Engl ...
. In the 1950s, 198 West Heath Road became the home of the local medical general practitioner, Dr. Anthony Bobak, but despite the significance of the building, the house was demolished in 2007 and replaced by a block of apartments.
[Shakespeare Nicholas. "Bruce Chatwin" chapter III, page 26. Vintage 2000. 1999.]
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The Rockin' Berries
The Rockin' Berries are a beat group from Birmingham, England, who had several hit records in the UK in the 1960s. A version of the group, emphasising comedy routines as well as music, continues to perform to the present day.
History
The Rockin ...
– the chart topping band from the 1960s first formed while members were pupils at Turves Green Boys School.
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David Claridge – born in 1953, lived at 10 Coney Green Drive in the Austin Village as a young child and was a pupil at Turves Green Infants' School, before moving to a private school, Greenmore College. As an adult he created the character of "
Roland Rat
Roland Rat is a British television puppet character. He was created, operated and voiced by David Claridge, who had previously designed and operated Mooncat, a puppet in the Children's ITV television programme '' Get Up and Go!'' Claridge work ...
", a puppet which first appeared on the British breakfast television programme,
TVam
TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchis ...
, in April 1983 and went on to save the station from closure. Many series were made for the BBC, Channel 5, Channel 4 and ITV. Roland continues to make guest appearances on British television from time to time, although Claridge now lives in California.
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Lewis Goodall - as a boy lived in Longbridge and attended Turves Green Boys School from whence he went to St. John's College, University of Oxford graduating in 2010 with a degree in History and politics. Now an author and journalist and editor of the Newsnight current affairs programme on BBC television.
See also
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Northfield, Birmingham
Northfield is a residential area in outer south Birmingham, England, and near the boundary with Worcestershire. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the wards of Kings Norton, Longb ...
*
Cofton Hackett
Cofton Hackett is a village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove District of north east Worcestershire, England. It is southwest of the city centre of Birmingham and northeast of Worcester. In 2011, the village had a population of 1,893 but wit ...
References
External links
West Heath LibrarySouth Birmingham Amateur Radio Society(Based in West Heath Community Centre, Hampstead House West Heath)
{{Use dmy dates, date=August 2019
Areas of Birmingham, West Midlands
Northfield Constituency