Highfield House reduced to rubble

May 16 2008 By Graham Young

Slowly but surely, Hall Green’s finest residential home has been reduced to a pile of broken bricks.

After fighting a losing battle to save the 19th Century Highfield House on Highfield Road, devastated local historian and campaigner Prof Carl Chinn said today: "It’s terribly upsetting and disturbing that our historic buildings can so quickly and easily be pushed into the dustbin of history.

"Buildings like Highfield House are the linchpins for our children to understand who they are and where they have come from."

Prof Chinn added: "I grew up in that area and feel so sorry for the Ingram family who lived there for many years but didn’t own it.

"We are losing too many buildings and I just wish people in authority would say we are learning the lessons of the 1960s.

"We have become obsessed with apartments, but how many can we build before we start building homes for families again?"

MY FASCINATION with the house began when the Mail published my picture of the stunning floral roundabout next to it in our Walk in the Park column on October 12.

Recognising its value to the city, I wrote: "South Birmingham’s suburban central reservations are a wonderful legacy of our city’s industrial heritage.

"As the pressure grows to have still more housing developments on every piece of green space that’s bigger than a table cloth, their environmental and heritage value will increase greatly."

Yet within months it became clear that the future of Highfield House was uncertain despite its stunning position next to a cedar tree at Highfield Road’s junction with Robin Hood Lane.

Stone Developments - motto ’Position Potential Product’ - had ’sat’ on the house after buying it at an auction.

City planners heard it wanted to build four two-bedroom houses and five two-bedroom and a one-bedroom apartment on the site ’replacing a derelict building to meet the need for local housing’.

On March 13, they ignored a petition bearing hundreds of names to vote in favour of its demolition having been advised that any appeal could force hefty legal costs.

Committee member Coun Ernie Hendricks (Lib Dem, Moseley and Kings Heath) said: "Whatever planning law says, it does not take account of the moral obligations we have as councillors to stand up for the residents who vote for us. I cannot support the destruction of this building."

Fascinated how anyone could knock such a lovely building down, I began a regular pilgrimage to watch its agonisingly-slow destruction.

After the demolition team spent weeks slowly chipping away at the perimeter wall and then the roof, the walls of Highfield House finally came crashing down on Wednesday, May 14.

And Birmingham is immeasurably poorer for its destruction.

READER John Worthy has submitted a detailed history of the house which he believes to be 137 years old.

Read it at the following link:

http://www.birminghammail.net/news/your-news/2008/03/10/the-story-of-highfield-house-97319-20598866/