Eric Armstrong

Central Birmingham Through Time is a unique insight into the illustrious history of this major city. Reproduced in full colour, this is an exciting examination of its well-known streets and famous faces, and what they meant to the people of this area throughout the 19th and into the 20th Century. Looking beyond the exquisite exterior of these well-kept photos, readers can see the historical context in which they are set, and through the author's factual captions for every picture, and carefully-selected choice of images, the reader can achieve a reliable view of the city's history. There is something for everyone here, whether they have lived in Birmingham all their lives, or whether they are just visiting for the first time. Central Birmingham Through Time also shows how photography has continually evolved to keep up with an ever changing society.

Before the advent of the internal combustion engine, the only reliable means of getting about on Birmingham's roads was by walking or by horse. Many businesses ran fleets of horses and wagons to deliver goods around the city, horse trams carried the burgeoning population of the metropolis to and from work, while hansom cabs carried the well-off to the Theatre or to the city's parks. Within the pages of Birmingham's Horse Transport, Eric Armstrong takes us on a tour of the city, using images of horses at work to tell the story of the growth of the city's road transport network. From the city centre to suburbs such as Aston, Birchfield, Bourneville, Handsworth, Harborne, Lozells, Perry Barr, Saltley and Sparkhill he gives us a flavour of a time long gone, when horses, carts, coaches and trams were a common sight on the city's streets.

This fascinating collection of over 200 picture postcards provides a nostalgic insight into the changing history of Birmingham during the period 1900-1945. For over a quarter of this time Britain was at war and the political and social changes experienced were immense, not least in Birmingham, a major industrial city.Each image is accompanied by a detailed caption, bringing the past alive and describing many aspects of life in the city, including chapters on wartime, work, sport, shopping, entertainment and celebrations, providing a vital record of vanished vistas and past practices.This book will appeal to anyone with an interest in the history of the area, and also awaken memories of a bygone time for those who worked or lived in the ‘Second City’.

This fascinating volume illustrates what life was like for a schoolboy growing up in Birmingham between the wars. Illustrated with over 200 photographs, postcards, periodicals and other printed ephemera, this intriguing collection recalls domestic life and public events, from the opening of Birmingham's first airport to mass evacuation of schoolchildren before the outbreak of the Second World War. Accompanied by detailed and informative text, this book will appeal to all those who have lived through the inter-war years and those who would like to know more about what life was like.

From 1907 to 1953, Birmingham Corporation's trams provided an efficient and praiseworthy public transport service throughout the city, carrying millions of passengers during that time. Based on the twenty-eight tram routes in operation during 1937 (a representative year with trams operating in all parts of the city except the south-west sector), readers of this book are taken pictorially on a variety of tram journeys, places and points of interest being identified on the way. In their heyday, trams travelled along all the main directions of a Birmingham compass, moving through densely populated, highly industrialised inner suburbs to leafier outer suburbs, to places of work, places of entertainment and to the busy, bustling city centre. In short, an entertaining kaleidoscope of images is placed on show.