Overview

Enjoyed a pleasant morning along High Street in Knowle, learning about its history, and spending a little at its little shops. A small history lesson may help you enjoy spending a morning with us looking at the shops on High Street. (Photo 1) In 1086, at the time of the doomsday survey, Knowle was just a small manor in a little hamlet, in the parish of Hampton in Arden, and the name Knowle came from the Saxon “Cnolle” which is a small hill, and remained like this until the mid 19th century before becoming its present day name of Knowle. The first record is a document in about 1200, and it became a Royal manor in 1285, when the “ De Arden” family sold it to King Edward 1st, then following the death of the kings wife, Queen Eleanor, in 1290, the king gave it to the Priory of Westminster. It became a parish in its own right in 1850. Knowle is about 4 miles long and 2 miles broad, built on a slight hill (Cnolle). Let’s start our walk, by driving to the Knowle car park (SAT NAV B93 0LN ), by driving into Knowle and turning down by the Greswolde Arms Inn, drive along past the first car park and on to the next car park on your left, and it’s free for disabled drivers, just make sure your blue badge is on display in car. Cross over to the alley opposite car park, and walk along to High Street. We suggest you cross over here, and walk along to your left, and our first stop was to Costa Coffee for our morning drink. (Photo 2). It’s a reasonably large coffee shop, clean, with a good seating arrangement, and we managed to find a spot for wheelchair, which we could fold up and place alongside seats. I am afraid it may be more difficult for scooters and power chairs, but staff are willing to support you and will move seats around to find space, they certainly offered support to us. The coffee was good, and HOT. Departing, Turn Right, and along its Main Street there are a few old buildings, one of interest to us just now is the Red Lion hotel, perhaps an old 17th century Inn. (photo 3). Inside the original 1779 fireplace still stands in place in the public bar, but sadly it was not yet open so no photo to show you. (The inn opens at 11.00) It remains an interesting old inn (photo 4 ) with its covered canopy, and the staircase ( photo 5) and above this, in its corner, a section of its original wattle and daub construction can still be seen (photo 6), which was an old building method of a lattice of wooden sticks or twigs in strips called wattle, and covered (or daubed) with a sticky material, which could be made by mixing wet soil, clay or sand, animal dung and straw. The timber framing was plastered over in the Georgian era. Ansell brewery took over its running in 1935 and restored the inn with a Tudor timbered rendering on its frontage. The old sign pointed us across the road (photo 7) towards the Guild House and Parich church square (photo 8) A local wealthy man, Walter Cook, had much to do with the development of Knowle, including the work of building the church and Guild House, and in 1396, he applied to build the church, and by 1399 services were being held there. The Guild House of st Anne was set up in 1413 as a charitable establishment, (photo 9) with at its height over 300 members, including local families, such as “the Lucy,s of Charlecote, the Ferrers family of Baddesley Clinton, the Fetherstones of Packwood and the Throckmortons of Coughton “. In 1550 it was sold to two London merchants, then over the next 300 years it was used for various purposes, such as a shop, and a post office. But in 1912 it was restored to the church, and now used for meetings. It’s stained glass windows depict the seals of the Guild, and show St John the Baptist, St Laurence and St Anne the mother of The Virgin Mary. (Photo 10 ) shows the parish church, built of White Arden Sandstone. Retracing our steps, on the other side of road now, and Moving down the High Street, we arrive at the Artisan Bread shop ( photo 11) which has a nice selection of fresh bread, and many other delights, (photo 12) and if you did not fancy Costa, then a pleasant small cafe is available here. Four more buildings on Knowles east side have visible parts of 17th century timber frames A very modern bathroom store, Raffles, (photo 13) have some interesting bathrooms to view, with modern items for sale, (photos 14 and 15). Further down High Street (photo 16) we arrived at Chester House (photo 17) Originally perhaps it was two buildings used by old craftsmen, possibly built 1400 / 1500. Later, in the 17th century, they were converted to form one dwelling, then it seems during the 19th century became divided into three dwellings before again combined into one in the 20th century. In 1972 Solihull council became its owner, and after a complete restoration in 1975, it open up as Knowle library with its entrance in the small square (photo 18). Cross over again, and you see the St Johns mall entry (photo 19) which has a number of small retailers, (photo 20) before you arrive at Tesco,s. If you now continue ahead, cut across car park to far left corner, and walk down to High Street, then straight across you will return to your car park, and be ready to return home, after what we hope has been an interesting little tour of Knowle for you.

Transport & Parking

Parking was quite easy with free disabled parking, very close to the shops on High street, Knowle. Payments were reasonable, slopes onto Main Street quite easy enough to handle, and it’s only a short distance anyway.

Access

Nearly all shops allowed access with wheelchair, and we saw all the shops we were interested in

Toilets

No public toilets, but can use toilets in any shop or cafe who has one.

Staff

Most shops are small personal types, so staff needed to impress to gain business, and we found they did so.

Photos