Red House Park at www.RedHousePark.org.uk
Red House Park consists of a Victorian house with playing fields, woods, parkland and lakes in the Great Barr area of Sandwell. The park is an important amenity for the local residents and much work is currently being undertaken to improve many aspects of the park and the Red House itself. This is being co-ordinated by the Friends of Red House park. This web site will support their activities and provide a focal point for documenting the history of the area.
Meetings
The next meeting of the Friends of
Red House Park will be on
18th January 2016
in the Community
Room of the Pavillion
Please note the full
schedule of meetings for 2015 and previous minutes are
available on the Meetings page.
Great Barr's Red House Park in line for big revamp
Thousands of pounds will be spent on improving Red House Park in Great Barr under plans to revitalise the beauty spot and draw in more visitors. Read more in this Express and Star report.
2016 Events
Paws in the Park 24th July 2016
Santa in the Park 11th December 2016
Future of the House
Following a council planning meeting on 11th February 2015 approval was given for the conversion of the Red House to flats and the buiding of a row of terraced houses, in spite of receiving over 80 representations from the community.
Chairman of the Friends of Red House Park, Bill Gunn, who worked to save the house for more than a decade, was resigned to the news, saying “it’s a sad day.” “All the work from our 13-year campaign is gone,” he told the Great Barr Observer. “I would just like to thank the public and everyone for all the help they’ve given us over the years. We never objected to the house becoming flats because at least that would save it, but we could never agree to the six houses – they are going to use up most of the car parking near to the house that we need for park visitors and the people that play football here on Saturdays and Sundays. “They got to make 28 parking spaces for the new residents. We took photos of the parking as it is to show the council how the spaces are needed and we handed them into the planning department, but it hasn’t made a scrap of difference. I feel sorry for the people living in Hill Lane and Fairyfield Avenue who are going to have more people parking there in the future. “I’m just sad that the council could find millions of pounds to spend on The Public when nobody wanted it, and can find the money for Lightwoods Park, which has only been under their control for a few years, yet they could never help the Red House.”
The plans for the conversion are available
here.. and the web pages of the proposed developers GR8
Space here.
Newspaper cuttings and articles relating to the campaign are available
here
News
A drawing by John Scott of the earlier Red House dating from the 1820's has come to light, courtesy of David Scott.
The full drawing is shown on the 1813 page
Follow our Facebook page for news and up-to-date information
about Red House Park
www.facebook.com/RedHousePark
A Blog on the Birds to be found in Red House Park has been started by local birder Paul Broomhead at redhousepark.blogspot.com.
This site is being upgraded to be full mobile compatible, keep coming back for news on the launch date for the new site.
The Community Pavilion
The Community Pavilion can be booked for Meeting, Parties etc. Please contact
Friends of Red House Park win Skipton Building Society Grassroots award
We are very pleased to announce that we were successful in our application
for the £500 being offered by the Skipton Building Society. We had some
tough competition where hundreds applied and over 30,000 votes were cast .
The friends were able to demonstrate the work they do and to everyone that
voted for us we are extremely grateful
.
Quick Links
- Click here to
- Please send me photographs and historical information on Red House Park
- This site supports the work of the Friends of Red House Park and is a micro-site within www.B43.co.uk - Great Barr Past and Present