Lightwoods Park

The park was historically the grounds of Lightwoods House, an 18th-century house, much altered in the 19th century. The house is a Grade II listed building. The house was built by Jonathan Grundy in 1789, as indicated by the four bricks set in a line on either side of the front door. He had made his fortune as a merchant in Birmingham, and it was occupied by his family until the death of his daughter Hannah Grundy in 1829. The estate passed to her cousin Eliza, the wife of Henry Goodrich Willett and on her death it became the home of her husband's family. The estate was sold up on his death in 1857, and the house was leased by local soap manufacturer and industrialist George Caleb Adkins,…

The park features a skateboard ramp and bowling green. It also has a walled garden called "The Shakespeare Garden" with benches, ponds and flower beds. The Garden contains a plaque for the royal gardener John Tradescant the Younger, placed there in 2012 to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. The bandstand is a Grade II listed building. For about 100 years until November 2010 the park, although lying just outside the Birmingham city limits, was managed by Birmingham Corporation (later the City Council). The bandstand has railings bearing the Coat of arms of Birmingham, and the drinking fountain also has City of Birmingham inscriptions. In 2010 management of the park was…