St Mary's Church, Aston Brook

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St Mary’s Church, Aston Brook
St Mary's Church, Aston Brook
St Mary’s Church, Aston Brook
52°29′47.3″N1°53′6.4″W / 52.496472°N 1.885111°W / 52.496472; -1.885111
Location Aston
Country England
Denomination Church of England
History
Dedication St Mary the Virgin
Architecture
ArchitectJames Murray
Completed1863
Demolished1970s

St Mary's Church, Aston Brook is a former parish church in the Church of England in Birmingham. [1] The church was demolished in the 1970s.

The church was built in 1863 to designs of the architect James Murray. It was consecrated by Henry Philpott, Bishop of Worcester, on Thursday 10 December 1863. [2] The tower was added in 1882. The church was equipped with a two manual pipe organ by Norman and Beard. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register. [3]

In 1864, a parish was formed out of the parishes of St. Peter and St. Paul, Aston, St Silas’ Church, Lozells, and St Matthew's Church, Duddeston. The church opened a school for Girls and Infants in 1868. [4]

Aston Brook St Mary's

The church was noted for having both a cricket and rugby team with notable players including Charles S. Johnstone. [5] They regularly played cricket against the Wesleyan Chapel at Villa Cross, Lozells. In the 1874-75 season their Methodist friends and cricket opponents arranged their very first football match challenging St Mary's. [6]

Aston Brook St Mary's played rugby so a compromise was made whereby, using a round ball, the teams played rugby in the first half and soccer in the second. James Wilson allowed the game to be played at his building plots on Wilson Road, Birchfield. [7] [6]

St Mary's opponents, Aston Villa Football Club, played in scarlet and royal blue hooped shirts, white shorts and royal blue caps and stockings. [6] Yeomans and Perry played well for St Mary's. [6] Under the Sheffield Rules up to fifteen players were allowed at the time. [6] For Villa, Scattergood kept goal; the full-backs were Price, William Weis and Fred J. Knight; half-backs were Ted Lee, Charles Midgely, Harry and George Matthews; forwards: Hughes, Mason, William Sothers, Wiiliam Such, Harry Whately, George Page, and Alfred Robbins. [6] After a goalless first-half, Aston Villa's Hughes scored the only goal off the rebound when the goalkeeper spilled his first effort. [6] [8] In a newspaper article, almost fifty years later, in March 1924, Hughes was insistent that the match had occurred on the third Saturday of March 1874. [6] However a report of the event was published in Birmingham Morning News on 16 March 1875. [9]

References

  1. ↑ The Buildings of England. Warwickshire. Nikolaus Pevsner. Penguin Books. ISBN   0140710310 p.149
  2. ↑ "St Mary's Church, Aston Brook". Birmingham Daily Post. Birmingham. 11 December 1863.
  3. ↑ "NPOR [D02625]". National Pipe Organ Register . British Institute of Organ Studies . Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  4. ↑ "Opening of St Mary's New School, Aston Brook". Birmingham Journal. Birmingham. 18 April 1868.
  5. ↑ Mangan, J.A.; Hickey, C. (December 2008). "Early action: founding and furthering clubs". Soccer & Society. 9 (5). Taylor & Francis: 632–653. doi:10.1080/14660970802181327 . Retrieved 6 February 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Aston Villa's first milestone, John Hughes, Sunday Mercury & Sunday News 30 March 1924
  7. ↑ Bells in and around Birmingham: a survey and history
  8. ↑ Ward, Adam; Griffin, Jeremy (30 September 2002). The essential history of Aston Villa. Headline book publishing (2002). ISBN   0-7553-1140-X.
  9. ↑ The Aston Villa Miscellany David Woodhall, 2007. ISBN 10:1-905326-17-3
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