Edgbaston

Edgbaston is Birmingham's premier suburb, as well as being the leafiest in western Europe!

The Saxon hamlet of Edgbaston appears in the Domesday Book as Celbeldstone, the overlord of which was William Fitz Ansculf of Dudley Castle.

By the time of Edward I, Drew Edgbaldston had adopted the place name as his family name and was under-tenant to the nearby de Bermingham family, who in turn were tenants-in-chief to the Barons of Dudley.

Unfortunately, during the Civil War Birmingham's sympathies lay more with the Parliamentarian forces than the Royalists and the Earl of Clarendon in his History of the Rebellion in England described the people of Birmingham as displaying:

"...as hearty, wilful, affected disloyalty to the King as any place in England"

However, Edgbaston had many Royalist supporters and the Middlemore family, whose seat was at Edgbaston Hall, had to flee when Parliamentary forces seized and garrisoned thehouse.

Edgbaston developed into two major estates - the Calthorpe Estate and the Rotton Park Estate. The former still exists today, but the Rotton Park one was broken up at the end ofthe Nineteenth Century.

Many famous people have lived here, including members of Chamberlain dynasty - Sir Austen and his brother, Neville (MP for Edgbaston and Prime Minister at the outbreak of the Second World War), J R R Tolkien, Cardinal Newman ,George Cadbury and Joseph Priestley (he discovered Oxygen!).

Here are a few links of interest, all based in Edgbaston:

Barber Institute of Fine Arts