Sheldon After 1920

Sheldon was still a country parish. It was unchanged in population and function, apart from the decline of arable farming and growth of dairying and market gardening for Birmingham markets, and the arrival in clouds of dust from the motor-car, until after World War I. Then there was suburban building along Coventry Road, Sheaf Lane, and the south-west corner of the district (Meriden Rural District since 90s).

In 1931 Birmingham absorbed the old parish as far south as Coventry Road and as far east as Tile Cross Road. Building in the south and west continued, mostly private : farms were bought and demolished. After WWII new municipal suburbs spread across the north, with shopping centres and amenities, including schools. Today (1920) of the Saxon landscape, only Elder and Ridding Fields and Radleys Moor are left without buildings, the greatest changes being the huge blocks of flats on the edge of Tile Cross Road and just over the old Yardley border on the Meadway, a new highway replacing one more than a thousand years old (Pool Lane).

This local study should either begin or end with a fairly detailed examination of Sheldon today : children should be given observational tasks, and a large-scale wallmap to plot their discoveries on. Although chronologically untidy, such work done beforehand will ensure a minimum of topographical knowledge, without which much of the study's value will be lost.

1930 housing estates at Lyndon Green & Webb Green covering old village

1924 First double-decker buses. Housing estates under construction.

1925 British Industries Fair constructed. Many new light industries.

1927 Perry Barr entered City (3,100 acres).

1929 Hams Hall Power Station built. More new estates & roads.

1931 Depression. Birmingham's diversity of industry & adaptability enabled it to weather the storm better than most towns. Parts of Sheldon, Castle Bromwich, Minworth & Solihull were added to the City, giving it the present boundaries and acreage of 51,100 - about 80 square miles. Planned development followed.

1933 Ancient centre of city still like Tudor town; concentration of routes to Rea ford, and narrowness of streets causing great traffic congestion: One-way traffic system introduced.

1935 New Fire Brigade HQ opened.

1936 Work begun at Elmdon Airport.

1938 Queen Elizabeth Hospital opened.

1939-1945 Second World War. Many factories & thousands of houses destroyed or damaged by bombing. All improvements stopped.