William Dargue - A History of Birmingham Places & Placenames . . .  from A to Y

Catchems Corner

B6 - Grid reference SP079889

Use the grid reference on the Ordnance Survey website - Get-a-map. 

There are a numbers of Catchem/s Corners in the country, including locally in Wolverhampton and Balsall Common. This one was the popular name of the tollgate at the junction of the Lichfield Road with Park Lane and Rocky Lane at Aston Cross.

The Lichfield Road was part of a route dating from medieval times which linked Bristol and Worcester to Lichfield and the North-East and was known as 'one of the four great roads of England'. The Lichfield Turnpike was created in 1807. The next tollgate was at Cuckoo Lane only a mile further north. The road was disturnpiked in 1862 when responsibility for its upkeep fell to the Warwickshire County authorities.

William Dargue 22.10.08

Google Maps - If you lose the original focus of the Google map, press function key F5 on your keyboard to refresh the screen. The map will then recentre on its original location.

For 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps of Birmingham go to British History Online - Maps.