Description:In 1903 postcards were still a relatively new phenomenon. Only the address could be written on the back, and any message had to be fitted onto the front alongside the picture. This postcard carries a handwritten message to Aubrey Morgan of Cambridge from Violette Kamenski, and is postmarked 'Gt. Hampton St., Birmingham, 10.30am, 9 July 1903'.
The Edgbaston reservoir next to the Hagley Road was designed in 1824 by Thomas Telford, as part of a scheme for improving the Birmingham Canal. In the 1880s, the proposal to convert the reservoir into a public park evoked mixed reactions from the local residents.
F.R. Martino of 176 Hagley Road, a member of staff at Sir Josiah Mason’s Nickel and German Silver Warehouse, wrote to Lord Calthorpe on 12 December 1883, to say that he did not object in principle, but wanted exclusive rights for residents on one or more days in the week. He was concerned that wooden fences or walls might spoil the view ‘which I have hitherto enjoyed from my garden and which is very dear to me and my family. But I scarcely think that such fences or walls would be contemplated to erect by our Town Council’.
Mr Bloxham, of Goodnestone, 316 Hagley Road, in his letter of 18 March 1884, took a different view:
'Any such use must of necessity very materially interfere with the quiet and peaceable occupation and enjoyment of my property not only by reason of a large and increasing number of persons frequenting the ground at holiday times but that from the elevated position of the ground the public will be able to look direct on to the south front and terrace of my house and entirely destroy the privacy and comfort of my residence'.
He argued that the proposal would breach the terms and conditions on which he took his lease from Lord Calthorpe and that public recreation grounds were not needed in the locality of the Hagley Road Reservoir, because the Ladywood Reservoir and Summerfield Park were more accessible to the poor in the west and north-west districts of the borough, and ‘that the field paths and lanes within a few minutes walk of the Hagley Road Reservoir afford advantages to the toiling population seeking health and fresh air which exceed any advantages that could be obtained on the Reservoir ground’.
Bloxham displays an anxiety about being exposed to the ‘toiling population’, which is also reflected in the exclusivity of the Botanical Gardens that only opened its gates to the working classes on Bank Holidays. Notwithstanding his and other objections, the reservoir did indeed become a place for public recreation.