THERE was a time when Redditch new town was nothing but fields, and now residents can step back to those days at a new exhibition at Forge Mill Museum.
It’s estimated that within a five-mile radius of the town there was in the region of 100 farms, many of whose names now survive in road names or as districts of the town.
“There are lots of maps at the exhibition and when you look at the area it was surrounded by farms,” said Derek Coombes, chairman of Redditch Local History Society which has organised the exhibition.
“People will be able to see that the old Oakenshaw Farm is basically where Tesco is today.”
However, many farmhouses survived and were turned into prestige family homes with one, Battens Farm, being dismantled brick by brick and moved ‘lock, stock and barrel’ a few hundred yards away before being rebuilt.
“People who know the new town don’t realise that aspect of the old town but it was scattered with farms,” added Derek.
Many were tenant farms with some major landowners, for instance of the Ipsley Estate and the Tardebigge Estate, owning 10 to 20 farms.
The exhibition, which has largely been put together by local historian Tony Green, is open now at Forge Mill Needle Museum and will run until Sunday, November 27. It is packed with maps, documents and images of what has now become a forgotten landscape.
Members of the history society will be on site each Wednesday to explain different aspects of the exhibition.
4th Jun, 2026
