Selly Secrets: Mysteries of The Manor
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This post is one in a series of posts exploring the photographs taken by architect William Alexander Harvey, which capture the dismantling of the house that would become Selly Manor Museum. Originally located on Bournbrook Road, the house was later taken apart and relocated in Bournville.
These photographs not only clarify some of the house’s mysteries but create more mysteries surrounding long-lost features. This instalment hopes to explore them.
The ‘Vote Cadbury' Mystery
[Picture Above: The Old House still situated in Bournbrook Road, Selly Oak, with fencing around. On the fence, there is a weathered poster reading 'Vote For Cadbury' at a local election in 1911.]
The first mystery is found in this picture of the house in its final years in Selly Oak, surrounded by a hoarding during its dismantling. On the hoarding is a rather weathered 'Vote for Cadbury' poster visible.
Thankfully, this mystery is easily solved. The Cadbury in question was William Adlington Cadbury (1867 - 1957), and the election was the 1911 local election where he stood as a Liberal candidate for King's Norton ward. He was successfully elected, and in fact continued to be re-elected multiple times and retired from the Council in 1944.
He also served as Lord Mayor in 1919-1921, was appointed an Alderman in 1919, and made Honorary Freeman of the city in 1938, illustrating the Cadbury family’s civic influence across the local area, beyond just bounds of Bournville.
Mystery of the Missing Staircase
[Picture Above: Camera Studies No. 3, Looking into the room that is now the parlour.]
This picture, taken from what is now the dining room, looks through the wall towards where you enter the house today. It both solves a mystery and creates two new mysteries. During the Victorian era, the house was divided into three tenement cottages before it was recreated as a single house. Therefore, we are essentially looking from one cottage into another.
On the side of the house where the external staircase comes down, there was also once an internal staircase. The external stairs up to the Solar are a reinterpretation of a feature that was shown in a painting of the house earlier in its life. The internal staircase was a Victorian addition, which meant that the residents didn’t have to access the upstairs via a ladder or through another of the dwellings. This means the first room you step into today had a staircase located in the midst of it.
The mystery solved here is the location of that staircase we can see from the photograph, which was clearly added later to make access to the upstairs easier.
But the photo also raises two more mysteries:
- Why is the wall in the distance made of brick, rather than timber frame?
Some parts of the house were clad in brick, such as the Kitchen in the Victorian era, which was removed as part of the reconstruction. However, the brick wall in the picture above seems to be internal, and there is no visual evidence of a timber frame underneath it. Possibly the original timber frame was removed when the brick wall was installed, and a more historically accurate timber frame reinstated when the house was reconstructed in Bournville. These beams would have been potentially sourced from other historic buildings brought for materials during the project.
- Why is the ceiling in that room different from the current one?
The ceiling of the room we're looking into (the floor of the Solar today) is very different from the timbers used in its current construction. The current timbers are much wider, so also possibly came from one of the other buildings used as parts. Possibly this was necessary because of the amount of floor missing because of inserting a staircase.
Strange Staircase Placement
[Picture Above: Camera Studies No. 3. This is the parlour today, which has no stairs within the room.]
This picture offers a better view of the staircase and shows its position in the room. Its position in the centre of the room rather than against a wall may look a little strange, but that is explained by the partitioning of the room which is now the solar before the house was moved. The partition was just to the left of the fireplace, creating another tiny bedroom, and so the stairs would have come up in front of the fireplace and not in that bedroom.
A View from One Cottage to Another
[Picture Above: Camera Studies No. 3, This is a staircase that existed in the Kitchen to allow inhabitants to have an upstairs floor.]
This picture was taken in what is now the kitchen looking into what is now the dining room, so in the third house, looking into the middle house. It explains how the inhabitants of the third house went upstairs to the upper floor, which was inserted but now removed, by showing the location of the staircase in that house.
Reimagined Fireplace
[Picture Above: Camera Studies No 3, this is of the range that was added in the dining room.]
This picture of the dining room fireplace and staircase as they were before the house was moved, explains how much the building was changed in its reconstruction. Although the fireplace remains, it has been reconstructed as an older fireplace, and the stairs are new ones.
Carving Out a Mystery
[Picture Above: Camera Studies No.4, Carved Tudor beam in builders' yard.]
The image above shows a carved timber beam that has become one of the most puzzling features of this exploration. What makes it truly unique is that there are no other carved beams within the manor.
When we first came across this photograph, it was easy to dismiss the carving as either: an element of the house that was removed during reconstruction, or a piece acquired during the reconstruction era to add character, but ultimately never installed. Both of these theories, however, were disproven after a bit of detective work. The carved beam was found in the bedroom, hiding in plain sight, and appears to be the only example of its kind in the house.
But the mystery deepens. William Alexander Harvey, Bournville’s architect, often drew inspiration from older English buildings and the Arts and Crafts style when designing Bournville’s iconic structures. Many of his designs incorporate respectful nods to historic architectural elements.
[Picture Above: This is picture of the carvings found on the Rest House on Bournville's Green.]
For example, a close inspection of Bournville’s Rest House reveals carvings on the beams that bear a striking resemblance to the motif on Selly Manor’s beam. This raises two possibilities: either the motif was common enough to come from multiple sources, or it was a deliberate reference to Selly Manor. Notably, the Rest House was constructed at similar time to the manor’s reconstruction, adding weight to the latter idea.
[Picture Above: Carved beam at the Golden Lion pub in Cannon Hill Park. Picture by Anne-Marie Hayes.]
The plot thickens further. While putting together this blog, we noticed the same motif on beams in the Golden Lion Pub in Cannon Hill Park. That building's history has similarities to the history of Selly Manor. The Golden Lion originally stood in Deritend and was rebuilt between 1616 and 1644, incorporating a mix of new and much older timbers. Some dating as far back as 1411. It has operated as a pub, a cutler’s house, six tiny homes or businesses and a scrap shop. Like Selly Manor, it has been repeatedly repurposed, reflecting the needs of the time. It was moved to Cannon Hill Park by the Birmingham Archaeological Society in 1911 to serve as a cricket pavilion and refreshment room around the same period Selly Manor was relocated.
The Golden Lion is currently undergoing major restoration works. The building has largely been neglected for a number of decades. Now, Birmingham Conservation Trust, in partnership with Birmingham City Council, with funding from Historic England can make sure that long overdue repairs can finally take place.
Scrapped or Salvaged?
[Picture Above: Carved frame above the bedroom fireplace]
This woodwork also presents a mystery as to where it came from (because it doesn't fit above the fireplace with the original beam in situ) or what happened to it, because it now isn't present in the building.
[Camera Studies No 4 Picture of an odd window, a round thing and a metal gadget]
This picture has several mysteries:
- The main one is where that window frame came from in the house!
- There are also the mysteries of what the round item on the left which looks like it might be a stone
- What the metal apparatus on the right were used for.
The real question is: can you solve any of these mysteries in the comments?
By John Berry, Volunteer, and Megan Ward, Museum Assistant at Selly Manor Museum.
Sources
Anonymous: William A Cadbury 1867-1957. Printed for Private Circulation 1958.
The Lion Roars Again: A Historic Pub is Reborn in Cannon Hill Park « Birmingham Conservation Trust
Bournville Trust Village Archives