sharing Solihull's local history
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.
Continue reading “Solihull’s first Meals on Wheels”
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…
Continue reading “Solihull Virtual High Street 1948”
General George Whichcote, one of the last two surviving English officers who had seen active service at the Battle of Waterloo on 18th June 1815, died at his home, Meriden House, Church Lane, Meriden, on 26th August 1891, aged 96.
Continue reading “General George Whichcote (1794-1891)”
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.
Continue reading “High Street supermarkets, Solihull”
We always aim to do our best to help with any queries relating to local history in connection with places in the Solihull Borough or former Rural District, but please book in advance of visiting The Core Library, if you need to view any books, photos, maps or archive documents.
This means we can ensure that you don’t have a wasted journey and that there is someone available to help you.
Continue reading “Heritage enquiries / viewing documents”
On 13th July 1969, the first new homes in “the Village of the Seventies” at Cheswick Green were offered for sale by the Greaves Organisation, who built some 550 homes in the village as part of its initial development. The developer had purchased land from around 100 individual owners to enable the redevelopment of a site where around 60 per cent of the existing dwellings, mostly erected since the 1920s, had been deemed unfit for habitation.
Continue reading “Cheswick Green: the village of the 70s”
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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On Tuesday 17th June 1941, Sergeant Harry Brooks, of the Warwickshire Constabulary, based at Shirley Police Station, was presented with the George Medal by His Majesty King George VI at Buckingham Palace. The George Medal was instituted in January 1941 to reward “acts of great bravery” and arose out of the strong desire to reward acts of civilian courage during the Blitz.
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Solihull Life 