Trench foot part of life for soldiers
The First World War saw tanks, aeroplanes and submarines used in battle for the first time and yet the defining image of the conflict is one of soldiers mired in muddy trenches. more
A time for flowers and bullets
As storm clouds gathered over Europe, Birmingham was stuck in a period of unsettled weather but residents were not dissuaded from enjoying their traditional summer pursuits. more
Going for a Burton day out
The Coors Visitor Centre. Is it an out-of-town furniture superstore or the badly-spelt office name for an Irish pop band? Its neither of these. In fact its one of the most popular museums in the Midlands with around 200,000 visitors a year. more
Hope for Harborne High Street
What is a High Street? It's likely that you have a mental image of one, a place of post offices, family butchers (a strange term, this), greengrocers and newsagents. A place of local shopping and good morning nods. But does the reality of today's high streets square with that? more
Do you remember?
Help is needed to identify people and places in a photographic exhibition held at Coleshill Library by the Coleshill Local History Society. The display, which runs from 04-18 May, features over thirty photographs of life in Coleshill. more
Stormin' Norman's revenge
The survey of England we know as Domesday (or the Domesday Book, if you prefer) is not the easiest of historical documents to deal with, and this is partly a problem of vocabulary. Whats the difference between a bordar and a cotter? more
Tram-pled by the rush of progress
This is the age of the tram. Or so say many of the city authorities across the world. Call it rapid transit or metro, put it above ground or below, light rail systems are increasingly being adopted as a solution to the traffic problems of our crowded inner cities. more
Star-studded lunatics
The Lunar Society was into everything. The members of that august and informal association which flourished in and around the West Midlands at the end of the 18th century were undoubtedly polymaths. more
Why trouble brews in old Deritend
They always say its a mistake to start an argument about politics or religion; its even less advisable to broach these subjects in a pub, where alcohol takes its toll on the rational side of the brain. more
Sir John - the people's champ
The ordinary men and women of Birmingham acclaimed him as the Ex-Servicemans MP and his own constituents declared him to be the Good Knight of Deritend. more
Holidays among the forges
In September 1753 a Swedish traveller called Reinhold Rucker Angerstein visited England. It was part of a six-year sojourn on the continent of Europe, and he only returned to his native country in the summer of 1755. more
Driving was a balancing act
"Four legs good; two legs bad, said the pigs in Animal Farm. Generally weve stuck to the same equation with wheels and cars too. more
Cheers Smiths!
From a line of master coopers, William Smith had made his fortune not through making beer barrels but from brewing the ale itself. more
Gathering clouds of mental illness
The issue of mental illness grew like a dark cloud over 19th-century England. The statistics said so. In 1807 only 2.26 per 100,000 people were defined as insane. By 1890 the figure was 29.6. more
Pecking order in land of kings
The Midlands was part of Mercia, and for a century or so the kings of Mercia lauded it as if they ruled the roost from the Tyne to the Thames, explains Chris Upton. more
