Shaw Hill

This topographical feature may take its name from Old English sceaga, 'a little wood', or from the local 18th-century family who may have taken their name from the wood here. The name is now recalled only in Shaw Hill Road, and Shaw Hill School. William Hutton writing in 1783 records that the road here as at 'Saltleyfield, Allum-rock and the remainder of the way to Stichford' had been worn into a holloway, and conjectured what an amazing length of time would elapse in wearing [such] deep roads'.

Take a look at Shaw Hill Primary School.
At the beginning of the 20th century the west end of Alum Rock contiguous with Saltley had a burgeoning population. Provision had to be made to cater for the education of large numbers of children.

In 1901, the last year of Queen Victoria's long reign, Alum Rock Road Council School was opened on the corner of Anthony Road with accommodation for 1100 pupils. They were organised in smaller classes of fifty pupils rather than the usual sixty.

However, by 1915 this had become the most over-crowded school in Birmingham, and Nansen Road School was quickly built to cater for the extra numbers. In 1940 during World War 2 the school was hit by a German bomb. The school was overcrowded again by 1953, and extra rooms were provided across the road in St Mary & St John's church hall. In 1954 the school was renamed Anthony Road County Primary School, and Shaw Hill Primary School c1965. Although altered and modernised in the late 20th century, most of the original building remains visible.

At the rear of St Mary & St John's church hall is the three-storey Shaw Hill House. This neo-classical building which is now in use as industrial premises, dates from before 1760 and is Grade II Listed.

The church of St Mary & St John originated in 1908 as a mission room in Couchman Road. It was built here to a design of H W Hobbiss in brown brick in Roman basilica style with round arches typical of the period. Consecrated in 1935 the church appears on the Local List of Birmingham buildings. The building is currently out of use.

See also Alum Rock and The Sutton Estate.