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

Pipe/ Pype, Pype Hall

B24 - Grid reference SP106914

Pipa: first record c1290

In Old English pipa means 'a water channel', the implication being that it is man-made. However, it is not known what or where this feature was. It may have related to the medieval moated site which stood at the top of a small valley south-west of the junction of Kingsbury Road and Bromford Lane. Moats were often fed via a channel from a nearby stream. The Pype family held the manor 14th century, though whether they took their name from the manor or vice versa in uncertain.

Sometime before 1218 the manor of Erdington was divided between three co-heirs probably cousins, Thomas de Erdington, Roger de Erdington and Walter Maunsel. Each estate was later referred to as a manor in its own right. Thomas's estate passed down the family to his ?great-granddaughter, Emma who first married Sir Henry de Harcourt and bore a daughter Margaret, and secondly married Richard de Pype who by his first marriage already had a son, John. The two step-children married sometime after 1303 and the manor passed to their son, Richard de Pype. Of the seven children of his son Henry all died with their mother of plague except Margery who thus became lord of the manor. In 1373 the manor was granted to Margery's uncle Thomas de Pype, the Abbot of Stoneleigh and subsequently passed out of the family. By the early 14th century the estate was known as the manor of Pype or Pype Hall. In 1569 it was sold to Edward Holte, who sold it in 1573 to Francis Dymmock, lord of Erdington. The manor descended with Erdington which in 1647 was bought by Sir Thomas Holte of Aston Hall and then followed the same descent as Aston.

While the manor was variously known as Pype Hall, Pipe/ Pype Manor or Pype Orchard, the area around the moated site was also known as Wood End, presumably simply meaning the wooded end of the manor. 60 acres (20+ ha) of woodland were recorded here in 1303. Roger ate Wode was recorded here in 1304 and le Wode End was recorded in 1461. Moated living fell out of fashion and the house was rebuilt north of the moat in 1543. This building was enlarged in 1622 as Wood End Hall and was known as Wood House by the 19th century. The 1891 Ordnance Survey map shows a large boating lake south of the moated site. The house was demolished in 1932. The site is now within the playing fields of Kingsbury School. Neither the name Pype nor Wood End is any longer in use.