Ann Street School, Birmingham

Oil painting by Alfred H. Green (c.1822-?). Past schooling is brought vibrantly to life in this painting. We can see infants sewing, reading, li...

Appledore, Serpentine Road, Selly Oak

The building at Serpentine Road has had a variety of uses over the years. Its first mention in the Birmingham City Council minutes is as a students...

Application Book of Middlemore Homes, 1903-1914 giving the reasons Henry was admitted

Henry is case number 2576. He was described as a ‘Healthy looking boy very ragged, Street Arab type’. Street Arab was a common derogatory term for ...

Application of Alice Cumbley, Institution for the Blind, Birmingham

Alice Cumbley was at Birmingham Institution for the Blind in the early 1900s. The Institution kept detailed records for each child from admission t...

Apprenticeship agreement between Thomas Stirling of the parish of St. Giles in the Fields, London, and George Hardy, chimney sweep, of St. Marylebone

Climbing boys were sent up chimneys to clean them. Although there were fewer of them than other child workers their sufferings captured the imagina...

Arthur and Rachel Albright with their eight children

Beaumont Albright was born on 21 August 1861 at the family home in Edgbaston. He was the youngest of eight children of Quakers Arthur Albright and ...

Arts and Charities

Image: Jenny Lind Historical sources show that in the Birmingham Jewish community, drama, literature, music and the arts have always been inte...

Asian Resource Centre

The Asian Resource Centre was established in 1976 at Villa Road in Handsworth. It was founded on the belief that it was "necessary and desirable fo...

Aston Children's Home

This children's home was initially in a building known as Jubilee House. Jubilee House was opened as a children’s home late in 1978 and was desi...

Athelstan House (Junior Remand Home), 232 Moseley Road, Highgate

This home has had a number of different functions during its long history and a number of different names including 'the Birmingham Children's Rema...

Autobiography of Richard Bennett, chimney sweep, written for the Birmingham Association for the Suppression of Climbing Boys

In the 1830s John Cadbury led a campaign in Birmingham against the employment of climbing boys. He called a meeting of all the sweeps in the town a...

Baby sitting in a pram

Back-to-back slum house, near Watery Lane, Small Heath, Birmingham.