Capturing, preserving and sharing Solihull's history. Also commemorating local casualties from the First World War #SolihullRemembers
Malvern Hall was built some 300 years ago on the site of Malvern Farm. The farm was sold by Robert, Lord Brooke to a Mr Aglionby of Balsall about 1640. Mr Aglionby sold the farm to Job and Ann Murcott in 1657 and they, in turn, sold the estate to the Rev. Henry Greswold (1628-1700) in 1680. It was Henry’s eldest son, Humphrey, who built Malvern Hall.
Continue reading “Malvern Hall and the Greswold, Lewis and Wigley families”
On 26th August 1920, 23-year-old farmer’s assistant, George White, died of tuberculosis in Bramcote Sanatorium, near Nuneaton, two years after the death of his younger brother on active service.
Bramcote Hospital had opened in 1907 as a smallpox hospital but, as there had not been a case treated there by 1912, it was converted in 1913 into a sanatorium for the treatment of those with consumption.
Private Francis Joseph Alexander Marchant, King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, died in the Kings Norton registration district area on 20th August 1920 and, as he was a Catholic, is buried at Olton Franciscan Cemetery. He was 23 years old.
In August 2019 staff at the Core Library researched and produced a new town centre heritage trail leaflet for Solihull town centre – the first time for 20 years that such a guide has been available.
The leaflet was printed thanks to support from Touchwood and Solihull BID. Once services resume at The Core (which is currently closed to visitors owing to Covid-19 restrictions) the free leaflet will be available to collect from there.
V. J. Day, 15th August 1945, marked the day when the Second World War effectively came to an end as Japan surrendered and all hostilities ceased.
The Warwick County News, 18th August 1945, summarised local events with the headline “Neighbourly co-operation was the keynote of Solihull’s VJ-Day celebrations” and the observation that the day was marked by a “mood of quiet thanksgiving or in the exuberant relief of pent-up feelings according to age or nature.”
On 13th July 1990 the official opening took place of the new Sixth Form block at Saint Martin’s Girls’ School. The Sixth Form occupied the site of the former stables at Malvern Hall, adjacent to the former Solihull Lido in Malvern Park.
Saint Martin’s School had moved to Malvern Hall, Solihull in 1989 and was the third school to occupy the historic site – the previous two being Solihull High School for Girls (1931-1974) and Malvern Hall Comprehensive School (1974-1989).
On 1st September 2020, Saint Martin’s School merge with Solihull School, so Malvern Hall now houses its fourth educational establishment – Solihull Preparadtory School. It seems timely to look back at the schools that have occupied this stately home over the last 70 years.
By the time of its demolition in 1962, the grade II-listed Kingshurst Hall, believed to have been built in the early 18th century, was in a state of disrepair. It was surrounded by tower blocks on the new Kingshurst Hall Estate, which was built by Birmingham City Council as overspill housing.
The Council had compulsorily purchased Kingshurst Hall and its surrounding farmland, together with other land in Kingshurst, under the Birmingham (Old Chester Road, Tile Cross &c) Compulsory Purchase Order 1939, which was dated 17th February 1939.
If you’ve ever wondered what was previously on the site of your house, or wanted to find out where your ancestors lived, then historic Ordnance Survey (OS) maps are often a good place to start.
Thanks to the freely available maps of England & Wales on the National Library of Scotland (NLS) website, it’s now possible to see some of the old OS maps overlaid onto a modern satellite image, making it much easier to get your bearings.
On 20th May 1936, what we would now call a sham marriage, or a marriage of convenience, took place at the office of Solihull’s Superintendent Registrar, which was then situated above shops on the corner of Warwick Road and Poplar Road in Solihull.
The groom was a gay writer living in Dorridge and the bride was a German-Jewish actress. The reason for the marriage was simply to enable the bride to obtain British citizenship. The couple hadn’t met each other before their wedding day and couldn’t actually speak the same language. As far as is known, they didn’t meet again after their wedding day, although they remained married for the rest of their lives.
On 21st May 2019, in a Poetry On Loan funded event, poet Giovanni Esposito – a.k.a. “Spoz” – joined library staff and members of the public on a guided walk around the historic heart of the old Solihull village.
After the walk, the participants returned to the Core for a well-earned break and a chat about Solihull’s history, looking at some of the thousands of old photographs in the library’s Heritage & Local Studies collections. Spoz then wrote a poem incorporating people’s suggestions and his own reflections on the local history of Solihull.
