Rotton Park is an area 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, encompassing the north of

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family a ...

Ward and the Southern Extremes of Soho Ward, to the city boundary.

Name

Sources differ as to the origin of the name. Some claim it is derived from the Rotton family, Heritage Media DVD, 'Mysterious Birmingham' (Ambrose and Bridget Rotton built a surviving timber-framed house, now known as Stratford House, at Camp Hill, in 1601.) Others say it is derived from the Anglo-Saxon 'rot tun', meaning 'cheerful farm'.

History

The first recorded use of the name was in 1275. A 1307 document refers to "Parc de Rotton juxta

ear An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists of ...

Birmingham". In 1826,

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scot ...

built

Edgbaston Reservoir Edgbaston Reservoir, originally known as Rotton Park Reservoir and referred to in some early maps as Rock Pool Reservoir, is a canal feeder reservoir in Birmingham, England, maintained by the Canal & River Trust.Environment Agency public regist ...

, then known as Rotton Park Reservoir, by damming a small stream. Local land agent John Chesshire built a large house for the wealthy banker Samuel Jones Lloyd, Lord Overstone in the 1850s. The estate included detached villas in Montague, Vernon and Clarendon Roads. One villa was named after

Joseph Gillott Joseph Gillott (11 October 1799 – 5 January 1872) was an English pen-manufacturer and patron of the arts based in Birmingham. Pen manufacturing After a brief period of schooling, Gillott began working in the cutlery trade in his home t ...

's youngest son. St Augustine's Church near Hagley Road was built in 1868 to a design by architect J. A. Chatwin. For a time,

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 ...

had a Rotton Park Ward. Edward Marks stood as a Liberal candidate for the ward in 1911.

Landmarks

Edgbaston Reservoir and the adjacent

Icknield Port Loop The Icknield Port Loop (originally the Rotton Park Loop) is a loop of the eighteenth-century-built Old BCN Main Line canal in Birmingham, England, about west of the city centre, which opened to traffic on 6 November 1769 and in some definitio ...

(originally called Rotton Park Loop) of the

Birmingham Canal Navigations Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) is a network of canals connecting Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and the eastern part of the Black Country. The BCN is connected to the rest of the English canal system at several junctions. It was owned and opera ...

. The name is also found in Rotton Park Road, site of the former

Rotton Park Road railway station Rotton Park Road railway station was a railway station in England, built by the Harborne Railway and operated by the London and North Western Railway in 1874. It served Summerfield and part of the Edgbaston area of Birmingham and was located ...

. On City Road, (the

A4040 road List of A roads in zone 4 in Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European isla ...

) which passes through Rotton Park, are the churches City Road Methodist Church and City Road Baptist Church. The Anglican Christ Church Summerfield is on Gillott Road near the reservoir.

References

External links

Rotton Park and Round About
{{Areas of Birmingham History of Birmingham, West Midlands Areas of Birmingham, West Midlands Edgbaston