Adventure Playgrounds
Danish landscape architects and town planners became interested in the concept of adventure playgrounds, also known as 'junk playgrounds', in the 1930s, after observing children using building sites and ...
Bandstand at Calthorpe Park
This photograph shows crowds of people listening to a music performance in the park.
Birmingham and Moseley Society Journal
In contrast to the general movement to open up green spaces in the city to provide parks for Birmingham’s urban and suburban population during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Moseley Park ...
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 park on the morning of Sunday 10 January. The article expresses ...
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 were responsible for keeping order and challenging would-be ...
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 police force for additional officers to patrol Cannon Hill ...
Boer War Memorial, Cannon Hill Park
This postcard shows the unveiling of the memorial to servicemen from Birmingham killed in the Boer War conflicts in South Africa around the beginning of the twentieth century. The memorial was sculpted ...
Bomb Damage to Birmingham Parks
Many parks across Birmingham sustained damage during the Second World War. The Parks Committee minutes contain details of the effects of each air raid on the park buildings and landscape. This is the ...
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. It is easy to imagine that they might have found themselves ...
Brighter Birmingham Programmes
In common with other cities and towns in Britain and as promoted by the government, Birmingham City Council organised a variety of events during the Second World War to provide entertainments for war ...
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 of the ‘safety bicycle’ opened up cycling to women, children, ...
Calthorpe Park
Painting depicting the opening of Calthorpe Park, by Samuel Lines Snr.
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 against the tree, hinting at the restrictions on cycling in ...
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 money to spend. A public park therefore provided a unique ...
Dancing in the Dell at Muntz Park
Regular dances were organised in the Dell at Muntz Park by the Bournbrook Entertainments Committee from 1923 onwards. A disused clay pit, known as the Dell, was laid out for dancing and open-air theatre ...
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.
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 ...
Highbury Park Sketch Plan
This sketch plan of the grounds and gardens of Highbury Hall was drawn by Hilda Chamberlain in 1894. It accompanied a letter written to her brother, Neville, who was managing the short-lived and ultimately ...