On the site where Selly Manor now stands, there was once a pool of water – it lay at the foot of Stock’s Wood. Selly Manor, along with its nearby companion Minworth Greaves, is a timber-framed building saved from destruction by George Cadbury. Both were carefully dismantled, moved from their original locations, and rebuilt near Bournville Green. Their histories are fascinating (you can find out more [here]), but the land they were rebuilt on also holds a story of its own.
This natural, and probably very old, pool was lost before Selly Manor was reassembled. It was likely filled in during the development of Sycamore and Maple Roads. The small coppice it nestled beside still exists today – now known as Stocks Wood, though it has also been called Camp Wood in earlier records. But we’ll return to the “camp” shortly.
Stocks Wood is now completely enclosed and has no public access, but walking along Maple and Acacia Roads offers glimpses through its tall perimeter fence. In spring and early summer, the woodland floor is filled with bluebells, their nodding heads reflecting the colour of the sky in the forest’s shade. Bluebells are a marker of ancient woodland – and while none of the trees within the wood are over 150 years old, the site itself is likely much older. The woodland was probably managed over time, meaning that larger, older trees would have been cut and coppiced.
Pause there for a moment, and you might hear the flutter of wings in the upper branches, or the dry rattle of wind through oak, alder and sycamore. Even behind fences, the wood speaks – its hush and rustle a kind of language older than the roads that frame it.
The camp mentioned earlier lay to the east of the woodland, roughly halfway between it and the canal, bordering what was once Five Gates Farm (see map above). This ancient earthwork was sadly destroyed before any archaeological excavation could take place. Its disappearance came with the building of Willow and Elm Roads – a reminder that even the Cadburys, for all their efforts to preserve history, let some layers of the landscape slip away.
Some have speculated that the camp once housed the original manor house, but its irregular shape makes that unlikely. What we do know is that the site lay exceptionally close to the line of the Roman road, Icknield Street – which might explain why it retained the name “camp” well into modern mapping. Unless someone agrees to dig up their back garden, however, we may never know for certain.
Remnants of the ancient forests that once covered this land still echo through places like Stocks Wood – but they also survive in the very beams and boards of old buildings like Selly Manor, where oak and elm timbers, cut centuries ago, still hold the shape of long-vanished trees. These structures are more than preserved heritage – they are archives of the forest, rooted in the memory of the landscape.
Photos copyright Jen Dixon (2024).