Haseley Hall, Five Ways

Image: © Robin Stott Taken: 27 Mar 2010

Not featured in standard reference works for Warwickshire but is said to have been a late 18th century mansion. It was bought from Sir Edward Antrobus by Sir James Sawyer, an eminent physician. He made extensive additions and occupied it from 1891 until his death in 1919. Then it became a country home for senior staff of W & T Avery Ltd, the weighing machine manufacturer, who vacated it in 1928. By 1930 it was taken over by the Birmingham Society for the Care of Invalid Children; the occupants were girls suffering from "rheumatic hearts". From 1942 it operated as Haseley Hall Residential School for Boys - an open-air school - until its closure in 1974. Its history since then is not yet known but in recent times it appears to have been converted to apartments and small businesses. Information from James Yardley and the book 'A Breath of Fresh Air: Birmingham's Open-Air Schools 1911-1970' by Frances Wilmot and Pauline Saul, published by Phillimore, 1998.

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