Sheldon, Sheldon Heath

A view of Sheldon Village in 1936. Grateful thanks and acknowledgements for the use of this image to E W Green, Historic Buildings in Pen & Ink - The Work of William Albert Green. See Acknowledgements.

Sheldon church was the village focus of a scattered rural community until after the First World War. The population numbered 423 in 1821 and by 1921 had increased by only 23 persons. In 1931 only 526 people lived here. A Warwickshire manor until 1931, the larger part north of the Coventry Road amalgamated with Birmingham, while the remainder went to Solihull with local government reorganisation in 1974.

In the 1930s work began on large private housing estates at Lyndon Green and at Wells Green. The focus of the area moved to the Coventry Road and an extensive linear shopping centre grew up around the Wheatsheaf Inn at Sheaf Lane. Work began before the Second World War on the Kents Moat council estate east of Yardley village and private building began around the old Sheldon village itself. By the outbreak of World War 2 much of the area was overlaid with housing much of it municipal.

In the Domesday Book the manor was known as Machitone, later Mackadown whose village centre was at the junction of Mackadown Lane and Tile Cross Road. Settlement in the manor expanded in the Middle Ages so that by the 12th century there was a moated manor house at Gressel Lane in Tile Cross known as Sheldon Hall or East Hall, and the West Hall at Kents Moat, while the parish church and a small village stood on Church Road with other moated halls close by. One such was the predecessor of Moat Farm off Church Road south of Westley Brook. This was demolished in 1960 and the moat was filled in.

The earliest open fields were in the north of the manor at Mackadown with later open fields near St Giles Church. Sheldon Field lay east of Sheaf Lane, south of Westley Brook and north of the Coventry Road. Adjoining it east of Hatchford Brook was Greatock Field (ie. 'great oak field'). Just over the churchyard wall can still be seen the distinctive ridge and furrow marks of of the medieval strips of this medieval field . Hatchford Field which lay east of Hatchford Brook and north of the Coventry Road has never been built over and is now a golf course. By the end of the Middle Ages the manor had some dozen open fields feeding an expanding population.

In 1848 Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England described the agriculture of the parish: of 2497 acres 1446 were arable, 475 were pasture, and 576 were meadow. The chief produce was wheat, barley, beans, and turnips: oak is the prevailing kind of wood.

The manor's Anglo-Saxon name means 'shelf hill'. More precisely, a scylf was a flat-topped hill, while a dun might be described as a whale-shaped hill ie. round and bulbous at one and thinning out at the lower end. Could this refer to the interfluvial ridge north of Westley Brook?

St Giles' Church, the west tower

Well worth a look - St Giles' Church
A typical Warwickshire country church and, for the most part, a surviving 14th-century building, this is one of Birmingham's ancient parish churches, and has Grade II* Listed status.

Although an earlier building is possible, the most ancient part of the church is the chancel arch which dates from the end of the 12th century. The nave of 1330 has fine carved roof, with the north aisle added some twenty years later.

In 1461 the nave was extended and the embattled west tower was built probably using stone from the derelict West Hall at Kents Moat. On the south wall inside the church is an inscription: 'In . . . yr of our lord M CCCC lxi [1461] ye stepel was begon ye masson had thr[ee] and forti pond vis [6 shillings] and viiid [8 pence] for makyng of the st'pel.' Another inscription reads 'Henry Ulm [ye he?] of [?Horsod] M CCCC lxi [1461] yt to begon'. Henry Ulm also built Yardley's tower. The timber-framed south porch was added in the early 16th-century.

In 1867 in a major restoration, the nave was partly and the chancel completely rebuilt. At the same time the restorers removed all the 18th-century internal arrangements such as high pews which were considered by the Victorians as unchristian clutter which detracted from the gothic. The church was restored largely to its medieval appearance. Still surviving from the 15th century is the octagonal font and the reredos which was reset in the north wall. The figures of the Annunciation were removed at some time, possibly during the Civil War, but their silhouettes can be seen.

There were formerly four bells here in an old wooden frame including the present fourth cast by Joseph Smith of Edgbaston in 1732, the fifth cast at an unknown foundry c1350 and believed to be the oldest bell in Birmingham, and the tenor by Thomas Newcombe of Leicester c1580. The ring was remodelled as six in 1992 with two new bells by Taylor's of Loughborough with a redundant bell from St Gregory the Great in Small Heath added to make six. They were hung in a new steel frame lower in the tower with the old wooden frame retained for historical interest. The burial registers date from 1558 but evidence was found during the 19th-century restoration that the churchyard had been used from medieval times. A 13th-century stone coffin lid was discovered carved with a plain cross. Such a coffin would have belonged to a person of some wealth, possibly the lord of the manor..

Rectory Farm

Worth a look - Old Rectory Farm
South of St Giles' Church in the paddock south of Rectory Farm was a moated hall which may have been the medieval rectory. Earthwork evidence of a moat is discernible in the right conditions to an expert eye. This was replaced probably in the 17th century by a timber-framed hall in Ragley Drive off Church Road now known as Sheldon Old Rectory or Old Rectory Farm.

The timber-framing was infilled with brick in the 18th century and building rendered to its present appearance. The farm buildings and outhouses are part of Sheldon Country Park, a children's farm and the home of a variety of livestock.

For forty years from 1690 the Rectory was the home of Dr Thomas Bray. He founded the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and worked extensively in Maryland USA. A state flag in Birmingham Cathedral was presented in recognition of his efforts in promoting Christianity in the United States. He also founded the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge SPCK in 1698 and was instrumental in setting up via the SPCK the National Society for the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church throughout England and Wales. Its affiliated schools known as National Schools were Church schools, many of which still exist, and precursors of the state system which was not set up until 1870.

Sheldon Free School
North of the church was built a charity school which was already well established in 1730 when Lord Digby gave funds to support the education of the poor children of Sheldon. In 1833 there were forty children on roll including ten from an adjoining parish. The school building which still stands at the rear of Nos.151-153 Church Road is 18th-century in appearance though an inscription reads 'Gift of Edward Earl of Digby 1852.' The school became certified efficient in 1895, and a public elementary school in 1920. However, by 1932 the school was overcrowded due to new housing developments and was reorganised for juniors and infants only.

The school closed in 1937 to be succeeded by Stanville Road Council School although the building continued in use as an annexe of Stanville for some years afterwards. The rectory, school and 18th-century farmhouse and outbuildings next door are all Grade II Listed.

Sheldon Heath lay about a mile north of Sheldon village towards Garretts Green on the other side of the Kingshurst Brook. It is an area of glacial drift, rather quick to drain and not very fertile farmland.

See also Wells Green.

Click to enlarge the images in the Sheldon Gallery below.