SALTLEY URBANISATION

Blood's map of 1858 shows the bisection of Over Saltley by the London to Birmingham Railway: though this involved little demolition, it did prevent further growth thereabout - for no village could develop when its halves were joined only by a narrow bridge across a gorge. The O.S. One-Inch of 1872 shows Duddeston Mill Road and Landor Street, linked by Adderley Road, opening up the demesne: Ash Road as far as Hall Road, Reginald Road, Church Lane (St. Saviour's Road), Gate and Clayton Streets, and Bordesley Green Road. Terraces are shown on Mill Lane, Adderley Road north end, and between the two.

The population of Saltley at that time was about. 6,000. Bacon's map of about 1880, 3 inches to a mile, is finely detailed. Lower Saltley is seen to have gained Havelock Road, and there are cottage rows between it and Coleshill Road. The surviving villas on Highfield Road, others on Bridge and Payton (College) Roads, the extension of terraces down the park side of Adderley Road, the so-called cottages on the freed turnpike which are mansions, and true cottages on (Cherry) Wood Lane and at Washwood, are identifiable. Population has gone up by another thousand. Allotments lie between Coleshill Road and Church Lane. In Bordesley, several streets lead off the north side of Garrison Lane, to stop short at the borough boundary.

In 1892 the First Edition of the O.S. Six-Inch map shows Saltley and Little Bromwich as they were when Birmingham acquired them (population 12,000). George Arthur, Reginald, and Ralph Roads (all Adderleys) had overlain the allotments on Mill Field. There was a gap opposite the church, then Bowyer Road. Bartholomew's map of the same year but more up-to-date shows Chartist, Bennetts, Redhouse, and Membury Roads. The street pattern centred on Wright Street, between the main roads and Highfield Road, is complete, so that High Field has been completely covered. The Furlongs opposite the church have gone too, beneath Ellesmere and Edmond Roads, while four streets have infilled the old lane quadrilateral south of Couchman Road.

By 1911 the population of Saltley was 25,000, and it had leapt to 40,000 a decade later. By 1914 the 'South African' estate - Pretoria, Botha, Colonial, Churchill Roads - was laid out and built up at both ends with pleasant terraces, but not in the middle where Wash Brook still flowed above ground. The eastern edge of urban Saltley lay along Anthony, Couchman, Clodeshall/Tarry Roads, and Highfield Road, with terraces on Dyson Gardens and Naseby Roads as outliers. There were no parks but Adderley's, though meadows survived beside the brook and in the north. Allotments occupied the meadows between the Rea and the Midland line, where part of the sewage farmland had been.

Wash Brook was culverted down to the Park after World War One, yet only one street has been laid across the valley since then. Ward End Park Road, Foxton and Woodlands Roads run parallel to it. The area between these and pre-War Saltley was infilled with a score of streets, mostly short.

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