Faces and Places

‘Faces and Places’ was originally a 19th century publication that identified the ‘great’ and the ‘good’ in Birmingham. 

We would like to recreate this book here in a series of online exhibitions.
Why not write an entry on what you think has been important to Birmingham’s diverse history and identity?

Birmingham Stories would like to know if you are interested in sharing your knowledge of your community and area!

Click here for further details.

Rhoda Anstey

Rhoda Anstey (1865-1936)

Anstey, Rhoda (1865-1936) founder and first Principal of Anstey Physical Training College in 1897 was born at Jurihayes Farm near Tiverton, Devon in 1865, the seventh of nine children and second daughter of John Walters Anstey and his wife (Suzannah Elizabeth, née Manley) (Rhoda Anstey’s Birth Certificate). Her father was a yeoman farmer and Rhoda was a natural country woman with a great love of the county of her birth. By the time of the 1891 Census Rhoda was managing the dairy on the farm that was headed by brother William. A feminist and keen theosophist and astrologist, Rhoda found great value in meditation and was always deeply interested in matters of health...

Horace Halliburton

Faces and Places: Horace Halliburton

In 1949, the Birmingham Gazette ran a series of articles highlighting an episode of social unrest that took place in the Causeway Green hostel. The disturbances apparently involved Jamaican and Polish residents at the hostel. In a large newspaper article, it was Horace Halliburton who spoke out against the institutional prejudice and racism that had given rise to the conflict. The paper gives the following details of his life...

Esther Ann Johnson

‘A Life on Stage’: The Amazing Story of Esther Ann Johnson

This exhibition concerns a Birmingham-born actress whose incredible history has now been forgotten in the town where she was raised. It is a tale of migration, working class experiences, black history, nineteenth century theatre, and one woman’s courageous pursuit of a ‘life on stage’. Born in Birmingham in 1871, Esther Ann Johnson, or ‘Hettie’, as she came to be known, would first appear in performances of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in England in 1892. Passing away as recently as June 19th 1973 in Saint Christopher’s Hospital, Fareham, Hettie would live to be 102 years old!...

Middlemore Homes

The Middlemore Homes Scheme: 'Hard times for the Edwards family'

On the 3rd October 1904, Mary Emma’s son, Arthur Edwards was placed in the Middlemore Home in Birmingham. Arthur’s son Ralph Edwards, who lives in Winnipeg, Canada told me about his father’s story: “From the Middlemore records that I have been able to view, it appears that William and Emma and their children had fallen on "hard times" and were having trouble providing for their children and themselves. When my father went into the Middlemore Home on 3rd/4th October 1904, this is what was on the application...

Revd Peter Stanford

'American Slavery to English Ministry': The Revd. Peter Thomas Stanford

In 1995 I was investigating the history of Highgate Baptist Church, when a friend brought me details of an article he’d noticed in, Birmingham Faces and Places: An Illustrated Local Magazine, April 1894. I went to Birmingham Central Library and found the magazine. My first reaction was amazement, followed by disbelief! The article, entitled ‘The Revd. Peter Thomas Stanford, “Birmingham’s Coloured Preacher”, said that Stanford, an African American ex-slave, was the minister of Hope Street Baptist church, the forerunner of my present church, between 1889 and 1895! An African American ex-slave the Baptist minister in Victorian Birmingham? Surely, there must be some mistake!...

Jane Suffield

Jane Suffield

In the early nineteenth century education was a privilege. The parents of upper and middle class children would pay for their education. In Birmingham King Edward’s School founded in 1552 was a free grammar school - but for boys only, girls were expected to marry, raise a family and run the house. For that, people thought, education was not particularly necessary. Gradually through the century the situation improved. By 1870 Foster’s Education Act ensured that all children, boys and girls, would receive an elementary education up to the age of twelve. This was done by local councils through the School Board. Only the privileged would have education after that age...

Whose Face or Which Place...

Write about 'someone' whose life made an important contribution to the diverse history of Birmingham

or

write about a 'place' that has made an impact on the history of Birmingham’s landscape

or

create a gallery of images from your own collection of photographs, leaflets, posters, letters...