Category: Barston

Inter-war council housing in Solihull

Prior to the late 19th century, housing options were limited to owning property or, as most people did, renting from a private landlord. The Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890 allowed local authorities in London to build council houses, and the first council housing was built in Bethnal Green in 1896. The Housing of the Working Classes Act 1900 extended this to the rest of the country, although it took a further 25 years for the first council houses to be built in Solihull Rural District.

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Parish Councils

Parish councils came into existence as a result of the Local Government Act 1894, which was also known as the Parish Councils Act. Civil Parishes are the smallest areas of local government administration. The 1894 act allowed for the election of parish councils in rural areas and required the entire area of a parish to be within the same administrative county.

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Coronation Day 1937

Wednesday 12th May 1937 saw the coronation at Westminster Abbey in London of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The date had been chosen for the coronation of King Edward VIII who had become king on the death of his father George V in January 1936. Although Edward VIII’s abdication in December resulted in a new king and queen on the throne, the coronation date of 12th May was retained.

In Solihull, the event was marked by a three-day carnival, which ran into the Whitsuntide weekend, and many of the villages now in the borough held their own celebrations.

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16th August 1918

Captain (Temporary Major) George Christopher Samuel, 9th Battery, 82nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, died in France on 16th August 1918 as a result of wounds received in action on 10th August. Born in 1881 in Penge, Surrey, he was the eldest son and the second of the five children of parents George (a Baptist minister) and Mary (née Onions) who had married in 1878. Their eldest daughter, Elizabeth Webb Samuel (1879-1967) was born in Penge.

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