At the listing co-ordinates you will find the war memorial. Using the instructions below you will be able to work out the co-ordinates of the final hide, which is at
N52 B (E-A). (C-B) E A, W001 (B+B) (B+D). (E-A) (A+B+C) C
Find the following names and use the number of their regiment
Stanley T Pryce ABth Rifle Brigade
Septimus M Pryce Cth Oxford & Bucks LI
Hubert Woodfield Dth Duke of Cornwalls Regt
Frederick Perks 1Eth Royal Warwicks
HISTORY
The earliest known settlement in the area was at Berry Mound in Solihull Lodge, part of West Shirley, which was the site of an Iron Age Hill Fort, a fortified village protected by earth banks, dating back to the first century BC and which covered approximately 11 acres. The earth works can still be seen from the North Worcestershire Path which commences in Aqueduct Road, Majors Green.
Shirley was part of the Manor of Ulverlei (now Olton) until the establishment of Solihull in the 12th or 13th century after which it became part of the parish of Solihull. Shirley developed slowly as a small village on the Stratford Road, called Shirley Street through the settlement. Between 1725 and 1872 Stratford Road was a turnpike road, and the ease of travel along this from Birmingham, and Shirley's remoteness attracted sporting activity in the form of bull baiting, cock fighting (reputedly at the nearby Plume of Feathers pub) and pugilism. These activities encouraged the church authorities to start building St James Church in 1831, subsequently enlarged in 1882. Finally, in 1893, Shirley became its own ecclesiastical parish.
The exterior is very noticeably in two halves, with the tower and nave in pale grey render, in the rather spare Gothic of the 1830s, while the east end is in sharply contrasting patterned red brick, in the Early English style. The short tower has two stages with diagonal buttresses, embattled parapet and uncupsed lancet openings. There are small square stair turrets in the returns of the tower, for the gallery stairs. Four pinnacles on the parapet were removed in the mid-20th century. The main entrance is a small porch in the west bay of the south nave wall. There are triangular dormer lights in the nave roof, and the nave windows (again uncusped lancets) are evenly divided by narrow buttresses. The east end has plate traceried windows with limestone dressings, and blue brick diaper work in the gables, etc. The east wall and the prominent south transept gable have a similar arrangement of a central two-light window, its base stepped up, with lancets either side. The north transept has a simpler triple lancet, and to its west, attached to the nave is a small red-brick addition probably c. 1990s.
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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro@gmail.com.
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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