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The land that makes up the Warley Woods that we know today was not simply acquired in one lot. While the Warley Estate had been owned by the Galton family for over 100 years, parcels of land had started to be sold off, with the prospect of development.  It took Alexander Macomb Chance ten years to put enough of the estate back together again to create our site today.  You can read more about the particular struggle to acquire the land along Barclay Road on the tennis courts and allotments page.

In order to save the landscape as a public park, fourteen Acres were bought from Harold Tangye, forty-one acres were bought from  Major HGH Galton and 48 acres from WH Jones.  A fundraising committee, led by Alexander Chance, raised £29,581 over two appeal periods, including contributions from Oldbury and Smethwick Councils.  Birmingham Corporation agreed to fund the remainder of the acres purchased in 1906 which they did by taking out a loan.

It is harder to track the changes and evolution of the large open landscape of the park as it is the main buildings and structures which appear in Parks Department minutes.  The best history record we have is through OS maps and the many images and postcards that we have of the site.  Even though many of the images are undated, periods of change can be identified though the size of trees and style of park furniture.

We know much work was done to the site in the lead up to its opening as a public park.  Images show a lot of “stock fencing” along driveways.  We know that sheep were grazed in the park and payments were made to the corporation for the right to do this – so the site may have been a series of enclosures.  There was certainly an enclosure at one point which housed goats.  Pigs were also a feature of the landscape at several times.  There was a project for returning WW1 soldiers that involved animal husbandry and we have a photograph of pigs at Warley.  We also know from Parks Department minutes that all pigs owned by the parks department were to be sold off in 1921.  It seems likely that  they made a come-back though and we heard about pig sties near the stables and pigs being cared for during WW2 by land girls during our oral history project.

We have an image of the parkland (now known as the meadow) which shows that there were significantly more trees there than are today and we know that when the park was opened in 1906 an avenue of trees was created along the main drive, because we can see them with their tree supports in many images.  We know that it is was possible for carriages and cars to drive through the site on the carriageway from one end to the other because in 1909 it was found necessary to introduce a speed limit and signs (6mph).

We know that there were various structures and shelters across the site because they are marked on an OS map of 1938.  We have heard of children’s gardens and aviaries.  We know there were ponds that must have been filled in.  We have images of French Garden exhibitions.  We have heard of large parts of the grassland being cultivated for a short period of time for food – mainly unsuccessfully for cabbages We do know that there are large parts of the grassland that have never been cultivated at all, and have always been grass/grazing land.  That information comes from the study of the type of grasses we have (and we have many) which are indicators of ancient grassland – historical information and evidence comes in many forms.

Everything we learn always leads to more questions than answers and we look forward to more discoveries in the future.  A park always evolves to meet the needs and expectations of each new generation and it will continue to do so.

Would you like to read about somewhere else on the history trail?  Go back to the main listing page.