A History of BIRMINGHAM Places & Placenames . . . from A to Y

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

 

Signal Hayes

B76 - Grid reference SP142946

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

Signal Hayes lies east of Sutton Coldfield to the north of Signal Hayes Road. Places with 'hay' or 'hayes' usually derive from the Old English word gehaeg meaning an 'enclosure', a field surrounded by a hedge. However, the orgin of the first element of the name is unknown - it may derive from a family name.

 

The fields here are fairly regular rectangles which date back to the enclosure of the Sutton commons during the 1820s. Another allied feature from that time is the length and straightness of the roads in the area, eg. Fox Hollies Road, Springfield Road and Reddicap Heath Rd.

 

William Dargue 08.03.09

 

 

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.