Where is Turnberry Park?

Turnberry Park is in Perry Barr, Birmingham, B42 2HS. Near the M6 motorway and Turnberry Road.

In brief

Turnberry Park is a small community park in the Perry Barr area of Birmingham, just off Trehurst Avenue. The park contains a football field and children’s play area and is surrounded by a small patch of woodland. Recently the park has been involved in a project involving two local schools and the Birmingham Trees For Life initiative, in which students planted more than 500 trees in the grounds.

Photo courtesy of the Friends of Turnberry Park (2015)

Turnberry Park - history

Turnberry Park was once part of William Booth's Farm. William Booth was the youngest son of John & Mary Booth. On 28 February 1799, William Booth signed a 25-year lease for what became known as 'Booth's Farm' including a farmhouse and 200 acres of land.​

On 19th February 1808, Booth was accused of murdering his brother John while revisiting Hall End but was acquitted for lack of evidence​

Booth had converted the top floor of the farmhouse into a workshop where he produced forgeries of coins and banknotes. He was caught, tried at Stafford Assizes and sentenced to hang His accomplices were sentenced to transportation to Australia.​

Booth's execution on 12 August 1812 was bungled, and he fell through the scaffold's trap door to the floor. Within two hours, he was hanged again and died. He was one of the last people to be sentenced to death in England for forgery.​

The farmhouse was demolished in 1974, and the farm became a sand and gravel quarry (later landfill and a nature reserve), having given its name to the still-extant Booths Lane and Booths Farm Road Until the late 1920s, it was occupied by the Foden Family, commemorated in Foden Road.

Information courtesy of the Friends of Turnberry Park

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Photo of Turnberry Park courtesy of Birmingham City Council