Greater Birmingham

Details of the growth of Birmingham are given in Vol.II of the History of Birmingham (Briggs) and the History of the Corporation of Birmingham.

In 1885 the Parliamentary Borough was enlarged to include Harborne, Balsall Heath, Saltley, and Little Bromwich. Two years later the Council proposed that these districts, plus Aston Manor, Witton, Handsworth, Erdington, Yardley, Moseley, Kings Heath, Selly Oak, and other parts of Kings Norton which were in the Tame and Rea Drainage Board area, should be taken into an enlarged borough to be called Greater Birmingham. Josiah Nettlefold was the prophet and architect of this scheme, which would have increased the City's size to 33,000 acres and its population to 600,000. The outer districts refused to join Birmingham, but in 1891 the municipal and Parliamentary boroughs became identical. The promise of better roads, lights, drains, and services, of public baths and libraries, was kept in these districts: thus in Balsall Heath flamboyant buildings bearing the city's arms to advertise the advantages of joining, and a small public park, were provided in the 90's. The City's chief citizen was given the title of Lord Mayor from 1896.

Aston Manor had sought Incorporation from 1876: it was a borough only from 1903 to 1911. Though of no interest to Birmingham, being fully built-up, it stood in the way of the City's expansion. Quinton sought to enter the City in 1908, wishing to be linked to the Tame/Rea drainage scheme, and was accepted because it offered the chance for planned development in a wholly rural area.

The renewal campaign for Greater Birmingham was won in 1911, all the districts originally sought being included the next year. The inducements of better services and amenities, and lower rates than the rest of the City paid for 15 years, won over the voters in the new districts - most of whom were emigrants to new estates from town slums. Smethwick rejected Birmingham's offers and the City boundary therewith is almost the same now as it was in Saxon times. (There were tiny adjustments in 1966). The enlarged City covered 43,601 acres and had a population of 600,000. It had acquired some surplus administrative centres, which now declined to become registries and libraries - thus the Tudorish Council House of Yardley R.D.C. (1902), the plain Borough Offices of Aston Manor, and the ugly 1877 Handsworth Board building. Despite the first World War and several slumps, improvement of districts new and old continued at a fair pace.

In 1928 most of Perry Barr U.D. came into the City, the rest going to Sutton Coldfield and West Bromwich, Municipal and private building used up land so fast thereafter that more was sought for future needs. Birmingham's last major enlargement was made in 1931, when parts of four parishes on the eastern border were taken in. The Earl of Bradford objected to the disappearance of Castle Bromwich, so the boundary was drawn to leave the Hall, village, and church outside. Wells Green in Sheldon was given to Solihull in return for part of Lyndon, a detached sub-manor of Bickenhill, and Kingshurst went to Meriden R.D. The Berwood Estate of Minworth came in, thus giving Birmingham an airfield and a site for the 'tween-wars British Industries Fair.

Since 1945 Birmingham has sought land on its southern and eastern borders. It failed to get Wythall, but got a small built-up part of Hollywood. The 1966 adjustments lost it Langley Hall Farm (Robin Hood Golf Course) on the old Yardley/Solihull bound. Denied 'new towns' beyond the Green Belt for some years, the City built them at Shard End and Castle Vale and Northfield: in the 60's it built Kingshurst and Chelmsley Wood on land it owned but did not control, in Meriden R.D. From 1974 Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield are joined in a Metropolitan District, and in the West Midlands Metropolitan County which will include all the boroughs from Wolverhampton to Coventry. The decline of municipal power which began with the loss of the electricity and gas undertakings, has continued with transport and water: the entity which has swallowed so many of its neighbours is at last absorbed itself, though it keeps its City title.