Acocks Green History Society
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
George Wells, a well-known pen manufacturer, moved in straight away. He was later at Acocks Green House. 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.
Sale catalogues, Fox Hollies Hall
Acocks Green Carnival
Fox Hollies Forum
Childhood memories of Jean Mercer