St. John the Evangelist, Sparkhill

Accs 1990/052, 1997/123, 1997/128

Records deposited by St. John's Sparkhill with Emmanuel Sparkbrook, Stratford road, Sparkhill per Rev. Michael Ronald F. Maclachlan, St John's Vicarage, May 9 1990 and per Ms Joanne Lea, St. John's Church, Stratford road, Sparkhill, Birmingham, B11, Sep 12 1997 and per Ms Joanne Lea, St. John's Church, Stratford Road, Sparkhill, Birmingham, B11, Sep 23 1997.

The church building, designed by Martin and Chamberlain, architects, of Birmingham, was consecrated in 1889 and enlarged in 1895. The construct of red brick with terracotta and stone dressings replaced the earlier 'iron church', built in 1878.

The parish of St. John the Evangelist was assigned out of St. Edburgha's Yardley (see EP 51 and 51A, and EP99/3/7/1 below) in 1894, when the living became a vicarage, in the gift of public trustees. Parts of the parish were taken to form the parish of St. Christopher, Springfield (1911), and part of the parish of St. Edmund, Tyesley (1931); and part was exchanged with part of the parish of Hall Green in 1907.

The church school of St. John's was opened in c1856, enlarged in 1860 and received annual grants from 1866. In 1884 the first of a series of new buildings and enlargements was commenced, commemorated in EP99/14/1/2/1 below, and was licensed for public worship 1908-1926.

Also licensed by the church was the Taylor Memorial Home chapel, 1913-1926, and St. John's mission room from 1928 until the Second World War; St Edmund's mission church, Tyseley, licensed from 1913, was consecrated in 1932; St Bede's mission church, Greet, since 1907 and the chapel of the Birmingham and Midland Hospital for Women since 1914.