Orphanage Road

Orphanage Road runs from Erdington Library, just before Erdington High Street, to Penns Lane, Sutton Coldfield and leads to Berwood Farm Rd and Welwyndale Rd.

It was originally named Bell Lane and was renamed after the orphanage which Josiah Mason built there in 1860 to a design by J.R. Botham.

The orphanage included a 250-foot tower, famously scaled by Sir Benjamin Stone to take photographs of the panoramic views over Erdington.

The orphanage building was demolished in 1964, in the mid-20th century, when Victorian architecture was generally not highly valued and anti-Victorianism was influential.

The tower was demolished by replacing the stones at the base with wooden posts which were then ignited.