The city I was born in. I am proud of its history. There was only ever one football team for me to support when I was younger and that is Birmingham City. Blue is my favourite colour and I AM PROUD TO BE A BRUMMIE, it was a no brainer!
Although I do have a West Midlands section on my website, I could not justify sticking my home town as a subcategory of it. It deserves pride of place on its own in my website menu.
Read about it, and any memories regarding it in associated blog posts and my decades section as well.
Contents
About Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. It is the second-largest city, urban area and metropolitan area in England and the United Kingdom, with roughly 1.1 million inhabitants within the city area, 2.9 million inhabitants within the urban area and 3.6 million inhabitants within the metropolitan area. The city proper is the most populated English local government district. Birmingham is commonly referred to as the “second city of the United Kingdom”.
Located in the West Midlands county and region in England, approximately 100 miles (160 km) from Central London, Birmingham, as one of the United Kingdom’s major cities, is considered to be the social, cultural, financial, and commercial centre of the Midlands. Distinctively, Birmingham only has small rivers flowing through it, mainly the River Tame and its tributaries River Rea and River Cole – one of the closest main rivers are the Severn, approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of the city centre.
Historically a market town in Warwickshire in the medieval period. Birmingham grew during the 18th-century during the Midlands Enlightenment and during the Industrial Revolution, which saw advances in science, technology, and economic development, producing a series of innovations that laid many of the foundations of modern industrial society. By 1791, it was being hailed as “the first manufacturing town in the world”. Birmingham’s distinctive economic profile, with thousands of small workshops practising a wide variety of specialised and highly skilled trades, encouraged exceptional levels of creativity and innovation and provided an economic base for prosperity that was to last into the final quarter of the 20th century. The Watt steam engine was invented in Birmingham.
The resulting high level of social mobility also fostered a culture of political radicalism which, under leaders from Thomas Attwood to Joseph Chamberlain, was to give it a political influence unparalleled in Britain outside London, and a pivotal role in the development of British democracy. From the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1943, Birmingham was bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe in what is known as the Birmingham Blitz. The damage done to the city’s infrastructure, in addition to a deliberate policy of demolition and new building by planners, led to extensive urban regeneration in subsequent decades.
Read more here.
The History Of Birmingham
Birmingham has seen 1400 years of growth, during which time it has evolved from a small 7th century Anglo Saxon hamlet on the edge of the Forest of Arden at the fringe of early Mercia to become a major city. A combination of immigration, innovation and civic pride helped to bring about major social and economic reforms and to create the Industrial Revolution, inspiring the growth of similar cities across the world.
The last 200 years have seen Birmingham rise from a market town into the fastest-growing city of the 19th century, spurred on by a combination of civic investment, scientific achievement, commercial innovation and a steady influx of migrant workers into its suburbs. By the 20th century, Birmingham had become the metropolitan hub of the United Kingdom’s manufacturing and automotive industries, having earned itself a reputation first as a city of canals, then of cars, and most recently as a major European convention and shopping destination.
By the beginning of the 21st century, Birmingham lay at the heart of a major post-industrial metropolis surrounded by significant educational, manufacturing, shopping, sporting and conferencing facilities.
Read more here.
The above articles were taken from Wikipedia and are subject to change.
Blog Posts
Links
Sunil060902’s page on Wikipedia – The image shown at the top of this page is the copyright of Sunhil060902. You can find more great work from the photographer Sunhil and lots more free stock photo’s at Wikipedia.
Birmingham History Forum – An excellent website for Birmingham related content covering plenty of different topics. Join today and look out for bluebrummie on their because that is me!