Acocks Green History Society
Statutorily listed buildings
The following information is taken from the English Heritage website by way of explanation:
We select listed buildings with great care. The main criteria used are:
1. architectural interest: all buildings which are nationally important for the interest of their architectural design, decoration and craftsmanship; also important examples of particular
building types and techniques, and significant plan forms
2. historic interest: this includes buildings which illustrate important aspects of the nation's social, economic, cultural or military history
3. close historical association with nationally important buildings or events
4. group value, especially where buildings comprise an important architectural or historic unity or are a fine example of planning (such as squares, terraces and model villages).
The older and rarer a building is, the more likely it is to be listed. All buildings built before 1700 which survive in anything like their original condition are listed, as are most built
between 1700 and 1840. After that date, the criteria become tighter with time, because of the increased number of buildings erected and the much larger numbers which have survived, so that
post-1945 buildings have to be exceptionally important to be listed. Buildings less than 30 years old are only rarely listed, if they are of outstanding quality and under threat.
Why are there three grades?
Listed buildings are graded to show their relative importance:
Grade I buildings are those of exceptional interest
Grade II* are particularly important buildings of more than special interest
Grade II are of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve them
Descriptions have mostly been provided by the Conservation Unit of the City Council: for this we thank them.
Cottages at 89-93 Arden Road (Grade II)
Numbers 89 (Ivy Cottage) and 91 (The Cottage)
Late 18th century in appearance but probably 17th century in origin. Timber framed; brick; tile roof. Two storeys; 3 bays each. Ground floor with a square casement window, a broad tripartite casement, 2 studded doors with strap hinges, a square casement and another broad tripartite casement. All windows with segmental heads. First floor with 3 square and one broad tripartite casement windows. Brick dentil frieze. Left and right of the pair, single-storey additions, each with a single casement window and secondary door. No 91 with 4 late 18th century fireplaces and an early 19th century iron hand pump in the front garden by J.H. Powell, Lower Trinity Street Birmingham.
The full English Heritage listing is here.
Number 93 (Gladstone Cottage)
Late 18th or early 19th century. Painted brick; tile roof. Two storeys; 3 bays. Ground floor with an asymmetrically placed slatted door and a single segment-headed tripartite casement window either side. First floror with 2 segment-headed tripartite casements. Brick dentil frieze.
THe full English Heritage listing is here.
The Baptist Church on Yardley Road (Grade II)
Baptist church. 1913, by F.B. Andrews for the Baptist Chapel Trustees. Red brick with freestone dressings. Plain tile roofs. Symmetrical Arts and Crafts style elevation.
PLAN: Broad nave, narrow aisles, transepts, short apsidal chancel and east [liturgical west] entrance. Freestyle.
EXTERIOR: East front has two large octagonal turrets sunnounted by louvred bellcotes with cusped bell-openings between thin piers which rise above to the shallow domed top; between the turrets a
large deeply recessed Perpendicular window, the turrets forming the jambs; below the window a pent roof porch with a wide segmental arch; both the window arch and the porch arch are deeply
moulded and have fleurons. Flanking the turrets are wings with hipped roofs and 4-light windows below the eaves. North and south sides have aisles with lean-to roofs and segmental arch windows;
similar clerestorey windows above. On the ridge of the roof a fleche with bracketed eaves and small dome with finial.
INTERIOR: Exposed brick walls. Narrow 2-bay arcades with double-chamfered 2-centred arches and similar but larger crossing arches to the transepts. Clerestorey. Stone chancel arch. Wide nave with
arch-braced roof on
corbels; similar chancel roof.
The full English Heritage listing is here.
The Baptist church hall on Alexander Road (Grade II), listed 29.3.95
Baptist church hall, used as Sunday school. Dated 1903. English bond red brick and terracotta. Plain tile roof with terracotta coped gable ends and wavy ridge tiles. Brick gable-end stacks.
PLAN : Offices and entrance in the south front range; the hall behind. Free Flemish Gothic
style.
EXTERIOR: 2 storey south front of 3 bays; the centre bay breaks forwards and gabled with small wavy pediment at apex and name on terracotta scrolls below held by angels; central doorway with
panelled double doors, segmentally curved canopy / cornice on consoles with putti below and deeply recessed overlight above and flanking side-lights with teracotta tracery; panelled entablature
above; large B-light terracotta traceried Perpendicular window above with moulded segmental arch. Bays to left and right have 3-light traceried terracotta windows with cusped heads, the ground
floor with transoms, the first floor with panelled aprons, centre panel with shield; modillion eaves cornice and splayed corners rising to squat polygonal turrets with panelled sides, fleurons at
the comers and heavy moulded cornice and copper-clad ogee cupola with tall finial.
INTERIOR: Hall has arch-braced roof on corbels.
NOTE: The front of the building is an imposing free use of a flemish Gothic style with fine terracotta dressings.
The full English Heritage listing is here.
Number one, Mansfield Road (Pinfold House) (Grade II)
17th century, altered. Timber-framed; stuccoed; old tile roof. Two storeys; 4 bays. Ground floor with a window, a modern door within modern surround but with original flat moulded hood, and 2 windows. First floor with a window, now window, a window and a blank window. All windows flush sashes with glazing bars. Moulded cornice and parapet. To the right, a lower wall hiding the office wing. the rear of exposed brick and with 2 projecting gabled bays.
In 2007, a planning application was made for residential development and some demolition of outbuildings: detailed architectural surveys were made of the buildings, which can be accessed here. Click on Application number search, and when the search page appears, enter the application number 2007/01772/PA, wait for the application details to load, click on the application number link, then choose the View related documents link at the bottom of the page.
The full English Heritage listing is here.
Yardley Tools/Leonard's Garage Limited, Mansfield Road (Grade II)
Perhaps 17th century in origin. Timber-framed outhouse to number 1 (Pinfold House). Painted brick infill; corrugated asbestos roof. Left-hand bay gabled and advanced towards the road, tiled and probably later. Inside, the roof trusses mostly concealed by a false ceiling. to the right, a higher part; to the rear, modern additions.
The full English Heritage listing is here.
272 Yardley Road (Yardley Cemetery and Crematorium Lodge (Grade II)
c. 1880. Polychromatic brick; stone dressings; tile roof. In a Gothic style. two storeys; 3 bays. Ground floor with, on the left, a canted bay window rising through 2 storeys and with slated pyramidal roof and, on the right, 2 trefoil headed sash windows whose front is carried across to form a porch for the central door. On the right at first floor level are, left, 3 small lancets and, right, a rose window beneath a gable. To the left of the lodge, a long asymmetrically arranged single storeyed wing characterized by a canted bay window, a small gabled bay and another, larger, gabled bay with door.
The full English Heritage listing is here.
Grand Union Canal Bridge no. 86 (Woodcock Lane, Grade II)
The bridge, dating to the late 1790s, is in its original form with some repairs. It is of architectural interest in the context of the Grand Union Canal and the wider Birmingham canal network, and is of historic interest as part of the national waterways system of the late 18th century. Red brick, mostly in English bond, bridge with elliptical arch. The approaches of the bridge are splayed and marked by square end piers. The northern arch ring has been replaced by protruding concrete voussoirs, whilst the southern arch is formed by original brickwork. The lower parts of the parapet are original with modern brick above topped by concrete coping slabs. A small partly blocked rectangular recess above the northern arch at parapet level may have originally been built by the fire service to provide access to the canal for their hoses. Four vertical posts placed on the roadway by 1954 at the eastern end of the bridge prevent vehicular use. The modern brick built revetment to the eastern access causeway is of no architectural significance. (From DCMS listing)
The full English Heritage listing is here.
St. Mary's church
997/0/10468 WARWICK ROAD
23-JUL-09 Acocks Green
Anglican Church of St Mary the Virgin
II
An Anglican parish church in broadly C13 style, designed by J G Bland, dating from 1864-1882 with extensions of 1891-4 by J A Chatwin.
MATERIALS: The church is constructed from two colours of local sandstone, apart from red brick walls to the exterior of the transept arches marking the impact of WWII bombing; the roofs of the main church are of concrete tile, and those of the east ends of the aisles are of slate.
PLAN: The church is orientated north east-south west, though ritual compass points are used throughout this description. The plan has nave, north and south aisles, chancel, north vestry, south organ chamber and north porch.
EXTERIOR: The exterior is of red sandstone with cream sandstone dressings. The long elevations have five bays to the clerestoried nave, and a slightly lower two-bay chancel. The westernmost nave bays have aisle windows of three lights below clusters of trefoils, set into pointed archways with colonnettes with carved capitals including foliage and human heads. The clerestory windows above are paired plain lancets. In place of the transepts are continuations of the aisle in brick, with four lancets. The north porch has a steeply-gabled roof and elaborate Early English doorway with zig-zag and foliate decoration. The north vestry is also gabled, and has a further lean-to vestry with similar windows to those in the nave. The south side is similar but has a flush doorway instead of a porch in the western bay, and a C20 brick extension at the east end. The north and south sides of the chancel each have two tall two-light windows with trefoils above, running full height. The west end has a tall window of paired lancets with cusped decoration and a circular window above, with carved foliate decoration to the spandrels, and a drip mould with zig-zag decoration. Below this is a blind arcade of eight pointed arches carried on colonnettes with composite capitals and a continuous drip mould with zig-zag carving. The east window has Decorated tracery, giving five tall lights, quatrefoils and cinqefoils, and glazed spandrels.
INTERIOR: The interior has whitewashed brick walls above stone arcades. The five-bay arcades are of pointed arches in bands of red and cream sandstone, which spring from short, round piers carried on very high bases, with carved foliate capitals. The nave has an arch-braced collar-rafter roof whose trusses are carried on moulded stone corbels; the chancel roof is a timber barrel vault. The floor of the aisles is of large stone flags, and that to the east end is in polychrome tile. The westernmost bay is screened from the main body of the church by a pierced timber screen. The pews, which, like most of the furnishings were lost in the bombing of the church, have been replaced with chairs. The chancel arch and transept arches spring from slender clustered columns with foliate capitals carved by Bridgman of Lichfield. The interior of the church is dominated by the sumptuous east end. The chancel windows have red and cream banded stone surrounds, and those to the north and south sides are divided by full-height, slender clusters of columns rising to foliate capitals which serve as corbels for the trusses of the roof. A high and elaborate carved alabaster reredos, made in 1903, again by Bridgman of Lichfield, depicts Christ in Majesty, flanked by angels carrying the symbols of the Passion. Matching panels with statues of the Archangels in canopied niches are set to either side of the reredos, and the alabaster carvings are carried around the returns. Above the reredos, in a Decorated window, is a stained glass window from designs by Burne-Jones and Philip Webb, depicting the Crucifixion. The timber altar has painted angels in Pre-Raphaelite style. The altarpiece is carved from Devonshire marble, and has niches to either end housing figures of angels. The font and other furnishings date from after the church's restoration in the 1950s, including a polygonal timber pulpit with canopy by P B Chatwin.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: The church has a LYCH GATE in the west boundary wall of the plot. This has a buttressed sandstone base with a timber superstructure, under a hipped roof with slate covering, surmounted by a cream-coloured terracotta cross. Timber gates are mounted in the gateway.
HISTORY: The Church of St Mary the Virgin was begun in 1864, to designs by J G Bland, as a chapel of ease to St Eadburgha's in Yardley. The building, consisting of part of the nave, north and south aisles and north porch, was intended to have transepts, chancel, vestries and a south-west tower added at a later date. Subsequent phases of building were dependent on donations, and progressed slowly. The church was consecrated in 1866, and a parish was created in 1867, out of part of the parish of St Eadburgha. In 1878, work to complete the nave began, with the addition of transept arches and chancel arch. From 1891-2, the church was further enlarged, by J A Chatwin, who added the chancel, organ chamber and vestries; the work was not completed until 1894. A stained glass window by Morris and Co to designs by Burne-Jones was added in 1895, in memory of Reverend Frederick Thomas Swinburn, late Vicar of Acock's Green; it was paid for by his widow. Further stained glass was installed by various other benefactors, including a large west window by Hardman and Co. In 1903, an elaborate alabaster reredos, carved by Bridgman of Lichfield, was added to the east end.
In 1940, the church suffered a direct hit from a large incendiary bomb, which landed at the crossing. The church was badly damaged, with the loss of the roofs, internal furnishings, and most of the stained glass and other decoration. Remarkably, the west window and reredos survived with only minute damage, and the arcades were very little damaged, with the structure remaining sound. The church was repaired, with some modifications, during the 1950s: the steeply-pitched roof was replaced with a shallower roof, and the height of the clerestory increased; the circular clerestory windows were replaced with taller, rectangular windows. New furnishings were donated, including a new font, pulpit and west screen. The transepts and tower were never built.
SOURCES: Carew-Cox, A and Waters, W: Edward Burne-Jones - Stained Glass in Birmingham Churches (1998)
Pevsner, N and Wedgwood, A: The Buildings of England: Warwickshire (1966), 143-4
History of the County of Warwick (Victoria County History), Volume 7: City of Birmingham (1964), 391
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The Anglican Church of St Mary the Virgin is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* The original church was a lively composition of 1865 by a recognised regional architect, J G Bland
* This was enhanced by additions by J A Chatwin, the prolific West Midlands church architect, in the 1890s
* Although the church was badly damaged by enemy action in 1940, and the proposed tower and transepts were never added, the church as it stands retains much historic fabric of good quality, and was fully restored in the 1950s
* The damage and losses (of some interest in their own right, for showing the impact of the 1940 Blitz) are outweighed by the survival of the sumptuous and high-quality carved alabaster reredos, and the large stained glass east window, made by Morris and Co from designs by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones.
The full English Heritage listing is here.
Play Sculpure, Curtis Gardens, Fox Hollies Road
This is discussed under the Fox Hollies section of our website.
The full English Heritage listing is here.
Acocks Green police station and former courthouse
Formerly locally listed, this was nationally listed Grade II on 19th August 2019.
Built in 1909 for Yardley Rural District Council, formally opened in 1910. Included a courthouse. Red brick and terracotta; tile roof. Two-storeys. Almost symmetrical elevation to Yardley Road. Central section with rusticated ground floor, above which is a central pedimented bay with flanking projecting bays with segmental pediments. To either side are two-storey canted bays. Sliding sash windows throughout. On corner with Alexander Road is an octagonal turret with lead dome and keyed ocular windows. Low boundary wall with mould terracotta coping.
The full English Heritage listing is here.
Built environment of Acocks Green
Introduction to the built environment of Acocks Green