Earliest existence The village of Dorridge did not exist as a community until the mid-19th century, though it is mentioned as far back as 1400 in the
Westminster Muniments which recorded a place called 'Derrech' - a clearing in the wood frequented by animals. It was just the name given to the ridge of land running westwards from Knowle (also then called 'Dorege'). The earliest evidence of settlement dates to the
Bronze Age – an axe dated to 1300 BC was found in Norton Green. Cottages dating back to the 16th century exist in Mill Pool Lane. However, the lack of any significant road system until the arrival of the railway showed that there was no community there. With the rise of
Solihull, a road connecting to
Hockley Heath became formed. Along this road, the Four Ashes (after which the recently developed estate was named) became a landmark – records show the trees being present in 1662 and marking the Parish boundary. They were also mapped in 1725 even in preference to some local buildings of note. The ashes still exist today near to the driving range, though they have been replaced several times since the earliest records. The Drum and Monkey existed from around 1860, though then it was known as The White Lion Inn.
Impact of the railway In 1852 the railway was built by the
Great Western Railway, originally in Brunel's preferred 7-foot gauge track.
Dorridge railway station, which was originally called
Knowle, and later
Knowle and Dorridge, created the focal point for a new community. The Muntz family granted the land for the railway on condition that a station was built – perhaps less surprising on discovering that the Chairman of the
Birmingham & Oxford Railway Company was P. H. Muntz, a relative. There is some folklore about the agreement that suggests that the railway was obliged to stop at Dorridge; however, with the affluent residents of Knowle and Dorridge, it was certainly a commercial practicality. Evidence of the popularity of the railway can be seen in that a "bus" service from the Greswolde Hotel in Knowle was provided in the early days of the railway at the cost of 6d. In its heyday, the train service ran between Lapworth and Birmingham with four tracks, but by the mid-1960s two tracks had been removed and traffic was declining. The link with London was revived in the 1990s as part of the
privatisation of British Rail, initially with a single track running south of Banbury. Dual track working was reinstated and today in spite of being a village, Dorridge is still one of the stops on the express service.
Muntz family influence The development of Dorridge is strongly linked to the Muntz family, who lived in nearby
Umberslade Hall. The Muntz family were descendants of Philip Fredrick Muntz, an immigrant of the 18th century, who had left revolutionary France after settling there from Poland. Through industrial wealth, founded on a brass-making process for creating
Muntz metal, a form of brass used in shipbuilding, the family acquired a considerable estate in the area. Possibly the most famous of the Muntz family was the inventor of Muntz metal,
George Frederic Muntz, who was also an early
Member of Parliament for Birmingham. He was a supporter of political reform and a founding member of the
Birmingham Political Union along with
Thomas Attwood. In his actions that led to the
Reform Act 1832 Muntz was indicted for sedition as he tried to undermine the
Duke of Wellington with a run on gold –
To stop the Duke, run for Gold. He also was involved in a riot at
St Martin's in Birmingham in protest against the Church Rates which were levied at around 6d to 9d in the pound. He was sent to trial in 1838 but was acquitted on all but one of 13 charges. Whilst claiming to be a Republican, his true character appeared to be that of an egotistical aristocrat. E. Edwards wrote in 1877 in the Birmingham Daily Mail of a conversation about a speech he made: ''"They won't be able to print Muntz's speech verbatim." "Why not?" said I. "Why my dear fellow, no printing office in the world would have capital I's enough."''
Middlefield Hospital Dr Fletcher of Dorridge, together with Jonathan Henry Kimball of Knowle also provided for an 'Asylum for 20 Idiot Girls' in the mid-19th century, in 'Dorridge Grove' which was on the site of the former 'Royal Oak'; the building still exists as a distinctive house on Knowle Wood Road. The term 'idiot' was a specific term for those considered ineducable and was considered different from insanity. The records of the early years show that it was a successful enterprise, surprising those who visited that they achieved so much improvement in the behaviour of the patients. The demand for this facility was such that a purpose-built Idiot Asylum was then constructed in 1872 near Grove Road for £10,000. The construction of this was something of a national event: representatives of 100 Masonic Lodges marched from Knowle Station to take part in the laying of the foundation stone, which was set in place using the same mallet used by King Charles the Second to lay the foundation stone of Saint Paul's Cathedral in London. The asylum was funded mainly by the local Counties of the Midlands, but George Fredrick Muntz sponsored competition with a prize of £100 for the best design. It provided for housing idiot children from all over the Midlands. It is perhaps telling that in 1867 it was renamed to be the 'Midland Counties Middleclass Idiots Asylum' and although subsidised, families typically had to pay an annual fee to have their children placed there. This was extended in 1893 and evolved into the Middlefield Hospital which existed on the same site until the 1990s, having been adopted by the
National Health Service in 1948.
Development of housing Dorridge was not considered a district in its own right until 1940. Around the start of the 19th century, much of what is now Knowle Wood Road, (was then Packwood Road) was farmland with just a few dwellings, similarly Avenue Road (which was then Warwick Road) had a handful of dwellings. By the 1930s the main Dorridge Triangle was properly established. Aside from the substantial family homes, there are a significant number of mansions, some of which, such as Parkfield near the park, have now been converted into flats. During the 1930s, development slowed, and it was not until the 1950s that expansion gathered pace again. One of the earliest post-War developments was Kingscote Road, one of the few developments of semi-detached housing in the area, followed by the nearby Rodborough Road development in 1960. There was a substantial development in the 1960s around the area christened by estate agents as the "Golden Triangle" – alluding to the expensive and desirable housing of the area bounded by Dorridge Road, Avenue Road and Knowle Wood Road. Even then the local press noted the high cost of housing, and that 2 and 3 car households were well above the national average. This area of housing has been noted as the most expensive in all of Dorridge and Knowle. This neighbourhood's proximity to the railway station has pushed property prices up much more than other areas of Dorridge. The population expanded rapidly: there were around 600 dwellings in 1955, which expanded to 1800 by the mid-1970s to somewhere above 2500 homes by the year 2000. Whilst there is a history of locals taking a dim view of developers, a local developer, Mr Ford, gave the land which is now Dorridge Park to the community in 1965. In the late 1990s another substantial development was built on former farmland in the area known as Four Ashes, behind the Porsche Centre Solihull, and the development of the Middlefield Hospital site occurred at a similar time. The architecture is a reflection of this development — there are some fine buildings from the Victorian era all around the area. Over the years, each period has then added buildings of its style — Avenue Road, for example, has classic
Art Deco houses with rounded metal-framed windows. Building sizes were restricted in the post-war era. Buildings in the 1960s, though of limited architectural merit, were built with large gardens; many owners have since imposed character on these houses. More modern developments have seen the move to build apartment-style blocks, though there have also been substantial houses built, often on the site of much smaller houses and at the expense of the large gardens that still characterise the area.
Schools The Infant and Junior schools today have over 750 pupils, until as recently as 1955 there were no schools in Dorridge, with pupils travelling to Bentley Heath, Hockley Heath, Knowle or Packwood to get an education. In 1955 Dorridge Junior School was built and by 1963 an Infant School was built. These were joined by the Catholic School of St. George and Teresa. The secondary education is mainly provided by Arden School in nearby Knowle, which now also has a sixth form centre. The sixth form buildings were completed in 2007 with additions being made every year. A considerable number of children go to private schools in Solihull, Warwick or Birmingham or to grammar schools in Birmingham, Stratford and Alcester.
Commercial development When coming to Dorridge today, a visitor would be surprised to know that there was significant activity in the area over the last hundred years. In Poplar Road, between the Station and the level crossing at Bentley Heath, a significant goods yard existed. During the 1960s and 1970s the
Austin Motor Company used it to deliver up to 600 cars a day for export, via the railway. It has now been replaced with sheltered housing. A brickworks, the Knowle Brick Company, existed off Mill Lane with its own clay pit. The company ceased production in 1969, and whole the site was converted to housing in 1993 by
Bloor Homes. The extent of the brickworks and pit site is the same as that now occupied by all the housing accessed via Oakhall Drive. A gasworks was developed on land that has now been developed into flats. Many of the buildings around the area that is now a Conservation Area – Station Approach – date back to around the start of the 20th century or before, though aside from the Forest Court shopping centre and the
HSBC bank, now a café, the centre is essentially unchanged from the mid-1950s. In 2008,
Sainsbury's revealed that they had purchased a long lease to redevelop the Forest Court shopping centre and also owned part of the Station Approach Conservation Area which they intend to refurbish. An independent local group was formed in 2010 as a focus of opposition to any redevelopment of Forest Court which, it is argued, would be inappropriate in scale for the existing village centre. After some changes to the plans approval was given by Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, and in the summer of 2013 Sainsbury's submitted an application to amend some details of the scheme. ==Dorridge today==