When it was constructed in the 1820s, this elegant Georgian terrace would have seemed some distance from the town itself. It presented an entrance point to the area of Blakebrook to which some of the more prosperous residents were removing themselves out of the town and  away from the hurley burley of manufacturing activity. The days when the carpet masters and the makers of bombazine lived above the shop were passing.

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The houses here were brought about by a Land Club. The Land Club was in effect a shared savings club  into which members paid a regular contribution which was used to acquire land and to construct houses which club members would either occupy or make available for rent.

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The Summer Place club was probably the first in Kidderminster, certainly the first to complete construction  of homes but it was a model that was repeated frequently during the remainder of the nineteenth century. Land Clubs were formed and promoted by radical Liberals in the town in particular. They addressed the growing housing need in the town as it expanded but also provided a route by which working men might acquire the right to vote in parliamentary and local elections. Essentially only property owners had the right to vote at this time; reform gradually extended the franchise to all people through the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

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Blakebrook Green which stand immediately in front of Summer Place was a place for public meetings and gatherings through the nineteenth century and also the site of an infamous riot in 1857. As the results of a General  Election that year were declared on Blakebrook Green. a furious- and disappointed mob attacked  and the just re-elected MP Robert Lowe and his supporters. They almost succeeded in their aim and of killing Lowe himself.

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One of the subscribers to the Summer Place Land Club was Josiah Mason. Mason, born in Kidderminster, made his fortune in Birmingham with his company becoming the largest manufacturer of pen nibs in the world. Pen nibs were then of course a commodity central to all social and economic activity. Mason College which he founded in Birmingham went on to become the basis for the creation of the University of Birmingham.

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The site of his birthplace is marked by this plaque in Mill Street.