Introduction
Dear Reader,
Thank you for visiting this site.
Selly Oak Park is a public park, first awarded Green Flag status in 2013, situated on Gibbins Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England, UK. Its near neighbours include the University of Birmingahm and the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and its northern boundary is the line of the former, currently dry, Dudley No. 2 Canal, also known as the Lapal Canal. The Park is one of the older parks in the City of Birmingham, set in 33.27 acres (13.2453 hectares) of land which was once part of Weoley Park Farm. It contains a range of play equipment, including a zip wire and climbing frame, many tree-lined footpaths, wood sculptures and nature feature interpretation boards. One notable feature is the stump of the old "Selly Oak" which was placed in the park in 1909 when the oak tree in Oak Tree Lane was felled.
Thank you for visiting this site.
Selly Oak Park is a public park, first awarded Green Flag status in 2013, situated on Gibbins Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England, UK. Its near neighbours include the University of Birmingahm and the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and its northern boundary is the line of the former, currently dry, Dudley No. 2 Canal, also known as the Lapal Canal. The Park is one of the older parks in the City of Birmingham, set in 33.27 acres (13.2453 hectares) of land which was once part of Weoley Park Farm. It contains a range of play equipment, including a zip wire and climbing frame, many tree-lined footpaths, wood sculptures and nature feature interpretation boards. One notable feature is the stump of the old "Selly Oak" which was placed in the park in 1909 when the oak tree in Oak Tree Lane was felled.
My great grandfather was the first park-keeper at Selly Oak and lived in the Park Lodge in Gibbins Road from 1899 until he retired in 1928. This fact prompted my research on the park which I now present in a number of decade volumes (just click on a volume in the following list):-
Within each decade volume I have presented a brief summary (timeline) of the key facts which is then supported by a much longer section of details culled from Council Minutes, newspapers, etc.
This is ongoing research, so please return from time to time to "catch up" with progress. There will be changes as I learn and record new findings. These are my most detailed and up to date files. Each volume 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 - I shall be very grateful if you would share it with me. My contact details are included in each volume.
If you would like to see photographs of the Park as it is now, then please go to the Friends' website, by clicking here.
Ken Pugh
Acocks Green,
Birmingham, UK
December 2020
** The earlier part of the history has been published in my book:-
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Selly Oak Park soon after it was laid out - so maybe 1902?
Notice the Park-keeper (Josiah Thomas Horton) - with, perhaps, four of his thirteen children.
Photograph kindly contributed by John Skinner.
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)
There is a useful aerial view of the park on the Birmingham Open Spaces Forum website:
(Last updated 21 March 2022)
