Aston Lower Grounds

The Aston Lower Grounds was a pleasure ground area in Birmingham, open to the public in the late Victorian era.

History


The Lower Grounds were originally the kitchen, private gardens, and fish-ponds belonging to Aston Hall. The Grounds, under the name of Aston Park, were opened to the public by Queen Victoria on 16 June 1858, marking her first visit to Birmingham.

J. A. Langford was put in charge of the Aston Hall and Park Company, but the Park suffered from a number of disasters. In 1861, a group of "roughs" rioted when refused admission to a performance by Charles Blondin, and in July 1863, during a charity fête in the Park, Selina Powell, a tightrope walker who performed under the name of "Madame Geneive, the Female Blondin", fell to her death. The company was duly liquidated in 1864.

The clerk of works, Henry Quilter, had already arranged to take over 31 acres of the park area, in the Lower Grounds directly to the north of Aston Park, which soon became the name by which the area was known; the first season tickets for entry to all facilities (including boating and quoit clubs) were 10/6, and 5/- for the grounds only.

Quilter improved the Grounds by preparing 2 lakes for boating, and adding a roller-skating rink in 1875; he also adapted the cricket pitch for football over the winter from 1874, with a football club made up of the workers on the grounds, Birmingham F.C., being set up. However, Quilter too ran out of money, and in 1878 he sold his interest to the Aston Lower Grounds Company, which made Quilter managing director, for £45,000 in cash and shares, although £35,000 was owed on a mortgage to the previous freehold owner.

In 1879, an aquarium was set up, in a 312' long building. The aquarium was not a success, and a menagerie replaced it in 1886, which included an aviary, a monkey house, tigers, lions, a leopard, Russian bears, elephants, and kangaroos. The Buffalo Bill Wild West show also played at the Lower Grounds in September 1891.

In October 1895, Aston Villa F.C. decided to sell its Wellington Road ground and move to the Lower Grounds; the club resolved to spend £14,000 on upgrading the facilities for football, including replacing the cinder cycling track with a concrete one. Some of the Pleasure Grounds buildings remained, but most of the facilities were subsumed into the building of Villa Park, and in 1911 Villa bought the entire site, closing it off to the general public. The club demolished the buildings in 1912.

Cricket
The Park held cricket matches from at least 1861, when the North met the South on what was called the "New Ground".

The most prestigious cricket match the ground held was between the Australians and an England XI, featuring five Lanashire professionals, on 26 May 1884; the match was scheduled for 3 days, but was over in 1, the swift conclusion being blamed on a grassless and muddy pitch. Australia won by 4 wickets, with 217 runs being scored in the entire match.

By 1889 however the ground had been sold for housing, with Jardine Road, Endicott Road, and Nelson Road being built over the pitch, and sporting events moved to the drained fish-pond/ornamental lake area, which did not have enough room for a full cricket field.

Football
The football ground - on the cricket pitch - was considered the most prestigious in the Midlands, hosting the Birmingham Senior Cup finals until 1895, and representative matches involving the Birmingham Football Association. It even hosted a floodlit match between Quilter's Birmingham club and Nottingham Forest in 1878.

Cycling
Cycling events had been held in the Upper Park in 1870, and by 1875 the Lower Grounds was hosting such events; A 501 yard cinder cycling track was also installed in 1879, around the cricket pitch. The track held the National Cycling Union championships between 1882 and 1887. The sale of the cricket ground required a new track - a quarter of a mile around, with banked corners - to be set up in 1889, on the site of the ornamental lake. A new concrete banked track was built when Aston Villa bought the Lower Grounds.