Bordesley is an area of Birmingham, England, to the south east of the city centre, in the southern part of the City's Nechellsward. It is the real life setting of the BBC series Peaky Blinders, and home to Birmingham City and Coventry City's ground, St Andrew's. It should not be confused with nearby Bordesley Green.
History
In Old English Bord's leah means 'Bord's clearing'. Bord may indicate 'boards' or 'planks', a place in the forest clearing where timber products could be obtained, but it is also a male personal name. Here, perhaps as early as the 7th century, Bord found or made a clearing in the forest to grow his crops and tend his stock. Historically, a hamlet and chapelry, in the parish and union of Aston, Birmingham, part of the Hemlingfordhundred in the county of Warwick, adjoined the town of Birmingham. The hamlet was originally very small, consisting only of a few scattered dwelling-houses, such as Stratford Place, still standing at Camp Hill and the Old Crown in Deritend both of which are of timber frame-work and plaster, with projecting upper stories, although those of Stratford Place have since been under-filled in brick. By 1226, Bordesley was held in demesne by the overlords of the other manors in Aston parish and by the second half of the 13th century it was the centre of a court leet for the neighbouring vills. In 1291 it was certified as containing 61 acres of demesne, with meadows in Bordesley and in Duddeston and Overton ; there were 4 freeholders, each with a messuage and a half-yardland, and 78 others without houses holding land newly brought under cultivation, and 16 customary tenants holding 6½ yardlands; the total value was £27 12s. 2d. In 1390 a settlement joined the manors of Bordesley and Haybarn, henceforward usually linked together. Thereafter the manor passed through the same ownership and divisions as the overlordship of the other manors in Aston parish. It appears to have been acquired by Sir Charles Holte by 1706, and to have descended with Aston, being in the hands of a later Sir Charles Holte in 1770. The Georgian house known as Bordesley Hall, which stood in a park of 6 acres south of the Coventry Road near its junction with Bordesley High Street, may have been the successor of a medieval manor-house. The first series Ordnance Survey map places the hall in the area of Albert and Bolton Roads, this location being supported by the image of the ruins drawn by P H Witon Jnr in 1791 which places it on an elevated site. Built in 1767 for the manufacturer and banker John Taylor, to replace an existing manor house, it passed on his death in 1785, to his son John Taylor, and was burnt down during the Priestley Riots. Taylor claimed £12670 as damages and was paid £9902 but Hutton records that "the real loss of Mr Taylor amounted to upwards £22,600," or approximately £2.4 million today. It is reported that the house was rebuilt but sold off in 1840 for housing developments. However, Charles Pye writing of his visit to Birmingham in 1818 states that "having crossed the Warwick canal, the ruins of Bordesley house are in full view; they having continued in that state ever since the year 1791, when the house was demolished by an infuriated mob. The land by which it is surrounded has been parcelled out, and advertised to be let for building." Due to its proximity to Birmingham, and lying on a main communications route it was natural that the town should grow outwards in this direction. Buildings had reached along Bordesley High Street, as far as the junction of the Coventry and Stratford roads and along the Stratford road about as far as Highgate Park by 1810 and subsequently, in 1838, Bordesley became a suburb of Birmingham, and so developed through its trade, manufactures, and public institutions. By 1841 the population of Deritend and Bordesley had passed 18,000.
