C of E
King’s Norton – St Nicolas (was Worcestershire) The Green, ( O.S. GR. SP 049789 )
Ancient Parish
Out of the ecclesiastical parish of St Nicolas, Kings Norton the following parishes have been formed; St Mary, Moseley 1853, St Paul, Balsall Heath 1853, St Agnes, Cotteridge 1916,and parts of the parishes of Christ Church, Yardley Wood 1849, All Saints, Kings Heath 1863, The Ascension, Stirchley 1912, St Francis, Bournville 1926, and St Mary Magdalen, Hazelwell 1932. The following places in the parish were licensed for public worship; Stirchley school chapel, 1863-96; West heath mission room 1900; Longbridge Mission and Monyhhull Mission 1928; Cotteridge Church Room, later consecrated as St Agnes from 1898.
Neighbouring parishes
Edgbaston, Aston, Yardley, Tanworth, Beoley, Alvechurch, Cofton Hackett, Bromsgrove, Frankley, Northfield
Registers at Birmingham Central Library – Archives department
Baptisms 1546-1989
Marriages 1546-1990
Burials 1546 – 1990
Confirmations 1910 – 1981
Banns 1962 – 1989
Graves register c.1913
Deeds and papers relating to Parish Workhouse, Old grammar School, Saracen’s Head and Parish Hall 1846 – 1973
BMGSH register copies
CD Rom – D025 (Greater Birmingham Miscellany includes other churches) –
Baptisms 1792 –1844.
Marriages 1546 –1837.
Burials 1546 – 1844.
Banns 1754 – 1771.
M113 – part 1 – Baptisms, Burials 1792 –1844, Marriages 1754 – 1837, Banns 1754 – 1771
M114 – Part 2 – Baptisms 1546 – 1791
M115 – Part 3 – Marriages 1546 – 1754, Burials 1546 – 1791
M156 – Part 4 – Burials 1844 – 1998 plus grave plan
Bishop’s Transcripts at Worcester
Commence 1613
Non Conformist
Baptist – Wharf Road Kings Norton
Chapel was built in 1842 and was bought 1847 for the use of a mission of Cannon Street Birmingham whose congregation had previously met in a room at the Navigation Inn. Baptist worship seems however to have begun much earlier locally. In 1829 there were said to be three Baptist-meeting houses in Kings Norton parish. At the time of the 1851 census there were two Baptist chapels. One being Kings Norton chapel ‘Moseley Yeild’ built in 1816. In each case the largest chapel is probably identifiable with High Street Kings Heath.
Christian Scientists – Kings Norton
Church was opened in 1938 for the use of the Birmingham Fourth Church, founded the previous year.
Congregationalists and Independents – Watford Road Kings Norton
Chapel was built in 1903. The church originated in mission services begun in 1901, in the Friends Hall.
Registers at Birmingham Central Library – Archives department Marriage 1904 – 1922
Methodists – Pershore Road Kings Norton
Primitive Methodist chapel stood in the 19th century at he corner of Redditch Road and Masshouse Lane Camp meetings were also held on the Green. In 1916 a new chapel was erected, and was sold in 1948.
Other Churches and Missions – Highbury Road Kings Norton
Evangelistic Free Church was registered for public worship in 1943. It was formerly, from 1929 to 1934 known as Kings Heath Mission Church, and was registered by the ‘Free Church’.
Presbyterian Meeting Houses and Unitarian and Free Christian Churches – Kingswood Kings Norton
Chapel was built c.1712 for the use of a congregation, which had previously met at a house in Dark Lane. It was burnt down in the ‘church and king’ riots of 1791, rebuilt in 1793.
Registers at Birmingham Central Library – Archives department Baptism 1712
Roman Catholic
St Joseph & St Helen Station Road ( O S GR SP0479 )
The mission was established in 1905 and a rented building was used as a church until the permanent church was opened in 1933.
Gazetteer / Directory Entries
NORTON (KINGS), a parish (formerly a market town) in the upper division of the hundred of HALFSHIRE county of WORCESTER, 6 miles (S.S.W.) from Birmingham, containing, with Headley, Moseley, Moundsley, and Rednal, 3651 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to the vicarage of Bromsgrove, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Worcester. The church, which is dedicated to St. Nicholas, is spacious, and principally in the decorated style of English architecture, with later insertions; the tower and spire are very fine. A free grammar school was endowed by Edward VI. This town received the grant of a market from James I; and during the succeeding reign, in the year 1645, Hawkesley House, then belonging to the Middlemores was burnt down by the royalists. The market is disused; but fairs are held April 25th and September 5th. The Birmingham and Worcester canal, in passing through this parish, forms a junction with that of Stratford on Avon, and is conveyed through a tunnel into the Parish of Alvechurch. [Lewis 1831]
