RELATIVES of Stourbridge benefactor John Corbett have thrown their weight behind a campaign to prevent the meadow he gifted to the people of Amblecote from ever being developed.
Save the Corbett Meadow Action Group have been fighting to ensure Corbett Meadow, off Vicarage Road, is preserved for future generations ever since it emerged the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, which owns the site, has been looking to sell it off to a housing developer.
Corbett Meadow.
Although Countryside Properties withdrew its interest in the site in 2019 and the draft Black Country Plan included a proposal to give the untouched site the same protection as green belt - the action group has remained steadfast in its commitment to guard against the threat of possible development of the site which NHS trust bosses remain keen to sell off.
The campaign to date has received strong community backing and support from Stourbridge's MP Suzanne Webb, and now members of the Corbett family have united to show their desire for the land to be kept as John Corbett intended...as an asset to benefit the people of Amblecote.
Andrew Harrison, spokesperson for the family, holding a photograph of his great, great, great grandfather John Corbett
Relative Andrew Harrison, acting as spokesman for the Corbett family, said: "John Corbett was an important industrialist and philanthropist as any during the Victorian era giving much to the Stourbridge, Droitwich and Towyn communities.
"If not for him, we would not have the Corbett Hospital and the adjoining Hill estate. As his descendants, we feel it would be deeply disrespectful and a disservice to John Corbett’s name to give the meadowland over to anything but public parkland, which is what he would have wanted."
Descendants of Mr Corbett, living in Australia, have also backed the efforts to safeguard the parcel of ancient meadowland which has been carefully tended by hobbyist farmers for decades.
Corbett Meadow.
Distant relative Lisa Frost-Foster said: "The meadow looks beautiful and it would be such a shame if the land was developed.
"John Corbett was the brother of my great, great, great-grandfather Joseph Corbett, so I’m very interested in anything to do with John and his contribution to our family history."
Lance Cartwright, spokesman for the action group, said it was great to see relatives of John Corbett backing the campaign to save "this special green space which they felt should be utilised for public benefit just as John Corbett intended when he gifted the land to the people of Amblecote in 1892".
Corbett Meadow.
He added: "John Corbett, looking down on his meadow bathed in winter sunshine, must have been proud to observe a gathering of the current Corbett lineage meeting up united in supporting the campaign to save his unique meadow from housing development.
"Not all the relatives had met before and indeed Kay Lindsey and her brother Phillip had only recently found out that they had such a renowned and philanthropic ancestor.
"Other Corbett family members in the UK who were unable to attend the get together were also keen to send messages of support to our group whose commitment to the campaign remains as solid as ever as we venture into 2022."
People can find out more and keep up to date with developments regarding the site on the Save the Corbett Meadow Facebook page.
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