Old Map of Birmingham 1731

William Westleys plan was not drawn as all other plans drawn of Birmingham, with west at the top of the map, rather than the north. However, despite this anomaly, he is credited not only in creating the first ever plan of Birmingham, but also for his skills as a carpenter and surveyor/architect. Westleys Row on the Priory estate is named after him, as he is generally acknowledged as being the designer of the Priory Estate, the first “planned estate” in Birmingham. William Westley it seems had a strong association with St Philip’s Church. He is also most likely to have been the architect responsible for “Temple Row”, three storey houses, built overlooking St Philip’s, the very church he had earlier contributed his skills laying wooded floors and erecting the gallery just a few years earlier.The plan shows the remaining buildings of the former Manor House on an oval island, about 126 yards long by 70 yards at its widest width, surrounded by a moat about twelve yards broad. A stream connects the moat around the parsonage of St Martin’s. Paradise street, now in the core area of our City Centre, was then but a road through fields, many years later, the location of the Town Hall. The plan shows there were still cherry orchards present, between New Street and Bull Street. The open space next to St. Martin’s is marked as the Corn Market. Birmingham had acquired another School, called “The Blue Coat School” built in 1724 as a charity school for boys and girls and was situated on New Hall Lane, later re-named Colmore Row.