History of Handsworth Wood

The history of Handsworth Wood was recorded in the Domesday Survey of 1086, as a holding of William Fitz-Ansculf, the Lord of Dudley. It was the woodland belonging to the manor of Handsworth and lay in the North of the manor. It was described as the ‘woodland half a league long & the same wide’ .

The name Handsworth originates from its Saxon owner Hondes and the Old English word weorthing, meaning farm or estate. Archaeological finds have dated Handsworth back to the Stone Age.

Historically in the county of Staffordshire, it remained a small village from the 13th century to the 18th century. By the 1800’s Handsworth Wood had become a fashionable rural location for the wealthy of Birmingham and the Black Country. A number of notable people lived here, including:

• James Watt, the engineer/inventor, lived in Handsworth Wood.
• Matthew Boulton, manufacturer / business partner of James Watt, was born and raised in the area.
• Edwin Bullock ironfounder / noted art collector, lived at Hawthorne House in Handsworth Wood.

By 1880’s Handsworth Wood had developed into an upper middle-class suburb, much on a par with Edgbaston, where houses there being large and few to the acre.

By the end of the 19th century there was only scattered building development in this rural area, some of it to build very large houses for the wealthy. However, beyond Friary Road/ Handsworth Wood Road it was still farmland.

It was between the two World Wars and up to the 1950s that Handsworth Wood was developed largely with private housing. It is an area that has maintained its middle-class status to the present.

The area had its own railway station until 1941 known as Handsworth Wood Railway Station. The station site lies in a cutting through Handsworth Park, adjacent to St. Mary’s Church.

Handsworth Wood was described in 1931 as ‘within 4 miles of the centre of Birmingham there lies a pleasant stretch of open country – undulating and well wooded, rich in glorious views, dotted with stately country mansions of the Georgian time and with famous old farmsteads around which the cattle graze unconcernedly … a quite, restful and conspicuous healthy environment in which to make ones home’.

The History of Handsworth Wood was documented by Birmingham historian Dr. Carl Chinn, who noted that during World War II the boundary between Handsworth and Handsworth Wood marked the line between being safe and unsafe from bombing. Handsworth Wood being an official evacuation zone due to its very country like, undeveloped landscape. Due to the affluent residents of the area properties were larger than usual sizes meaning Handsworth Wood was ideal for evacuees.