Old Birmingham Road - Rose Hill (B4096) and the surrounding area, including Dodford & The Monarch's Way

 

With grateful thanks to several contributers including Mike Dodman & Charlie Bateman Any amendments or additions will be welcomed..Thanks

 

Request for information please

Marlbrook resident Mike Dodman is researching the long history of the 1st Lickey Scout Group and has read a rumour (via a local Facebook group) that 2 scouts were killed when they fell down the quarry at the foot of Rose Hill. So far, however, he has been unable to find any evidence to corroborate this. Can anyone help? To make things more difficult there are no clues as to when this might have happened. Another person (now sadly deceased) who grew up in the area in the 1950s knew of it but was it simply an “urban myth” passed down by parents to their children as a way of frightening them off venturing onto that part of the Lickey Hills? Could it have happened as far back as the 1930s or 1940s?If anyone has any actual facts regarding this tragic event, could they please contact Mike at mfdodman@gmail.com or ring him on 07866-389528. 

 

 

Roman Road - Icknield Street or Ryknild Street

Photograph copyright Ordinance Survey   This map shows the course of the road, through "Our Patch", it runs from Worcester to Metchley (The Queen Elizabeth Hosital) in Birmingham. If you look at the bottom near to Lickey End and crossing the M42 you will see the dotted line of its route. It  crosses the Trinity Centre car park, (there was a dig there in the 1950s) and would seem to run in the Monument Grounds by the hedge along Old Birmingham Road . It crosses Rose Hill near the Old Vicarage and runs close to back gardens and then turns probably along Lickey Road and the Bristol Road to the old Metchley Roman fort

Grange Park

photograph copyright Arden Estate Agents

Herbert Austin founded the Austin Motor Company in 1905, setting up business in a disused factory in Longbridge, about seven miles south west of Birmingham. The company developed quite rapidly, with a steady increase in sales.  In 1910 Herbert Austin and his family moved from their home in Berwood Grove in Erdington to Lickey Grange, a much larger residence. The house, set in extensive grounds, was built in 1890 for Birmingham solicitor, Joseph Rowlands, from whom it was purchased. Lord Austin, as he then was, died on 23rd May 1941, aged 74.  His wife Diana, Lady Austin, died almost exactly a year later, on 24th May 1942 and both are buried in graveyard of the Holy Trinity Church.  After her death, Lickey Grange was sold to the Birmingham Royal Institution for the Blind, which opened a junior school on the premises in 1945. A few years later it became a senior school and, in the years that followed, further buildings were added around the original house. The BRIB kept the house much the same as it had been, but the grounds were developed to meet the needs of a residential school. Individual houses were built for teachers, Hostel blocks were built for the pupils, plus an assembly hall, indoor swimming pool and class rooms. The school catered for a mixture of residential and day pupils. Until the 1980s there were more residential pupils than day pupils; However, changes in the methods of education, lead to a large drop in the numbers of children being sent to the school. After the BRIB vacated the site it was redeveloped with teachers' houses nearest to the Old Birmingham Road sold off first. After the school closed in 1991, and the site was sold for redevelopment, called Grange Park. The Grange was subdivided into flats, and further new housing built within the grounds. 

Lickey Hills Garage 283 Old Birmingham Road, B60 1HQ

Previous to the first photograph the garage was called Graceland Garage. Locals will remember this as Hillside Garage, the garage/filling station owned and run by Les Morris. The pumps went first then after he retired it was taken on by an "Elvis" fan. Rumour has it that one night over a recent Christmas holiday a passing motorist called out the police because of "a drunken reveller playing a guitar on the roof". Originally Hillside Garage was owned by Les Morris, who lived in a bungalow a bit further up Old Birmingham Road on the same side. He closed the petrol forecourt in May 1996 The sign read "Unable to compete with the supermarkets”. Unleaded cost 56.9p per litre that day, (see photo by Mike Dodman below) After he retired, Les Morris moved to Burcot.He died 10th November 2016 aged 86 years. The Chigley family ran the petrol filling business before Les Morris. 

 Garage - memories from Jean-Luc Addams in the 1970s

There was no canopy just the sign and old block pumps. there was a lean-to in the corner where the pump attendant sat. They also sold matchbox cars by the window - I wonder why I remember that? Next to the lean-to was an air hose for tyres. we used to pump up our bike tyres with it. My grandfather Les knew the owners very well so I spent quite a few Saturdays round the back watching the cars being fixed and people being covered in oil. The big windows at the front were where car spare were sold. fan belts etc. It had a tall counter that I could never see over so I must have been very young at the time. It always smelt of tea and oil and wood. It has big signs for Lucas, Champion and stacks of Castrol oil in the window.