Kings Norton retirement home named after children's author

Dec 29 2009 by Gregg Evans, Birmingham Mail

FULL steam ahead! A new retirement home in Birmingham has been named after Thomas the Tank Engine author Wilbert Awdry.

Rev Awdry was a curate at St Nicholas’ Church, in Kings Norton, and now the retirement development – built on the site of the old church hall in Westhill Road – has commemorated the city’s link with the massively-popular series of children’s books.

Awdry Court, which consists of 30 private apartments for the over-60s, is due to be finished next May. In July, construction firm McCarthy & Stone’s, invited residents to submit their naming suggestions.

And Kings Norton resident Roger Parker was the winner. “I am amazed at how much pleasure Awdry’s books have given to children but how little there is to commemorate him,” said the 58-year-old. Rev Awdry lived in the area between 1940 and 1946, the year his first book was published.