Boy with hoop at Calthorpe Park

In the 19th century public parks were introduced to provide the poor and working classes with healthier ways to spend their leisure hours. The land...

Boys in Calthorpe Park

This photograph shows a group of boys in Calthorpe Park. Their clothing suggests that they are from working-class or lower middle-class backgrounds...

Calthorpe Park

Painting depicting the opening of Calthorpe Park, by Samuel Lines Snr.

Cannon Hill Park Open-Air Swimming Pool

There were open-air swimming pools at Cannon Hill Park, and at Victoria Park, Small Heath. The pool at Cannon Hill Park was opened at the same time...

Cannon Hill Park postcard

This scene shows people of all ages enjoying the green space that Cannon Hill Park provided. The boy in the postcard has his bicycle propped agains...

Carpenter’s Mill, with Birmingham in the distance

This drawing gives a vivid impression of Edgbaston's rural landscape in the nineteenth century. St Thomas's Church, The Windmill on Holloway Head a...

Chaddesley Residential Nursery, Meadow Road, Edgbaston

Oakhill House (31 Meadow Road) was opened in 1968 as a reception centre. The following year the facilities at Oakhill were extended by leasing a ho...

Children Playing at the Botanical Gardens

Holidays were mainly the preserve of the middle classes in the late nineteenth century – the poor had very little time off and very little spare mo...

City Road, Edgbaston

This children's home was opened in 1967 in two adjoining (semi-detached) houses. The use of the houses as a children’s home was thought to be only ...

Deed of Gift for Cannon Hill Park

This plan shows the land given by Louisa Ann Ryland to Birmingham Corporation to form Cannon Hill Park, which was opened in September 1873.

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...

Dress by M. & E. Abbott

This striking dress in yellow trimmed with black velvet was made by M. & E. Abbott of 65 Hagley Road, Edgbaston, in 1896. However, we can't be sure...