Phil, do you think that drawing may be of the Thimble Mill?
As to there not being many buildings, I know there was a great building programme evolving in Brum around that time, my Gt Grandad & family moving from Oldbury to Brum (Doris Rd) to work in the brickyards, thus getting out of the coal mines. My Grandfather worked as a brickmaker after WW1, more then likely the Bordesley Green one. He was born 1893 in Brum, his older siblings in Rounds Green, Oldbury.