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79-422: The company was funded by Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Arts for the purpose of giving 16- to 23-year-olds from the wider local community access to drama and the theatre arts. Many successful actors and actresses began their careers in the youth theatre, most notably: As of 2009, Derek Nicholls is now the chief executive of Qdos Entertainment plc's HQ Theatres division. Due to problems with funding,

158-486: A Roman aqueduct that indicated a Romano-British building of some status had once stood on the site. In 1963 a Roman coin was found in nearby Rednal by a Janet and Stephen Harris. The coin was a dupondius struck during the reign of the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius who ruled Rome and Britain from 138 to 161 AD. The tiny coin was struck from brass and would have been worth about the price of

237-456: A Section 114 notice , being the local government equivalent of bankruptcy, stopping all future spending with the exception of money for statutory services, including the protection of vulnerable people. The leader of the Labour authority stated that the notice was a necessary step to get Birmingham back into a sound financial footing. The government subsequently appointed commissioners to oversee

316-651: A county borough , independent from the new Warwickshire County Council , whilst remaining part of the geographical county of Warwickshire . The dignity of a lord mayor was conferred in 1896, with James Smith being appointed the first Lord Mayor of Birmingham . The city boundaries have been enlarged many times. Notable expansions were in 1891 ( Balsall Heath , Harborne , Saltley and Little Bromwich ), 1909 ( Quinton ), 1911 ( Aston Manor , Erdington , Handsworth , Kings Norton , Northfield and Yardley ), 1928 ( Perry Barr ), 1931 ( Sheldon and parts of other parishes), and 1974 ( Sutton Coldfield ). The county borough

395-455: A 25 year deal with Amey plc to manage the city's highways, but, after allegations of sub-standard repairs to roads and pavements, the council invoked penalty clauses and entered into a prolonged legal dispute. In December 2018, Amey parent Ferrovial put the business up for sale, after allocating €237m for losses on Amey's highway maintenance contract with the Council. In February 2019, Amey

474-475: A bondswoman (a slave). St. Laurence's Church, Northfield dates from the 12th century, nearby is the Great Stone Inn with a medieval timber framed hall and the 17th Century village pound where stray animals were kept; the large rock in the pound, a glacial "erratic" (see Geology below), was formerly in the road at the corner of the inn, and was used as a mounting-block by horse-riders; it was removed in

553-435: A figure of 16.4% (1,711) as opposed to 51.3% for Birmingham in general. The largest religious group was Christianity at 56.5% (5,549). Some secondary age school children from Northfield attend Turves Green Boys' School or King Edward VI Northfield School for Girls , both on Turves Green . However, with Northfield falling within the various catchment areas for several secondary schools others choose to travel to: Northfield

632-605: A large mansion on the Bristol Road South near St Lawrence Road called Gainsborough House, originally built in the 17th century, was renamed The Priory and became home to the Convent of our Lady of Charity housing up to twenty nuns and girls. The grounds of the Priory nearly reached Heath Road South and included a circuitous woodland walk and a large lake. Demolished in the 1990s the Priory and its grounds are now covered by

711-537: A loaf of bread. Northfield was in a Saxon settlement or a Celtic area that Saxons had conquered in North Worcestershire , which in 1086 became part of the lands of William Fitz-Ansculf, a Norman knight. The village Nordfeld is described in the Domesday Book as having a priest as well as seven villeins , sixteen bordars, six cottars, who shared enough land for thirteen ploughs, two serfs and

790-516: A major supplier of business stationery and computer multi-part forms, employing predominantly female factory workers, until it closed in the 1980s. Kalamazoo moved into the IT industry, specialising in ERP systems for automotive dealerships, with their headquarters located nearby. In 2001 an American firm, UCS acquired Kalamazoo Computer Group PLC and the business was re-branded as Kalamazoo Ltd until 2003 where it

869-562: A member of the West Midlands Combined Authority since 2016. The council has been under Labour majority control since 2012. It is based at the Council House on Victoria Square, Birmingham . On 6 September 2023, the council declared effective bankruptcy , and central government commissioners were subsequently appointed to run the council under emergency measures. Until the 18th century, Birmingham

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948-607: A modern housing estate and an extension to the Royal Orthopedic Hospital. Birmingham Corporation Tramways operated a network of electric trams in Birmingham between 1904 until 1953. It was the largest narrow-gauge tramway network in the UK, built to a gauge of 3 ft 6 inches and the fourth largest tramway network in the UK after London, Glasgow and Manchester. The tram-tracks ran in both directions along

1027-407: A municipal recreation area to mark Queen Victoria 's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, was never completed and reopened to the public until 1901. The park has changed little since it was first opened (though trees have grown and matured), excepting the additions of several tennis courts laid in the 1930s and a children's play area built in the 1950s and renewed since. A tributary of Griffin's Brook ran through

1106-408: A prehistoric shallow sea and enriched by sediments from ice age glaciers. The natural heath land had grown on a flatter area between the nearby Lickey Hills and Redhill. The Northfield area includes a wide geological range of rocks of various ages. The stratigraphic sequence, which is the basis for the area's diversity of landscape and habitat , comprises: Northfield stands on a small part of

1185-558: A sluggish trickle, due to changes in agricultural usage and other demands, the River Rea was once a major waterway and served several working mills in West Heath and provided water for the skating rink and open air lido (now both demolished). A tributary of Griffin's Brook flows through Northfield's Victoria Common and parallel to Heath Road South on its way to Bournville although it is piped underground now for most of its route since

1264-473: Is also a covered market in the Bristol Rd shopping area. This shopping area serves a large region and is used by residents outside Northfield ward itself. In June 2010, Northfield Radio Link scheme was launched across the town centre to allow shops to quickly share information with each other, security and the police to make the town safer. A traditional farmers' market is held on the second Saturday of

1343-654: Is also home to the Northfield Cobbler for shoe repairs and key cuttings. The shops in Northfield town centre run along what used to be the main A38 (Bristol Road South; the A38 proper now bypasses the town centre) and include Home Bargains , Aldi , B & M (opened March 2011), plus a Sainsbury's supermarket on the junction with Frankley Beeches Road (previously based in the Grosvenor shopping centre). There

1422-528: Is claimed will help with the unemployment suffered by the former workers of the Rover factory. Other developments are a park and ride for the station, with some buildings owned by Network West Midlands demolished to make way for it. In 1913 Oliver Morland and local Quaker businessman F Paul Impey moved their Kalamazoo paper factory from central Birmingham to an extensive site near the Bristol Road South between Northfield and Longbridge. The factory developed as

1501-580: Is predominantly a residential and dormitory suburb of metropolitan Birmingham. Northfield stands on either side of the main A38 , heading south from the centre of Birmingham to Bromsgrove and onwards all the way to Cornwall . Northfield was occupied or visited in the Stone Age as evidenced by a yellow Chert neolithic scraper discovered in Quarry Lane and a stone axe-head found on Tessall Lane, dated to

1580-719: Is served by both Northfield railway station and Longbridge railway station on the Cross-City Line . Several bus routes pass through the ward, including routes 18, 20, 20A, 27, 61, 63 and 76 operated by National Express West Midlands , routes 19, 39, 39A, and 55 are operated by Kev's Car and Coaches and route 46/46A operated by Stagecoach Midlands . Northfield is centred on the main A38 road , which runs southwards from Birmingham and leads to Bromsgrove , Worcester , Gloucester , Bristol, Exeter and eventually Bodmin in Cornwall. The section of this road through Northfield

1659-622: Is served by the NHS Trust Selly Oak Hospital , now part of the University Hospital Trust and due to close shortly to move into new premises, occupies the premises of the former Kings Norton Union Workhouse although the infirmary buildings have not been used as wards for many years, but as offices and consulting rooms. Currently, part of the hospital is used as the main treatment centre for military casualties from Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as hosting

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1738-558: Is the local authority for the city of Birmingham in the West Midlands , England. Birmingham has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been reformed several times. Since 1974 the council has been a metropolitan borough council . It provides the majority of local government services in the city. It is the most populous local government district in England, serving over 1.1   million people. The council has been

1817-641: The Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency . Pinsent's time on the council overlapped with that of Margaret Frances Pugh, who was elected on 22 November 1911 to serve in the North Erdington ward. She resigned in November 1913. Birmingham's third woman councillor, Clara Martineau, was elected on 14 October 1913 in the Edgbaston ward, and served until 1932, when she died, aged 57. Her father

1896-528: The New Stone Age . It is also possible that Northfield was occupied in the Bronze Age as large burnt mounds of heat-shattered stones have been identified alongside Northfield's streams evidencing occupation of the area over a lengthy period of time. One of these mounds found near Merritts Brook Lane is 16 metres across. Two further mounds, one on Griffin's Brook near Woodlands Park Road and another at

1975-577: The Northfield—Dudley plateau , which constitutes part of the South Staffordshire Uplands and was covered by a massive glacier that stretched all the way from Wales during the last ice age approximately 10,000 – 13,000 years ago. The evidence for this lies in the occurrence of numerous Erratic boulders or far-travelled ice-borne stones, some of which are of immense size, as well as the vast deposits of glacial sands and gravels in

2054-656: The 1970s, surfacing only briefly to feed the pond near Hole Farm Road, then in Woodlands Park and next near the Valley Pool boating lake, after which it joins up with Griffin's Brook proper which is then renamed the Bourn Brook until it flows into the River Rea. In the 18th century Griffin's Brook was prone to flooding and in the summer of 1786 was reported as being "eight times swollen to such a degree as to interrupt or greatly incommode carriages and passengers on

2133-471: The 1974 reforms has been as follows: The role of Lord Mayor of Birmingham is largely ceremonial. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council . The first leader of the council after the 1974 reforms, Clive Wilkinson, had been the leader of the old county borough of Birmingham since December 1973. The leaders since 1973 have been: Following the 2022 election and subsequent by-elections and changes of allegiance up to September 2024,

2212-499: The 19th century Northfield was known for its nail making industry based in cottages and small workshops next to the Church. Within the ward in 1831 there were 122 men recorded as being employed in the industry. However the industry was already in decline – in 1841 there were 74 nailers and in 1884 there were only 23 with seven of those in West Heath. Nailer's workshops had been present in Northfield, Groveley, West Heath and Turves Green. By

2291-578: The Bristol Road South through Northfield had become known as the Upper Saltway (part of the historic Ryknild Street ), because it was one of the routes used to transport salt extracted from the Droitwich brine springs all the way to Saltfleet on the Lincolnshire coast. The salt was then loaded onto ships and exported to France and Scandinavia for trading purposes. The Romans also used

2370-484: The Bristol Road." Merritt's Brook rises as springs in fields to the south-west of Northfield, crossing Bell Holloway and flowing parallel to the Bristol Road South until it flows into the lake at Manor Farm. From there the brook flows into Griffin's Brook just west of the A38 near Griffin's Brook Lane. The A38 Bristol Road South, which runs between Birmingham and Worcester and eventually Cornwall , passes to

2449-570: The City of Birmingham. The extensive housebuilding continued before and after World War II through extensions to the Bournville Model Village and several estates of temporary Prefab housing in West Heath, although new house provision has slowed down to a much less dramatic rate since the 1970s. In 1911 the civil parish had a population of 31,395. On 9 November 1912 the parish was abolished and merged with Birmingham. By 1900

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2528-451: The M.P. for Northfield and Kings Norton, Ronald Cartland , the brother of Dame Barbara Cartland , the novelist. The lido which had been built by Percy Hollier, who intended it to be "Birmingham's brightest entertainment spot" and which included a 180-foot-by-90-foot swimming pool as well as a putting green, lawn for archery and a children's playground, only operated for three years and was closed due to commercial failure. Laughtons took over

2607-623: The bulk of the estate remains derelict and undeveloped. When the redevelopment is finally completed, it is expected that the new Egghill Estate will include improved shopping and community facilities. There are many pre-war and post war council houses, maisonettes , flats and tower blocks in Northfield Constituency. During the Middle Ages Northfield formed part of the Halfshire Hundred in

2686-400: The central grassed reservation of the Bristol Road South but also ran right through the centre of Northfield, with cars and commercial vehicles having to give way to the trams on the rails set into the road. Both routes that ran through Northfield, Route 70 (Navigation Street to Rednal) and Route 71 (Navigation Street to Rubery) were closed down on 5 July 1952. Eventually, over a number of years,

2765-402: The city council sit on the board of the combined authority as Birmingham's representatives. There are two civil parishes in the city at Sutton Coldfield and New Frankley in Birmingham , which form an additional tier of local government for their areas; the rest of the city is unparished . The council has been under Labour majority control since 2012. Political control of the council since

2844-447: The company ceased to exist in 1987. The unrelated BMOS Youtheatre was set up in Birmingham in 1987, and renamed "Birmingham Youth Theatre" in 2013; it is a registered charity. 52°27′10″N 1°54′13″W  /  52.4527°N 1.9037°W  / 52.4527; -1.9037 This British theatre–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council

2923-477: The composition of the council was: The next election is due in May 2026. Since the last boundary changes in 2018, the council has comprised 101 councillors representing 69 wards , with each ward electing one or two councillors. Elections are held every four years. The wards and councillors are: The council meets and has some offices at the Council House on Victoria Square in the city centre. The building

3002-426: The concentration of low-rise housing. By the 1980s, however, the estate was plagued by crime and the declining quality of the housing stock. In 2000, the city council decided to demolish the entire estate to make way for a new housing development. A decade on, however, the redevelopment is far from complete. Some of the old houses remain, while only a small number of new housing association properties have been built, and

3081-535: The corporation or town council. William Scholefield became the first mayor and William Redfern was the first town clerk. The corporation absorbed the functions of the street commissioners in 1852. Birmingham was granted city status on 14 January 1889, after which the corporation was also known as the city council . When elected county councils were established in April 1889, Birmingham was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services, and so it became

3160-478: The council claimed the government was preparing to "pull the plug" on £600m of highways funding. Kier were awarded the restructured contract, set to start in February 2024, but the deal was subject to government approval. Northfield, Birmingham Northfield is a residential area in outer south Birmingham , in the county of the West Midlands , England, near the boundary with Worcestershire , which it

3239-480: The council has been a member of the West Midlands Combined Authority , which has been led by the directly elected Mayor of the West Midlands since 2017. The combined authority provides strategic leadership and co-ordination for certain functions across the county, but Birmingham City Council continues to be responsible for most local government functions. On 5 September 2023, Birmingham City Council issued

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3318-673: The council was a lower-tier authority, with upper-tier functions provided by the West Midlands County Council . The county council was abolished in 1986 and its functions passed to the county's seven borough councils, including Birmingham City Council, with some services provided through joint committees. In 1995, New Frankley and the Kitwell Estate were transferred into the city from the parish of Frankley in Bromsgrove District . Since 2016

3397-556: The council's financial difficulties following the issuing of the Section 114 notice in 2023. Past chief executives have included: Notable services provided and facilities managed by Birmingham City Council include: The city's museums were transferred to the independent Birmingham Museums Trust in 2012. The council sold its Ogwen Cottage Outdoor Pursuits Centre, by auction, in October 2014. In 2010, Birmingham City Council agreed

3476-453: The county of Worcestershire. Birmingham Northfield is a parliamentary constituency . Its Member of Parliament (MP) is Gary Sambrook Conservative Party (United Kingdom) who was elected on 12 December 2019. The councillor elected to represent the Northfield ward on Birmingham City Council is Kirsten Kurt-Elli Labour Party (United Kingdom) . Northfield is built on a well-drained stretch of gravel and sand that had been laid down under

3555-466: The district. The composition of many of these boulders shows that they originated from as far away as Scotland or Snowdonia in Wales, such as the massive boulder discovered while Rowheath playing fields were laid out. Another large boulder is the one after which the Great Stone Inn is named. This glacial erratic from North Wales stood for ten thousand years at the corner of Church Hill and Church Road until it

3634-491: The first female chief executive, was in post from 2002 until 2005. Bert Carless , a migrant from Jamaica, was elected the City's first non-white councillor in 1979. He was later made an Honorary Alderman . Birmingham City Council provides metropolitan borough services. Some strategic functions in the area are provided by the West Midlands Combined Authority; the leader and deputy leader of

3713-774: The first mile passes through Northfield, West Heath and onwards to Kings Norton, Selly Oak and Digbeth in the centre of Birmingham. Near Gravelly Hill Interchange , about 14 miles (23 km) from its source, the Rea becomes a tributary of the River Tame and its waters eventually discharge into the North Sea via later connections with the River Trent and eventually the Humber Estuary . Although now culverted for much of its route through Birmingham and often reduced to

3792-453: The foot of Bell Hill, were radiocarbon-dated to c1070 BCE and c1120 BCE respectively. The usage evidence is not totally conclusive, but the hot stones are believed to have either provided heating for domestic cooking or Bronze Age saunas. Before Roman times the area round Northfield most likely belonged to the Celtic tribe, Dobunii , there is little evidence of Saxon settlement and the area

3871-612: The forces of the two opposing sides. Hawkesley House in West Heath, which belonged to the royalist Middlemore family, was besieged and seized by parliamentary forces who fortified the building but were re-expelled subsequently by royalist forces in May 1645 and the house was then razed to the ground. Prince Rupert of the Rhine , commander of the Royalist cavalry, lived in Longbridge House and used it as his headquarters throughout

3950-648: The interests of road safety in the 1950s. The area round the church, the inn and the pound are a conservation area because of their historic importance. A local joke describes Northfield as "where they sell beer by the Stone and ale by the Pound". During the English Civil War Northfield stood on the northern border of royalist Worcestershire and right next to parliamentary Warwickshire and there were regular minor skirmishes and conflicts between

4029-416: The loss of more than 6,500 jobs. The company assets were bought by Chinese carmaker Nanjing Automobile three months later, and low volume production began in May 2007 with just over 200 workers employed at the factory making MG TF sports cars. However, the majority of the factory site was demolished, with plans to regenerate the area with a new town centre for Longbridge, new shops, parks and homes, which it

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4108-591: The main prosthetic limb production and fitment centre in the West Midlands. The specialist Royal Orthopaedic Hospital stands on the Bristol Road South, George Cadbury bought the Woodlands, as it was originally called, and gave it to the Crippled Children's Union in 1909 to be used as a hospital. A new £8 million out-patients department was opened in May 2011. The addition contains 24 consultation rooms, treatment rooms and other facilities replaced

4187-522: The month from 9-1:30 at Kings Norton Green and a car boot sale is held most Saturdays during the year in a field on Merrits Brook Lane. There are also has a number of public facilities in Northfield town centre including Northfield Library, Northfield Community Partnership (help into jobs and community support), Connexions (help into jobs for young people), The Shop (advice for young people), Citizens Advice Bureau , Northfield Neighbourhood Office, Northfield Ecocentre and Victoria Common park. The ward

4266-553: The original turnpike is known as the Bristol Road South. The 'Bell and Bluebell Inn' at the junction of Bell Lane and Bell Holloway was a coaching station for travellers until a new 'Bell Inn' was built on the Bristol Road in 1803. There was a small separate hamlet on Bell Lane where several late 18th-century and early 19th-century cottages still survive. From 1766 a cross-country route was also turnpiked from Northfield to Wootton Wawen, Henley-in-Arden . In 1868 N E S A Hamilton's The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland described

4345-402: The parish as follows: In 1870 Northfield railway station was opened providing new business opportunities. Charles Pegram, a local industrialist built houses for railway workers, also a roller skating rink and a temperance hotel all near the station. Victoria Common was laid out and landscaped on the site of the former public common land called Bradley's Field by Birmingham City Council as

4424-673: The park but was piped underground as far as St Lawrence Road during landscaping. The original grand entrance gates, park-keeper's residential lodge, gardeners' workshops and nursery greenhouse all stood on the Bristol Road South where the Northfield Shopping Centre precinct now stands. During the first decade of the 20th century Austin Motor Works and Kalamazoo both entered the area, providing plentiful and well paid employment for Northfield residents. In 1900 visitors arriving via Northfield railway station could visit

4503-687: The period prior to World War I . The northern reaches of Northfield fall within the Bournville model village and the southern housing estates were originally built by Austin Motors for their workforce. A centre of the Midlands nail making industry during the 19th century and home to both the Kalamazoo paper factory and the Austin motor company's Longbridge factory in the 20th century, today Northfield

4582-399: The population represented by ethnic minorities is low in comparison to other wards with a figure of 4.9% (1,130) as opposed to 29.6% for Birmingham in general. The 2021 Population Census recorded that 10,404 people were living in the ward with a population density of 4,470 people per km . The percentage of the population represented by ethnic minorities is low in comparison to other wards with

4661-467: The rails were covered by tarmac during several road -repair schemes during the 1950s and 1960s. A major housing development in Northfield was the Egghill Estate in the west of the district. It was built by the city council during the 1950s and 1960s, with hundreds of properties being built. There were several multi-storey blocks of flats as well as lower blocks of flats and a shopping centre among

4740-614: The road that became the Upper Saltway as a frequent route between settlements and marching forts. Roman occupation evidence was discovered by chance near the Bristol Road South in Northfield when Pigeon House near Hill Top Road was demolished in c1921 (as the Bristol Road was being widened) and the Northfield hoard of 16 Roman coins was found buried. The trove included coins of Claudius II Gothicus (268–270 CE), Diocletian (284–305 CE), Maximian (285–286 CE), Constantius (305–306 CE), Constantine (306–337 CE) . The excavation also revealed

4819-570: The running of the council under emergency measures. The first woman elected to the council, on 1 November 1911, was Ellen Pinsent . She represented the Edgbaston Ward as a Liberal Unionist . She had earlier been co-opted as a member of the council's Education Committee and served as Chairman of the Special School Sub-Committee. She stood down from the council in October 1913 upon appointment as Commissioner for

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4898-543: The same; however, in 1984, the library building was doubled in size to accommodate more books. The library celebrated its centenary in 2006. West Heath library also serves the area. As recently as 1900 Northfield was still a village within the rural north Worcestershire countryside. The residential Austin Village was built during World War I to house factory workers. Later a succession of private and council housing developments had completely swallowed Northfield up into

4977-567: The siege of Hawkesley House. Hawksley House is now an archaeological site. There are traditions that Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond , slept in Selly Manor on his way to the Battle of Bosworth Field . Later Robert Catesby , of the Gunpowder plot fame, and Oliver Cromwell are both said to have also visited Northfield and also stayed at Selly Manor House. Throughout the early part of

5056-545: The site with Eddystone Radio during World War II, when its semi-rural location helped it to avoid attack by German air raids. The lido site is now covered by a housing estate. Northfield Library serves the area. It was opened in 1906, but was destroyed by fire in 1914 in a suspected arson attack by the Suffragettes . It was rebuilt in the same year by the Free Libraries Committee. The façade remains

5135-662: The skating rink on West Heath Road next to the bridge over the River Rea . Unfortunately the skating rink was used during the First World War as a munitions factory and following an accident the rink was destroyed by fire. Another notable building of the area was The Bath Tub open air lido (now demolished), opened on 1 July 1937 in Alvechurch Road, where 20,000 people had gathered to watch the opening ceremony by Gracie Fields with Mantovani and his orchestra and

5214-436: The start of the 20th century nailing had moved to central Birmingham factories, ceasing to be a cottage industry. Also nearby were a number of grain mills on the banks of the River Rea , where locally grown corn and wheat was ground. Northfield was on the main road between Birmingham and Worcester . In 1762 this route was turnpiked and the Northfield tollgate was on the site of the modern-day corner of Rochester Road. Today

5293-761: The temporary out-patients buildings that had been used since 1992. Hollymoor Hospital , a psychiatric facility on Tessal Lane in Northfield, was built as an annexe to Rubery Lunatic Asylum by the Birmingham Corporation , opening in 1905. Hollymoor Hospital served as Northfield Military Hospital in the Second World War : it closed in 1995 and has largely been demolished. The former Grosvenor shopping centre, has been renamed 'Northfield Shopping Centre' and contains several leading retail stores including Wilko , Iceland , WH Smiths , Greggs , New Look and Holland and Barrett . The shopping centre

5372-532: The west. The M42 and M5 Motorways are also close, providing national connections. Northfield is perhaps most famous for the Longbridge plant , the Austin Rover car factory located in the Longbridge Ward. This factory was built in 1905 making Austin cars, and gradually expanded over the next 70 years to build higher volumes of vehicles by successive carmaking combines including BMC , British Leyland , Austin Rover , Rover Group and most recently MG Rover . In April 2005 MG Rover went into administration with

5451-449: Was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 , being replaced by a metropolitan district of Birmingham, covering the area of the old county borough plus the borough of Sutton Coldfield. The new district was one of seven metropolitan districts within the new metropolitan county of the West Midlands. Birmingham's borough and city statuses and its lord mayoralty passed to the new district and its council. From 1974 until 1986

5530-519: Was announced the Birmingham contract would end in March 2020; Kier Group was appointed as interim contractor for 15 months while the council sought a permanent replacement for Amey. In February 2022, the city council formally began the process of identifying a contractor to deliver £2.7 billion of works over 12 years, and invited Kier and Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin to tender for the city’s restructured highways PFI contract, covering more than 2,500km of road and 5,000km of footway. However, in October 2023,

5609-434: Was close to a deal to exit its Birmingham contract, liabilities from which were preventing the company's sale by Ferrovial. A £215m deal to terminate Amey's Birmingham contract was confirmed in July 2019. The council was set to receive £160m in 2019 with a further £55m paid over the next six years, with services continuing on an interim basis until September 2019, and potentially until March 2020. However, in February 2020, it

5688-478: Was first completed in 1879 for the old borough council and has been extended several times since. The council has several other office buildings, notably at 10 Woodcock Street, completed in 2011. There are two customer services centres, at 67 Sutton New Road in Erdington and at 1a Vineyard Road in Northfield. The possible closure and sale of some of the council's buildings is being considered as part of addressing

5767-546: Was former Mayor Sir Thomas Martineau , Lord Mayor Ernest Martineau was her brother, and Alderman Sir George Kenrick was her uncle. Mary Cottrell became the first female Labour councillor in February 1917, when she was elected unopposed to the Selly Oak ward. The first female Lord Mayor, Marjorie Brown, held the post from 1973 to 1974. Theresa Stewart became the first female leader in October 1993, until 1999; and Lin Homer

5846-501: Was governed by manorial courts and its parish vestry . A body of improvement commissioners called the Birmingham Street Commissioners was established in 1769 to provide services in the rapidly growing town. Birmingham was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1838, after which it was governed by a body formally called 'the mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Birmingham', generally known as

5925-472: Was historically within. It is also a council constituency , managed by its own district committee . The constituency includes the wards of Kings Norton , Longbridge , Weoley Castle and the smaller ward of Northfield that includes West Heath and Turves Green . Mentioned in the Domesday Book and formerly a small village, then included in north Worcestershire, Northfield became part of Birmingham in 1911 after it had been rapidly expanded and developed in

6004-751: Was moved several metres into the adjacent pound during the 1950s. Others indicate a more local origin, such as the Wrekin district in Shropshire. The subsoil layers under Northfield, West Heath and Turves Green also contains a coal seam that would indicate that an extensive prehistoric tropical forest once existed here. The River Rea runs through Northfield on its way from its source to the North Sea. The river rises in Waseley Hills Country Park and after dropping 70 metres (230 ft) in

6083-454: Was probably mainly Celtic. The name was original nord feld , an Anglo-Saxon phrase and Northfield was probably named because the area is to the north of Bromsgrove . Northfield was also near the northern edge of the Saxon kingdom called Hwicce as were Kings Norton and Yardley and was near the northern edge of the area settled by Saxons arriving from the south. What is now the route of

6162-484: Was renamed Kalamazoo-UCS Ltd. After the 2006 UCS merger of Reynolds and Reynolds , the UK company was renamed Kalamazoo-Reynolds Ltd. In November 2012 Kalamazoo-Reynolds rebranded to Reynolds and Reynolds Ltd. Reynolds and Reynolds UK still operate at the site in Northfield today. The 2001 Population Census recorded that 23,042 people were living in the ward with a population density of 4,417 people per km compared with 3,649 people per km for Birmingham. The percentage of

6241-529: Was traditionally very congested around the old village centre, but in 2006 a relief road was built, which has significantly improved the situation. The relief road involved widening a part of an existing road Bell Lane, a new by pass was also built and named, "Sir Herbert Austin Way" in recognition of Herbert Austin, 1st Baron Austin who started producing cars at the Longbridge plant and built Austin Village in

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