Бурнбрук: История и современность района Бирмингема

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. Bournbrook was once known for its Victorian Leisure Park known as Kerby's Pools. The industry that followed the construction of the canals transformed the ancient manor of Selley. The junction of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal and the Netherton Canal via the Lapal Tunnel created a distribution centre for heavy raw materials from the Black Country. Major industries developed along both sides of the two canals. Terraced housing, for the better off working people, was constructed on the former Selly Hill, Selly Grove, and Selly Oak estates. The High Street provided retail, entertainment, and public services. The property of Sir Henry Gough Calthorpe of Edgbaston was protected by clauses in the Canal Bill prohibiting the construction of wharves, warehouses, and other buildings along with other restrictive concessions. The Bournbrook rifle range, on the Warwickshire side of the watercourse, was opened in 1860 as the training ground for the Birmingham Rifle Corps later known as the First Volunteer Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Trams from Birmingham initially stopped at Selly Oak Gate, the county boundary on the turnpike road, or at the Gun Barrels Public House. Extended services ran at weekends to Kerby's Pools. Located adjacent to the main campus of the University of Birmingham, numerous houses in the area have been converted from private housing into HMOs (Houses of Multiple Occupation) for students at the university. In response to this practice, fourteen of Selly Oak's community groups have formed a federation 'CP4SO' (Community Partnership for Selly Oak) to address the major issues that the 'Buy to Let, to convert' might be causing. The Local Action Plan, adopted in July 2001, identifies that: an area of restraint was proposed for the area between Bristol Road, Heeley Road, Raddlebarn Road, and Bournbrook Road. Within this area planning permission for further purpose built student accommodation may be refused. Planning permission is required for the conversion of dwellings for more than six people, or where people do not live as a single household. Planning approval may be refused throughout the Plan area, but particularly within the area of restraint."

The name 'Bourn' is derived from the Old English burna or bourne for brook or stream when it had gravel beds and was characterised by clear water and submerged water plants. By contrast 'broc' usually denotes muddy streams with sediment laden with water. Normally both words were used for streams of a considerable size.

The Bourn Brook was in continuous use to power mills for several centuries. Harborne Mill was in Staffordshire until 1891. Pebble Mill and Edgbaston Mill were both in Warwickshire. Another mill was shown in 1787–9 on the most westerly of the streams from Edgbaston Pool where it joined the Bourn Brook near the Bristol Road. This may be the old silver rolling mill owned by Mr Spurrier referred to by Leonard, located near the present Eastern Road that was fed by the brook that ran from Edgbaston Pool. A miller was mentioned in the Lechmere Tax Rolls for Weleye and Selleye in 1276–82. An archaeological excavation identified that the straightening of the Bourn Brook and the construction of the mill leat suggests that the site of the Bourn Brook Mill was medieval in origin and that a mill or mills had existed in roughly the same location for 500–600 years. Deposits from the relict water channels were radiocarbon dated to the 15th and 16th centuries. The fishponds that the leat drained into would also have to be of late medieval date. Further opportunity to discover the location of the medieval mill will be useful to inform the local and regional research cycles. In the 16th century the King family had a fulling mill on the Bourn Brook. Henry Cambden the elder, a knife cutler, built a blade mill on part of Gower's Farm in 1707. In 1727 the mill was assigned to Henry Carver, a brass founder. The Gunsmiths, Heeley and Company, is recorded as occupying the mill in 1816. The Tithe Map of 1839 shows the land owned by James Kerby included a forge. An 1861 advertisement for sale of the Bourn Brook Estate (Worcestershire) describes a rolling mill in the occupation of the Bourne Brook Iron Company within a short distance of the mining district. An iron founder and metal roller, Noah Fellows occupied it in 1863. Arthur Holden, a paint manufacturer was the occupant in 1873. From 1880 Frederick Spurrier worked the mill for rolling joined in 1908 by Henry Spurrier.

The Tithe Map shows that in 1839 there were seven farms in Selly Oak. Selly Farm was on the corner of Warwards Lane and St Stephen's Road. It was referred to in 1809. It was replaced by a petrol filling station in the 1970s and is now St Stephen's Court, students' apartments. Raddlebarn Farm was formerly Raddle Barn Doors Farm in a reference of 1776. It had 50 acres and was mainly used for grazing cattle. The farmhouse survived until 1974 when it was replaced with a row of modern terraced houses. The cowshed remained until the 1990s being used as a fabric shop and Kaplan's. Bournbrook Farm was at the junction of Exeter and Dawlish Roads. It was owned by John Heeley, a gunmaker who owned Bournbrook Forge and Mill. The track became a road extending as far as the Bristol Road just before the development of the estate began in the 1870s. The other farms gradually disappeared under the pressure of increasing industrialisation and the demand for building land. Selly Hill Farm was converted into Selly Hill House a minor country residence and Langleys Farm became 'The Langleys'.

The 1839 Tithe Map and Apportionments for Northfield Parish, Worcestershire, show that in Bournbrook James Kerby owned 43 acres of land that included pools, a forge, and the Bell and Shovel Inn. Kerby's Pools was a Victorian pleasure resort in Bournbrook. Its three pools were devoted to boating and fishing and there was also a leisure garden. People would travel in great numbers to enjoy the entertainment and facilities the resort offered. Showell describes it as "a well known and favourite resort on the outskirt of the borough, on the Bristol Road, and formerly one of the celebrated taverns and tea gardens of past days". There were a variety of attractions and events like fireworks displays. It was one of few spots for fishing within walking distance of Birmingham. There were some accidents: on 17 May 1875 Lawrence Joyce was drowned when the boat upset, and two men were drowned 23 July 1876. The pools were filled in during the 1880s as the spread of heavy industry and the construction of terraced housing for the workers diminished the rural attractiveness of the location.

George Cadbury was a teacher with the Adult School Movement. When he moved his chocolate factory to Bournville he created purpose built Institutes in Selly Oak, Stirchley, and Northfield to serve the working community. In 1894 he extended the coffee house he had built for the workers of the Selly Oak and Bournbrook villages to include a meeting place for the Society of Friends, and for use by other groups. When Elliott needed the Workman's Hall for his manager of the Elliott's Metal Company Ltd the Adult School moved to the Selly Oak Institute located in Bournbrook. The institute is a listed building. It was described as having a large club room containing three billiard tables, three committee rooms, and a large hall suited for concerts and dramatic performance. Various groups met there including a choir and a band. The institute was used by others including the Traders and Ratepayers Association, and the police who held a court there twice a month. In 1899 it boasted a temperance tavern 'The Cyclists Arms'. In 1937 it was the address of the relieving officer and the registrar of births, marriages, and deaths, as well as a Men's Social Club, a girls' gymnastic club, Selly Oak Choral Union and Miss Christine Boyse who taught dancing. The institute continued to hold Adult Education courses and facilitate community groups that have recently been relocated to the Hubert Road premises.

The tall brick and terracotta building that resembles a French Gothic chapel was the Selly Oak Water Pumping Station. In the middle of the 19th century piped water gradually became available throughout the Birmingham area due to six wells that were built on the outskirts of the city. Although built in the 1870s by Birmingham Corporation Water Department it wasn't opened until 1879 by Joseph Chamberlain. Following the successful construction, in 1904, of the Elan Valley pipeline the well was retained in case of emergencies but was finally capped in 1920. The beam engine was built by Messrs.' James Watt and Co. and produced 1¼ million gallons each day. The site is now owned by Western Power.

Bournbrook Tavern, Bristol Road, was a Mitchells & Butlers pub with an unofficial name of 'The Steps' due to a flight of steps up to the entrance. It may have replaced an earlier pub called the Bowling Green Inn It was replaced by The Brook which has since been demolished and a hall of residence for students is now on the site. In the 1881 census the Bristol Pear, on the corner of Bristol Road and Heeley Road, was the Heeley Arms the 1881 census shows with Thomas Thompson as publican. It changed its name to the Station Inn before adopting its current name. Goose at the OVT The Inn was reported to have existed in c1700. On the 1839 Tithe Map the owner was James Kerby and it was called the Bell and Shovel Inn. Under the ownership of George North from 1859 the name changed to the Malt Shovel. Showell records that the public house, belonging to Holt's brewery, having been extended and partially rebuilt, and the grounds better laid out, the establishment was re christened, and opened as the Bournbrook Hotel at Whitsuntide in 1877. For a short time it was a Firkin Pub, and it is now the Goose at the OVT. The Gun Barrels was just in Edgbaston. During the late 19th century the pub became popular for prize fights because as the Bourn Brook was the county boundary, the pugilists could escape from the local police by crossing the brook which was beyond their jurisdiction. The pub had been rebuilt by 1987 and has since been demolished to make way for a sports centre containing Birmingham's first Olympic size swimming pool. An earlier building called The Grinders appears at this location on an 1819 turnpike map. It may have been named after William Deakin's Gun Barrel Manufactory at Bournbrook in 1841. Like many rural inns the pub had an adjacent bowling green which may also have been used for croquet. The Plough and Harrow was formerly called the New Inn in 1900 (delete) and took the name Plough and Harrow in 1904. The records of the Birmingham District of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows show a lodge was located at the New Inn, in Selly Oak. The squirrel motif of Holt's Brewery can be seen on the gable. Holts Brewery was founded in 1887 in Aston, but in 1934 became Ansells Brewery Ltd. It was demolished pre 1987.

The Tiverton Pool and Fitness Centre originally opened in Bournbrook on 28 January 1906 as Tiverton Road Public Baths. They were built by King's Norton and Northfield District Council to the design of E Harding Payne and built by a local building firm, T A Cole & Son. There were two swimming baths, one with a gallery for spectators, a children's bath and separate private baths for men and women. The larger men's swimming pool would be floored over in the winter months and the floorspace was used for concerts, political meetings, and dances. A smaller, shallower swimming bath, with steps down into it was provided for women and children. In 1911, it was taken over by Birmingham Baths Committee. More recently it has been converted into a health centre and now includes a "Pulse Point" gym as well as sunbeds and a sauna whilst retaining the swimming pool, the children's pool which is used as a smaller instruction pool and pool spectator seating facilities.

The land on which the free library was built was donated by Thomas Gibbins (junior), a local councillor as well as being an industrialist. The philanthropic organisation, the Carnegie Foundation, financed the building. It was opened in the year 1906 and is run by the city council.

In Bournbrook there is one surviving primary school: Tiverton Junior and Infant School. St Mary's C of E Primary School opened as a National School in 1860 with accommodation for 252 children. It was enlarged in 1872 and ten years later the boys and girls were separated. St Mary's National School was opened in Hubert Road Bournbrook in 1885 the girls were transferred there and the National School was used for boys and infants. In 1898 the schools were united for administration and called Selly Oak and Bournbrook Schools. A third department was opened in 1898, in Dawlish Road, to accommodate 545 senior girls and the Infants department. Bournbrook School was used for boys with additional accommodation for 200 boys provided at the Bournbrook Technical Institute from 1901 to 1903. The Selly Oak and Bournbrook Temporary Council School was opened by King's Norton and Northfield Urban District Council in 1903 in the room that was previously used as an annexe of Selly Oak and Bournbrook C of E School. The premises were not satisfactory and the school was closed in 1904 when Raddlebarn Lane Temporary Council School was opened. The schools were separated again in 1914 with the 1885 Hubert Road and 1898 Dawlish Road buildings becoming St Wulstan's C of E school. In 1946 accommodation was also provided in the People's Hall, Oak Tree Lane. St Mary's National School Bournbrook was closed in 1939 due to dwindling numbers. The Dawlish Road premises were sold in 1940 as a warehouse but bought by Birmingham Education Committee in 1952 to be an annexe to Tiverton Road County Primary School. Tiverton County Primary School was opened in 1906 by King's Norton and Northfield Urban District Council with accommodation for 510 children. Bournbrook Congregational Church provided accommodation for two classes in 1952. The buildings of the former St Wulstan's C of E School were bought in 1952 for an extension to the school. In 1954 the name was changed to Tiverton Road School. There was a small Quaker boarding school for twelve boys aged eight to sixteen in a building at the junction of Selly Park Road and Oakfield Road. Although no longer a school, the building was destroyed by a bomb during the Second World War and new houses have now been built on the site. Selly Oak Nursery School was founded in Greet in 1904, but in 1921 the school moved to premises in Tiverton Road which had been equipped by Mr. and Mrs. George Cadbury Junior.