Harborne

Harborne lies to the west of Edgbaston, to the north of Selly Oak, to the east of Quinton, and to the south of the Bearwood and Warley areas of neighbouring Sandwell.

As a parish, it covered an area of 3,300 acres (1,300 hectares), 100 acres (40 hectares) of which was of woodland and plantations.

Harts Green is an area of Harborne.[2]

The former City of Birmingham fire station, now divided up and converted into private homes.

St Mary's RC Church, Vivian Road, Harborne

There is evidence of a Roman fort around the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and Metchley Park,[3][4] near Harborne.

The earliest written mention of Harborne is an entry in the Domesday Book of 1086,[5] however the settlement pre-dates this. The spelling of Harborne has appeared with several variations through the centuries, and the derivation of the place name has often been disputed. One of the more probable suggestions is 'boundary brook', although 'high brow' and 'dirty brook' are also possibilities.[6][7]

Harborne is a Victorian suburb with a large stock of housing dating from pre-1900 (found mainly around the High Street), and the early 20th century. The oldest part of what is known locally as 'Harborne Village' is centred on St Peter's Church, (Church of England), Old Church Road, which dates from Anglo-Saxon times (St Chad preached there) and whose tower was (re)constructed in the 14th century.

As a non-Quaker area of the city, Harborne became well-supplied with public houses compared to nearby areas such as Edgbaston and Bournville. There is a famous "Harborne Run" pub crawl consisting of from 10 to 15 pubs (the agreed itinerary varies).

St Mary's Church was the first Roman Catholic congregation formed by the Passionists who worshiped in a disused Methodist Chapel on Harborne High Street from 1870. Building work started on the current church, in Vivian Road, on 8 September 1875 and it opened on 6 February 1877.[8] The Augustinians (Austin Friars) arrived at St Mary's in 1973[9] to a growing Catholic population and work on a new church, attached to the side of the old church, started on 1 August 1977 and was finished in 56 weeks. The St Mary's Parish Centre was opened in 1990 and is next door to the church.

Harborne railway station, at the end of the short Harborne Branch Line off the LMS Birmingham-Wolverhampton line at Ladywood, opened on 10 August 1874. It closed to passengers on 26 November 1934 and to freight traffic in November 1963.[10] It is now the Harborne Walkway, a two-mile (3 km) nature walk and cycling route from Harborne to Ladywood, where the canal can be followed either to Birmingham or Wolverhampton.

Harborne became part of the county borough of Birmingham and thus transferred from Staffordshire to Warwickshire in 1891[5] by the Local Govt. Bd.'s Prov. Orders Conf. (No. 13) Act, 54 & 55 Vic. c. 161 (local act), or in 1894[11] It then became part of the West Midlands in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972.

The 2011 census revealed that 23,001 lived in Harborne and that 17% of people were aged under 16, 69% were aged between 16 and 64, while 14% were aged over 65. The minority ethnic population made up 33% of the ward's population, compared with 41% for Birmingham. The census found that 75% (11,997) of the population aged 16 to 74 were working or seeking work, this compared with 69% for Birmingham.[12]

There are four secondary schools in Harborne: Baskerville School, Harborne Academy, Lordswood Boys' School and Lordswood Girls' School.

There are six primary schools: Birmingham Blue Coat School, Chad Vale Primary School (which both sit on the border between Harborne and Edgbaston), Harborne Primary School, St Mary's Catholic Primary School, St Peter's Church of England Primary School, and Welsh House Farm Community School.

Harborne is currently served by Harborne Library which formally opened on 12 November 1892, occupying a former Masonic Hall, which was built in 1879.[13]

Harborne ward forms part of the Birmingham Edgbaston constituency at Westminster, represented by Labour's Preet Gill since 2017. At local government level, Harborne ward is represented on Birmingham City Council by one councillor from the Labour Party and one councillor from the Conservative Party. The former leader of Birmingham City Council Mike Whitby was a councillor in Harborne from 1997 to 2014 and was made a life peer taking the title of Baron Whitby, of Harborne in the City of Birmingham.[24]

The ward has a Ward Support Officer.[5]

David Cox, 1856

Mike Whitby, 2008

• David Cox (1783–1859), an English landscape painter of the Birmingham School.[37]
• Thomas Attwood (1783–1856), banker, economist, political campaigner and MP.[5]
• Thomas Baker (1809–1864), a Midlands landscape painter and watercolourist
• Elihu Burritt (1810–1879), an American diplomat, philanthropist and social activist.
• Edward Augustus Freeman (1823–1892), an English historian.[38]
• Ethel Arnold (1865–1930), journalist, author and lecturer on female suffrage.
• Granville Bantock (1868–1946), composer of classical music.
• Alfred Priest (1874–1929), portrait painter.[39]
• Francis William Aston FRS (1877–1945), chemist and physicist, won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[40]
• Sir Henry Rushbury KCVO CBE RA (1889–1968), painter and etcher.
• George Edward Hunt (1892–1960), an Arts and Crafts jeweller.[41]
• Hester Adrian, Baroness Adrian DBE (1899–1966), mental health worker.
• W. H. Auden (1907–1973), a British-American poet.
• Paul Grice (1913–1988), a philosopher of language
• Tony Shryane MBE (1919–2003), BBC radio programme producer
• Steve Gibbons (born 1941), singer-songwriter, guitarist and bandleader
• Mike Whitby (born 1948), politician, peer and former leader of Birmingham City Council
• Adrian Goldberg (born 1961), journalist, radio and TV presenter.
• Corrinne Wicks (born 1968), actress.[42]
• Ben Richards (born 1972), stage and TV actor and dancer.
• Sarah Manners (born 1975), actress.[43]
• Ocean Colour Scene (formed in 1989), rock band.[44]

• Harborne carnival
• Chad Valley, Birmingham
• Harborne Primary School
• Harborne Railway
• Harborne railway station
• Harborne Reserve
• Moor Pool
• St Mary's Church, Harborne, Birmingham
• St Peter's Church, Harborne

• Birmingham City Council: Harborne Ward
• Early history
• The Harborne Society
• Harborne Village Partnership
• St Mary's RC Church, Vivian Road, Harborne.