Children wearing satchels
Children with their family on a canal boat
There have been Romany travellers or ‘gypsies’ in Britain since the 1500s, and from the beginning they were suspected and persecuted.
Other children lived in barges. Their families made a living ...
Chinnbrook Community Centre
Representative of a community centre movement which developed in the inter-war period, this post-war example served the Yardley Wood and Billesley estates. Such centres offered recreational and educational ...
Christadelphian Hostel
This document shows an example of different religious communities connecting with one another to find support in a moment of crisis. Here, we find Birmingham Christadelphians coming to the aid of the ...
Chung Ling Soo- magician and masquerader
Chung Ling Soo- magician and masquerader
Chung Ling Soo was the stage name of William Ellsworth Robinson, a stage magician from America. Born in 1861, Robinson modelled his act on Chinese magician ...
City of Birmingham Housing Estates
Plan showing location of municipal housing estates in Birmingham in 1931, Weoley Castle situated to the south-west of the city.
Clopton Road Children's Home, Sheldon
This was opened in 1952 as a type of children's home known as a family group home or scattered home.
It was a purpose-built detached house on the new Garretts Green housing estate. It was in very close ...
Cocoa - The Story of its Cultivation, illustrated by Frank Newbould
Frank Newbould’s designs for Cocoa: the Story of its Cultivation, were in a bold graphic style. He used vibrant colours to illustrate some of the key stages in cocoa cultivation, from harvesting through ...
Contributions of Africans in Birmingham from 1950
Introduction
This exhibition offers an insight into the experience of African migrants in Birmingham since 1950. In the sixty years since 1950 Birmingham has changed beyond all recognition physically, ...
Councillor J.S. Nettlefold, J.P.
John Sutton Nettlefold became a key figure in the history of public housing in Birmingham, signalling the growing emergence of local government in the town planning process. Born in London, he later moved ...
Cross-dressing
Vesta Tilley (1864-1952) was born as Matilda Powles, in Worcester, and was performing in music hall by the age of four. She was one of the most well known and highly paid music hall artists of her time ...
Cyril Burt, Report of an Investigation on Backward Children in Birmingham
The idea of the ‘normal child’ was reinforced by research by psychologists in the early 20th century which identified and categorised some children as being ‘abnormal’. Cyril Burt designed tests to identify ...
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 the Parks Committee minutes consider this proposal, which ...
Domestic Interior, by Reginald Edgecombe
The Edgecombe drawings demonstrate that urban planners in Birmingham were considering the internal layout as much as the external appearance of new houses. This sketch illustrates the creative processes ...
Dormitory, Sir Josiah Mason's Orphanage by Sir Benjamin Stone
As Mason’s Orphanage was so large the dormitory could accommodate three rows of beds. The room is essentially bare except for a few reproduction paintings. There is no evidence of any personal belongings ...
Dudley & Dowell Foundry
Lunch break at Dudley & Dowell Foundry, Cradley Heath. Photograph by Paul Hill.
Dudley & Dowell Foundry
Dudley & Dowell Foundry, Cradley Heath. Photograph by Paul Hill.
Ecole Belge
Leaflet appealing for money to continue the Belgian School, June 1918
Although some of the Belgian children attended local schools, the ‘Ecole Belge’ or Belgian Primary School opened in Birmingham on ...