Kings Heath Park is a

Green Flag Green Flag or Green Flag Rescue, is a British roadside assistance and vehicle recovery provider, which is part of the Direct Line Group. Formed in 1971, as the National Breakdown Recovery Club, as an alternative to the AA and RAC, it used ...

status park in the

Kings Heath Kings Heath (historically, and still occasionally King's Heath) is a suburb of south Birmingham, England, four miles south of the city centre. Historically in Worcestershire, it is the next suburb south from Moseley on the A435, Alcester road. ...

district of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, which is managed by

Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local council area in the United Kingdom ...

. For a time, the park was used as the setting for the popular ATV programme ''Gardening Today''.

History

The park is centred on a house, built in 1832 for the newly elected MP William Congreve Russell. In 1880 the house was bought by John Cartland, a wealthy industrialist and ancestor of the author

Barbara Cartland Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland, (9 July 1901 – 21 May 2000) published as Barbara Cartland was an English writer, known as the Queen of Romance, who published both contemporary and historical romance novels, the latter set primarily duri ...

. In 1902 the Cartland family formed the Priory Trust Co Ltd to own and manage the house and land with the intention of developing the area for housing. These plans came to nothing, and on 9 November 1908 the Trust sold the house and half the surrounding land to the Kings Norton and Northfield Urban District Council. The council immediately opened the grounds as a public park. From 1909-1911 the house was used as a school. In 1911, Kings Heath — and the park — was incorporated into the city of Birmingham. The Trust sold the remaining land to Birmingham Corporation on 10 February 1914, and this was immediately incorporated into the park. In 1953, the city council created a School of Horticultural Training in the house, using part of the park as training gardens. Since 1995, this has been run, under a partnership arrangement, by Pershore (later Warwickshire) College and Bournville College. In 2008/9, Kings Heath Park was granted a Green Flag Award for the 7th year running.

References

External links

Birmingham City Council page
{{Birmingham parks Parks and open spaces in Birmingham, West Midlands Houses completed in 1832 Former school buildings in the United Kingdom Birmingham City Council