Churches & Schools

D.'s first church was St. James's Ashted, which had been Dr. John Ash's house. It was consecrated in 1810, but had then been in use for nineteen years as a private chapel. Enlarged in '35, it acquired a tower, and in '53 a parish. Damaged in World War II, it was demolished in the '50's. Population growth beyond Ashted brought St. Matthew's, completed in 1842 and given a parish out of Aston that included all of D. and N. Eight years later the R. C. chapel of St. Joseph was built in the Catholic cemetery on the valley side off Long Acre. Enlarged in '72 it then became a parish church. Like St. Matthew's but unlike all others herein it is still open. St. Clement's on N. Park Road opened in '59 and is now closed awaiting demolition. Other Anglican churches with dates of opening and closing are St. Lawrence Dartmouth Street (1867-1951) St. Anne's Cato Street ('69-'51) and St. Catherine's Scholefield Street ('78-'45). St. Vincent's RC began in '83 as a school chapel in Vauxhall Grove : there is a recently-built church in D. Manor Precinct. Details of other churches and chapels may be found in V.C.H. Warks. Vol. VII.

There was a church school at Ashted in 1828, which stayed open for 32 years. Until after the 1870 Act all schools were denominational : those in Legge and Lawley Streets were opened in '39 and '50, and three were started in '68 - St. Joseph's RC, St. Lawrence's CE, and St. Matthew's (renamed St. Anne's) CE The Birmingham School Board needed to provide buildings to educate many thousands of children : their schools in D. and N., with opening dates, were :- Bloomsbury (Lingard Street), the very first Board School in the Borough, with places for 1059 children (1873), Windsor Street ('74), Dartmouth Street ('76), Grosvenor Street ('77), Eliot Street ('79), Loxton Street ('83), and Cromwell Street ('89).

Birmingham Education Committee superseded the Board and took over its schools in 1902 : only N. Park Road ('04) and Charles Arthur Street Schools ('11) were new requirements in districts fully developed and with a declining population. Reorganisation after the 1944 Act brought changes of name and function to many schools. Redevelopment has swept away all but two - Eliot Street (Nechells Secondary & J.I. in bad repair) and Cromwell J. I. New church schools are St. Clement's, St. Matthew's, and St. Joseph's and St. Vincent's. County Schools are Vauxhall Gardens and the huge D. Manor Comprehensive.