Place:Harborne, Warwickshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Harborne is an area of southwest Birmingham three miles (5 km) southwest from the city centre. It is a Birmingham City Council ward in the formal district and the parliamentary constituency of Birmingham Edgbaston. As a parish, it covered an area of 3,300 acres (13 km2). In the 2011 UK census the ward had a population of 23,000. Harborne is a Victorian suburb with a large stock of housing dating from pre-1900 (found mainly around the High Street), and the early 20th century. The oldest part of what is known locally as 'Harborne Village' is centred on St Peter's Church, (Church of England), in Old Church Road, which dates from Anglo-Saxon times. Harborne was an ancient and civil parish in Staffordshire until 1891. It included Smethwick which, although described as a "hamlet" in Wilson's Gazetteer, had a population 3 times greater than Harborne itself in 1851. In 1891 Harborne became part of the County Borough of Birmingham (thus transferring from Staffordshire to Warwickshire by a local act (Local Govt. Bd.'s Prov. Orders Conf. (No. 13) Act, 54 & 55 Vic. c. 161). Smethwick remained in Staffordshire and became a separate civil parish. In 1974 Harborne became part of the County of the West Midlands following the Local Government Act 1972.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Harborne from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"HARBORNE, a village, a parish, and a [registration] sub-district in the [registration] district of Kings-Norton and county of Stafford. The village stands near the boundaries with Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and Birmingham borough, 3 miles SW of Birmingham; was to have a railway, after 1866, to Birmingham [railway] station; forms a pleasant suburban residence; is connected with Birmingham by a continuous series of villas and other genteel residences along Harborne road; and has a post office under Birmingham, a police station, a public library, a steel mill, tin ware works, and a spectacles manufactory.

"The parish includes also the hamlet of Smethwick. Acres: 3,296. Real property, exclusive of Smethwick: £13,286; [inclusive of Smethwick]: £60,418. Population in 1851, [excluding Smethwick]: 2,350; in 1861: 3,617. Houses: 704. Population [inclusive of Smethwick] in 1851: 10,729; in 1861: 16,996. Houses: 3,292. The increase of population arose from participation in the prosperity of Birmingham.

"The manor belongs to the Marquis of Anglesey. Metchley Abbey is the seat of Lord Calthorpe. Much of the area is occupied by suburban outskirts of Birmingham; and a good deal is disposed in market and strawberry gardens.

"The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value: £600. Patrons: the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield. The church is ancient, with a later English tower; and has been extremely disfigured by modern alterations. The churchyard commands a fine view, over parts of Worcestershire, to the Clent Hills and the Bromsgrove Lickey.

"The chapelries of North Harborne, Harborne Heath, Smethwick, Smethwick-St. Matthew, and West Smethwick, are separate charges. North Harborne was constituted in 1842, Harborne Heath in 1859; and the other three will be noticed in the article SMETHWICK. Population of North Harborne in 1861: 5,550; of Harborne Heath: 2,289. Houses: 1,090 and 473. North Harborne is a vicarage. Value: £300. Patrons: the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield. Harborne Heath is a vicarage. Value: £100. Patron: the Rev. T. Smith. [Harborne Heath] church was built in 1859, at a cost of upwards of £3,000; is in the geometric decorated style; and consists of nave, aisles, transept, and chancel, With lofty octagonal turret terminating in a spirelet. There are national schools, with £28 from endowment; four almshouses for families, and one for aged individuals; and other charities, amounting with these, to about £200."

Research Tips

• GENUKI main page for Warwickshire provides information on various topics covering the whole of the county, and also a link to a list of parishes. Under each parish there is a list of the settlements within it and brief description of each. This is a list of pre-1834 ancient or ecclesiastical parishes but there are suggestions as to how to find parishes set up since then. GENUKI provides references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. There is no guarantee that the website has been kept up to date and therefore the reader should check additional sources if possible.
• Warwickshire and West Midland family history societies are listed in GENUKI.
• The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date and from more recent data. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851. There is a list of all the parishes in existence at that date with maps indicating their boundaries. The website is very useful for finding the ecclesiastical individual parishes within large cities and towns.
• A Vision of Britain through Time, Warwickshire, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72 which often provides brief notes on the economic basis of the settlement and significant occurences through its history.
• The two maps below indicate the boundaries between parishes, etc., but for a more detailed view of a specific area try a map from this selection. The oldest series are very clear at the third magnification offered. Comparing the map details with the GENUKI details for the same area is well worthwhile.

• Map of Warwickshire illustrating urban and rural districts in 1900 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time. Parish boundaries and settlements within parishes are shown.
• Map of Warwickshire urban and rural districts in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time. Parish boundaries and settlements within parishes are shown. This is not a repeat of the first map. There were a number of changes to urban and rural district structure in the 1930s.

• A map of the ancient divisions named "hundreds" is to be found in A Vision of Britain through Time. It shows the detached sections of Warwickshire as they were in 1832. These detached sections have now been moved into the counties that surrounded them.
• As of October 2016 Warwickshire Parish Registers, 1535-1984 are available to search online on FamilySearch
• As of September 2018 TheGenealogist has added over 1.5 million individuals to its Warwickshire Parish Record Collection and so increases the coverage of this Midland county for family researchers to find their ancestors baptisms, marriages and burials. These records are released in association with Warwickshire County Record Office and have the benefit of high quality images to complement the transcripts, making them a valuable resource for those with ancestors from this area. These are available to Genealogist Diamond Subscription holders.
• The website British History Online provides seven volumes of the Victoria County History Series on Warwickshire. The first (Vol 2) covers the religious houses of the county; Volumes 3 through 6 provide articles the settlements in each of the hundreds in turn, and Volumes 7 and 8 deal with Birmingham and Coventry respectively. References to individual parishes will be furnished as time permits.
• Victoria County History - Staffordshire - Vol 17, pp 87-88 - Parish: Smethwick. British History Online. University of London (London, 1976). While Wilson's Gazetteer placed Smethwick in Harborne, the Victoria County History placed Harborne in the parish of Smethwick. Smethwick covers a number of chapters; the link is to the introductory one.