THE GREVISES OF MOSELEY HALL

Among those who contributed to the cost of building St. Mary's Chapel was Thomas Grevis (pronounced Greeves, or Graves in local dialect). His family was an ancient one in the village and district : they claimed royal descent, but were no more than prosperous yeomen until the reign of Henry VIII when they gained at small cost large estates confiscated from religious houses. Thomas obtained a grant of arms in 1523, and for twelve decades his descendants lived well. They owned much of southern Yardley and held the lordship and the manor of Solihull, while parts of Moseley and Monyhull were theirs.

Sir Richard Grevis was the noblest of them all, holding offices under James I. His alabaster tomb and effigy are to be seen at Kings Norton Church. It was the Grevises' ownership of land in Swanshurst Quarter which caused the name Moseley to spread into that part of Yardley, because they lived in Moseley Hall. The old timbered house stood back from Alcester Road, nearly opposite Woodbridge Road. It was probably Sir Richard who built the first mansion in a private park west of the highway. No picture or detailed plan of it survives. The knight's third son, who called himself Richard Graves, was a soldier for Parliament in the Civil War. As a Captain in command of a troop of cavalry. He led a charge which killed Prince Rupert's favourite commander after the brief 'Battle of Birmingham', and so may be held responsible for the Royalist burning of the town. Richard later raised a regiment of cavalry for Cromwell, guarded Charles I in his captivity, changed sides and fought for Charles II at Worcester, was sent to the Tower, but ended his days peacefully at Moseley as a magistrate.

The Park was laid out on both sides of the steep Moseley Brook. Its bounds then or later were, the highway between Birmingham and Alcester, Reddings Road, Amesbury and Salisbury Roads, to use modern names for old lanes and paths. A formal garden lay between house and highway.

Continuing to live beyond their means and mismanaging the estates, successive heirs were obliged to mortgage and sell pieces of property during the next century. Henshaw Grevis, last of his line, was left in poverty after providing for his mother and settling his father's debts : he ended his days living in a back house, working in a gravel pit, and distributing newspapers.

In 1766 the Yardley estates and lordship, and the Moseley Hall and Moor Green Estates, were bought by John Taylor, a very wealthy Birmingham manufacturer who was also a co-founder of Lloyds Bank. He died in 1775 at Bordesley Hall, leaving his son and namesake 2000 acres and œ200 thousand pounds. John Lloyd is buried in a vault within St. Philip's Church in Birmingham, while Henshaw Grevis lies in an unmarked pauper's grave at Kings Norton. Other branches of the family continued to live and flourish : a corner of St. Nicholas's churchyard is full of memorials to Grevises and related families.

The Moseley Hall we see today in much-reduced grounds is not the seat of the Grevises. That was replaced if not demolished by John Taylor II. His building was burnt out during the so-called 'Church & King riots' of 1791. Mobs of Brummies set out from the town bent on burning out several prominent Dissenters and supposed friends of the French Revolution. One crowd hounded Joseph Priestley from his home at Sparkbrook to Showell Green, where the Russells sheltered him until threatened themselves. The Andertons offered only sympathy when the refugees passed their Mansion House on foot. Moseley Hall and its outbuildings, which may have included the Grevis mansion, were looted and fired, though the tenant, the old and blind Countess of Corhampton, was kindly treated by the rioters. Taylor restored and enlarges the Hall : he and his descendants lived in it from 1796 to 1852, and it remained in the possession of the family until 1890.

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