Harborne (Staffs.)

The name means 'boundary brook' and Harborne is bounded by Bourne and Chad Brooks: Hagley Road and Metchley Lane, and a line south from Balden Road complete the boundaries of a manor of 1482 acres. The Bishops of Lichfield owned Harborne and Smethwick at the Conquest, and the two remained church property until 1546, when they passed to the lord of Dudley. There was a church in Harborne from 1234, but only the tower of St. Peter's is old (C15th), the rest having been rebuilt c.1760 and in 1866. The Hall which stood nearby was rebuilt at the end of the C19th. There was never more than a small village about the church and on High Street. Two open fields were recorded in 1601, reduced to one by 1733: the whole manor was enclosed by 1790, and no names have survived to show the sites of fields and common. Harborne Mill on Bourn Brook was rebuilt in 1790 as a steel-rolling mill: the round-ended mill building and empty wheel-chamber survive. The small pond, and the great reservoir built by the Dudley Canal Co. to provide compensation water for the mill, are now dry. The Cornwallis family held H. and Selly in 1653, George Birch bought them in 1710, and in 1770 Thomas Green bought Harborne only. The Birches' house, built 1760, is now Bishop's Croft. The C16th Tennal Hall has gone, and Welsh House Farm has been rebuilt. There is very little in Harborne that is earlier than the C19th. The Home Farm building survives.