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A strip of land along Barclay Road from the school to the corner of Lightwoods Hill has a history all of its very own.  Nowadays it so perfectly makes up the eastern edge of the park – it is hard to imagine the park without it.  However, it becoming part of the park was not a foregone conclusion and it wasn’t won without a fight.

Once in the park it was used as allotments, tennis courts and bowling greens until eventually being planted with beech trees in the 1950s and then thinned several times to allow the trees space to mature.  We know all of these things are factually true but we don’t know exactly what happened when.  What is very well documented is the struggle to secure this part of the site to complete the park; from its three different landowners who had bought it for building houses, or for its timber, or both.  It was actually the felling of trees on one of these parcels of land that stimulated the campaign to save Warley Park from destruction and it was one of the last parcels of land to be acquired to make up the site as we know it today.  

Even today though those parcels of land legally have to be managed slightly differently from others, because those benefactors who paid for their purchase wanted to protect what they had bought from future despoilment with covenants. For example, there is a covenant preventing the hanging out of washing along Barclay Road and this is because if houses had been built there, the view from the park would have been into the gardens or yards of those new homes. 

In1906 when the majority of Warley Woods was opened as a public park, the land facing Barclay Road was still owned by the Birmingham Freehold Land Building Society.  It had bought the land from the two Galton cousins who owned parts of the Warley Estate.  It was a friendly society whose intention was to provide homes for its members.  It published that it intended to build 2,000 homes for the artisan and lower middle classes on “the Warley Woods estate”.  

Alexander Chance took an option on this land in 1908 for the park with a view of raising the funds to purchase it.  It was formally opened as part of the park in July 1908, rent was paid, and promises made towards the purchase price.  There were plans to build a new entrance lodge and a request for trams to be routed up Upper St Mary’s Road to the entrance.  They had seven years to raise the money to pay for the land.  A price was agreed in July 1914 but the outbreak of WW1, with Alexander Chance stuck in France unable to travel, meant plans to confirm the source of funds and confirm donations became difficult.

It had been expected that Birmingham Council would pay a share of the purchase price, but the Council refused to.  The issue was considered in full council session with Councillors saying that with Lightwoods Park and the current Warley Woods Park there was enough public park space already available and if money was available to buy land at building land prices then this should be in areas which were congested without sufficient green spaces.  They contended that it was too expensive per acre (and it does look as if prices were almost twice per acre the prices paid in 1906) and money was needed elsewhere.  It also looks like some of the original pledges of donations could not be realised either. 

Eventually Alexander Chance (who was not a person to give up) obtained the funds needed from local citizens and businesses.  The land was bought and was given to the council  to avoid “a permanent despoiling of what is a beautiful and attractive park”.

Allotments

1n 1908 it was agreed that the land, which had become very neglected while in purchase limbo, should be used for allotments and these were offered to parks staff at no rent for the first 12 months.  This was with the agreement of the potential donors for the land purchase.

The tenancies for the allotments (referred to as “Warley Park Gardens”) were due to expire in 1916 and holders were told they would not be renewed.  At first it was agreed to extend for a year, because food production was needed during the war.  However one of the pledged donors objected to this and so the extension to the tenancy was cancelled

We know that there were allotments somewhere on site in 1925 as there was an annual meeting of Warley Woods allotment holders association at Abbey Road School with prizes awarded for the best kept plot. We also know there were two acres of allotments somewhere in 1952 because it is mentioned in Parks Department minutes that they were given up.  In between periods of allotments, we know the area was used for both playing tennis and as bowling greens.

Tennis and bowling

In 1908 Warley Park had an income from tennis, but that was not from courts on Barclay Road but probably in front of the Abbey where the play area is now.  We know land was being levelled for bowling, but are not sure of the location.  Like tennis, we know there were two locations for bowling greens.  We know a bowling green was completed by Easter 1908. 

We are not sure what was happening in 1914 because reports are contradictory.  There was a newspaper appeal for more tennis courts in the Birmingham area which said that there were some in use at Warley and in high demand.  However the council minutes in July 1914 said one of the reasons for buying the extra land was for tennis courts “which were not presently provided at Warley”.

It was suggested the land on Barclay Road could be used.  Another appeal was made for hard courts in 1925 from the lawn tennis association, saying the ones in Warley weren’t great but the Parks Committee decided as there were to be four hard courts in Lightwoods this would be enough.

In 1925 we know there was both bowling and tennis as a Pavilion was built as part of an “unemployment relief works scheme employment scheme.”  If someone was in receipt of the equivalent of unemployment benefit then they had to work on schemes for the public benefit.

In 1930 it looks like the argument over the hard courts was won as it was agreed that three hard tennis courts should be built (converted from grass courts), again by unemployed men.  These would be built by seven men over 12 weeks and would cost £450.

An OS map of 1938 shows a Pavilion there but there is no sign of allotments, tennis or bowling grounds.  In 1939 there were discussions about using the site to construct 12 brick and concrete air raid shelters for the use of children at Abbey Road School and in 1941 the right was granted to Smethwick Fire Brigade to construct an underground 200,000 gallon water supply tank on the site of three of the tennis courts.  We don't know if either of these projects were completed - just that they were agreed.

By 1947 there was no tennis in Warley Park  again.  In 1962 we know that the Warley branch of Birmingham and District Dog Training Club was using “the former tennis courts” for training and they wanted to extend “to the other side of the path”.  This could refer to Barclay Road, or to the Abbey site – but we don’t know which.

We have a photo of Warley Tennis Club from 1916, but it was not taken in Warley Woods and a photo of Abbey Road tennis club from late 1920s but we have no idea where either Club actually played.

Later Developments

In the 1950s the area that the tennis courts had been on were planted with saplings.  They must have been thinned at some point, but the trees are very close together now and clearly planted in rows. The Trust has thinned the trees since and then created woodland glades where we hope ground flora will thrive and new succession planting will establish.

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