sharing Solihull's local history
Windylow School, which came to occupy nos. 909, 911 and 913 Warwick Road, Solihull was founded with seven pupils in 1938 by schoolteachers Miss [Millicent] Joyce Hoggart-Hill (1911-1999) and Miss Madge F. K. Bagnall (1906-2003). Windylow closed on 18th December 1962 after 24 years as a result of the retirement of the principals.
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On 15th November 1940, a new Red Cross Auxiliary Hospital opened at Totehill, Blossomfield Road, Solihull. The house was built during 1901/2 and was originally the home of Stephen William Challen (1842-1937) of the Birmingham engineering firm, Taylor and Challen. It became a Red Cross convalescent home during the Second World War and was subsequently known as Red Cross House.
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On 31st October 1961, the first delivery from Solihull’s Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS) Meals on Wheels service was made to 78-year-old twins, Annie and Ethel Blizzard. The sisters had served Solihull as greengrocers from their shop in the High Street but the Solihull News of 4th November 1961 said it was now their turn to be the customers.
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Those of you who came along to the Solihull: Back to the Future event at the Core Theatre on 17th September, will have seen our Augmented Reality (AR) pilot, which saw us project an augmented reality version of Solihull Manor House in 1948 onto an apparently empty table. It’s now available for you to have a go with yourself…
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The Solihull: Back to the Future event at the Core Theatre, Solihull on 17th September 2021 included the World Premiere of a short video showing Solihull High Street’s shops as you’ve never seen them before. That’s unless you were around in 1948…
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On 25th July 1961, a new Burton’s supermarket opened in High Street, Solihull in the building that is now occupied by the Paramo Lounge and the Works.
Described in the Solihull News, 26th August 1961, as being “the most up-to-date building in Solihull’s old world High Street,” the “colourful” supermarket met with a mixed reaction from shoppers, with letter-writers to the newspaper professing themselves “shocked.” One housewife described the colours of the shop front as “garish” and said that the character of the High Street had now been ruined.
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It looks as if Cedarhurst, Park Road, Solihull was built in the mid-1890s and was demolished around 1973. A building control plan at the Core Library Solihull (ref.: SOL/PS/1/1/647), dated March 1894, depicts one detached villa in Park Road, opposite Malvern House, which appears to be Cedarhurst, although not named as such.
The plan shows that the property was designed by architect John Henry Hawkes and built by Charles Bragg. The owner was Edward Bottomley, a grocer from Deritend, Birmingham.
The unveiling and dedication of Solihull War Memorial in The Square, Solihull, took place on the afternoon of Sunday 19th June 1921 in a ceremony arranged by Brigadier-General Walter Robert Ludlow (1857-1941) whose youngest son had been killed at the Battle of Beaumont Hamel in 1916. This was not the first memorial to the fallen that Solihull parish had erected – a Calvary shrine had been unveiled at Easter 1917.
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The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 allowed parishes to join together to form a Poor Law Union, electing a local Board of Guardians to oversee the administration of poor relief and the Union Workhouse.
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At 5pm on Trinity Sunday, 22nd May 1921, the Bishop of Birmingham dedicated the war memorial at Catherine-de-Barnes mission church, five years after a war memorial fund was begun.
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Solihull Life 