Parks and green spaces
Northfield has some great parks, open spaces and rivers to enjoy.
Victoria Common Recreation Ground
This is a lovely open space and recreation ground hidden behind the Northfield Shopping Centre just a short distance away from the Northfield High Street on Bristol Road South. Go HERE for more.
Manor Farm Park
Manor Farm Park has 50 acres of public open space with woodlands, meadows and a lake is most definitely a gem of a green space with so much to enjoy.
Ley Hill Park
If you walk up Vineyard Road from Sir Herbert Austin Way, this leads to Ley Hill Park, which is around Merritts Brook Lane, Holloway and Merritts Hill. There is a play area, and multi purpose games area, paths for walks, including a woodland walk near the top. It is close to Ley Hill Village Green, which you can find opposite the park on Holloway. There is also Holloway Hall.
Faith
The parish church of Northfield is St Laurence in the old historic Northfield Village.
St Laurence's Church
The historic church at Church Hill and Rectory Road dates to at least the 12th century. With further revisions over the following centuries. The last major change was at the turn of the 20th century. A Grade I listed building since 1952. A reminder that part of Northfield used to have a village and was quite rural centuries ago.
Public Houses
There is at least two historic pubs in Northfield to visit. The Great Stone Inn is in the old Northfield Village near St Laurence's Church, while The Black Horse is a now a JD Wetherspoon Free House on Bristol Road South.
The Great Stone Inn
The inn on Church Road and Church Hill is said to date to the 18th century. It is opposite the historic St Laurence's Church, and is next to a 17th century Village Pound, where you can find the glacier boulder behind which dates back to the Ice Age (you can see it behind the gate on Church Road).
The Black Horse
A mock Tudor style public house on the Bristol Road South near Frankley Beeches Road (not far from Sainsbury's and opposite Northfield Leisure Centre). First opened in December 1929, JD Wetherspoon refurbished the Free House in 2010.
Houses connected to George Cadbury
George and his wife Elizabeth Cadbury lived in at least two properties in Northfield during their lifetime. The Woodlands on Bristol Road South, later to become the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, and Manor Farm, later to bcalled the Northfield Manor House, was near Manor Farm Park.
Royal Orthopaedic Hospital
The Woodlands was a house built in 1840 on Bristol Road South. In 1907, George Cadbury gave the property and land to what was then called the Cripples Children's Union. Various mergers led to it being later called the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, and more wards were built on the site.
Northfield Manor House
Off Bristol Road South on what is now called New House Farm Drive is Manor House Drive. To the end of that is The Manor House. Once home to George and Elizabeth Cadbury. George purchased the Mock Tudor manor house in 1890, and after modification, the Cadbury's moved in around 1894. They remained their until George passed away in 1922, and later Elizabeth in 1951. The University of Birmingham took it over, and was a hall of residence from 1958 to 2007. Arsonists (teenagers) burnt down the property in 2014, this led to a partial demolition in 2015. The house was fully restored from 2019 to 2021, while new housing and flats were built nearby. Including an apartment building named Woodbrooke House (after the property the Cadbury's moved out of in Selly Oak in the 1890s).
Transport
Buses down the Bristol Road South with National Express West Midlands, the main routes through Northfield are the 61 and 63. Trains on the Cross City Line stop at Northfield Station, using the popular Class 323 Electric Multiple Units (to be replaced with new trains in the future).
Northfield Station
The Cross City Line between Redditch, Birmingham New Street and Lichfield opened in 1978, with stations on Cross City South designed by John Broome. Between Station Road and Copse Close. Lifts were installed between 2012 and 2013. No footbridge, but there is a pedestrian subway between platforms 1 and 4. Platforms 2 and 3 are no longer in use. The Northfield high street (Bristol Road South) is a 15 minute walk away from the station, but the station is served by the no 19 bus from iGo.