by Geoffrey Mallows
A CAMPAIGN has been launched at Sutton Coldfield to ensure preservation of three of the oak trees from which the Four Oaks district is thought to take its name. Local residents became concerned after a site containing the oaks and other trees at the corner of Hartop Road and Four Oaks Road was sold to Bryants, the building company. The site is on the Four Oaks Park estate, on which many trees have preservation orders, and Birmingham City Council is considering making a conservation order for the area. The three remaining oaks - the other was cut down after going rotten - are shown on a map of 1811. Local residents became alarmed when the site was fenced off and paint marks appcared on some of the trees, including the oaks. Near them on the development land is part of the original drive to the former Four Oaks Hall, built in the 18th century and demolished more than 70 years ago. Local Historian Mr. Norman Evans, of Walsall Road. Four Oaks, said: "I think it is most important that the three oaks should be preserved. They are the only bit of the old Four Oaks left." 'Scandalous' Mr. David Gilroy Bevan, MP for Yardley, Birmingham who lives on Four Oaks estate and was formerly the estate's managing agent, said he would be contacting Birmingham Planning Department. "It would be scandalous if these trees were planned to come down." he said. Any plans to break the estate company's rule and build houses on plots of less than one-third of an acre wouid be the "thin ...
Birmingham Mail 29/12/1979
