William Dargue  A History of BIRMINGHAM Places & Placenames from A to Y

The Firs

B36 - Grid reference SP135896

The Firs estate (in the foreground among the trees) viewed from Castle Bromwich Church tower. The blocks of flats are on Bromford estate.
The Firs estate (in the foreground among the trees) viewed from Castle Bromwich Church tower. The blocks of flats are on Bromford estate.


The Firs estate near Hodge Hill was a municipal development of the mid-1950s. Set out east of Chipperfield Road, it comprises a variety of housing, including traditional 2-storey houses, 4-storey maisonettes and 10-storey tower blocks. Two primary schools were built to serve the estate, a church, a small neighbourhood shopping centre and a community hall. After a substantial decline, the tower blocks were demolished and the housing estate extensively refurbished at the end of the 20th century.

 

The estate was built on the former farmland of The Firs, a mansion located on the site of Firs Farm Drive, and the residence of the bailiffs of the Bradford estates in Castle Bromwich. The name probably derives not from fir trees, but from the shrub, furze. This is another name for gorse and a plant typical of less fertile quick-draining soil. 

 

William Dargue 13.12.2008/ 01.08.2010

 

 

 

 

 

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

See http://www.british-history.ac.uk/mapsheet.aspx?compid=55141&sheetid=8816&ox=2886&oy=2900&zm=2&czm=2&x=417&y=357. 

 

Map below reproduced from Andrew Rowbottom’s website of Old Ordnance Survey maps Popular Edition, Birmingham 1921. Click the map to link to that website.