Blakebrook

​

Blakebrook Green. This rather innocent space – richly covered with daffodils in the spring-  served as a public gathering place in nineteenth century Kidderminster. Massed gathering of discontented handloom weavers would assemble here in times of industrial disputes. In 1857 a riot broke out when the election of Richard Lowe as MP was announced here and an enraged stone throwing  mob sought to murder him. Lowe, with a fractured skull, took refuge in Woodfield House a hundred yards away.

​

Summer Row – this elegant terrace of houses were built from 1822-35 under the auspices of a Land Club. Land clubs, often associated with building societies, were a means for working people to become house owners. At a time when only people (men, more precisely) who were property owners were entitled to vote, land clubs were promoted by some local political activists as a way of extending voting powers to the working class.

 

Blakebrook – This street with a  number of elegant and listed houses was developed from the early part of the nineteenth century and mill owners moved themselves and their families away from the business premises and from the hustle, bustle, smells and generally  unhealthy environment of the centre of the town. Listed buildings include nos 6,7, 16, 17, 18 and 19.

​

Poor Law Workhouse On the corner of Bewdley Road and Sutton Road is a remaining building of the Poor Law Workhouse which once occupied a much larger site along Sutton Road.