If you are interested in living in Birmingham, you will be settling in an area that has been inhabited for approximately half a million years. This is based on archaeological remains found in 1892. Although evidence suggests that the axe found in the area was from a travelling party, it shows that the Midlands was not completely uninhabited before the last Glacial period. There has been an actual settlement found in the Birmingham area which is more than 10,000 years old.

Metchley Fort, a Roman settlement, was built in the area soon after the Romans invaded Britain. The fort is believed to have been built around AD 47. The city’s name comes from the Beormingas, an Anglican tribe who inhabited the area in the late 6th or early 7th century.

Middle Ages

The beginning of modern Birmingham can be traced to the 12th century when it became a Saxon village. A weekly market was established in 1166 by the holder of the manor, Peter de Birmingham. Like many cities in medieval England, Birmingham had a thriving wool industry that was responsible for much of its growth. Birmingham also gained a reputation for being a metalworking and leather making centre in the midlands. By 1500, Birmingham was still a market town with a population of 1,500 people, relatively small for the time.

Industrial Growth

Birmingham grew steadily throughout the Middle Ages and when it reached the 18th century, its population rose to over 11,000. However, it was the Industrial Revolution that really put Birmingham on the map. The town was to be known as one of the hotbeds of innovation and invention during this extraordinary period of growth. It is believed that residents of Birmingham registered three times more patents between 1760 and 1850 than any other town or city in the UK. Birmingham was also home to the Lunar Society in the 18th century. This was a group that consisted of some of the most influential and intellectual people in society in the era.

Some of the most famous inventions to come out of the UK can be accredited to Birmingham during this golden era. In 1709, Abraham Darby created the first blast furnace that could smelt coke with iron ore. This enabled industrialists to create larger amounts of cast iron with a higher quality than ever before. John Roebuck invented the lead chamber process in 1746 while James Watt and Matthew Bolton developed the legendary steam engine in 1776, one of the single most important creations of the Industrial Revolution if not in human history. The steam engine was to transform industrial productivity forever.

Social Unrest

Birmingham was one of the leading towns when it came to social reform in the 19th century. With Thomas Attwood and the Birmingham Political Union leading the charge, the Days of May in 1832 was a period that is said to be the closest Britain has come to revolution. The Union’s meetings on Newhall hill attracted more than 200,000 people on separate occasions in 1831 and 1832 and were the largest ever political assemblies in the UK. Birmingham benefited from the creation of railways in 1837 and during the reign of Queen Victoria, its population grew to over 500,000. The Queen granted city status to Birmingham in 1889.

Modern Birmingham

The city established its first University in 1900. During World War II, the Birmingham Blitz was almost three years of bombing between 1940-1943 where more than 2,200 people were killed. The city needed to be rebuilt after the war and this process was a great success with the Bull Ring and New Market Station rebuilt and made better than ever. Immigrants from overseas, especially from Commonwealth Nations, increased Birmingham’s population to its record level in 1951 of 1.15 million.

Birmingham’s prosperity lasted until the late 1970s when it was overtaken in importance by cities in the North West such as Manchester and Liverpool. It started to rely on the motor industry and the depression of the 1980s brought the city to its knees with record levels of unemployment caused by a crippled economy. Yet the city has regained its status as an important financial centre with the Big City Plan at the forefront of the Council’s ideas for redeveloping and expanding the city. This ambitious plan is dedicated to massively improving the city over the next 20 years and it is hoped that 50,000 new jobs will be created in this time.