Admission Record for Joseph Pagett, Register of Norton Reformatory

In the first half of the 19th century statistical studies seemed to show that Britain was being engulfed by a growing population of hardened young ...

Advertisement for the Women's Social and Political Union

‘The Rights of Woman’, what are they? The right her husband to obey, The right to show forth all her life How proud she is to be a wife! The ...

Birmingham Daily Post Article

This report discusses an incident in Cannon Hill Park, in which Charles Cartwright's carriage was pelted with snowballs as he drove through the par...

Birmingham Parks Police

This photograph was taken for an album containing scenes in the parks during the Edwardian period. The Parks Police were a regular presence and wer...

Birmingham Parks Police Badge

Birmingham’s parks were initially patrolled by the city police force. During the 1880s, the Parks Committee had to apply to the Worcestershire poli...

Birmingham Prison Visiting Committee on the Juvenile Court, 1910

Data was collected on the types of offences committed by young people and reported in juvenile courts.

BSA Ladies' Bicycle

Tight controls on cycling were imposed by Birmingham’s Parks Committee from the earliest days of the activity. In the 1870s, before the invention o...

Daily routine in Norton Reformatory

The boys’ lives were strictly regulated. Activities were timetabled for each day between waking up at 6am and going to bed at 10pm. Cleanliness wa...

Discussion of Park Closure at Night

Parks in Birmingham were usually kept closed at night, but in 1954 the Parks Committee did consider leaving Calthorpe Park open. These pages from t...

Dormitory rules in Norton Reformatory

Drawing of a Middlemore Girl

As an Edgbastonian, John Middlemore was proudly celebrated in the pages of the Edgbastonia magazine: ‘A benevolent Edgbaston gentleman wh...

Individual boy in uniform, Norton Reformatory

Drill was part of the regular routine for boys at Norton. The reformatory also had a cadet corp.