William Dargue  A History of BIRMINGHAM Places & Placenames from A to Y

Weblinks

My Top Ten Birmingham websites

Acocks Green

Acocks Green History Society An excellent website - one of the best! - packed with well-presented accessible information. A model for local history websites.

Aston

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

Birmingham

Birmingham Archaeology is part of Birmingham City Council's official website. It is an attractive easy-to-use which is continually revised to present up-to-date information on archaeological finds in the city.Take a look especially at the Historic Landscape Characterization (HLC) where you can download the complete dataset of what was formerly known as the Birmingham Sites and Monuments Record. The maps are particularly useful and merit the considerable effort in understanding how to display and derive information from them. Find them online at https://maps.birmingham.gov.uk/webapps/her/

 

Birmingham History Forum  A valuable forum to which users can contribute items or ask for information. 

 

Birmingham Images A searchable image website of the Library of Birmingham which also includes Birmingham maps and the Digital Balsall Heath, Digital Handsworth and Digital Ladywood collections. 

 

Mapping Birmingham An outstanding, hugely informative, well-written and illustrated site by Jenni Dixon largely focussing on Georgian Birmingham.

 

Birmingham Canals Navigation

Birmingham Canal Navigations Society The Birmingham Canal Navigations Society was originally formed as a registered charity in 1968. The Society aims continue to conserve, improve and encourage a wide range of interests in the 100 mile network of Birmingham and Black Country waterways known as the BCN.

 

Castle Bromwich

A History of Castle Bromwich for Young People A site this author created as part of the outreach of the Castle Bromwich Bell Restoration Project, aimed at youngsters but full of information for folk of all ages. A jolly good website, if I say so myself!

 

Flickr

Flickr is a facility which allows anyone to upload their photographs to the internet. This is a huge collection of every type and quality of image imaginable, but they are searchable. Here's a selection of good Birmingham pictures (in no particular order):

Flickrmeets take place on the second Sunday of each month and usually involve a walk around town - http://www.flickr.com/groups/birmingham_flickrmeets/ 

Geograph

The Geograph British Isles project aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland. An excellent collection of images with a Search facility and links to Ordnance Survey maps.

The Geograph website has some galleries and collections of photographs on a particular theme:

 

River Rea from Source to River Tame by Roy Hughes - http://www.geograph.org.uk/gallery/birmingham_s_river_rea_from_source_to_river_tame_9967 

 

A Postcode Album – http://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Postal-address-history-and-photo-album/4#b 

 

Midland Bank Branches in Birmingham in 1963 - As they are now. 40- 11-01 to 40- 11-40 by Roy Hughes - http://www.geograph.org.uk/gallery/midland_bank_branches_in_birmingham_in_1963_as_they_are_now_40_11_01_to_40_11_40_9425

 

Canals of the West Midlands (Birmingham Canal Navigations) by John M - http://www.geograph.org.uk/gallery/canals_of_the_west_midlands_birmingham_canal_navigations_8323 

 

Great Barr

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.

 

Handsworth

Handsworth Historical Society - an interesting site with lots of background information from one of the City's very active local history societies.

 

Ladywood

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.

 

Photographs -

Photo by D J Norton The personal site of Mark Norton, son of D J Norton, an amateur photographer of the 1950s and -60s. Many photographs are railway- and tram-related and many were taken during the development of the Inner Ring Road. The author is developing the site with his own photographs especially of the changing City Centre.Birmingham's Buildings and Urban Topography

 

Images from Brumpic and the Chrysalis Project Images taken by the late Phyllis Nicklin, tutor in Geography in the former Department of Extramural Studies, University of Birmingham. A selection of approximately 450 slides from her collection were digitised by the Chrysalis digitisation project of the West Midlands Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. These images are of the city centre and a selection of districts and suburbs, and document Birmingham's buildings, urban topography and street scenes during the 1950s and 60s.

 

- and Illustrations

Historic Buildings in Pen & Ink Birmingham-born, William Albert Green 1907-1983 drew many pen and ink pictures of historic buildings in the Midlands, the majority the Birmingham and Warwickshire and in Shropshire selling at a nominal price to family and friends. They were later used for tour guides and in various local newspapers and magazines. Many of the buildings have been demolished, and so this collection forms a valuable historic record which we wish to share with others. Drawings are free for non-commercial use, and may be bought. The website of his son, Edwin Green.

 

Railways

Rail Around Birmingham This site is intended for those who have a keen interest in local history and the region's railway history. Although the site is 'Rail Around Birmingham' the author has chosen his boundary to suit areas that interest him. His aim is to visit the site of every disused station and operational station in the area as a snapshot of the current state of the railways in the West Midlands.

 

Warwickshire Railways The Warwickshire Railways Study Group was formed in 2005 to research, record and share information on the county's railways via this web site. We welcome others to contribute to the site at any level ranging from simply checking the information published to contributing information and photographs. The personal site of Mike Musson.

 

Winson Green to Brookfields

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

 

Sutton Coldfield

Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group A remarkable website with some 500 well-researched articles, photographs, transcriptions of original documents etc etc. 

 

My Top Ten (or so) Birmingham websites