The story of Highfield House

Mar 10 2008 Submitted by John Worthy

THIS house had stood there longer than anyone could remember but no one knew who built it; why it was built or even how long it had been there. Opinion upon its provenance was divided but most thought it was built in the 1850s.

One family had lived in the house uninterrupted for eighty three years and the family stories all supported the 1850 premise. The house now found itself in a predicament; it was under threat of demolition for two reasons.

The first reason was that it was old yet no one had the first idea just how old it was.

The second reason was that it stood on a parcel of land that had remained intact since it had been built. Given that it was thought to be of early Victorian origin at the very least its generous garden proportions made it easy prey for a handsome profit if every morsel of available space could be utilized for development.

There was little doubt that the house would succumb to the stricture of the bulldozer blade and wrecking ball so it became important that the history of this house be uncovered whilst it still stood.

There were two possible lines of enquiry that might uncover the secrets of the house. The first was to try to discover its litany of inhabitants. If that could be determined then the secret of its age might materialize. The second route was the house itself, there must have been a time that it was not there and equally a time when it was. Determine that time and the age of the house would be set forever.

Neither would be straightforward but it was known and could be proved that two dynasties had occupied the house and together their tenure was one hundred and fifteen years but the house was certainly older than that.

A local pubic house of relevance is The Bulls Head on Stratford Road and a comparison between the two buildings is inevitable as they are both of the same style and feature. It is claimed that The Bulls Head dates from 1840 though it has not been proved.

Everything about Highfield House swore it was Georgian though it was almost certainly Victorian.

The road outside the house was an ancient road, a highway that was once called a Ridgeway between two very old manors. If that was the case then the land now occupied by the house and garden must once have been part of one of them and if that was so then the land must have been recorded on the tithes.

A search of the map libraries began. The intent was to find two maps as close together as possible one showing a vacant plot whilst the other showed a building.

It would be there because one distinct feature of the modern Ordinance Survey maps was the house called Highfield House standing at the crossroads of Highfield Road and Robin Hood Lane.

If it was a landmark feature now it was almost certainly a landmark feature a long time ago. The question was Where to find such maps They were no longer in common usage as they were largely superseded by the Ordinance Survey maps.

The first two maps turned up in a small local library that encouraged local children to study the history of the feudal system of manors. The first was a tithe map of 1847 [abolishing payment in kind and substituting rents] showed the land as a vacant meadow.

Knowing that all fields and meadows had a name and a tithe attributed to the occupier current at the time of award the key was consulted. The tithe was held to the name of John Dolphin of Swanshurst Farm.

The Dolphin family had lived in the Swanshurst Quarter of Yardley Manor uninterrupted for 367 years. Local history had it that John Dolphin had designs upon top land known as Hillclose Farm and had borrowed heavily to acquire it.

Swanshurst Farm was said to be mortgaged to the hilt as a result of the acquisition. It was still in fiscal difficulties when he died aged 54, a bachelor with no issue a few years after the tithe in the late 1850s.

Hillclose Farm was comprised of several pieces of land remote from the main body of land. One of those remote pieces of land was tithe 1738 and it stood on the corner of Highfield Road.

Tithe 1738 had a name, it was called Johnnu Green's Meadow. It was one of three tithes called Johnny Gre'ns Pieces The other two pieces were tithe 1739, Little Johnny Green and 1740, Large Johnny Green both tithes attributed to Edmund Wigley who was kinsman to the Greswolde-Williams family. The point of note was the tithe 1738 had no building upon it in 1847 so Highfield House could not have been the landmark it was now 161 years ago. Tithe 1738 was where Highfield House now stood.

The three tithes were collectively called Johnny Greens Pieces and before the lower part of Robin Hood Lane came to be called Robin Hood Lane it was called Greens Lane. Johnny Green was reputed to be a Tailor of note in the 18th century who took the land as payment for an unredeemed debt.

The second map to be found was a tithe map of 1884 where the survey was completed in 1883 and at the crossroads standing upon Johnny Green's meadow was a building called Highfield house.

This map determined the house to be the landmark it is now 125 years ago and at least 125 years old. The house could have been there as long ago as 1840 like The Bulls Head but not recognised as the landmark we see on maps today.

Its Landmark status could have been bestowed long after it was built. The enigma of the house on Johnny Green's pieces was growing smaller but could still be defined more accurately if further maps came to light.

The curiosity was the design and layout of the house it screamed Georgian with its internal shutters on the ground floor windows yet so far everything pointed to it being early Victorian.

True there was a Georgian revival in Victorian times but they stopped short of shuttered windows because wood and materials were expensive and scarce, so why did this house have them? More to the point where did they come from?

Wherever it was they were well made and fashioned in dark heavy wood. Is it possible that they were once features of an older house and were Scavenged into Highfield house during its construction?

A search of the map library at Birmingham Central Library yielded a third map titled Birmingham and its Environs published 1857 by Henry Blood. It showed the outline of the meadows and tithes on of the 1847 tithe map but not the tithe numbers yet the plots that were tithed retained their shape on the 1857 map.

Highfield House was not shown and therefore was not regarded as a landmark in 1857 so its landmark status had not provenance older than 151 years.

However, immediately opposite across Highfield Road on a tithe marked 1719 on the 1847 map the plot of land depicted in 1857 had a building named as Longfield Hall.

On the 1847 map it was specified as three plots of land 1719 was meadow 1720 was two cottages and 1721 was a barn collectively known as Old House Farm.

The previous name of Old House Farm was Longfield farm in the second decade of the 19th century. In medieval times of crop rotation The Long field was the field in the last cycle of rotation and could only support the more basic cereal crops usually oats.

On the map of 1884 Highfield house was shown whilst Longfield Farm was not. On the map of 1857 the reverse was the case. A close inspection of the modern OS maps will still pick out the original tithe plot shape.

However, Highfield Road was widened from the lane it once was to the wide dual carriageway it is now in the 1930 by unemployed men from Birmingham with picks and shovels; that road widening almost certainly consumed Old House farm and at least part of Longfield Hall.

By the alternative route of tracing the inhabitants the trail is clear from 1923 up to the present.

Though the trail is not easy to follow into the 19th century because in 1847 Hall Green was part of Worcestershire but being difficult to administer what was then East Worcestershire the lands of Yardley Manor were transferred to Warwickshire in 1849 where they remained until Worcestershire took them back in 1899.

During the next eleven years a poll was taken of the inhabitants of Hall Green to determine whether they would stay as Worcestershire or whether they would become part of Birmingham.

They chose to become part of Birmingham seduced by the progress of civic improvements and infrastructure of the time. In 1911 Hall Green was assimilated into Birmingham and became a suburb.

Following the Census records is almost impossible through the latter half of the 19th century as many were not sure which county had claim to their allegiances. It is as though all around Hall Green progress raged but Hall Green was the eye of tranquillity that was the centre of the tempest.

The Ingram family occupation started in 1923 with father Alfred, Mother Alice and at that time their twelve year old daughter Marie [Madge] and five year old Joy. The family grew to include a son Alfred Edward who everyone called Chum whilst Madge and Joy both immigrated to Canada in 1953.

Chum remained in England and married Eileen in 1947. They had a daughter in 1951 called Janet and three years later a son called Robert. Alfred died in 1965 and Alice having lived to 100 years old [1983] received the fabled telegram from the Queen survived a few months more but did not see her 101st birthday.

Chum died in 1989 in Selly Oak Hospital and Eileen was found dead in Highfield House in 2006. Both of their surviving children now live in Wythall/Hollywood retaining a family presence in Worcestershire.

Alfred [of 1923 tenure] was reputed to have built all of the cottages at the end of the garden that now occupy the terrace along Highfield Road and Alice claimed that they had lived in each of them at some time prior to moving into Highfield House.

Thought to have been built between 1908 and the First World War the terraced cottages are still there today numbered from 151 to 165 Highfield Road but number 149 had a special significance. Though it is now a residence it was once a shop called Happy's where Chum spent his few coppers of pocket money on sweets and ice cream in the 1930s.

In the census of 1901the Gold family were in residence at Highfield House. The census records Alfred Gold, an Iron Hinge maker [believed to be late of Greet].

Alice Gold [niece] a scholar. Clarrisa Gold [niece] a scholar. Frederick Gold [nephew] a Die Sinker. Lear Gold [niece] a housekeeper. Maud Gold [niece] a scholar. Richard Gold [son] an iron hinge maker. Richard Gold [The father and head of the family and employer] a widower and Clarissa Lyndon a visitor [aged 4]

There is one further reference to the Gold family in the school records of Hall Green School.

In 1893 when the school opened an apprenticed pupil teacher was appointed, she was privately educated and she was twelve years old. Her name was Mabel Gold and her listing on the school records said she was of Highfield House, Hall Green

She was still at the school when the boys school was assimilated and the school became Hall Green Mixed. The second head teacher Miss Tanner took over in 1902 Miss Tanner the second head teacher became godmother to Mabels first child in the first decade of the 20th century.

Though it would aid the preservation of the house if the claim that Highfield House and The Bulls Head, which now stands at the crossroad once called Four Weyes and is now the junction of Stratford Road, Fox Hollies Road and Highfield Road are of a similar age, the evidence found points to the house being at least twenty years younger.

The Bull is said to be of 1840 vintage though no one has proved that it is actually almost 170 years old. Highfield House on the other hand has definitely stood on Johnny Greens Meadow for at least 125 years and has possibly been there as much as 150 years.

For at least 125 years Highfield House and The Bulls Head have shared the Landmark status on every map of Hall Green produced since 1883. Yet Highfield House retains its original features where The Bulls Head does not. In the 19th century there were several fires at the Bulls Head and parts of it were rebuilt plus successive landlords have improved ana Altered the public house. Highfield House is therefore closer to the original structure than The Bulls Head.

History loses its validity if it is not factually correct. Much of history is formulated by the remaining fragments of truth found by successive generations long after the event and is dependant upon that which can be substantiated.

The uncovered history of Highfield House thus far can be proved but its provenance as a historic building may not be enough to prevent its destruction.

The history of the suburb now called Hall Green is unique; its inhabitants actually expressed a preference to become part of Birmingham. From its days as East Worcestershire to the fifty years it spent as part of Warwickshire to its assimilation into the second city of England Highfield House watched it grow.

The House became a symbol of what Hall Green was and still is. The house on Johnny Green's Meadow became the heart of the suburb long after the destruction of almost all of its contemporaries.

History is not only preserving that which is old but is about remembering the root of existence and character.

One fact however is certain, upon any map that includes Hall Green there is an identifiable landmark it is the house called Highfield House, a prominent and distinct feature with a timeless cedar tree outside its door.

Frequently used as a reference when giving directions to strangers. It has been there, on the map dating back to the times of the tithe. The demolition of this house will change Highfield Road forever and Hall Green's character irrevocably.

The fate of the house called Highfield House standing in the corner of Johnny Green's Meadow will be decided on Thursday 13th of March at 11am in committee rooms 3 and 4 of the Council House [the public welcome].

The approval of the planned redevelopment in its present form will tear the heart from Hall Green and the House that stands on Johnny Green's Meadow [Highfield House] will be no more.