‘Gang Magasine’, Bumper Christmas Number

The ‘magasine’ contains jokes, competition pages, verses, puzzles and games, stories and gang notices. The members of the gang were Alan Thompson (...

‘Ginger A Story’

Ginger tells the story of a fictional boy named Harry Smith and how poverty and his stepfather’s cruelty turned him to crime. He was placed in Midd...

‘Hampshire Village Play’ from ‘Back to the Village’ series

‘In the Happy Days of Our Childhood’ by Maria Cadbury

Maria wrote this memoir much later in life at the request of her niece. Maria was born in 1838 and was the daughter of John Cadbury and his wife Ca...

‘In the Happy Days of Our Childhood’ by Maria Cadbury

In the late 18th and 19th centuries seaside holidays became popular with those families who could afford them. With improved transport links, this...

‘Inspector and Starved Child', National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Birmingham Branch Fourth Annual Report

In the late 19th century many children were seen as victims, not of the cruelty of the workplace, but of their parents and neighbours. The NSPCC en...

‘Jamaicans Seeking Work in Britain’

Submitted by Birmingham Stories. The 22nd of June, 1948, was a deeply important date in British history. This date marked the docking of the Emp...

‘My Life’s Battles’ by Will Thorne

Will Thorne (1857-1946) was born into a poor family in Farm Street, Hockley on 8 October 1857. His father was a brick maker, and on weekends he wo...

‘No child can resist’, Picture Post

Advertisers used images of children to catch the viewer’s eye. As families became more affluent they also targeted children as consumers. These adv...

‘Opening of the Christian Kunzle Alpine Home for Children’, The Davos Courier

This article reports the arrival of 36 children from Birmingham Children’s Hospital at the Alpine Home for Children in Davos, Switzerland in 1932. ...

‘Our Alf’s a Postman Now’

‘Sparkbrook is our home’

The positioning of the children in this image means that they look down at the viewer from the height of an adult. It is a powerful statement of ow...