Tunnel Lane, Kings Heath

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Date:1951 - 1988 (c.)

Description:This children's home on Tunnel Lane was built as a 'family group home' or ‘scattered home’ on the Brandwood Park Estate in 1951.

It was part of a programme of new children’s homes in Birmingham, each built on newly developing housing estates. These homes were to be small family homes – a move away from the pre-Second World War larger children’s homes. Tunnel Lane was one of the first of these family group homes to be built. They were generally built in pairs - the other family home built on the Brandwood Park estate at the same time was on Shelfield Road.

Unlike Shelfield Road, Tunnel Lane was not extended into the house next door and thus maintained its original 8-bed capacity and semi-detached structure. It accommodated, certainly in the mid-1980s, both girls and boys.

According to the electoral roll, the live-in staff (most likely the house-parents) were Norman and Vera Shirley, from the 1958 electoral roll through to the 1980 electoral roll. Preceding them were Arthur and Agnes Cawardine and George and Mary Chesters. After 1980, however, there are no further individuals registered to vote at the address. This is most likely because there were no longer any live-in staff, as was the case in most of the City Council’s children’s homes.

Tunnel Lane appears to have closed as a children’s home between October 1986 and March 1989.

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Image: Tunnel Lane Children's home, taken in the mid to late 1980s before the home closed.
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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.