Hay Mills
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Hay Mills is an area of east
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
, England straddling the A45 Coventry Road about south east of the city centre. North of the Coventry Road is mainly residential whereas the south is mixed residential and commercial. The area was subsumed into Birmingham in 1911.


History

Haye is the first recorded name dating to 1171 and Hayemill by 1495. In Old English, gehaeg means 'fenced/ hedged land'. Here would have been the farm of a medieval family who had enclosed some of the fertile land near the River Cole. The enclosed fields may have been surrounded by a substantial ditch perhaps as wide as two metres and over a metre in depth. There was a corresponding bank of similar dimensions. It is likely that the bank would have been topped with a fence while a live hedge grew. The hedge would have been planted with hawthorn, a quick growing tree whose name literally means 'hedge thorn'. It is likely that the enclosures would have been used for keeping livestock, probably cattle, close to the lush watermeadows along the river. Hugh de la Haye, his family name taken from the placename, is recorded in 1171. The district takes its full name from Hay Mill which stood on the River Cole near James Road/ Mill Road. The mill belonged to the occupants of Hay Hall and ground corn from at least 1495. Converted to blade grinding probably during the Civil War, this trade continued until about 1830 when James Horsfall, a wire drawer of Digbeth moved here. There was no settlement at Hay Mills in 1834, but by 1888 the south side of the Coventry Road was being built up from Heybarnes Road to Forest Road. Horsfall had the old buildings demolished and rebuilt some 100m north of the old site. A larger mill with a larger pool was built for wire drawing. Other industries included iron founding, brick manufacture, cabinet manufacture, electrical switch making and the embryonic British motorcycle industry in Kings Road. By 1906 there was considerable urbanisation, although Hay Mills was still separated from Small Heath by the undeveloped Cole valley and in the parish of
Yardley Yardley may refer to: People Surname *Bruce Yardley (1947–2019), Australian cricketer *David Yardley (1929–2014), British legal scholar and public servant *Doyle Yardley (1913–1946), American military officer * Eric Yardley (born 1990), Ame ...
,
Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...
, until becoming part of Birmingham in 1911.


Geography

Hay Mills is the area on and immediately either side of the A45 Coventry Road once the River Cole has been crossed heading east out of Birmingham until the junction with the A4040 at Yardley Road. Hobmoor Road provides a northern boundary whilst the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Branch of the
Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the Canals of the United Kingdom, British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another to Birmi ...
, running behind Ammington and Speedwell Roads, provides a boundary to the south.


Industry

Webster Horsfall James Horsfall, a
wire drawer Wire drawing is a metalworking process used to reduce the cross-section of a wire by pulling the wire through one or more dies. There are many applications for wire drawing, including electrical wiring, cables, tension-loaded structural compone ...
from
Digbeth Digbeth is an area of central Birmingham, England. Following the remodelling of the Birmingham Inner Ring Road, Inner Ring Road, Digbeth is now considered a district within Birmingham City Centre. As part of the Big City Plan, Digbeth is under ...
invented high tensile steel wire. He moved to Hay Mill, a disused blade and sword factory at a water mill on the River Cole, rebuilding it as a steam-driven mill. The mill originally belonged to Hay Hall in
Tyseley Tyseley is a district in the southern half of the city of Birmingham, England, near the Coventry Road and the districts of Acocks Green, Small Heath and Yardley. It is located near the Grand Union Canal. Etymology Tyseley means "Tyssa's clear ...
. In 1855, his company merged with Joseph Webster's of Penn Mill, Sutton Coldfield. Webster was a major manufacturer and exporter of
piano wire Piano wire, or "music wire", is a specialized type of wire made for use in piano string (music), strings but also in other applications as Spring (device), springs. It is made from tempering (metallurgy), tempered high-carbon steel, also known ...
to Europe. In 1853, Horsfall had patented a heat treatment process which strengthened the
wire file:Sample cross-section of high tension power (pylon) line.jpg, Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample d ...
. This led to improved piano wire (giving a near monopoly), wire for making needles in
Redditch Redditch is a town and non-metropolitan district with borough status in Worcestershire, England. It is located south of Birmingham, east of Bromsgrove, north-west of Alcester and north-east of Worcester. In 2021, the town had a population of ...
, fishhooks, and umbrella frames. The firm made the armoured wire for first successful
transatlantic telegraph cable Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is a largely obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and dat ...
in 1866, using 30,000 miles of wire (1,600 tons), made by 250 workers over 11 months. The strengthened wire also made possible the construction of aeroplanes and automobiles. The company today also makes springs. Latch and Batchelor Founded by Arthur Latch, Telford Clarence Batchelor and Henry Herbert Horsfall to develop Batchelor's patent of Locked Coil Wire Rope and Flattened Strand, it was formed in 1884 on part of the Hay Mills site owned at that time by Webster and Horsfall Ltd. Due to its smooth outer layer Locked Coil became increasing popular with its use in aerial ropeways and its unexpected yet excellent non-spinning properties and high breaking-strength-to-weight ratio were recognised by the mining industry and adopted worldwide. Locked Coil development continued with the advent of the half-lock Colliery Guide ropes and more use being made of galvanised wires. The company was one of the first to come under direct Government control in both World Wars. In the 1914–18 war they were the sole manufacturer of shell fuse spring wire, for example, producing 80,260 miles, along with anti-submarine netting, mine, aircraft and balloon cables. The works did not fare so well in the 1939–45 conflict, receiving several direct hits during air raids. The main crane in the rope mill still shudders halfway down the shop caused by slight track misalignment from this time. The virtual extinction of Britain's core manufacturing industries and mining caused a re-focus our the entire manufacturing operation at Hay Mills in the 1980s, and as a result the company now concentrates on manufacturing a variety of specialist mining ropes for the export market as well as stocking, servicing and trading a wide range of high-quality ropes and attachments for numerous applications.


Governance

Nationally, Hay Mills is part of the
Birmingham, Yardley Birmingham Yardley is a constituency of part of the city of Birmingham represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Jess Phillips of the Labour Party. Yardley Rural District was annexed to Birmingham under the 1911 G ...
constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...
represented in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
of the
UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...
since 2015 by
Jess Phillips Jessica Rose Phillips (; born 9 October 1981) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Yardley since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, she has served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for S ...
of the Labour Party. Hay Mills was included in the West Midlands electoral region of the European Parliament.


Transport

The
Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the Canals of the United Kingdom, British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another to Birmi ...
and the
Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply LeamingtonEven more colloquially, also referred to as Lem or Leam (). (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Pri ...
to
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
railway line pass through the district.
Tyseley Tyseley is a district in the southern half of the city of Birmingham, England, near the Coventry Road and the districts of Acocks Green, Small Heath and Yardley. It is located near the Grand Union Canal. Etymology Tyseley means "Tyssa's clear ...
and
Small Heath Small Heath is an inner-city area in south-east Birmingham, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England situated on and around the Coventry Road about from the city centre. History Small Heath, which has been settled and used since Roman t ...
are the closest railway stations situated approximately a from Hay Mills and served by
London Midland London Midland was a train operating company in England which operated the West Midlands franchise between 11 November 2007 and 10 December 2017. It was owned by the British transport group Govia. London Midland was created as a result of Gov ...
to
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
, Dorridge and Leamington Spa and
Chiltern Railways Chiltern Railways (legal name The Chiltern Railway Company Limited) is a British train operating company that has operated the Chiltern Railways franchise since July 1996. Since 2009, it has been a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains. Chiltern Rail ...
to
Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...
,
High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye, Buckinghamshire, River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, ...
and
London Marylebone Marylebone station ( ) is a London station group, Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network, it is also known as London Marylebone a ...
. Motorway access is via junction 6 of the M42 beyond Birmingham Airport away with links to the M5, M6 and M40 motorways. The nearest airport is Birmingham International Airport situated to the East. A smaller aerodrome,
Hay Mills Rotor Station Hay Mills Rotor Station (or Rotorstation) was a helidrome in the Hay Mills district of southern Birmingham, England, which was operational from 1951 to 1954. Location The choice of a suburban location away from the city centre was influence ...
, offering helicopter flights to London, operated from June 1951 to April 1952.


Education

*Redhill Junior and Infant School


Religious sites

St Cyprians Church is situated in the Fordrough.


Notable buildings

Horsfall built houses and, in 1863, a school for his workers' children. In 1873, he built a church, St Cyprian's, designed by Frank Barlow Osborn and now
grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...
, over the
mill race A mill race, millrace or millrun, mill lade (Scotland) or mill leat (Southwest England) is the current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel ( sluice) conducting water to or from a water wheel. Compared with the broad waters of a m ...
on the mill site. This developed into the village of Hay Mills.


Notable people

*
Kevin McNally Kevin Robert McNally (born 27 April 1956) is an English actor and writer. He began his acting career in the BBC TV adaptation of ''I, Claudius'' (1976), but is best known for portraying Joshamee Gibbs in the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' fran ...
, actor * Fred Starkey, amateur athlete and model for a sculpture of the Greek god
Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...
by
William Bloye William James Bloye (8 July 1890 – 6 June 1975) was an English sculptor, active in Birmingham either side of World War II. After serving in World War I, Bloye studied and later taught at the Birmingham School of Art. Becoming a member of t ...
, which stands in Coronation Gardens,
Dudley Dudley ( , ) is a market town in the West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically part of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. In the ...
.


See also

*
Penns Hall Penns Hall is a building on Penns Lane, Walmley, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England, operated as a hotel and country club by Ramada International. The complex is now closed to the public due to the housing of asylum seekers. It is a Grade B ...
, original mill of Joseph Webster *
St Cyprian's Church, Hay Mills St Cyprian's Church, Hay Mills is a parish church of the Church of England in Hay Mills, Birmingham, England. It is situated on the southern side of the main Birmingham to Coventry Road A45 at the end of a lane called the Fordrough that leads to ...


Notes and references

;Notes ;References * * *
Webster and Horsfall

BBC article on the mill and the transatlantic cable



Origins of Hay Mill and Hay Hall


External links

* * {{Areas of Birmingham Areas of Birmingham, West Midlands