Page 3 - Prospect Hill

Prospect Hill
Memories of Prospect Hill

In Victorian times, the entry to the town through the old Birmingham Road and up
Prospect Hill must have made quite an impression on the visitor. You went alongside
large factories and past the large houses of the needlemasters - the Bartleets. the
Holyoaks. the Hemmings and the Thomas's, interspersed by rows of cottages.

The hill was (and still is) crowned by Saint Stephen's Church on Church Green. Today,
from certain angles, and with a little imagination, it is possible to see the town as it
was a hundred years ago.

According to Joseph Monk's description of the town in 1776. one of the main streets
of the town at that time seems to have been Prospect Hill. It was then known as Fish
Hill, and the locals still know it by that name.

A retired lady was told by her grandmother.

'Originally Mrs Bartleet kept a small shop where Fish Hill now stands. She sold
fishing tackle and had a little fish over her front door. The establishment was
known as 'Bartleets of the Fish' and that's how Fish Hill got its name'.

However, there are Fish Hills and Fish Streets in other towns and villages, and this
usually means that the road leads to a church, as a fish was a Christian symbol. The

original Fish Hill did lead to Saint Stephen's chapel at Bordesley Abbey. The name.
Fish Hill', was changed to Prospect Hill' in I860.

Where the Health Offices and Health Centre are now was a Drill Hall. When the
Redditch Development Corporation increased the size of the town, they were in need
of more space for parking buses. As the Drill Hall was adjacent to the Midland Red
garage, the Redditch Development Corporation used it for overspill bus parking until
a new garage was built in about 1975.

In front of the Health Centre was the oldest pub in Redditch. the Crown, now replaced
by a Chinese takeaway. A poem by an Old Fish Hill Boy' of 1840 reads:

Joseph Davis, host of the Crown.
As civil a man as many in town.
His chestnut mare the lightning struck it
Over it fell, and "kicked the bucket.”

Joseph Davis was born in 1773 and had 13 children. When he retired his fifth son.
John, became the host.

On the other side of the thoroughfare is the Istel HQ building, Grosvenor House,
standing on the site of a large factory. Abbey Needle Mills which was owned by William
Bartleet.

Compiled by Redditch Library Volunteers Page: 3 of 18