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Hubert Galton had a walled kitchen garden built in the grounds of Warley Abbey in the location where The Wilderness is now.  We do not specifically know if this area had a greenhouse or greenhouses originally but it seems likely.  We do know at least two of the later tenants of the Abbey were proud horticulturalists and exhibited at local horticultural shows.  Shows were often held in the grounds of Warley Abbey and at least one of the tenants was a judge.  In 1878 an advert to let the property mentions vineries, a peach house and a melon ground.   There are some structures shown in that area on the 1902 ordnance survey map.  The peach house and vineries were still there in 1906 as the Birmingham Parks Department minutes record that they were considering selling the produce from them.

Once the site became a public park there definitely were green houses and quite a few.  Once a park though, they were in a staff only area and so our information largely comes from staff memories.  For a time parks staff were divided into outside and inside gangs (inside the greenhouses, and outside in the park)– as there was plenty of work to do in each area.  We know that bedding plants were raised at Warley in the greenhouses to be planted out across Birmingham, including outside the Council House and the Hall of Memory on Broad Street.

Our other source of information is Birmingham Parks Department Minutes as they record budget spends and they do seem to have been needed money spending on them as expenditure features regularly.

• 1913 “greenhouses at Warley…need rebuilding”.  The committee agreed to a tender of £69-10-0d for the greenhouse at Warley from Messrs Wm. Duncan Tucker and Sons Ltd of 27 Cannon Street London which was erected in 1914.
• 1917 the boiler at Warley had given up and was replaced by a reserve from Ward End Park.  The committee agreed to spend £50 on a replacement.
• 1924 there was a necessity to repair and paint the six greenhouses and pit lights.  A high wall was taken down and the remainder tied into the boiler house.
• 1927 General repairs to boiler house and large greenhouse at Warley were approved at a cost of approx. £45.
• 1936 boiler to be replaced with a new Robin Hood 10.
• Extensions to the greenhouses were agreed in 1938.
• There was damage to the greenhouses in December 1941 when a large high explosive bomb was dropped nar the 2nd green of the golf course.

(minutes between dates still to be explored)

•    1946 an upgrade to the greenhouse heating system was agreed at a cost of £225
•    1951 agreed to the supply and erection of a Span Propagating House for Warley Park. Cost £445-10-10d to be provided by Foster and Pearson Ltd..  Work to be done by departmental labour. Report of general manager described the building as a ‘superstructure in best quality Siamese Yang, complete with iron staging and supports’. Asking that the committee accept the additional costs beyond the original estimates as being justified in ‘providing a first class propagating house …..having regard to the importance of this park’
•    1952 blinds had to be provided for the propagating house at a cost of £98
•    1952 painting and glazing of greenhouses agreed £325
•    1954 Estimates were made to repair and redecorate the new greenhouses and new staging £450.  Agreed to provide a new superstructure to one of the greenhouses at Warley. Cost £331-12-0d Boulton and Paul Ltd.  Also recommended that there should be provision in the following year’s budget to replace the other remaining structure.
•    1955 £208 agreed for repair of greenhouse by Guest Bros. 57 Somerset Road Edgbaston.  One of the gable ends was coming apart from the main structure, causing the glass to crack and fall.
•    1957 Timber greenhouse superstructures to be erected in existing brickwork.  Suppliers Boulton and Paul Ltd. of Norwich.
•    1960 agreed to provide a thermo-draught unit for use in connection with the boilers in the greenhouses. Supplied by Mayfern Fuel Efficiency Company Ltd, Liverpool at a cost of £374.  
•    Provision agreed to purchase a 9-section Robin Hood new ‘C’ boiler and stand complete with stoking tools, draw off cock, safety valve and smoke pipe as a replacement for an existing boiler for the greenhouses.  This to be provided by Paragon Heating Co. Ltd, 33 Constitution Hill at a cost of £438-0-0.
•    1963 Agreed to purchase a replacement of the superstructure for greenhouse at Warley. Size 40’ x 24’, cost £775

You can read more about the greenhouses and what went on in them in our book  Tales of Warley Woods, available online or in The Shop at the Pavilion.

As staff numbers in parks diminished over the 1980s and 1990s the greenhouses would have had less use.  We believe they were demolished in two stages by the end of the 1980s, with just the surrounding walls and boiler house left which were flattened in the 1990s.  It is the treatment of this particular area of the park which was a catalyst for the formation of the Warley Woods Community Trust a few years later.  

The area the greenhouses were in is now called The Wilderness.  You can read about how this area has developed here The Journey of the Wilderness 

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