Capturing, preserving and sharing Solihull's history. Also commemorating local casualties from the First World War #SolihullRemembers
In April 1819, two pairs of Coade stone statues arrived at Malvern Hall, Solihull, following a journey from London by canal. Malvern Hall was the home of Henry Greswolde Lewis, a patron of John Constable who, in December 1818, had ordered the statues from the London firm established by Eleanor Coade.
Continue reading “Coade stone statues at Malvern Hall”
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.
Continue reading “Windylow School”
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 outdoor education centre was the former Maengwynedd County Primary School in Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, Denbighshire, Wales, which was situated in the foothills of the Berwyn mountain range.
Continue reading “Maengwynedd Outdoor Education Centre”
Until Solihull became a County Borough Council on 1st April 1964, the provision of state education in the area was the responsibility of Warwickshire County Council. We’re aware of five special schools in the Solihull urban/metropolitan district, catering for children with physical or learning disabilities:
In addition, there was also a special school at nearby Packwood Haugh, Warwickshire.
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 merged with Solihull School, so Malvern Hall now houses its fourth educational establishment – Solihull Preparatory School. It seems timely to look back at the schools that have occupied this stately home over the last 70 years.
Continue reading “Schools at Malvern Hall”
Throughout December 2017, there was an exhibition in the Heritage Gallery on the first floor of The Core, Theatre Square, Solihull relating to Tudor Grange Special School, which provided residential and day accommodation for children with physically disabling conditions such as polio and cerebral palsy.
Seven men with a connection to Solihull or Shirley are known to have died on 1st July 1916:
20-year-old John Vere Isham (pronounced “Eye-shum”) died of blood poisoning at No. 24 General Hospital, Etaples, France on 3rd June 1916, serving as a Second Lieutenant with the 5th Dragoon Guards (Princess Charlotte of Wales’s). He was the eldest son of Sir Vere Isham (1862-1941), 11th baronet, and was born in Bury St Edmunds on 14th November 1895. Under normal circumstances, John would have inherited the Isham baronetcy on his father’s death, instead of which it was his younger brother, Gyles (1903-1976), who became the 12th Baronet in 1941.
Three local soldiers died in Egypt on Easter Sunday, 23rd April 1916, serving with the Queen’s Own Worcestershire Hussars (Worcester Yeomanry). Corporal (Acting Sergeant) Cyril Henry Coombs and Private Osborn Thomas Smith are both commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial, and both are listed on the Solihull School war memorial. Leslie St Clair Cheape, a member of the North Warwickshire Hunt, also died on the same day and is commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial. He was a Captain with the 1st Dragoon Guards, but was attached to the Queen’s Own Worcestershire Hussars.
Solihull Life 