Heathfield Hall

History

Moving up the hill

In June 1790 James Watt and his wife Ann left their town house at Harper’s Hill and moved out to Handsworth. Watt was fifty-four, and after sixteen years in Birmingham he was ready for a house of his own outside the town.

The new house, Heathfield, stood a short ride north of Boulton’s Soho House. Library of Birmingham captions say it was built between 1787 and 1790 and name the architect as Samuel Wyatt, who was working at Soho House in the same years. Plans of 1789–95 survive in the Library of Birmingham, and a workshop and steam heating were added.

It was not cheap. The house cost £900, and on 5 December 1790 Watt confessed to his old friend Joseph Black that it “has cost me much more money than I think I had a right to lay out”. Anyone who has overspent on a house move will recognise the tone.

Retirement, Watt-style

In 1800 Watt’s patent expired and he and Boulton handed the engine business to their sons. Watt retired to Heathfield. Retirement did not mean rest. At the top of the house was a second-floor garret workshop, and Watt kept working there for almost thirty years, from 1790 until 1819, among lathes, tools, chemicals and half-finished projects.

For a member of the Lunar Society it was well placed: Soho House, the Society’s usual meeting place, was close by. The 1888–1913 Ordnance Survey still shows a fish pond to the north and a lodge at the end of what became Radnor Road.

Death and a sealed room

James Watt died at Heathfield on 25 August 1819. He was buried at St Mary’s Church, Handsworth, near Boulton. Ann Watt lived on until 1832.

Then the garret was shut. The workshop was left as Watt had used it, and the sources disagree on how strictly. The Science Museum says a few visitors were let in after 1848; Library of Birmingham captions say it was “not re-opened until 1901”. Either way, it was kept almost untouched for a century, a time capsule at the top of the stairs.

Later lives

Heathfield passed to James Watt junior, who died in 1848, and later to the Gibson-Watt family. One of its best-known later residents was the engineer George Tangye of Tangyes Ltd, who, according to his obituary in Grace’s Guide, “for many years lived at Heathfield Hall”. Tangye looked after the garret and gave his collection of Boulton & Watt relics to the City of Birmingham.

The same spot, then and now

1888–1913

Today

Meanwhile the town crept up the hill. From 1876 villas were built around the edges of the grounds. The 1888–1913 Ordnance Survey shows the hall still standing in its park, with a Presbyterian chapel on Heathfield Road.

Going, going, gone

In the 1920s the estate was redeveloped. In 1924, while that was under way, the decision was taken to save the garret. In December that year H. W. Dickinson, curator of mechanical engineering at the Science Museum, arrived with lorries and took the whole workshop to London. The hall itself was demolished in 1927–28. In the 1930s the heart of the estate was covered with large houses on West Drive, North Drive, Brecon Road and James Watt Drive.

What is left

The lodge survives. At 33 Radnor Road, on the corner of North Drive and Heathfield Avenue, Birmingham Civic Society put up a blue plaque in 2019, the bicentenary of Watt’s death: “This lodge was the gatehouse to Heathfield Hall, home of James Watt (1736–1819) steam engineer, inventor and scientist”. An older stone tablet reads “The-Lodge / Gate-Keepers House / to the celebrated / James Watt / 1797”.

The house has gone, but the room where Watt spent his last thirty years survives intact, in London. Few great inventors have left behind so complete a picture of how they actually worked.

What happened here?

James Watt lived here from June 1790 until his death on 25 August 1819, working in his garret workshop through his retirement. His widow Ann lived on until 1832. Later residents included James Watt junior’s heirs, the Gibson-Watt family and the engineer George Tangye. The estate was gradually developed from 1876, the workshop was removed to the Science Museum in 1924, and the hall was demolished in 1927–28.

Why it disappeared

Estate sold and built over · Redevelopment

Villas were built around the edges of the grounds from 1876 (Birmingham Museums). In the 1920s the estate was redeveloped: the removal of the garret workshop was decided in 1924 ‘while Heathfield was being redeveloped’ (Science Museum Group Journal), the hall was demolished in 1927–28, and the estate was built over in the 1930s (Library of Birmingham).