Families of the District

Early medieval records show that most people then had no surnames, though occupational names like Smith and Miller were appearing. Folk having the same baptismal names were sometimes distinguished by reference to their parentage - e.g. John's son, which accounts for the present surfeit of Joneses. When it was necessary to identify them more certainly, a place name would be added. Hereabouts were Adam atte Hollies, John de Waxhull (Webb Lane), William de Fynchale (Barton's Lodge), Nicholas de Bromhale (Broomhalle) and John de Whateleye (Cateswell). Agnes Haw and Julia Hyon, widows of Hall Green Hall and Hiron Hall, were unusual in having had husbands with surnames.

Of the ancient families only the Hirons still flourish locally : one of them joined the Discovering Yardley Group. Members of the Acock family are to be found in the city five centuries after their appearance in the district to which they gave their name. Miss Hilda Spare's forebears were first recorded as property owners hereabout in 1500, few other residents can claim more than three generations of Hall Greeners as ancestors.

Dolphins lived at Swanshurst for nearly five hundred years and owned much of the land between Robin Hood and Baldwins Lanes in early Victorian times. Greswolds, Baldwyns, Grevises, Wigleys and Taylors held large parts of the area at various periods, but few lived in it. The Greswolds owned Shaftmoor : Sir Richard Grevis of Moseley had a house called Stillfields near Pembroke Croft.

Like the Baldwins, the Webb family of Little Sarehole, the Morrises, Scribners and Severnes are remembered in old lane or modern street names. Fox Hollies recalls the family which acquired that estate in Georgian times. The ubiquitous Kings have a Tyseley road named after them : they were at various periods tenants of Hay Hall, Greet Mill Hill, Hall Green, Broomhall, Gospel and Brook Farms. For two centuries the Steedmans occupied Shaftmoor, until its demolition in 1910.

Kelly's Directories show that many tenant farmers came and went within a few years. Those who stayed long enough to matter were Hinkeses of Sarehole, Smith of Paradise, Hills of Titterford Mill and Andrewses of Sarehole Mill, Sparkses the wheelwrights at the top of Webb Lane, Cliffs of Tatterpool Farm (Trittiford House). Hemuses of Langley Hall, and Heaths who lived at Hall Green Hall for more than three decades.

Two doughty widows, Mesdames Page and Bickers, long held the licenses of the Bull's Head and Horseshoes Inns. At Hall Green House, Mrs. Rock outlived her husband by many years, as more recently at Broomhall Cottage did Mrs. Izod (a King by birth), widow of the last tenant of Grove Farm, Springfield. Thomas Cartwright lived at Cateswell, adding a wing to the Georgian house. Walkers lived in style at Fox Hollies Hall : Lieut. Colonel 'Zacky' Walker is still remembered by older inhabitants though the house is demolished and the grounds are called Curtiss Gardens. Yorke House was the home of Madeleys, wine merchants, and Kyotts Lake House of the Simcoxes. Robin Hood House was occupied by Thomases.

Wilkeses and Walkers in turn, then early this century by Thomas Fitter, who built a small gas works in Shirley Road. A. H. Foster, who was to bequeath Sarehole Mill to the City, lived at The Chalet in Green Road : this is an authentic Stuart farmhouse whose adornments are as bogus as its name. The last residents of Hall Green Hall were Lewis Edward Lloyd and his wife, Gertrude, who sold it as a home and were horrified when it was promptly demolished to make way for almshouses.