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, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
, England, encompassing the north of
Edgbaston
Edgbaston () is a suburb of Birmingham, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies immediately south-west of Birmingham city centre, and was historically in Warwickshire. The Ward (electoral subdivision), wards of Edgbaston and Nort ...
Ward and the southern extremes of Soho Ward, to the city boundary with
Smethwick
Smethwick () is an industrial town in the Sandwell district, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire and then Worcestershire before bei ...
.
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
In vertebrates, an ear is the organ that enables hearing and (in mammals) body balance using the vestibular system. In humans, the ear is described as having three parts: the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear co ...
Birmingham".
In 1826,
Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford (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 Scotland, as well ...
built
Edgbaston Reservoir, 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'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 authority for the city of Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. Birmingham has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been reformed several times. Since 1974 the council has been a metropo ...
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 (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.
On City Road, (the
A4040 road) 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