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Organisation · 1868–present

Sir Josiah Mason Trust

The charity Josiah Mason founded on 29 July 1868 to run his Erdington almshouses and orphanage. It still provides homes for older people, including Mason Cottages on part of the orphanage site.

Engraving of a long three-storey Victorian building with rows of round-arched windows, pointed gables and a tall square tower with a steep roof, behind trees and a lawn.
Unknown engraver, in R. K. Dent, Old and New Birmingham, 1880. Internet Archive (Google Books scan) · Public domain

Josiah Mason began his almshouses and orphan home in Erdington in 1858. On 29 July 1868 he placed them, with the new orphanage on Bell Lane and an endowment of land valued at about £200,000, in the hands of trustees: Josiah Mason’s Orphanage and Almshouses. Birmingham Town Council accepted a reversionary interest in the trust.

After the orphanage

The trustees closed the orphanage around 1960 and demolished it in 1964, selling most of the land for housing. They kept 36 almshouse bungalows of the 1920s on part of the site, now Mason Cottages, and built almshouses at Olton in the 1960s and Shirley in 1974. The Trust now provides housing and care for older people and support for young care leavers, and works alongside the Yardley Great Trust as MY Trust.

Pictures

  • Snow-covered gated entrance with a sign reading Private Grounds, Mason Cottages, and bungalows among trees beyond.
    Mason Cottages, Orphanage Road, Erdington, 6 January 2010Michael Westley, 6 January 2010. Geograph Britain and Ireland via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0

On the map

2 places connected with Sir Josiah Mason Trust. Tap a number for directions — some sites are private homes or gardens, so each place’s page says what you can see from the street.

11. Josiah Mason’s Almshouses, Erdington — Lost22. Josiah Mason’s Orphanage, Erdington — Lost, Site redeveloped
Map © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Old map: Ordnance Survey six-inch, 1888–1913, reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland (CC BY 4.0). A dashed ring means the position is approximate; a shaded ring means only the general area is known.
  1. Josiah Mason’s Almshouses, Erdington — Lost · Directions to Josiah Mason’s Almshouses, Erdington (opens Google Maps)
  2. Josiah Mason’s Orphanage, Erdington — Lost, Site redeveloped · Directions to Josiah Mason’s Orphanage, Erdington (opens Google Maps)

Open on the full map →

Key dates

  1. 1858 — Mason’s almshouses and orphan home open in ErdingtonJosiah Mason built almshouses for aged women and a home for orphan girls on the corner of the Sutton road and Sheep Street (now Station Road), Erdington: the first of his great charities.
  2. 1868 (trust deed 29 July 1868) — Josiah Mason’s Orphanage opens in ErdingtonMason’s great orphanage on Bell Lane, begun in 1860, took in its first children, and on 29 July 1868 he handed it to trustees with land worth about £200,000. It was paid for and endowed entirely by him.
  3. 1964 — Josiah Mason’s Orphanage demolishedThe trustees demolished Mason’s orphanage at Erdington, judging it out of date and too costly to maintain. Mason’s remains, and those of his wife and 53 children buried in the grounds, were removed and cremated. Most of the land became housing.

The full timeline →

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Sources and further reading
  1. Sir Josiah Mason Trust — history — MY Trust
  2. Founder’s Day 2025 — Sir Josiah Mason Trust, 2025
  3. Birmingham Heritage Week – a potted history of almshouses — Sir Josiah Mason Trust
  4. Josiah Mason: a biography — John Thackray Bunce, Simpkin, Marshall & Co.; Cornish Brothers, Birmingham, 1882. ch. 5

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