Acocks Green History Society
ACOCKS GREEN HISTORY SOCIETY
Acocks Green History Society has made available substantial amounts of information on the history of Acocks Green and resources for the study of the history of Yardley. Links to these pages can be found below.
The society meets at 7.30pm in the Community Room at Acocks Green Library on the first Thursday in the month (except August). Annual subscription is £5, and visitors and members pay £1 per meeting. Visitors who attend three meetings will be invited to join the Society.
Contact the Honorary Secretary, Mr M. Byrne, on 0121 464 1738 for more information, or write to Acocks Green Library, Shirley Road, Acocks Green, Birmingham B27 7XH.
Acocks Green History Society's extensive local heritage website is currently in transition. It will eventually be rebuilt on Birmingham City Council web pages. In the meantime, much of the content up until 2008 can be accessed at the Wayback Machine at www.archive.org. Links to individual pages are below: they may be slow to load. Alternatively, just enter the web address www.aghs.virtualbrum.co.uk in the search box within the Wayback Machine to bring up the index page of our old site. If you are following links out of those pages and they do not work, try copying and pasting the link into your browser and removing the part that refers to the Wayback Machine, e.g. http://web.archive.org/web/20071004190520/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/03/db0301.xml
can be retried as
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/03/db0301.xml
and will work. Newer pages are within this Jimdo site. If you cannot access any page, or if you know of a more recent version of it, please contact us at aghistsoc@hotmail.com, and we will try to answer your enquiry.
For more high quality information with photographs and maps, have a look at Bill Dargue's excellent site.
2009-2010 programme
September 3rd: AGM and Mike Byrne: Acocks Green from the 1940s to the 1980s, part two
October 1st: Jackie Hill: Keeping the memory of Lucas alive
November 5th: Jim Parkes: The way we were 1936-1954, part one
December 3rd: Christmas Social
January 7th: Bob Jones: From Digbeth to Yardley, a history of Digbeth-in-the-Fields church
February 4th: Keith Townsend and Rod Ling: The history and restoration of Spring Hill College, Moseley
March 4th: Graeme Clarke: Samuel Johnson, a man of many words
April 1st: Harry Murch: Dolphin Lane school at war
May 6th: Ted Rudge: Brumroamin', the Romany gypsies of the Midlands
June 3rd: Joe Holyoak: Martin and Chamberlain, Birmingham architects
July 1st: Joan Barnes: Reminiscences of the Grand Hotel
September 2nd: AGM and Mike Byrne: Hall Green in the 1950s and 1960s
Acocks Green History Society: contents for Acocks Green
Acocks Green (general pages)
A short history
Recommended reading
Victorian Acocks Green
Postcards, page one
Postcards, page two
1886 25 inches to one mile maps
1905 - 1838 6 inches to one mile maps
List of locations for the name Acock etc.
Acocks Green Convent School
The Convent
The Larch's story
Acocks Green library history
Early days
After World War Two
Refurbishment 1994-5 and beyond
Acocks Green Methodist church
Introduction
Preface
"Methodists as they are term'd"
The first church
The present church to 1927
Section two
The present church from 1927 to 1986
The Memorial Windows
Ministers
Organists and choir
The Tin Tabernacle
The Junior Church
The Junior Missionary Association
Section three
Uniformed organisations
The Guild/Circle
The Ladies Sewing Meeting
The Women's Cheerful Hour
Recreation Clubs
Roll of Honour
Caretakers
Endpiece
Bibliography
Subscribers to New Church Building Fund 1882
Names in the corridor of the Sunday School building
Church Trusts 1874 to 1976
Images
Acocks Green Olton and Solihull Journal
Alders and the Acocks Green Estate
The archaeology of Acocks Green
Botteville Road
Built environment of Acocks Green
Introduction to the built environment of Acocks Green
Sale catalogue, Fox Hollies Hall
Acocks Green Carnival
Fox Hollies Forum
Childhood memories of Jean Mercer
Dolphin Lane School 1929-59
Section one
Introduction – Goodbye Green Fields and Country Lanes
Getting Started
Buildings – Meeting the Changing Needs
The School Staff – Comings and Goings
A Broader Education – Talks, Festivals and Visits
Concerts and Performances – A Chance to Show Off
Christmas Celebrations
Royal Occasions – Visits and Celebration Holidays
Physical Activities – Athletics, P.T. and Games
Fund Raising – Helping Others and Supporting Ourselves
Medical Matters – The Doctor, The Dentist and the ‘Nit’ Nurse
Accidents and Misfortunes – Cuts, Bruises and Even Worse
Transgressions – Naughty, Naughty!!
The Air Raid Shelter Saga – Keeping the Children Safe
Evacuation – From Birmingham to the Countryside and Back
Appendix 1 Birmingham Educational Districts & School Lists
Appendix 2 New Pupils’ Previous Named Schools
Appendix 3 Sketch Map of the Local Roads Housing Dolphin Lane Pupils
Appendix 4 Memories – Dennis Simons
Memories of Eileen Staley née Bradley
Notable people of Acocks Green
Other histories of Acocks Green
Acocks Green, by C.J.G. Hudson, 1966
Acocks Green, by Joseph McKenna c. 1990
Introduction and conditions of use
Acocks Green and all around, by John Morris Jones, 1973
Section one
Acocks Green and all around
Introduction
Bounds of the central Quarters
First settlement in Yardley
Tenchlee (Tenchley)
Travel through Yardley
Houses and families
Woods and commons
Waterpower
Early church history
Ownership
Georgian Yardley
The Warwick and Birmingham Canal
Industry
Yardley in 1847
Later churches
Education
Public transport
Later industry
Urbanisation to 1900
Yardley into Birmingham
Amenities
Housing
Post-war, today and tomorrow
Sacred Heart and Holy Souls church
The Earl of Egmont and Acocks Green
Creation of the District, 1867
Illuminated address to Revd J.F. Swinburn, 1889
St. Mary's Acocks Green: "Out of the ashes...", 1948
Extract from C.J.G. Hudson's booklet on Acocks Green, 1966
St Mary's Church of England School
Lorraine Hanson, Olympic athlete
Stockfield Road
The rest of the nineteenth century
Transport and housing changes from 1900 until now
Stone Hall
World War Two and Acocks Green
Air Raid Precautions and civil defence
Anti-aircraft and barrage balloons
Austerity and saving resources
Extracts from the wartime diary of Frank Taylor Lockwood
Memories of a child's life in Tyseley, by Alexander Hook
Memories of Acocks Green school, by Alexander Hook
Resources on the history of the Manor and Civil Parish of Yardley
Yardley Parish registers 1539 to 1676
The Tithe Map and Award Schedule for Yardley 1843/7
Tithe Map
Field numbers in order
Enclosure Award Map
Principal landowners, occupiers and tenant farmers
Yardley Vicarial Tithes 1821 to 1822
Yardley: Victoria County History of Worcestershire, 1913
Occupation survey, 1841 Census of Yardley
Summary of the 1851 Census of Yardley
Directories of Yardley 1820 to 1896
One thousand years of Yardley souvenir brochure
What can be seen from Ackers Hill
Early settlement and boundaries
Reasons for the study, the origins of Yardley and the Charter of 972
The mapping of Yardley boundaries
The boundaries of Yardley in 972
The boundaries of Yardley in 1609
The boundaries of Yardley 1843/7
The boundaries of Yardley in 1911
A comparison of the boundaries between 972 and 1962
Supplement: the boundaries in 1495
Map: part of Beighton's Mapp 1725
The meaning of Yardley, and Yardley in the tenth century
The eleventh and twelfth centuries
The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
The nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Life expectancy in Yardley 1813 to 1842, and 1857 to 1886
Natural increase in population in Yardley 1539 to 1839
Yardley church wardens 1670 to 1773
Male adults in Church End Quarter, 1798
Poor Rate levies, Church End Quarter, 1745-1818
Yardley Land Tax Assessment 1787
Yardley Militia lists 1816 and 1831, analysis
Administration and local government
Map: Yardley Parish and Vestry prior to 1894
Map: Yardley village 1847 to 1904
Relief and drainage, geology, and the natural landscape
First footers and Anglo-Saxon settlement
The manor of Yardley, the boundaries of Yardley, and the 'Manor' of Greet
Ancient roads, ancient buildings, and watermills
Turnpike roads, bridges, and administration
Urbanisation, and amenities and services
Churches, schools, and commerce and industry
Between the Wars and since, and references
Geology, Natural vegetation, and relief and drainage
Early settlement, and Saxon beginnings
Boundaries, Domesday Yardley, and Moats and earthworks
Medieval times, and Ancient roads
Old houses, Local government, and Tudor to Georgian times
Bridges, Watermills, and the Stratford Canal
Yardley Rural District, The City of Birmingham, and Urbanisation
Industry, Between the Wars, and Public transport
Swanshurst Quarter in 1979, and Short bibliography
The transport history of Yardley
A transport history of Yardley, by P.L. Hardy
A history of the Birmingham and Warwick Canal 1792 to 1972, by John Morris Jones
A short survey of railways in the Manor of Yardley, by Anthony John Lambert
Brick and tile making in Yardley
Billesley, Hall Green and Acocks Green
Urbanisation of Yardley (introduction)
The natural landscape
Ownership and administration
Yardley in medieval times (map)
Yardley at the end of the eighteenth century (map)
The early 19th century
The mid-nineteenth century
The Victorian half-century 1850-1900
The last years of independence
Development 1911-20
Two decades 1919-39
Yardley since the war
Urbanization maps
Surviving antiquities of Yardley (map, 1981)
The watermills of the Cole valley
Provisional list of Cole valley watermills
Peterbrook, Dobbs, Crab, Kilcop and Forshaw Mills
Colebrook Priory and Old Mills
Trittiford Mill
Broomhall and Lady Mills
Sarehole Mill
Greet Mill
Possible mills in Greet and Tyseley, Medley's Mill
Hay Mills
Wash and Stechford Mills
Babbs, other Sheldon, Kingsford and Coleshill Mills
Sources
The river Cole in Yardley, and its fords and bridges
Standing waters (millpools and fishponds)
The waters of Yardley: settlement, communications and industry
Preface
Geology and natural vegetation
Relief and drainage
The foundation of Yardley
Boundaries
Old names
Old roads
Norman to medieval times
St. Edburgha's church
Owners of Yardley
Old buildings
Open fields
Tudor and Stuart times
The river Cole
Georgian times
The nineteenth century
Churches and schools
The twentieth century
Thirty-five years
Principal sources
Images of old Sparkhill and Tyseley
Images of old Stechford and Lea Hall
print version