Mason Leys Farm

Masonleys farm mid-60's (photos : David Smith)

David Smith recalls:-

My grandparents, Jack and Alice Smith lived at Mason Leys farm for probably 30 years or more. They are definitely there on the 1939 UK Register (Census), along with my Dad and my Aunt. Grandad used to cut the grass for the golf course after he retired from driving trams for the city. Dad said that during the war, there was a search light battery on the property – although I don’t remember him saying anything about anti-aircraft guns. 

Jack Smith at back door of farm early1960s

The house originally had 4 bedrooms, but one had been converted to a bathroom. Downstairs there was a kitchen with a red terra cotta tile floor. I don’t remember if the original fireplace / oven in the kitchen was used, but I suspect it must have been to heat the water, although the bread oven was not used, for sure. The main living room had a huge fire / hearth that was big enough to stand up in. It still had the bracket to hold the spit. Of course there were the typical beams, and the front door which opened in to the living room was never used – ever! There was a second room on the first floor which was used as another living space. Mom and Dad had it for a while, and then my aunt and uncle and their family. There was a cellar that was used for coal. The coalman would have dropped it down though the outside coal shoot. 

There was also a fourth room that they called the dairy that was an unheated room used to store perishables. Al the rooms had fireplaces of course, although I don’t remember if they ever used the ones in the bedrooms. There was an attached two storey garage with an outside stair case. The floor had rotted out when I knew it so going up there was not allowed. I am not even sure if the garage was ever used since there was always space in the drive sheds. It had a large garden, even when I knew it as well as an old orchard and chicken coop. 

I don’t know where the name Mason Leys came from. It was suggested that it might have come from the French for house, ‘maison’ . I think perhaps it was someone called Mason who had fields (Lea). Sometimes it is written as two words, other times as one word.

Map taken from cloth backed 1950's map of Birmingham
Anybody reading this have anything on Mason Leys Farm, Frankley Beeches Road, Northfield?

My research finds a Charles Hodgetts (Farmer & Milk Dealer) living there on 7 February, 1890, and a farm laborer named Joseph Turner, aged 55 (from Huntington) in 1891 living here too. Northfield Golf Club leased the land in 1905 from the farm for £35 per year in (about £2,500 in today money). The club went bust recently and the gof club site has been sold to a developer. Planning was refused by Birmingham Council for housing, but they now have approval from Government to go ahead with 800 homes on the site. The clubhouse was burned down twice while un-used and this year (2019) was bulldozed.