Pype Hayes

Pype Hayes Park is one of the larger parks in Birmingham, England. The park is in Erdington Constituency and straddles the boundary between Pype Hayes and Erdington (now Tyburn ward. It covers B72 and B24. The northern boundary of the park is the traditional boundary between Erdington and Sutton Coldfield. Pype Hayes Park reaches from the corner where Eachelhurst Road joins Chester Road to a point close to Park Close off Chester Road and in places borders Pitts Farm estate. It also leads to Berwood Farm Road and Welwyndale Road. The main park entrance is on Chester Road and by that entrance is the lodge where the head gardener lives, like Pype Hayes Hall this is a grade II listed building. To the left of the main drive to Pype Hayes Hall is a car parking area and further on towards Pype Hayes Hall is a children’s play area with swings and other attractions. Returning to the main drive one can get to the front entrance of Pype Hayes Hall and round there are gardens. The older gardens have a traditional layout with many fairly straight flower beds and dwarf yew hedges. To the north of the traditional garden is a modern garden planted for the millennium. A fountain that was the centrepiece of this garden was vandalised and has been left unrepaired for several years. To the west of the gardens is a fish pond which is also a duck pond with a duck island, many species of water birds can be found there, notably Mallard ducks, Canada geese and frequently a pair of resident mute swan. By the corner where Chester Road meets Eachelhurst Road is the area where the annual bonfire and Funfair are held on 5 November, fairs are also held there at other times of the year. To the north of the section above is mown grass with young trees planted in groups and mature trees, later the land starts to slope downwards to a valley where Plants Brook flows, the brook was culverted during the 1960s due to flooding. Many young trees have been planted in the flattish area round Plants Brook which is near the border of the park. After World War II single-storey prefabricated buildings were built round the park between Chester Road and Eachelhurst Road; each prefab had a small garden to the front and another small garden to the rear. Several decades later these homes were removed, giving a better view of the park and the Manor house but if visitors to the park look closely there is still a level area where the prefabs once stood. During the 1990s there was a problem with travellers who parked caravans without permission, but this was prevented by erecting metal railings round the part of the perimeter of the park where there are no houses, round the car park, along the main driveway, these railings separate areas where vehicles are permitted from areas where vehicles are not permitted. There are gates in these railings which are unlocked for permitted vehicles, for example when the funfair arrives.

Pype Hayes Hall is a former mansion house in the Pype Hayes area of Erdington, Birmingham, England. The hall's grounds now form Pype Hayes Park. It was formerly in the historic county of Warwickshire before being transferred into the new county of the West Midlands, along with the rest of the city, in 1974. It has grade II listed status.

Tyburn is a ward in Birmingham, England formerly known as Kingsbury. It is part of the Erdington formal district and comprises Castle Vale, Fort Parkway in Castle Bromwich, the Pype Hayes area of Erdington, Birches Green and Tyburn Road. The significant landmarks in the area include Jaguar Cars' Castle Bromwich Assembly factory, Fort Dunlop and Pype Hayes Park. The Castle Vale Library, built in 2006, serves the area. The library was designed by Birmingham-based Associated Architects and built by the Castle Vale Housing Action Trust.

St Mary's Church is a Grade II listed parish church in the Church of England in Pype Hayes, Birmingham, England.

Wylde Green is a residential area within the town of Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham, England in the West Midlands. It was in the county of Warwickshire. The area is in the Sutton Vesey ward.

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 locally listed building, and is licensed as a venue for civil marriages and civil partnerships.Plants Brook, a tributary of the River Tame, flows through its grounds. A long pool formed by the damming of Plants Brook named Penns Lake is also part of the hotel grounds. This is today used as a carp fishing lake operated by Fosters Fisheries.

Castle Bromwich was a rural district in Warwickshire, England from 1894 to 1912. It was created by the Local Government Act 1894 based on the Aston rural sanitary district. It consisted of the parishes of Castle Bromwich, Curdworth, Minworth, Water Orton and Wishaw. The district was abolished in 1912, and the parishes added to the Meriden Rural District.

Castle Bromwich Assembly is a factory owned by Jaguar Land Rover. It is located on the Chester Road in Castle Vale, Birmingham, England and employs 3,200 people. The plant covers an area of 110 acres (44.5 hectares), with a 60,000 m² (6-hectare) manufacturing facility. It manufactures all Jaguar saloon and sports cars. The site was first developed as Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory, a shadow factory for the production of aircraft by the car industry as part of the rearmament of the UK in the pre-Second World war era. After initial problems it was brought under the control of aircraft manufacturers and became one of the largest producers of aircraft during the war.

Penns railway station is a disused railway station which served the village of Walmley in Sutton Coldfield when it was in the historic county of Warwickshire, now the West Midlands. The station was opened in 1879 and was located on the Midland Railway Company's Walsall - Water Orton Branch as the first station on the line after leaving their Birmingham to Derby line between Castle Bromwich and Water Orton. The line then developed into the Sutton Park Line. In 1965, the station closed and was demolished the next year as part of the Beeching Axe, which had also resulted in all stations on the same line being closed. The line was retained for freight trains. The only surviving feature of the railway station is Penns Lane Bridge which spans the railway line. The station's site is now taken up by a religious meeting-house and its car park.

Plantsbrook Local Nature Reserve is a nature reserve on the Plants Brook in The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham, England, consisting of open water, wetland, woodland and meadow. It is located on Eachelhurst Road, on the border of the Pype Hayes and Walmley districts. It was designated a Local Nature Reserve in 1991.The reserve, managed by Birmingham City Council, measures 10.72 hectares (26.5 acres) and is used as an educational resource.

The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal is a canal of the Birmingham Canal Navigations in the West Midlands of England. Its purpose was to provide a link between the Coventry Canal and Birmingham and thereby connect Birmingham to London via the Oxford Canal.

Orphanage Road is a road in Erdington and Wylde Green, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands. Orphanage Road runs from Erdington Library, just before Erdington High Street, to Penns Lane, Sutton Coldfield and leads to Berwood Farm Rd and Welwyndale Rd. It covers the postcodes of B24 and B72. It was originally named Bell Lane and was renamed after the Orphanage which Josiah Mason built there in 1860 to a design by J.R. Botham. Mason also built almshouses adjacent to the orphanage in 1858. The orphanage included a 250-foot tower, famously scaled by Sir Benjamin Stone to take photographs of the panoramic views over Erdington. The orphanage was formally opened by Mason in 1869 and extended in 1876. The Orphanage building was demolished in 1964, in the mid 20th century, when Victorian architecture was generally not highly valued and Anti-Victorianism was influential. The trustees thought the orphanage was, "outdated and expensive to maintain." The tower was demolished by replacing the stones at the base with wooden posts which were then ignited. The site was sold for housing.