Brooklands, Selly Wick Road, Selly Oak

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Date:1967 - 1996 (c.)

Description:Before becoming a children's home, the building on Selly Wick Road was originally a vicarage. The two storey building was bought by the Children’s Committee in 1967 to be adapted for use as a children’s home.

An edited extract from an oral history interview with someone who went into Brooklands when it first opened:

“I was in Greenways, and then in about 1966 or 1967, we all moved into Brooklands with Mr and Mrs Brooke the houseparents. And that’s why they called it Brooklands because their name was Brooke. We were the first ones there. It was a vicarage before we moved there; so then it became the children’s home in about ’67 something like that. We went from Shenley to just being on a normal road like anybody else. It was alright to be honest, we felt like a bit more normal.”

By 1979, the home had beds for 14 children, both boys and girls. This was reduced to 12 in 1980.

Brooklands closed as a children's home in 1996.

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Image: One of the residents of Brooklands, Mark standing by the front door in 1979.
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Source: This history was compiled by the Birmingham Children's Homes Project, an initiative to explore Birmingham City Council-run children’s homes between 1949 and 1990.