Place:Wythall, Worcestershire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

NOTE: Contrary to popular belief, Wythall has never been located in the county called West Midlands.

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Wythall is now a village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove District, in the north-east corner of the county of Worcestershire, England. Wythall parish borders Solihull and Birmingham, and has a population of 11,377.

Wythall village is around 7 miles south of Birmingham City Centre along Alcester Road. There are many 18th century buildings on this road including the old post office and school building. The Wythall Institute is still the home of the WI today. The civil parish of Wythall includes the smaller settlements of Drake's Cross, Hollywood, Headley Heath, Grimes Hill, Inkford and Tanner's Green.

From 1939 to 1959 Wythall was home to a Royal Air Force station, initially housing a barrage balloon facility, and latterly, 1952–57, a Joint Services School of Applied Linguistics, training men from the RN and RAF in Russian military terminology and the use of radios for Signals Intelligence purposes; additionally, Chinese, Czech, German and Polish were taught to small numbers of RAF men. Part of the site is now occupied by the Transport Museum, Chapel Lane, which has a collection of historic buses and battery electric vehicles.

A sawmill has been in operation for over 100 years and was steam powered at some point in its history. Maps from 1838 show a brickyard opposite the site.

A nineteenth century description

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

"WYTHALL, or Withall, a chapelry in Kings-Norton and Alvechurch parishes, Worcester, and in Solihull parish, Warwick; 3½ miles SSE of Kings-Norton [railway] station. It was constituted in 1853; and its Post town is Birmingham. Population: 1,093. Houses: 250. The manor belongs to J. Taylor, Esq. Weatheroak Hall is the seat of R. Mynors, Esq. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester. Value: £140. Patron: the Vicar of Kings-Norton. The church was rebuilt in 1863. There are Baptist and Wesleyan chapels, and free schools."

Wythall was created a civil parish in 1911 when the remainder of Kings Norton parish became a part of Birmingham. It then joined the Bromsgrove Rural District until 1974 when the rural district became part of the Bromsgrove District in the short-lived county of Hereford and Worcester. In 1998 it was returned to Worcestershire again.

• Ordnance Survey Maps of England and Wales - Revised: Worcestershire illustrates the parish boundaries of Worcestershire when rural districts were still in existence and before the West Midlands came into being. The map publication year is 1931. The map blows up to show all the parishes and many of the small villages and hamlets. Maps in this series are now downloadable for personal use.
• British History Online has a large collection of local maps from the Ordnance Survey 1883-1893. These blow up to a size that permits viewing of individual hamlets, farms, collieries, but there is no overlapping of one map to the next, and no overall map to tie the individual ones together.
• British History Online also has three volumes of the Victoria County History of Worcestershire online. Volume 3 (published in 1913) deals with the Halfshire Hundred; Volume 4 (published in 1924) deals with the City of Worcester, as well as parishes in the hundreds of Pershore and Doddingtree. Volume 2 covers religious houses in the county. The remainder of the county is not represented in the British History Online series.
• GENUKI makes a great many suggestions as to other websites with worthwhile information about Worcestershire as well as leading to a collection of 19th century descriptions of each of the ecclesiastical parishes.
• The FamilySearch Wiki provides a similar information service to GENUKI which may be more up-to-date. An index of parishes leads to notes and references for each parish. The auxiliary website English Jurisdictions can also be helpful.
• Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service, The Hive, Sawmill Walk, The Butts, Worcester WR1 3PD (Telephone: 01905 822866, e-mail: archive@worcestershire.gov.uk) The Archives Collections Catalog Summary outlines the contents of the Archives Collection and also notes on what has been transferred to the national online service Access to Archives
• The Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry has a branch in Bromsgrove which deals in Worcestershire family history. There are also branches at Stourbridge and Worcester.
• The Midlands Historical Data project produces searchable facsimile copies of old local history books and directories of interest to genealogists. It specialises in the three counties of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire, working closely with libraries, archives and family history societies in the area. Digital images are made freely available to participating organisations to improve public access. Free search index on its web-site to all its books. In many cases payment will be required to see the extract.
• A Vision of Britain through Time has

1. organization charts of the hierarchies of parishes within hundreds, registration districts and rural and urban districts of the 20th century
2. excerpts from a gazetteer of circa 1870 outlining individual towns and parishes
3. reviews of population through the time period 1800-1960

• Brett Langston's list of Worcestershire Registration Districts and parishes within each registration district from 1837 to the present can indicate where to find details of civil registration entries since the process began in England.
• More local sources can often be found by referring to "What Links Here" in the column on the left.

• Victoria County Histories, Worcestershire, Volume 3 on Kings Norton includes some references to Wythall. The website is provided by British History Online.