Introduction

The whole area in which the wards of Castle Bromwich, Chelmsley Wood, Fordbridge, Kingshurst and Smiths Wood stand today was once a northern part of the Forest of Arden. This ancient and relatively impenetrable woodland covered some 200 square miles to the north and west of the river Avon. covered some 200 square miles to the north and west of the river Avon, thus stretching beyond Coventry to the east and to Stratford in the south. Shakespeare set his 'As You Like It in the Forest of Arden.

The area has a dominant underlying thick clay, known as 'Keuper Marl'. This typically gives rise to a moderately undulating landscape and is used for brick making. From the overlying soil, natural vegetation of traditional British trees such as oak, chestnut, beech and ash grew in the river valleys whilst dense gorse and bracken covered heathland sat on the highest ground.

It is believed that the area had a few inhabitants as long ago as 3000BC as early man eked out an existence sustained by the waters of the River Cole and its tributaries and the beasts of the Forest. There is evidence of Roman settlements during their occupation at Castle Bromwich and Coleshill and today's Chester Road is almost certainly based on a former Roman route.

The first documented record of the area comes in the Domesday Book where the lands are recorded as part of the manors of Coleshill, Bickenhill and Marston Green, Castle Bromwich and Water Orton, Mackadown and Elmdon.

The Manor of Coleshill is known to have been in the ownership of the deClinton family in the 12th century but passed by marriage to the Mountford family by the 14th century. In the 16th century, ownership had passed again to the Digby family. Simon Digby was granted the Manor as payment for bringing Peter Mountford to trial. He had been a founder of the rebellion against Henry VII in 1495 organised by Perkin Warbeck, and was hung, drawn and quartered for his trouble.

The area remained agricultural with but a few hamlets until the 1950s when Birmingham City Council sought land for development meet its housing crisis, precipitated in part by the losses of residences sustained in the Second World War. At that time the whole area was a part of Warwickshire. In the early 1950s Birmingham reached agreement with Warwickshire to build and manage Birmingham owned housing on Warwickshire land at Kingshurst.

Over the next decade most of the premises in Kingshurst ward as we know it today were constructed and occupied. Early residents had few services, the first doctor opened consulting rooms in a Council owned residence in 1955. The first pub, the Mountford was even longer arriving.

In 1964 Birmingham decided to expand and accelerate this development programme. Despite the objections which led to a Public Enquiry from 19th to 30th May 1964, the plan to develop Chelmsley Wood, Smiths Wood and Fordbridge was approved that year. Building was completed by 1969.

Warwickshire remained responsible for the education, roads, refuse, environmental and other services in its area, whilst Birmingham retained responsibility for the housing. In 1974, local government restructuring saw responsibility for services move to Solihull Metropolitan Borough. Ownership of the housing subsequently followed in 1980.

Castle Bromwich

The Tumulus, more recently known as Pimple Hill and also as Castle Hill, is an ancient fortification. It is almost certainly of Roman origin, and undoubtedly developed as an overlook to the Tame Valley, one of the easiest routes through the ancient Arden Forest.

The ancient Roman route, the Chester Road became a turnpike in 1759 and thus one of the most important through routes, and a forerunner of the M6 that runs closely parallel today. On this turnpike was enough passing traffic to sustain four coaching inns. These were the Castle Inn, the Bridgeman Arms, the Coach and Horses and the White Lion.

The Castle Inn closed in 1908. The Coach and Horses, first recorded in 1776, remains, albeit in its third building on the same site. The second Coach and Hoses was famously gutted in a fire on the morning of 7th May 1938, when despite the attendance of three fire brigades, fro Coleshill, Ward End and Bordesley Green, there was insufficient water pressure with which to quench the flames that had taken hold of the thatched roof.

The White Swan was the oldest of the inns and this, too, remains today. Again it has been rebuilt, as well as changing name to the Bradford Arms. The area's only cinema, the Castle, was opened nearly opposite the Bradford Arms in 1940 but closed again in 1963.

The Bradford Arms was formerly the White Lion Tenements but was re-named after the Bradford family, final residents of Castle Bromwich Hall. The Hall was built for Sir Edward Devereux, first MP for Tamworth, in the 17th century. It soon passed into the ownership of the Bridgeman family and Sir James Bridgeman had an extra storey added to the Hall. It remained with the family for many years until a marriage took it into Bradford ownership.

Sir James Bridgeman was also responsible for the building of the adjacent Church of St Mary & St Margaret. This was built on the site of a 15th century church and was originally the chapel to the Hall, but became the Parish Church in 1878.

The final resident of the Hall was Lady Ida Bradford, who had been Queen Mary's 'Lady of the Bedchamber'. As a result Queen Mary is reputed to have made several visits to Castle Bromwich Hall in her later years. Nowadays the Hall is used as a business premises.

Another grand house used to stand on the junction of Water Orton Lane and Green Lane. This was the 18th century Whately Hall.

Chelmsley Wood

In Mediaeval times, a wood known as Chelemundeshia, a fragment of the original Forest of Arden, was part of the Manor of Coleshill. The earliest known record of it is from 1200 when it passed to the ownership of Margaret de Clinton on the death of her husband Geoffrey, as the Manor of Coleshill passed to their son, Osbert.

There is reference in a document of 1322 to 'Aldencotenhale' in the manor of Coleshill being passed to William de Charneles of Bedworth. This is believed to be what is now known as Alcott Hall. The present Alcott Hall was in its prime a substantial farm, set between Chemsley and Alcott Woods. It stands today at the junction of Berwicks Lane and Moorend Avenue, is from the 18th century, but is unlikely to have been the original building.

As mentioned above, ownership of the Manor of Coleshill, and with it Chelmsley Wood, was granted to Simon Digby in the time of Henry VII. It was from a later Simon Digby, descendent of the original, that Birmingham City Council purchased Chelmsley Wood in 1965

The woodland had become in time a favourite walking and picnic spot, particularly in the bluebell season when the ground beneath the trees was carpeted in blue.

But many of the trees of the woodland were felled to make way for the new housing, which was constructed here in 1967 and 1968. Some of the woodland was, however, left as part of the public recreation areas, particularly around the Cole valley

In 1968 a tender was let for the development of the Chelmsley Wood Shopping Centre, opened by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II in April 1971.

Fordbridge and Kingshurst

Both Kingshurst and the Fordbridge were developed as a part of Birmingham's building programme in the 1950s and 1960s on former agricultural land that had been a part of the Manor of Coleshill.

Kingshurst Hall

The earliest record of Kingshurst is in documents from the late 13th/earth 14th centuries, when it is referred to as part of the Manor of Coleshill. There appears to have been a Kingshurst Hall from about this time. The Hall had its own park and farmlands and tenant farming was administered from here.

When the Digby family were Lords of the Manor of Coleshill, they managed it from afar, and the Hall itself was tenanted. Records show that in 1610 the tenant of Sheldon Hall, one William Bull, moved across the river Cole to tenancy of Kingshurst Hall in 1610. Sheldon Hall still stands, just across the Solihull/Birmingham border in Tile Cross and is now a Pub/Restaurant.

By marriage the tenancy later moved to the York family, who gave there name to the small area of the original Kingshurst Hall Park which remains today, Yorkswood.

Between 1700 and 1720 Kingshurst Hall was rebuilt. The new Hall was a large red brick building with a tiled roof, reached by a brick bridge over its moat. By 1885 the tenancy had moved on to the Townsend family and passed eventually to two brothers, George and Walter Townsend. They ran the Farm, but George died in 1950, by which time Birmingham City Council had taken ownership and were then planning the development of Kingshurst for housing.

Walter Townsend's failing health led to the Hall falling into a state of disrepair. All plans to salvage it came to nothing due to a lack of funds. In 1960, Walter was moved to a house in Castle Bromwich and in 1962 the Hall was demolished.

All that remains of it today are parts of the moat and its bridge and a historic Mound. In 1480, Simon Mountford had declared that trees planted on 'The Knobbe' at Kingshurst Hall should never be touched. This is probably the mound that stands beside Stonebridge Crescent today.

Babbs Mill

Although now marginally across the Solihull/Birmingham border, Babbs Mill was part of the Kingshurst Hall estate and was also tenanted in the last century by members of the Townsend family.

The current building is of uncertain age, but is probably the second mill on the site, there having been a mill on the site from the 13th century. Its name comes from John Babb, miller there in the 16th century. Originally an additional course was built to feed the Mill Pool and the river itself ran parallel, but now the river Icel. follows the 'new' course beside the mill.

The milling of corn from the estate continued there until the early 20th century. In the 1920s it was converted to cottages. The Mill Pool was drained in the Second World War. Today an old millstone is used as a doorstep.

Smiths Wood

When developed for housing in the late 1960s, Smiths Wood was originally known as Chelmsley Wood North. It took its own identity from the name of a farm that used to be in the heart of the area, near the remaining wood.

Another farm, Burtons Farm, demolished in 1989, was another Moated Manor House site. This was situated near the junction of Windward Way with Buckingham Road where there is now a Play Area. The moat itself has been filled in.

In the wood itself, a good example of Medieval loughing practice, known as Ridge & Furrow, has been identified. This indicates that the remaining woodland today is not part of the original Forest of Arden but rather land that was cleared for medieval agriculture and subsequently recovered to woodland.