Cheswick Green history
Cheswick is first recorded in 1250 as Chesewic, meaning a cheese farm or minor settlement.
Cheswick Green is part of the parish of Hockley Heath and was a planned development during the 1970s. The aim was to create a traditional English village with modern amenities.
The Mount
Cheswick Green was once the site of an early Saxon settlement that was fortified against marauding robbers.
In approximately 1904, the land was acquired by Mr Phillip Baker, a well-known Birmingham lawyer, who developed it as Mount Cottage Farm pleasure ground. He had refreshment rooms and a ballroom built, gardens were laid out and a maze constructed.
For a time it was successful but vandalism was a problem and the advent of the First World War finally brought to end The Mount's time as a pleasure resort.
In 1916 the land was divided up and sold for £75 per lot (each lot being about 2000 square yards). Purchasers were encouraged to cultivate the land and help the nation by producing foodstuffs. Many people built weekend bungalows; others built more substantial homes for permanent residence.
During the Second World War many people were bombed out and went to live in their weekend homes. These eventually became permanent homes but without the infrastructure of street lighting, mains water and sewage. Plans were made for the area to be redeveloped for council housing but boundaries changed the local council and residents subsequently formed a strong Residents' Association, averting compulsory purchase.
Excavations at The Mount
In 1953 there was an excavation by T L Jones of the Ministry of Public Building and Works of the site at The Mount. The site consisted of an irregular area of just over an acre, surrounded by a bank and a water-filled moat.
Jones discovered 13th-century pottery shards and concluded that occupation of the site probably began at the end of the 12th-century. He was unable to excavate the ditch owing to the height of the water level.
Further investigations have been carried out since - see the English Heritage website.
Links
Growing up on the Mount by Bill Gilbert - http://www.solihull-online.com/gilbert.htm
Last days on the Mount - http://www.solihull-online.com/lastdays.htm
The Warwickshire part of the Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry website, for information that may help if you're tracing your ancestors in Cheswick Green.
Further reading
The development of the 'village of the seventies', Cheswick Green News, Summer 1997, pp. 2-7
Save the Mount by Paul Middleton, 1985
Excavations at the Mount, Cheswick Green, Shirley by T. L. Jones, Assistant Inspector of Ancient Monuments, (Ministry of Works,) Transactions of the Birmingham Archaeological Society, Volume 71. (1953).
The above, together with Ordnance Survey maps 1886 to the present day, are available at Solihull Heritage & Local Studies Service.
If you are interested in researching the history of your house in Cheswick Green, check out our house history guide.
Let us know your memories of Cheswick Green, however recent, by completing a memory sheet attached right.