King's Norton and Northfield | |
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King's Norton Union Workhouse Many meetings of both the KN RDC and the KN&N UDC were held at the Union Workhouse buildings in Selly Oak | |
Population | |
• 1901 | 57,122 |
• 1911 | 81,153 |
History | |
• Origin | Rural Sanitary District (1875-1894) |
• Created | 1894 |
• Abolished | 1911 |
• Succeeded by | County Borough of Birmingham [1] Bromsgrove Rural District [2] Halesowen Rural District [3] |
Status | Rural District (1894-1898) Urban District (1898-1911) |
Government | Rural District Council (1894-1898) Urban District Council (1898-1911) |
• HQ | Clerk's Office at 10 Newhall Street, Birmingham [4] |
King's Norton & Northfield UDC Seal | |
Subdivisions | |
• Type | Civil Parishes |
• Units |
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King's Norton and Northfield Urban District was a local government administrative district in north Worcestershire, England, from 1898 until 1911. [5] Much of its area was afterwards absorbed into the neighbouring Borough of Birmingham, under the Greater Birmingham Scheme, and now constitutes most of the city's southern and southwestern suburban environs. [6]
The District was originally created in 1894 as the King's Norton Rural District, under the Local Government Act 1894 , and succeeded the former King's Norton Rural Sanitary District upon which its area was largely based. It was later reconstituted as an urban district on 1 October 1898, by the Local Government Board Order, No. 38,127, [7] [8] and was accordingly renamed the King's Norton and Northfield Urban District. Both as a rural and an urban district it comprised only those civil parishes of the King's Norton Poor Law Union then wholly within the Administrative County of Worcester, [9] namely the parishes of King's Norton, Northfield and Beoley.
The District was arranged into the following wards for the election of local councillors:
The District Council was organised into several committees with responsibility over a number of areas:
When the committee was initially set up it was as the Cemeteries Committee, with a separate sub-committee that had specific responsibility for baths and parks. However, from May 1898 onwards, the Baths & Parks Sub-Committee ceased to exist and the Cemeteries Committee assumed their duties, altering its title to reflect this change. [10]
The committee was formed on 1 June 1903, and consisted of 40 members, of whom 28 were District Councillors.
The committee had distinct sub-committees for the following areas of the District: King's Norton & Stirchley, Moseley & King's Heath, Wythall & Beoley, Northfield, and Selly Oak.
The Committee consisted of 25 members, of whom 12 were District Councillors, 8 were Guardians of the King's Norton Poor Law Union, and the remaining 5 were "persons experienced in the relief of distress".
According to the 1911 census the District had a population of 81,153, large enough to become a county borough.
During its existence the District Council provided public amenities for its populace in the form of two cemeteries, two swimming baths, several parks and recreation grounds, and a handful of free libraries. The council also ran a number of elementary schools, as well as being responsible for the local volunteer fire service:
Image | Name | Year of opening | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Lodge Hill Cemetery | 1895 | The site for the Cemetery at Lodge Hill in Selly Oak was initially secured by the old Rural Sanitary Authority for £3,528, [11] after which the Rural District Council oversaw the construction of two mortuary chapels and the cemetery offices, which were designed by F. B. Andrews. [12] The Cemetery opened in January 1895, but it was not until the following year that it was consecrated by the then Bishop of Worcester and Coventry, the Right Reverend John Perowne. As well as having specific burial sections for Anglicans, Catholics and Non-conformists, it also had an area exclusively for the use by the Society of Friends, in which notable members of the Quaker families of Lloyd and Cadbury were buried. [13] [14] | |
? | Brandwood End Cemetery | 1899 | The Rural District Council bought land at Brandwood End, near King's Heath, for the purpose of building a cemetery in 1895. The combined cost of the purchase price and its laying out came to £17,000, which included deep drainage work due to the area's clay subsoil. Two terracotta and red brick mortuary chapels were erected on the site, one consecrated and the other not, both designed by Brewin Holmes. [12] The Cemetery officially opened on 13 April 1899, with its first burial taking place two days later. [15] |
Image | Name | Year of opening | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Tiverton Road Public Baths | 1906 | The Baths in Bournbrook were built in 1905. Designed by E. Harding Payne, the building work was carried out by the local firm of Messrs T. A. Cole & Son. [16] | |
? | Bournville Lane Public Baths | 1911 | Stirchley |
Image | Name | Year of opening | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Selly Oak Park | 1899 | A gift of 11½ acres of the former Weoley Park Farm estate, [17] in Selly Oak, was made to the Urban District Council by Mrs Emma J. Gibbins and her four sons, in February 1899, [18] specifically for the formation of a public park. | |
Cotteridge Park | 1905 | Cotteridge | |
Muntz Park | 1905 | Selly Park | |
? | Victoria Common | 1905 | Northfield |
? | King's Heath Park | 1909 | King's Heath |
? | Selly Park Recreation Ground | 1910 | The land for this recreation ground [19] had originally been earmarked for housing as part of the residential development of the Selly Hill Estate (later the Selly Park Estate), but for some unknown reason the building work never commenced. [20] The main area, therefore, was acquired by the Urban District Council in April 1910, being bought from Mr W. A. Issett for £1,940, with further acreage being purchased in the December of that same year from the Martin Trustees at a cost of £3,067. [18] |
Proposals for the provision of Free Libraries in the District were first mooted in 1902, and following the adoption of the Libraries Acts the next year, a scheme to establish libraries throughout its area was set up. [21] Between 1905 and 1909 seven new libraries were built across the District, with the land being donated by local philanthropic businessmen and the building work funded through the benevolence of Dr Andrew Carnegie. [22]
Image | Name | Year of opening | Details |
---|---|---|---|
? | Bartley Green Free Library | 1905 | |
King's Heath Free Library | 1906 | ||
? | King's Norton Free Library | 1906 | |
Selly Oak Free Library | 1906 | Built on land in the High Street, given by Mr Thomas Gibbins Junior of the Birmingham Battery and Metal Company in Selly Oak, in 1903, the foundation stone was laid on 1 August 1905 by Councillor E. A. Olivieri. [21] The construction work itself was paid for by the Carnegie Foundation, [23] and, at a final cost of £3,000, the Library was officially opened by Mr Gibbins on 23 June 1906. [24] The completed building comprised a Reading Room, Lending Department and Reference Department. | |
Northfield Free Library | 1906 | Situated in Church Road, Northfield, and costing £750 to build, [25] this small Library first opened its doors in September 1906. [26] The original building, however, was consumed by fire on 12 February 1914. [25] Believed to be the work of an arsonist, local suffragettes were reputed to have been responsible as they were active in the area, [27] and a note was found spiked on the railings outside bearing the words "Give Women the Vote" along with a small brown paper parcel containing a copy of The Great Scourge and How to End It by Miss Christabel Pankhurst, [28] apparently inscribed "To start your new library." [29] [30] | |
Stirchley Free Library | 1907 | Located on Bournville Lane in Stirchley, the Library was built in 1907. As well as donating the land itself, George Cadbury apparently contributed £3,000 towards the building cost, [31] though much of the work also seems to have been paid for by the Carnegie Trust. [32] | |
? | Rednal Free Library | 1909 | Built in Leach Green Lane, Rednal, the Library's foundation stone was laid on 12 June 1909 by "P. Farrell Esq." The memorial tablet declares that "The funds for the erection of this building were provided by Andrew Carnegie Esq. of Skibo Castle N.B. and the purchase money for the site was given by Messrs Edward and George Cadbury Junior". [33] |
Until the Education Act 1902, elementary education within the District was provided through a combination of a number of voluntary schools established by religious organisations, such as the Church of England National Schools and the non-denominational British Schools, together with those schools built and maintained by the local school boards for King's Norton and Beoley, who had been set up in the wake of the Elementary Education Act 1870. Under the 1902 Act the urban district council was designated a local education authority, and thereafter assumed the duties of the former King's Norton and Beoley School Boards, which were accordingly abolished, inheriting their existing school buildings, as well as being given the power to establish new elementary schools within the area.
Image | Name | Year of opening | Details |
---|---|---|---|
? | Woodgate Council School | 1906 | The School was originally opened as the Woodgate British School in 1891, at the local Primitive Methodist Chapel, but passed into the control of the Urban District Council in 1906. [34] Considerable alterations to the building had taken place in 1893, as the original structure was considered inadequate, and despite further repairs carried out after its transfer it was repeatedly condemned. [35] The School was finally closed in 1914 by Birmingham Corporation, when it was replaced by the new Bartley Green Council School. [34] |
? | Tiverton Road Council School | 1906 | The Urban District Council opened the Tiverton Road School at Bournbrook in 1906. [34] |
Raddlebarn Lane Council School | 1909 | A school was first established on Raddlebarn Lane (now Raddlebarn Road), Selly Park, in 1905. [34] It replaced the earlier Selly Oak and Bournbrook Temporary Council School, which had been set up in the Bournbrook Technical Institute. [36] The school was initially housed in some corrugated iron buildings, but work on a more permanent structure alongside began in 1906. [37] The new school opened in 1909, and a year later was reorganised into separate Boys, Girls and Infants Departments. [38] | |
Selly Park Council School | 1911 | The School, situated on the Pershore Road in Selly Park, opened in 1911, [39] replacing a temporary school that had existed on nearby Fashoda Road since 1904. [34] During World War I the new school was briefly used as a war hospital, caring for wounded soldiers, [40] before being returned to an educational use. [41] | |
Image | Name | Year of opening | Details |
---|---|---|---|
? | King's Heath Fire Station | The King's Heath Fire Brigade was first formed in 1886, and became the largest in the District. [42] Its Station was in Sliver Street, King's Heath, and in 1910 it consisted of a force of 23 members, with both a manual and a steam engine, five horse-carts and four fire-escapes. [43] | |
Selly Oak Fire Station | The Selly Oak Brigade had their Station at 'The Dingle', just off the Bristol Road. [44] Its captain from about 1890 had been Andrew Crump, who may be the man standing beside the driver in the accompanying photograph with braiding on his sleeve. [45] | ||
? | King's Norton Fire Station | A sub-station of the King's Heath Brigade, it was located on Holly Road in 'The Cotteridge'. [46] | |
? | Northfield Fire Station | Before the building of a Fire Station at 146 Maas Road, [47] Northfield's tender was kept in the garden of the house of the then captain, Jack Hunt, in Cock Lane [48] [49] | |
? | Moseley Fire Station | The Moseley branch of the King's Heath Brigade had their station in Tudor Road, Moseley. [50] | |
The Urban District was finally abolished in 1911 as part of the provisions of the Greater Birmingham Act, [51] [52] when much of its area was incorporated into the County Borough of Birmingham, [53] and thereby became associated with Warwickshire. [54] This included the greater part of the civil parish of King's Norton, with the exception of a substantial still largely rural area in the south-east of the parish, which afterwards constituted the new civil parish of Wythall, [55] [56] as well as a small part of Rednal in the far south-west, which was added to the civil parish of Cofton Hackett. [57] [58] It also included most of Northfield civil parish, save for a little under 200 acres at its extreme north-western tip which was transferred to the civil parish of Illey, [59] [60] then part of the Halesowen Rural District. [61] It did not, however, include Beoley civil parish, which remained in Worcestershire, and which, along with Wythall, initially formed a separate rural district temporarily administered by the Bromsgrove Rural District Council, until both became part of that district on 31 March 1912. [62]
Northfield is a residential area in outer south Birmingham, England, near the boundary with Worcestershire, which it was historically within. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the wards of Kings Norton, Longbridge, Weoley Castle and the smaller ward of Northfield that includes West Heath and Turves Green.
Selly Oak is an industrial and residential area in south-west Birmingham, England. The area gives its name to Selly Oak ward and includes the neighbourhoods of: Bournbrook, Selly Park, and Ten Acres. The adjoining wards of Edgbaston and Harborne are to the north of the Bourn Brook, which was the former county boundary, and to the south are Weoley, and Bournville. A district committee serves the four wards of Selly Oak, Billesley, Bournville and Brandwood. The same wards form the Birmingham Selly Oak constituency, represented since 2010 by Steve McCabe (Labour). Selly Oak is connected to Birmingham by the Pershore Road (A441) and the Bristol Road (A38). The Worcester and Birmingham Canal and the Birmingham Cross-City Railway Line run across the Local District Centre.
Wythall is a large village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove District, in the northeastern corner of the county of Worcestershire, England. Wythall parish borders Solihull and Birmingham, and had a population of 12,269 in the UK census of 2021.
Birmingham, a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England, is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom.
Hollywood is a large village predominantly located in the Bromsgrove district of Worcestershire, England, almost contiguous with and to the south of the city of Birmingham. Hollywood was formerly part of Kings Norton, but when Birmingham expanded in 1911, Hollywood remained in Worcestershire. The village now lies across the wards of Hollywood, most of Drakes Cross, the Trueman's Heath polling district area of Trueman's Heath parish ward and, following a 1966 border change, the southern portion of the Birmingham Highter's Heath ward, with all but the latter being located within the civil parish of Wythall. The southern part of the village is also known as Drakes Cross, whilst the eastern part is sometimes referred to as Trueman's Heath. Hollywood is situated in the extreme northeastern corner of Worcestershire, 8.5 miles / 13 km south of Birmingham city centre, 6 miles / 9.5 km west-southwest of Solihull and 8 miles / 12.5 km northeast of Redditch.
Rednal is a residential suburb on the south western edge of metropolitan Birmingham, West Midlands, England, 9 miles southwest of Birmingham city centre and forming part of Longbridge parish and electoral ward. Historically it was part of Worcestershire.
Stirchley is a suburb in south-west Birmingham, England. The name likely refers to a pasture for cattle. The settlement dates back to at least 1658. Prehistoric evidence, Roman roads, and Anglo-Saxon charters contribute to its history. The Worcester and Birmingham Canal and the railways brought industry to the area. Stirchley's development is also linked to industries like screw-making and rubber manufacturing. Originally part of Worcestershire, Stirchley underwent administrative changes in 1911. Residential developments were established alongside the long-standing Victorian terracing which is associated with the suburb.
West Heath is a residential area of Birmingham, England on the boundary with Worcestershire. Forming the larger part of the ward of Longbridge And West Heath it is situated between Kings Norton, Northfield, Longbridge and Cofton Hackett and lies on traditional heathland formed in the 13th century as part of the Kings Norton manorial lands, and was historically in Worcestershire.
A civil parish is a subnational entity, forming the lowest unit of local government in England. There are 21 civil parishes in the ceremonial county of West Midlands, most of the county being unparished; Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton are completely unparished. At the 2001 census, there were 89,621 people living in the parishes, accounting for 3.5 per cent of the county's population.
Weoley Castle is a residential suburban district in south-west Birmingham, England. The area is part of the Weoley local authority electoral ward, and also comes under the Northfield local council constituency. The suburb of Weoley Castle is bordered by Selly Oak to the east, Harborne to the north, Bartley Green to the west, and Weoley Hill and Shenley Fields to the south.
Birmingham Selly Oak is a constituency in the West Midlands, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Alistair Carns of the Labour Party.
Birmingham Northfield is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Laurence Turner, a Labour politician. It represents the southernmost part of the city of Birmingham.
Bournbrook is an industrial and residential district in southwest Birmingham, England, in the ward of Bournbrook and Selly Park and the parliamentary constituency of Birmingham Selly Oak. Before 2018 it was in Selly Oak Council Ward. Prior to what is commonly termed the Greater Birmingham Act, which came into effect on 9 November 1911, the Bourn Brook watercourse was the North Eastern boundary of Worcestershire, and the area was locally governed by the King's Norton and Northfield Urban District Council.
Birmingham King's Norton was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1955. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election.
The Selly Oak local council ward was one of the 40 electoral wards for the City of Birmingham, England prior to 2018. It was also one of the four wards that make up the local council constituency of Selly Oak, the other three being the wards of Billesley, Bournville and Brandwood.
Highter's Heath is a district and ward lying on the southern boundary of the city of Birmingham, UK. The district of Highter's Heath lies immediately east of the Maypole. The first recorded use of the name dates from 1495 as Heyters Heath, however today the name is not one that is particularly in widespread use, indeed only three signposted references to the name exist, when entering the city along Maypole Lane, when entering the city from the bottom of Highters Heath Lane and in Major's Green.
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