RICHARD CADBURY

After James's death in 1852 Moseley Hall was maintained by servants until William Dawes rented it - date unknown. Park Hill was made up as a street in '65 and the Riddings Ground was leased in '66. From '84 Richard Cadbury J. P., one of the famous Cadbury Brothers of Bournville lived at the Hall with his family. During his tenancy the grounds were used annually for Band of Hope fetes. When William Francis Taylor died in '89 the estates were offered for sale. Tenants of the villas in Strensham and Augusta Roads were able to buy their freeholds, and Cadbury bought the Hall and 22 acres for £ 16,450.

These he presented to the City of Birmingham in '91 for use as a children's convalescent home. Fencing of the grounds and a generous endowment brought his total outlay to £ 30,000. Cadbury had also bought the Henburies estate, and he moved to his newly-built mansion, Uffculme. Fours years later he demolished Henburies House. When he died in 1916 Uffculme was left to the City : it was then is use as a hospital, like Joseph Chamberlain's Highbury and Moor Green Halls. The grounds became a public park.

At Moseley Hall undistinguished additions were made to fit it for its intended use. A veranda was built above the porch. By this time the wings were wholly clad in ivy, and shrubberies and plantations were at maturity. Fund-raising events were held in the reduced grounds until World War I. The rest of the part was expected to go for villas with large gardens. Moseley was a desirable address for the middle classes with fresh air, shops, churches (St. Anne's on park land built with Anderton money in '74, the Baptist Church on Oxford Road in '84), a flourishing social and cultural life, good train services to Birmingham, even steam tramcars.

Chantry Road was out in the early '90s and Salisbury Road in '96, named in honour of the then Prime Minister. It cut the park in two, and there was a strong possibility that the pool would be drained and overbuilt. To prevent this, nine local businessmen formed Moseley Park and Pool Estate Company and leased 14 acres about the pool, bounded by the garden lines of Salisbury and Chantry Roads. The pool was cleaned, the new park was laid out, and the shareholders began to build houses backing onto it. Austin Chamberlain the local M. P. officially opened the park in 1899.

The making of Victoria Parade in 1900 caused the demolition of the old park lodge, wall, and gates, and the loss of part of an elm rookery and bluebell wood. Reddings and Amesbury Roads were laid along the lines of the old footpaths during Edward VII's reign, and during the Twenties almost the whole of the Alcester Road boundary of the Grevises' park was built up. The lodge beside the dovecote was replaced in '35. Since World War II the Hall has been a haven for old people, and it is now only a part of a large Geriatric Centre. The park and pool survive, a tranquil oasis sheltered from the endless traffic of the 'bus routes.

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