City Guides
Birmingham
History
A township has stood on the site that is now to Birmingham since at least the sixth-century. The area developed rapidly as a result of the fresh water supply and easy access to coal, iron and timber. Later, metal production provided employment for much of the area’s population, and the support this provided for Parliamentarians during the English Civil War cemented the area’s reputation as a manufacturing centre. By the time the Industrial Revolution began, Birmingham was already regarded as one of the most important manufacturing areas in the country.
Birmingham’s heritage societies have shown a serious commitment to protecting and exploring the area’s history and historical sites and buildings. Archaeological finds uncovered during the extensive renovation of the area over the last century have been stored and displayed in various museums and exhibitions around the city.
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery was opened in 1885 and houses a vast collection of art and exhibits documenting 400,000 years of history. Admission is free and the gallery is open seven days a week, closing at 5pm. Call 0121 303 2834 for more information.
Blakesley Hall is a sixteenth-century, timber-framed manor house, with reproduced furniture and fittings. Admission is free, and the venue also contains a visitors’ centre, exhibition gallery, café and shop
Weoley Castle was a manor house built more than 700 years ago and noted in the Domesday Book. Though the ruins themselves are not accessible to the public, there is a viewing area with information panels, and various parts of the castle grounds can be viewed. Many of the ancient finds from the castle grounds are currently exhibited in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
The site of Birmingham’s Roman fort, Metchley, can be found overlapping the main campus of the University of Birmingham and the university’s Medical School. Extensive excavation of the area has yielded many historical treasures, including pottery, fine French tableware and Spanish olive oil storage vessels. Exploration of the foundations of the fort’s outer walls have led to important discoveries about the size of the building and the length of time for which it was occupied – which have in turn led to fresh discoveries about the history of the city as a whole.
Excavations in the area now home to the Bullring shopping development turned up relics and boundaries dating back to the twelfth-century. Digging on the site of the Indoor Market also revealed tanning pits dating back to the thirteenth-century.
Churches of historical importance in the city include the thirteenth-century St Martin’s Church, in sight of the Selfridges building, the early eighteenth-century St Phillip’s Church, and the late eighteenth-century St Paul’s Church; all of which can be found in the city centre.
The oldest secular building in Birmingham is the Old Crown. Its original purpose unknown, the fifteenth-century building is now home to a pub and restaurant.
Other significant historical buildings in the city are too numerous to name, but Sarehole Mill, with its fifty eighteenth-century water mills and a mention in ‘Lord of the Rings’, the fourteenth-century Selly Manor and the Grade I listed, nineteenth-century town hall are all valued by tourists and visitors alike.
Birmingham’s heritage societies have shown a serious commitment to protecting and exploring the area’s history and historical sites and buildings. Archaeological finds uncovered during the extensive renovation of the area over the last century have been stored and displayed in various museums and exhibitions around the city.
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery was opened in 1885 and houses a vast collection of art and exhibits documenting 400,000 years of history. Admission is free and the gallery is open seven days a week, closing at 5pm. Call 0121 303 2834 for more information.
Blakesley Hall is a sixteenth-century, timber-framed manor house, with reproduced furniture and fittings. Admission is free, and the venue also contains a visitors’ centre, exhibition gallery, café and shop
Weoley Castle was a manor house built more than 700 years ago and noted in the Domesday Book. Though the ruins themselves are not accessible to the public, there is a viewing area with information panels, and various parts of the castle grounds can be viewed. Many of the ancient finds from the castle grounds are currently exhibited in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
The site of Birmingham’s Roman fort, Metchley, can be found overlapping the main campus of the University of Birmingham and the university’s Medical School. Extensive excavation of the area has yielded many historical treasures, including pottery, fine French tableware and Spanish olive oil storage vessels. Exploration of the foundations of the fort’s outer walls have led to important discoveries about the size of the building and the length of time for which it was occupied – which have in turn led to fresh discoveries about the history of the city as a whole.
Excavations in the area now home to the Bullring shopping development turned up relics and boundaries dating back to the twelfth-century. Digging on the site of the Indoor Market also revealed tanning pits dating back to the thirteenth-century.
Churches of historical importance in the city include the thirteenth-century St Martin’s Church, in sight of the Selfridges building, the early eighteenth-century St Phillip’s Church, and the late eighteenth-century St Paul’s Church; all of which can be found in the city centre.
The oldest secular building in Birmingham is the Old Crown. Its original purpose unknown, the fifteenth-century building is now home to a pub and restaurant.
Other significant historical buildings in the city are too numerous to name, but Sarehole Mill, with its fifty eighteenth-century water mills and a mention in ‘Lord of the Rings’, the fourteenth-century Selly Manor and the Grade I listed, nineteenth-century town hall are all valued by tourists and visitors alike.
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