The origins of Fox Hollies
Victor Skipp's excellent book
Medieval Yardley reveals
the origins of the term Fox Hollies and its development as an
estate within the Manor of Yardley. The term is a combination
of two family names, Fox and atte Holies. The earliest of these
is atte Holies. The subsidy roll of c. 1275 reveals that Adam
atte Holies was worth 8s 8d, and was one of the richest men in
Yardley. In 1327 Richard de Holies was worth 2s 1d, but was still
one of the richest men. This reduction reflects the widespread
economic decline of the time. Half a century late their name disappears
from Yardley records, but in 1465 the Fox family appear in records,
and they buy the estate formerly belonging to the atte Holies.
The name Foxholleys is first mentioned in 1624. By comparison,
the name Acock appears in a Yardley deed in 1420, and the family
is listed at Gilbertstone, a house straddling the border of Yardley
and Bickenhill, in 1495. The Acocks bought an estate east of the
present centre of Acocks Green. This was called Notings land,
and the estate became known as Acockes by 1552. Acocks Green and
other estates were a wedding gift in 1626 to William Acock from
his father Richard. So the name Fox Hollies is just as important
historically as that of Acocks Green, if not more so.
An extract from the map drawn by John Morris Jones
for Medieval Yardley
Thus it can be seen that the name Fox Hollies easily matches
that of Acocks Green in importance. However later centuries saw
the name Acocks Green grow in importance as a turnpike stop, while
the estate called Fox Hollies was a small and quiet place on the
lane from Hall Green church to Yardley.
In 1741 Fox Hollies is mentioned in a document in Birmingham Reference
Library archives, a Lease and Release of 29 and 30 June 1741:
1. Theophilus Levett of
Lichfield, gentleman
2. Elizabeth Grevis of Birmingham, widow (mother and devise of all the real
estate of William Booth Allestrey, late of Birmingham, Esquire deceased)
Property: Messuages and lands in Norton Lindsey, Warwicks.; in Bordesley in the
parish of Aston, and in Yardley; closes of land at Acocks Green in the parish of
Yardley called Foxes Holyes [Fox Hollies] with a little wood; and a messuage and
lands in Handsworth
At the beginning of the
nineteenth century the Fox Hollies estate was owned by Mr George
Kennedy, gent., and he had an avenue of trees opposite the house
leading to the wood.
Estate Plan of 1807 (Birmingham City Archives)
George Kennedy was a prominent individual in the Birmingham
area: indeed his wider family was very active intellectually and socially. He
was one of the first four surgeons at the General Hospital, initially built at
Summer Lane and opened in September 1779. George Kennedy also had an estate in
Smethwick, bought from the assignees of the bankrupt Edward Guest: it comprise a
farmhouse and 71 acres of land.
Like the Walkers later, George Kennedy was associated with the
Boulton and Watt enterprises, although here apparently as a neighbour! "The
Birmingham Canal was cut through the estate in 1768-9, and in 1795 Kennedy sold
18 a. on the east side of the canal; James Watt built Soho Foundry there in
1796. Watt covenanted with Kennedy not to erect on the property 'any brasshouse
or other works which are prejudicial to vegetation . . . except iron-foundries
and steamengines'; even his foundries and engines, however, had to be sited back
from the western edge of his newly acquired property. The rest of the estate was
sold by Kennedy in 1796 to Alexander Walker, a Birmingham merchant." (VCH,
Staffs., vol.17)
George Kennedy died in 1822
at the age of 73. He had been a specialist in gallstone surgery and had invented
the many-tailed bandage. His son John, a vicar, inherited the house, and he died
in 1837. Rev. Rann Kennedy (1771-1851) then inherited the house from his cousin
John. He was even more of a leading light. His father Benjamin was a surgeon
from Lichfield who was practising in America, and specialising in inoculation.
Benjamin died at the end of the War of Independence, and his mother and Rann
fled back to England. She died soon afterwards. Rann went to Cambridge
University in 1791, where he became friends with both Coleridge and Wordsworth.
He took holy orders and became a teacher at King Edward's School, Birmingham. He
became curate at St. Paul's Chapel, then incumbent from 1817 until a few years
before his death.
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Two portraits of Rann Kennedy |
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Julia Kennedy née Hall |
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Thanks to Will Kennedy for these three pictures |
Rann Kennedy was a poet, and
wrote verse about Royal events, like the Coronation of George IV; his poem was
read out at the Birmingham celebrations, and is reproduced in J.A. Langford's
book A century of Birmingham life, volume II, pages 359-60. He also
published a poem at the death of Princess Charlotte in 1817, and a tribute to
George Canning after his death in 1827. He did not write down much of his other
verse at first: we know this from none other than the author Washington Irving,
another friend. The following is quoted in R.K. Dent's The making of
Birmingham, page 276:
Brummagem anecdotes would give you little
entertainment; yet I must say I have found many good people here, and some few
that are really choice. Among these I must especially mention my particular
friend, the Rev. Rann Kennedy, of whom I may some day give you a more full
account. He is a most eccentric character, and is both my admiration and my
amusement. He is a man of real genius, preaches admirable sermons, and
has for a long time past been on the point of producing two or three
poetic works, though he has not, as yet, committed any of his poetry to paper.
He, however, says he has it all in his brain, and, indeed, has occasionally
recited some passages of it to Peter and myself that have absolutely delighted
us. With all this, he has the naiveté of a child, is somewhat hypochondriacal,
and, in short, is one of the queerest mortals living".
Langford recorded the death
of Rev. Rann Kennedy in his Modern Birmingham and its institutions,
volume I, page 393:
We open this decade with the record of the
death of one of the best scholars and ablest translators of his time. On January
2, 1851, in his 79th year, died the Rev. Rann Kennedy, M.A., who for many years
had been the incumbent of St. Paul's Chapel. He was, writes a contemporary, "for
upwards of half a century, one of the most useful and eloquent members of this
community, and singularly guileless, benevolent, and upright in public life. His
religious teaching was always entirely free from bigotry or intolerance, and it
caused him to be loved and honoured by good men of all persuasions, through the
whole of his long and illustrious career. He was a man of great and varied
powers of mind, an elegant poet, and an accomplished classical scholar. It may
be truly said of him, as of Playfair, that, independent of his high attainments,
he was one of the most amiable and estimable of men, upon whose perfect honour
and generosity his friends might rely with the most implicit confidence, and on
whom it was equally impossible that, under any circumstances, he should ever
perform a mean or questionable action, as that his body should cease to
gravitate or his soul cease to live". His Essay on Versification, prefixed to a
translation of Virgil, is an admirable example of elegant writing and acute
criticism, and is still remembered by readers and scholars.
Kennedy's wife was Julia
Hall, daughter of John Hall, engraver to George III. Their four sons all
excelled at Cambridge and in later life. Thanks to Tim Kennedy for help with
this information.
In 1860 Mr Charles Millward was at Fox Hollies.
Two things in the nineteenth century radically
changed the situation for both names. The coming of the railway
in 1852 eventually led to the centre of Acocks Green being pulled
westwards from the area by the Dolphin towards the station and
the housing and facilities that grew up nearby. However the purchase
of the Fox Hollies estate by the Walker family around 1869 led
to a huge rise in importance and impact for that name too, and
it is to the era of the Walker family that we now turn.
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