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

Turfpits

B23 - Grid reference SP096930

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

First record 1817

Here is a name that is open to conjecture. The location is at Short Heath west of Erdington and the implication of heath is of a sandy infertile soil. Could this have been a damp fertile area of grassland in an area of heath? Could the pits have originally been sand pits or marl pits? The name, which was in use by 1817, is now recalled in Turfpits Lane at Short Heath.

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