My research in the graveyard has uncovered many stories about the Ward family including the tragic shooting of Douglas Ward by his friend Richard Chattock, but what it has also given me an appreciation of the family’s importance to Castle Bromwich and its neighbouring communities. I came across an article in the Birmingham Mail which outlined the origins of the name “Ward End.” To summarise the report:
The Colmore and Smallbrook families emerged from modest beginnings in late medieval Birmingham to riches and influence through determination, ability and ruthlessness. They became wealthy merchants and landowners who had a major impact on the growth of the town.
Loud and aggressive they were contentious and sometimes brawling, leading to their appearance in legal cases. It is through such documents that we know so much about these two inter-related clans who vied for dominance locally.
By contrast the rise of the Wards was quieter and we know little about them. Yet it is they who are immortalised today in a district of Birmingham, that of Ward End.
The first mentions of the Wards occurred in the 13th century. Thomas le Warde of Erdington was noted in 1297, whilst in 1315 Henry le Warde of Bromwich was mentioned. Their surname signified that either they or a recent ancestor had been a watchman or guard – perhaps of the castle recalled in the first part of the name Castle Bromwich.
This was a motte and bailey fortification from the early 12th century. A motte was a raised mound above which was a keep, and in which lived the lord and his family. It was surrounded by a bailey, a courtyard that was protected by palisades, where the lord’s retainers gathered.
This castle on Pimple Hill dominated the crossing point of the River Tame and the important route on what would become the Chester Road. The Wards had some close connection with the defensive site for in 1367 Thomas, the son of William la Warde, was recorded as the kinsman and heir of Thomas ‘of the Castle’ of Bromwich.
By this date the Wards were one of the four most important families in Castle Bromwich. The other three were represented by Anselm de Bromwich, a Robert the son of Henry, and William Clodeshale – whose successors went on to become the lords of Saltley.
It seems that the Wards were also leading landowners in Little Bromwich, as revealed by deeds from 1358 and 1370 and it was with this area that they became lastingly associated. In 1690/91 a legal document stated that the name of Little Bromwich was now obsolete and had been replaced by that of Ward End.
Like the Colmores and Smallbrooks, the Wards bought property across what is now the city of Birmingham. In 1434 John Warde of Little Bromwich was given as holding land on the road leading from Birmingham to Handsworth, whilst in 1595 the will of another John Warde included houses and lands in New Street, Smethwick, Bordesley, Castle Bromwich, and Little Bromwich.
This John was listed as of Birmingham and it seems that by now the family had several branches. In 1616/17 he along with William Warde of Pattingham in Staffordshire and Jonathan Warde of Castle Bromwich were involved in a land deal with the well-known Chattock family of Castle Bromwich.
All of the Wards were given as yeomen, referring to the ownership of a small landed estate. As such, a yeoman was below the rank of a gentleman but above that of leasehold farmers and smallholders. The aim of many yeomen was to become wealthy enough to own a large landed estate and to grab hold of the title of gentleman. The Smallbrooks and Colmores did so as did some of the Wards. In 1817 a William Ward of Islington (now the Five Ways area of Birmingham) was entered as a gentleman in a lease relating to land in the New Town Row area.
His relatives also included in the documents were not so exalted. John Ward of Birmingham was a brassfounder and Robert Ward of Ward End was a surgeon. Robert also owned the Alum Rock and Treford Hall Estates in Little Bromwich, brought to mind in the Alum Rock Road and Treford Lane. The Wards had acquired them at the end of the eighteenth century from the last of the Brandwoods, another ancient Little Bromwich family.
In 1868 the age-old connection between the Wards and the district ended when William Ward sold up.
By now this part of Little Bromwich had become known as Alum Rock, whilst the vicinity of the Ward End Hall Estate was recognised as Ward End. This property lay across from Slade Field, hence Sladefield Road, and had belonged to the Wards in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
References
This article is based on a report that appeared in the Birmingham Mail.
