Introduction

Dear Reader,

Thank you for visiting this site.

My interest in Selly Oak Park arises from the fact that my great grandfather, Josiah Thomas Horton, was the first Park-keeper at Selly Oak and lived in the Park Lodge in Gibbins Road from 1899 until he retired in 1928; he had started work at the Park in 1898 when, as a gardener, he was transferred from the newly opened Queen's Park, Harborne to help lay down another new park.

The Lodge at the Gibbins Road entrance to Selly Oak Park

(Picture taken during the Selly Oak Festival in the Park on 26 June 2010,

by Ian Nash, a grandson of the first Park-keeper, Josiah Horton)

As I started to read about the Park I discovered that there was a wealth of information publicly available, but it was scattered in dusty archives which were not immediately obvious or accessible.

I have gathered all the information that I can find, and brought it together in this group of linked pages. The complete history is presented in decade "chapters" - they are listed on the bar on the right hand side of this page. Within each decade chapter I have made a brief summary of the key facts, which I present as the "Historical Overview". That Overview is supported by detailed information, clippings from various sources, which I have put on a "Clippings" page for each year. When you get to the decade pages, the clippings pages are listed on the bar on the right hand side of the page again. There are also links to the relevant year clippings at the end of each section as you read through each Overview. You should be able to go out to any chapter, or clippings page, and then return by using the links on the side bar or the "back" button at the top left of your screen.

I hope this compendium will prove a useful resource in the local community.

 

! wish to acknowledge the help I have received whilst gathering this information, particularly from:

• the staff of the Archive and Heritage Section of the Birmingham Central Library for access to Council minutes and press reports;
• the staff of Birmingham City Council for access to records - Simon Cooper, Parks Area Manager, David Fletcher, Assistant Property Manager, and Patricia Bacciochi, Muniments.

The Friends of Selly Oak Park have also been very supportive and encouraging.

Any of the photographs posted on these pages can be enlarged by clicking or double clicking on them.  To return to the blog page just click the return button on the top left of the screen.

This is ongoing research, so please return from time to time to "catch up" with progress (which may slow up at certain times of the year!). There will be changes as I learn and record new findings. Each page is marked at the beginning to show when it was last updated.

I may have missed things. If you have information, records, photographs, memories - indeed anything relevant - and for any year (1896 through to the present) - I shall be very grateful if you would share it with me. My contact details are included in the bar at the bottom of each page.

If you would like to see photographs of the Park as it is now, then please go to the Friends' website, by clicking here. When you are there you will find a link which will bring you back here when you are ready.

So, please now choose a decade from the right hand side of this page, and enjoy your time "in the Park" .....................

Ken Pugh
Solihull, West Midlands, UK
February 2011