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« on: Monday 19 August 24 20:35 BST (UK) »
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.