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To anyone who is still interested  Doris May was definitely the subject of the 1918 death cert which states both of her parents' name, together with the family address, which matches that at th time of her birth.her birth.

Thanks to a ll for your very valuable assistance.

Keith

Doris May Townsend was born in Birmingham on either 16 or 17 December 1917 (scant records differ) to Charles Townsend and Edith May Wheeldon but was not living with her parents by the time of the 1921 census and little or nothing appears in srubsequent records until a possible death in Sandwell in February 2024 in February 2024. though if thatt is true she would have been 107.
Please can anyone help to fill in the gaps?

Thank you BushInn1746. I will need some time to work through all that you have provided but it will undoubtely prove interesing. Looks like I will need to reconnect with Birmingham Library, though I've not found their archive to be as readily available as it was before the move.

Alan, I don't think that farm to let advert refers to Billesley Hall Farm. It appears to relate to the nearby Billesley Farm situated off what is now Trittiford Road but was then merely a farm track. I say that because a, it names the farm as Billesley Farm and b, it gives an acreage of 147 whereas Billesley Hall Fram only ever covered 80 acres and c, it  refers to a nearby canal, which does run close to the site of Billesley Farm.

It is interesting that the Greves (Grevis) family were involved with Billesley Hall though I really shouldn't be surprised. They preceded the Taylors as the local bigwigs and had their fingers in every pie in the area. I am surprised though, because everything I've ever known about the area tells me that their prominence had diminshed almost completely by the 1850s.

On Taylor genealogy I will clearly need to do some recapping.

The wonders of RootsChat! Thank you all for the information you've provided, it gets me started on a quest I had thought was going nowhere.

John Taylor did indeed own huge swathes of land and buildings in that general area so it's probable that he leased Billesley Hall Farm for many years. He and his family left the UK for South Africa in 1913, when his entire estate was put up for auction. I've owned  a copy of the auction catalogue for several years but haven't consulted it for at least the last ten years. I don't, though, remember it containing any reference to either Billesley Hall Farm or Moseley Golf Club, which suggests that the land had passed out of his ownership some time earlier.

John Taylor was also a founder of Taylor and Lloyd, the banking group which ultimately became Lloyds Bank. His church at Yardley Wood, Christ Church, was completed in 1849 and intended to serve as a chapel of ease to St Edbugha's, Yardley.

Hi folks,

Apologies for my absence, due to a very unpleasant bug which is now receding,

At a quick glace I agree that the King link looks promising. I will need a little time to go through all of your kind responses before offering my final thoughts on that one.