William Dargue - A History of Birmingham Places & Placenames . . .  from A to Y

Weblinks

Birmingham Districts

Acocks Green History Society  An excellent website jam-packed with well-presented accessible information.

Aston, Holte Grammar Commercial School This website was created by Dennis Moody for former pupils of Holte Grammar Commercial School who joined in 1961, but is open to anyone with interests in the school. The site aims to provide a genealogical repository for photographs, stories, legends, names, dates and places.

Astonbrook Through Aston Manor A wealth of information about Aston maintained by John Houghton & Rod Birch - contributions welcomed.

Balsall Heath Moseley Road Baths in Balsall Heath is a building of national importance. Opened in 1907, it is the oldest of only three Grade II* Listed swimming baths currently operating in Britain. Remarkably for a building now into its second century, it survives almost intact, still used for its primary purpose and with very few alterations to the original layout. As such Moseley Road Baths contains many of its original features, fixtures and fittings.The Friends of Moseley Road Baths believes that the building can become a viable and successful swimming and health-based facility serving the local community. A website by a group campaigning to keep the baths open, the Friends Of Moseley Road Baths. Good historical information, with photgraphs and a video tour of the baths.

Balsall Heath Local History Society The website of one of Birmingham's most innovative history groups.

Bartley Green The Local History Project and Local History Digital Archive are important elements of the Humanities Specialist Status work at King Edward VI Grammar School, Five Ways, Bartley Green. A need was identified for more Local History in schemes of work and after much research and investigation it was decided to introduce a unit titled: The Local History Project – Bartley Green: Past and Present.

Bartley Green & District History Group researching three old villages/ hamlets on the edge of Woodgate Valley Country Park. These villages are Woodgate, Moor Street and California. The main industries in these villages were nail making, farming and brick making and there is plenty of evidence of these industries that still remain today. We also research the Lapal Canal and Tunnel which ran below ground straight through Woodgate Valley via Lapal, Moor Street and on to California.The society was formerly Woodgate & the Valley History Group. Some good old photographs and a number of publications for sale.

Bells Farm is owned by Birmingham City Council and managed by a registered charity, Bells Farm Community Association which was formed in 1978 to save the building from demolition and to use it for the benefit of local residents. The Association acts as an umbrella organisation for groups working with young people and community support groups.

Bournville, Selly Manor Museum Part of the Bournville Village Trust website -Two beautiful timber-framed manor houses moved and rebuilt in the village of Bournville by the Cadbury family. Both timber-framed houses have beautiful oak furniture and domestic objects.

Bournville Community Website Although entitled as a website for the Bournville Village Trust BVT areas, the copyright of the site is accredited to David Smith, whose personal site this may be. Covers Bournville and BVT parts of Northfield and Selly Oak.

Brindleyplace The website of the company that owns Brindleyplace in the City Centre - a history of the development included.

Bromford Bridge, Birmingham Racecourse The personal site of Mike Daniels who has lived in and around Bromford for most of his life. I decided to do some research using the Internet to see if any information was available about my local area. To my surprise I found nothing about its history, so I decided to create a website based around Bromford. As you can tell from the title the Bromford area has something to do with Horse racing, it did in fact used to be a very popular race course. The main purpose of this website is to give you a little more in-depth knowledge about the location and surrounding areas.

California - Bartley Green & District History Group researching three old villages/ hamlets on the edge of Woodgate Valley Country Park. These villages are Woodgate, Moor Street and California.  

Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens This unique example of an English Baroque Garden is being restored as near as possible to the period 1680-1740 by Castle Bromwich Hall and Gardens Trust. The 10-acre Walled Garden contains over 600 species of plants from the period.

Cotteridge These pages contain information about the history and development of the suburb of Cotteridge, in south Birmingham; as well as links to local businesses and organisations. There are sections on Cotteridge history, memories contributed by readers, and a photograph gallery. Webmaster David Bradford.

Edgbaston - The Botanical Gardens The website of the Botanical Gardens opened in 1832, designed by J C Loudon, a leading garden planner, horticultural journalist and publisher. Today the gardens offer a superb opportunity for recreation and relaxation close to the centre of Birmingham.

Edgbaston The Oratory The church’s website includes sections on the history and architecture of the building as well as information on Cardinal Newman.

Elmdon Hall Article on Elmdon Hall on Matthew Beckett's Lost Heritage website.

Erdington An anonymous personal website with some information on Erdington Abbey, Fort Dunlop, Mother’s Club, and Spaghetti Junction.

Gilbertstone School website has a version of the Legend of Gilbert the Giant.

Great Barr, Past & Present B43 A web site dedicated to presenting past, and present, information on Great Barr. The area is loosely defined but includes Hamstead, Gorse Farm, Newton, Grove Vale, Pear Tree, Scott Arms, Queslett and Pheasey. There are a number of significant historic areas, including the Great Barr Hall estate, Red House Park, Bishop Asbury’s House and Hamstead Colliery. The site is organised by geographic area and various themes. The personal website of Anthony Lewis.

Great Barr Hall - Urbex/UK a fascinating site about the infiltration of derelict structures in the UK by Simon Cornwell. Find Great Barr Hall, pictures old and new, under Explorations.

Hall Green St Peter's Church The church’s website includes a brief church history.

Hamstead Miners In 1876 the Hamstead Colliery began to sink mineshafts; a thick coal seam was reached by 1880 at a depth of 2000 feet. The 4th March 1908 marked a terrible disaster when fire broke out causing the deaths of 25 miners. The mine closed in 1965 and the area was redeveloped for housing. The Hamstead Miners Memorial Trust are creating a display of Colliery memorabilia and raising funds for a statue on Hamstead Road.

Handsworth Digital Handsworth Project is financed by the New Opportunities Fund, one of seven projects forming the Digital Midlands consortium. Digital Handsworth provides a multimedia resource guide to the history of the community focussed on the ancient parish of Handsworth. The project will both improve access to material of historical significance and capture and preserve ephemeral resources such as photographs, personal documents and film in the possession of archives, libraries, museums and the community. The intention is to chart the development of the area from a rural village, with medieval origins, through its rapid urbanisation between 1850 and 1940, into the multicultural suburb of today.

Handsworth Historical Society website. Includes a good collection of old photographs as thumbnails, unfortunately too small to appreciate, but available full-size by email.

Handsworth History Site Keeping the Past Alive. An anonymous site with some interesting old photographs and memories of the district.

Harborne The personal website of Andrea Barnes, mostly devoted to her genealogy, but includes a history of Harborne.

Harborne Life is the leading community website for the Harborne B17 area offering Harborne news, Harborne events and general Harborne chit chat on the Harborne Life community forum. The site is maintained by people from Harborne for the people of Harborne and intends to offer news, debate, competitions and general fun and information on all subjects that affect the Harborne area and we hope that it will become a central meeting point for the local community and that you find it informative and interesting. We have recently teamed up with Harborne & Edgbastons leading local paper the Edgbaston & Harborne Observer (http://www.ehobserver.com/) in order to reach a much wider audience with our aims and campaigns.

Harborne Nailmakers - an article from The Birmingham Historian by Stuart Davies 1988.

The Harborne Society

Harborne, St Mary’s RC Church The church’s website includes a church history, and is hosted by David’s Emporium, the fascinating quirky personal website of Birmingham schoolteacher, David West.

Highgate, Church of St Alban the Martyr The church’s website includes a good history section.

Hill Hook Local Nature Reserve including information on Hill Hook Mill.

Jewellery Quarter This website invites you to take a walk of discovery from Birmingham city centre to and around the Jewellery Quarter. In the course of this walk we shall, of course, see what is there, but we shall be particularly interested in what has happened and how things came to be the way they are. Seems to be the personal website by Bob Miles.

Jewellery Quarter - Birmingham Assay Office The largest assay office in Europe. Founded in 1773 the main function of the Assay Office is to test and hallmark precious metal items as required by the Hallmarking Act. In 2005 12 million articles were hallmarked at the Assay Office.

Jewellery Quarter, St Paul’s Church St Paul's is in the Jewellery Quarter, a busy area dedicated to jewellery making, and other arts and media industries. There is also a growing number of apartment blocks in renovated historic buildings. The church is set in a timeless Georgian square, with rolling lawns and tree-lined walks. Green spaces are rare in cities - St Paul's Square is one of the most beautiful. The church is a place for prayer, and is of great historical interest.

Key Hill Cemetery, Friends of The cemetery was closed for burials in the early 1980s and has been largely forgotten since then. The Friends want to raise funds to spend on things required to bring the cemetery back to a state that reflects its historical importance.

Kings Heath & District History B14 The personal website of Colin Baker run in conjunction with the Birmingham History Webring.

Kings Norton Boys School Award winning school website. If you're a prospective student or Old Nortonian take a look through our site. You'll find over 200 pictures in our Photo Archive, memories from our former students and all the information you need about the subjects and courses we offer.

Kings Norton Local History Society The aim of this site, the official website of Kings Norton Local History Society, is to paint an authoritative picture of King's Norton - past and present. A good example of an attractive, easy-to-use and informative local history site wth articles, photographs and maps, created and maintained by Barry Pearson

Kings Norton Parish website has a good section on the Saracen's Head and the Old Grammar School restoration project. See also The Friends of Historic Kings Norton website and the BBC Restoration project which gives details of the successful bid to restore the Saracen's Head and the Old Grammar School.

Kings Norton - the Three Estates - Hawkesley, Primrose and Pool Farm - the section ‘Lost and Forgotten’ has some local history content especially on Primrose Hill Farm.

Ladywood, Digital, a Local History Project which aims to record the life and times of people living on the five estates making up Attwood Green, and the wider area of Ladywood. The project aims to: support schools with their local history curriculum, provide opportunities for learning by involving local people and children in the creation of the website, and research about their local area, encourage and support oral tradition focusing on the development of communication, interviewing, speaking and listening skills, provide historical background for new residents, help foster community spirit, generate pride and a sense of belonging in the area. The site seems to have been developed by the Optima Housing Association.

Ladywood, St John’s & St Peter’s Church The church website, as well as religious and services information, has a history of the church and photographs.

Ladywood Past & Present is the website of a non-profit making organisation that is trying to preserve the memories, whether written or photographic of Ladywood - maintained by Mac Joseph.

Lickey A history of the district from Rednal and the Lickeys by the late R E Tuplingon on the Lickey & Blackwell Parish Council website.

Lickey Hills There is a short section of the Lickey Hills with maps on Pete Stubbs' varied website.

The Lickey Incline A history with photographs by Rich Wilson of the Lickey Incline, a 2.5 mile stretch of railway between Bromsgrove & Blackwell and the steepest mainline gradient (1:37) on Britain's mainline railways.

Moor Pool Residents Association - The site has a brief history of this Harborne estate and has a number of useful links and downloads.

Moor Street - Bartley Green & District History Group researching three old villages/ hamlets on the edge of Woodgate Valley Country Park. These villages are Woodgate, Moor Street and California.  

Moseley Conservation Area - a thoroughly informative City Council document with details of streets and buildings.

Moseley Society The Moseley Society, a registered charity, was formed in 1979 with the aim of preserving and protecting the best of this unique area of Birmingham, England. It is committed to promoting high standards of planning and architecture, organising meetings of public interest and concern, and serving on local advisory bodies.

The Moseleians Association for former students and staff of Moseley Secondary/ Grammar, Moseley Modern, College Road Senior and Moseley School.

Nechells - St Josephs RC School A site for former pupils and teachers. It is hoped it will provide an avenue to contact old school and church friends. The personal site of Richard Scott.

New Hall The hotel’s website with an introductory history.

New Hall Mill, a Grade 2 listed building, one of only two water mills still surviving in Birmingham. The Mill and its meadow field are privately owned and managed by the New Hall Water Mill Preservation Trust. Although now surrounded by the New Hall Valley Country Park, the Mill is only open to the general public on specific Open Days, or by prior arrangement. The site was created and is maintained by Ray Martin on behalf of the New Hall Water Mill Preservation Trust.

Perry Barr and Beyond Personal website of ? made up of information that collected on the people and places of Perry Barr in the 1800s.

Pype Hayes Information about Pype Hayes Hall from the Bagot family website.

River Rea Heritage Trail An informative and attractive website supported by the City Council and the Environment Agency, though it is not clear who runs the site.

Selly Oak  Birmingham B29 A blog-type website set up by James Thornett and run with other local people mainly about selly Oak, but aso including other B29 districts such as Weoley Castle.

Selly Oak - St Mary’s Church The church’s website includes a good brief history.

Short Heath, Goosemoor Lane Seems to be the personal site of local resident Gary O’Brien.

Small Heath, All Saints Church The church website has a good history of the Angilcan churches in Small Heath.

Small Heath Circle Jerry Daly,  ‘I decided to start this site in the hope of preserving memories of Small Heath and the surrounding districts of Bordesley Green, Sparkbrook etc. My hope is that this site will provide a platform for all the Brummies of these districts, now scattered far and wide, to once again visit and maybe meet up with some old friends.' The site includes a forum.

Sparkhill, St John’s Church  The church’s website has a short history section.

Stirchley The website of Stirchley Neighbourhood Forum and is presented rather like one of the free newspapers. Has a small interesting local history page and an online forum.

Sutton Coldfield - Victoria County History - Warwickshire Volume 4 - Essential authoritative detailed background with full references.

Sutton Coldfield - Essays (amongst others not related to Birmingham) on Sutton's economic individuality from the Middle Ages and Lot Acres by Professor M W Beresford in Time & Place 1985 available from Google Book Search. Beresford was a former pupil of Bishops Vesey's Grammar School and an eminent economic historian. Essential reading for Suttonians. Full references for researchers.

Sutton Coldfield Civic Society Since the 1950s the Civic Society has worked in the interests of Sutton Coldfield, particularly the built environment. The aims are to encourage the conservation of the best of the architectural and physical features of Sutton Coldfield, to encourage the development of the highest quality of new buildings, to ensure that the new roads follow the least disruptive route to urban and rural environments.

Sutton Coldfield, History of  Graham Ord’s personal website presented encyclopaedically and packed with information. This is not a work of scholarship; it is a selective idiosyncratic compendium of topics relating to the history of the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield based on information compiled from the work and research of others and made freely available at the Local History Library, on the World Wide Web or from the numerous sources and publications.

Sutton Coldfield, Holy Trinity Church The church’s website has some historical information.

Sutton Coldfield, The Kemble Kollection Mike Kemble's website includes sets of phographs of Sutton Coldfield and surrounding rural areas.

Sutton Coldfield Natural History Society The purpose of the Society is to enable people to meet together to learn about natural history in general (and that of the locality in particular) in a friendly atmosphere. Originally founded in 1919, the Society was revived in 1951, and has met regularly ever since.

Ward End/ Washwood Heath A website run by David Millin dedicated to the late Metro-Cammel Ltd.

Winson Green to Brookfields The aim of the site is to collect information in the form of history, personal stories photographs, maps to tell the next generation. The personal site of Ted Rudge.

Woodgate and the Valley History Group researching three old villages/ hamlets on the edge of Woodgate Valley Country Park. These villages are Woodgate, Moor Street and California. The society is now known as Bartley Green & District History Group.