Sparkhill
Encyclopedia
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, England, situated between Springfield
Springfield, Birmingham
Springfield is a ward in south east Birmingham, England, created in 2004 from much of the old Sparkhill ward. It is a part of the formal district of Hall Green.-Places of interest:...
, Hall Green
Hall Green
Not to be confused with Hall Green, Wolverhampton or Hall Green, SandwellHall Green is an area and ward in south Birmingham, England. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee...
and Sparkbrook
Sparkbrook
Sparkbrook is an inner-city area in south-east Birmingham, England. It is one of the four wards forming the Hall Green formal district within Birmingham City Council.-Etymology:...
.
Etymology
Sparkhill takes its name from Spark Brook, a small stream that flows from MoseleyMoseley
Moseley is a suburb of Birmingham, England, two miles south of the city centre. The area is a popular cosmopolitan residential location and leisure destination, with a number of bars and restaurants...
to the River Cole
River Cole, West Midlands
The River Cole is a river in the English Midlands. It rises in Redhill, near Kings Norton, South of Birmingham. After flowing through Birmingham, it passes Coleshill, to which it gave its name. It joins the River Blythe, of which it is a tributary, near Ladywalk, shortly before the Blythe meets...
in Small Heath
Small Heath, Birmingham
Small Heath is an inner-city area within the city of Birmingham, West Midlands, England. It is situated on and around the A45 ....
. It was, as the name suggests, a hill that was situated alongside the stream. The stream/river can be traced almost entirely along its length from source to where it joins the River Tame, although most of its tributaries are now culverted, and makes a very pleasant walk/cycle ride. The only part where it cannot easily be followed is a short tunnel where it passes under the Grand Union Canal, very close to the old BSA motorcycle factory, off Golden Hillock Road, although most is accessible through Ackers Trust, (artificial ski slope and sports centre), which was built on BSA's old test track, which can still be used for off-road cycling and similar pursuits.
History
Sparkhill once existed as a rural area with its main industry being agricultureAgriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
until the 1880s. In the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, the Sparke family farmed in the area.
Development of the area began in the 1890s as a result of the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
which was causing Birmingham to expand. In the 1850s, a small area of land was bought by a building society and sold to separate developers who built houses for the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
. People who owned a property were entitled to vote and a campaigner for the working class vote was Joseph Sturge
Joseph Sturge
Joseph Sturge , son of a farmer in Gloucestershire, was an English Quaker, abolitionist and activist. He founded the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society . He worked throughout his life in Radical political actions supporting pacifism, working-class rights, and the universal emancipation of...
, a Birmingham manufacturer. As a result of his campaigning, a newly created street in the area was named after him. The architecture of the houses was varied due to the different developers. A centre began to develop for the area with its own pub, The Cherry Arbour.
In the late 1860s, developments appeared all over Sparkhill with the creation of long, straight streets forming a uniform pattern. The new houses were terraced
Terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
with their own back garden, coal shed and lavatory. For the wealthy middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
, larger houses were built in a plot bounded by Stoney Lane, Alfred Road and Durham Road.
Sparkhill was removed from the possession of Yardley
Yardley, Birmingham
Yardley is an area in east Birmingham, England. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee.Birmingham Yardley is a constituency and its Member of Parliament is John Hemming.-Features:...
and became an area of Birmingham in 1911 as part of the Greater Birmingham Act. Yardley also became a suburb of Birmingham in the same year. The former council house for Yardley District Council (built 1898-1902, architect Arthur Harrison) was converted into Sparkhill Library and opened on 19 January 1923. It is one of the earliest examples of double-glazed windows in a public building. Other buildings built for the district were a police station, magistrate's court and a fire station, which were all located next to the council house. St John's Church is the local Anglican Parish Church and the home of the charity Narthex Sparkhill. Designed by the famous Birmingham Architects Martin and Chamberlain the church was built in 1888.
As a result of the nearby BSA
Birmingham Small Arms Company
This article is not about Gamo subsidiary BSA Guns Limited of Armoury Road, Small Heath, Birmingham B11 2PP or BSA Company or its successors....
factory being targeted, the area suffered from bomb
Bomb
A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...
ing in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, resulting in the loss of some houses, and their 1940s replacement (e.g. the houses at 180-190 Osborne Road). A memorial to those from the BSA works who died during WWII can be found in St John's Church.
Another old landmark in Sparkhill is the Mermaid Inn, which has been the site of a pub since the 17th century. The current, 1930s, building was converted into a Balti
Balti (food)
A Balti is a British-style type of curry cooked and served up in a thin, pressed steel wok-like pan. It is served in many restaurants in the United Kingdom...
restaurant in the late 20th century; however, it was severely damaged by numerous fires in the 2000s decade. The building's art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
exterior decoration is by local sculptor William Bloye
William Bloye
William James Bloye was an English sculptor, active in Birmingham either side of World War II.He studied, and later, taught at the Birmingham School of Art , where his pupils included Gordon Herickx, Raymond Mason and Ian Walters...
.
Other pubs, The Bear and The Antelope, both designed by Holland W. Hobbiss
Holland W. Hobbiss
Holland W. Hobbiss was an architect in the Birmingham area of England. He also traded under the name Holland W. Hobbiss and Partners, and Holland W. Hobbiss and M. A. H. Hobbiss...
, have sculpted pub signs by William Bloye. The Antelope has recently become a Balti Restaurant.
Immigration
In the 20th century, the area became heavily influenced by migrants who settled in the area. It has a large population of ethnic minorities, mainly of South Asian origin, which is reflected by the number of Asian eateries in the area. As a result, Sparkhill has become a main centre in the "Balti TriangleBalti Triangle
The Balti Triangle is an area of Balti houses clustered along Ladypool Road, Stoney Lane and Stratford Road, to the south of Birmingham city centre. It covers parts of Sparkbrook, Sparkhill and Balsall Heath....
" of Birmingham.
The first wave of immigrants were of Irish descent. This has progressed to include Afro-Caribbeans
British African-Caribbean community
The British African Caribbean communities are residents of the United Kingdom who are of West Indian background and whose ancestors were primarily indigenous to Africa...
, South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
ns, and more recently Somalis
Somali people
Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...
.
Notable residents of Sparkhill
- Bev BevanBev BevanBev Bevan is an English rock musician, who was the drummer and one of the original members of The Move and Electric Light Orchestra...
, drummer with The MoveThe MoveThe Move, from Birmingham, England, were one of the leading British rock bands of the 1960s. They scored nine Top 20 UK singles in five years, but were among the most popular British bands not to find any success in the United States....
and the Electric Light OrchestraElectric Light OrchestraElectric Light Orchestra were a British rock group from Birmingham who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in 2001. ELO were formed to accommodate Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones...
. - Moazzam BeggMoazzam BeggMoazzam Begg , is a British Pakistani Muslim who was held in extrajudicial detention in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility and the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba, by the U.S...
, Guantanamo BayGuantanamo Bay detainment campThe Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...
detainee. - Simon InglisSimon InglisSimon Inglis is a British architectural historian, writer and broadcaster, most notably about football and stadiums.Inglis was born in Sparkhill, Birmingham and is currently editor of the Played in Britain series on sporting heritage, published by English Heritage...
, Architectural historian, writer and broadcaster. - James McDadeJames McDadeJames Patrick McDade was a volunteer and a lieutenant in the Birmingham Battalion of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who was killed in a premature explosion while planting a bomb at the Coventry telephone exchange in 1974.- Early life :Born in Oakfield Street in the Ardoyne area of north...
, Irish republican. - Kevin McDonald, archbishop.
- Robert MelvilleRobert Melville (art critic)Robert Melville was an English art critic and journalist.Along with the artists Conroy Maddox and John Melville , he was a key member of the Birmingham Surrealists in the 1930s and 1940s...
, art critic. - Gil MerrickGil MerrickGilbert Harold "Gil" Merrick , was an English footballer and football manager. Considered one of the best goalkeepers in the UK during the mid-1950s, Merrick was one in a long line of great Birmingham City keepers which included the likes of Johnny Schofield and Harry Hibbs...
, Birmingham City goalkeeper. - Lock UpLock Up (UK band)Lock Up is a deathgrind side project originally formed by Shane Embury , Nicholas Barker and Jesse Pintado...
, Band