Buildings
Elford Hall was a handsome mansion, erected about 1758. The Hall and much of the surrounding land was bequeathed, unexpectedly and much to the chagrin of his family, by the current owner Mr Paget to 'the People of Birmingham'. It was intended to be used as leisure facilities or for day trips for the unwashed masses of Brummies, who perhaps predictably, never arrived. By the 1960s, the once beautiful, Elford Hall was so neglected by the 'People of Brimingham' that sadly it had to be torn down. Few reminders of that past splendour remain today, but those which do, including a walled garden, are currently the subject of demands for a return to 'the People of Elford', who may be better relied upon to look after it.
Elford House, a charming Victorian property remains and hints at past glories. Elford House was built by the 'Webb' family in the late 19th century. The initials of some family members can still be seen engraved into the wall near the rear patio.
St Peter's Church is the village church. The church is a Grade II* Listed Building. A church has stood on the current site since Norman times but the current building predominantly dates from the mid-19th century.
Robert Bage (1730–1801) owned a paper mill, and lived in the Mill House, built 1760. He wrote six novels including Man as he is (1792) and Hermsprong or Man as he is not (1796) which were much admired by Sir Walter Scott. Elford experienced its largest and most damaging floods in living memory on Fathers Day 2007. The Police, Fire Service,the District Council, Environmental Agencies and even the Army were all present to lend a hand. Nevertheless many houses were severely damaged, including the paper mill,(Recently converted to a dwelling), referred to above. The Mill house, did not suffer as it is considerably elevated in relation to the Mill. The Elford website has extensive detail on the village, its history and it present including the recent and maybe future floods.
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Famous quotes containing the word buildings:
“Now, since our condition accommodates things to itself, and transforms them according to itself, we no longer know things in their reality; for nothing comes to us that is not altered and falsified by our Senses. When the compass, the square, and the rule are untrue, all the calculations drawn from them, all the buildings erected by their measure, are of necessity also defective and out of plumb. The uncertainty of our senses renders uncertain everything that they produce.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“The American who has been confined, in his own country, to the sight of buildings designed after foreign models, is surprised on entering York Minster or St. Peter’s at Rome, by the feeling that these structures are imitations also,—faint copies of an invisible archetype.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)