Böcker av Ted Rudge

By the turn of the twentieth century Small Heath and Sparkbrook, two adjacent inner city districts of Birmingham, had been transformed from a rural environment to an urban one. Two vibrant shopping areas had evolved surrounded by Victorian properties of working class back-to-backs and middle class terrace housing on the Coventry Road, Small Heath and Stratford Road, Sparkbrook. Birmingham City FC dominates the city end of Small Heath whereas Small Heath Park at the other end also attracts visitors to the only major green space in this area. However the most historical and oldest building, The Farm, can still be found in Sparkbrook. Unlike other inner-city areas no large scale redevelopment has taken place in either district leaving a mixture of modern and as-built properties in both areas.

Modern Ladywood, with its high-and low-rise housing, dual carriageways, open green spaces and trees on nearly every street corner, bears no resemblance to the old Ladywood many generations experienced. Working-class, back-to-back courtyards with terraced houses fronting them were erected alongside factories from the 1840s. They were built on either side of a canal and railway that cut through the middle of Ladywood. Following Ladywood's redevelopment in the 1960s, only the canal, railway and a handful of the original buildings remain. Over time the whole population of Ladywood was moved; some remained local, others moved out. Now, through the medium of photography, the differences and similarities between Ladywood of past and present can be explored in this fully updated edition of In and Around Ladywood Through Time.