Birmingham is famously reputed to have more miles of canals than Venice. These canals contributed much to the city's growth bringing coal & merchandise from the surrounding areas. As the city prospered economically it continued to grow & absorb neighbouring communities a process in many ways bound together by the waterways. Although part of the national network Birmingham's canals including the Worcester & Birmingham the Stratford-upon-Avon & the Birmingham Canal Navigation retain their original identity
- & most are still in water & used regularly albeit in different ways to their original industrial purpose. Fully updated & illustrated with stunning new photographs this book captures the heritage development & modern role of Birmingham's canals in a way that will appeal to canal users as well as those with a wider interest in Britain's second most populous city.
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Anna has always been exceptionally close to her mother Kate & as a child was captivated by the stories her mother would tell of her childhood in Birmingham with her best friend Olivia. Olivia & Kate seemed to have a magical friendship. But when Kate dies she leaves her daughter a final story one that this time tells the whole truth of her life with Olivia Kemp. As Anna reads she is shocked to discover how little she really knew about the mother she felt so close to. With Kates words of caution ringing in her head she goes in search of the one woman who can answer urgent questions about her mothers life & about her own...A remarkable stirring novel Birmingham Friends" perfectly captures the complicated intimacy of female relationships." ...

In the summer of 1914 our finest young men flocked to the colours in Northern towns & cities to answer Lord Kitchener's ' Call to Arms' in a spontaneous burst of enthusiasm & patriotism. The Call appealed to their sense of adventure & offered an escape from the humdrum life of office factory & mill. The new recruits volunteered with brothers cousins friends & work mates. The newly-formed units became the focus of local civic pride & soon became known as the Pals. The City of Birmingham formed three such battalions with over 3 000 local volunteers. This book tells their story. Birmingham Pals is a story that covers the full range of human experience in war
- the highest courage & bravery the misery & tedium of trench life the exhilaration terror & slaughter involved in 'going over the top'. Above all it is a story of interest to people of all backgrounds & ages as a tale of comradeship which for many survivors was to last a life time.
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In the 1950s & 60s aware of what was about to happen to Birmingham Dennis Norton took his camera & went to work. Photographing buildings along the route of the forthcoming inner ring road around New Street station & in other areas of the city due for redevelopment he captured a Birmingha that is now long gone but fondly remembered by many. Almost half a century later Mark Norton discovered these photographs taken by the father he never knew: Dennis died just nine weeks before his son was born. Mark set about retracing his fathers footsteps to discover what has been lost & to compare past with present. In the process he gained a respect for Birmingham that had been missing when he grew up amid the concrete subways & urban motorways of the 1970s. Anyone who remembers Birmingham as it was in the 1950s & 60s will be fascinated by these recently rediscovered photographs while those who only know the city of today will be astonished to see the changes that have taken place. ...

The railway network within Birmingham has long been important for the movement of passengers & freight to serve the centre & its suburbs & as the road network around Birmingham has become more congested the railways in the city have once more taken on an important role. As the network declined in the twentieth century trains were regarded as shabby & also suffered from poor punctuality & stations became unkempt & many had no staff although the majority of the network remained intact. However things began to change during the 1980s. Today Cross-City services operate from a number of Birmingham stations & similar services function between Wolverhampton & Walsall & other cities. The stations serving the city centre have very different & fascinating histories. New Street was the first to appear built by the London & North Western Railway in 1854. The station at Snow Hill was built by the Great Western Railway & opened in 1852. Moor Street terminus was opened in 1909 close to the tunnel mouth on the Snow Hill line. The station was abandoned for a while but has since been beautifully restored to something near its former glory & now allows termination of Chiltern Railways trains from London (Marylebone). Indeed such renovations have ensured that Birmingham is still well served by a modern railway network. ...

Birmingham Town Hall occupies a central place in the history of Britains second city. Built in 1834 to champion & reflect Birminghams civic achievements the Town Halls design was based on the form & style of a partially surviving Roman temple & involved architectural luminaries such as Sir John Soane. This is the first book to provide an accessible account of the buildings construction & history. Grand & impressive the Town Hall is a landmark building in the heart of the city of Birmingham & has played a major role in the citys musical political architectural & social history. Architectural historian Anthony Peers who played a key part in the recent conservation of the Town Hall discusses the construction of the building & the several subsequent schemes of alteration which were required over the following decades as the buildings use evolved. He combines new site-based fabric recording & analysis with existing documentary sources to add greatly to our understanding of the buildings construction. Birmingham Town Hall will be welcomed by architects architectural historians all those interested in local history & building conservation & those for whom the Town Hall is a much-loved landmark in Birmingham. It provides fascinating insight into the history of the city & the architecture of one of its key landmarks. ...

Reality Shows. They may be all the rage on television at present but lets face it
- the real reality is here! The minute you open
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Birth marriage & death records are an essential resource for family historians & this handbook is an authoritative introduction to them. It explains the original motives for registering these milestones in individual lives describes how these record-keeping systems evolved & shows how they can be explored & interpreted. Authors David Annal & Audrey Collins guide researchers through the difficulties they may encounter in understanding the documentation. They recount the history of parish registers from their origin in Tudor times they look at how civil registration was organized in the nineteenth & twentieth centuries & explain how the system in England & Wales differs from those in Scotland & Irel&. The record-keeping practised by nonconformist & foreign churches in communities overseas & in the military is also explained as are the systems of the Isle of Man & the Channel Islands. Other useful sources of evidence for births marriages & deaths are explored & of course the authors assess the online sites that researchers can turn to for help in this crucial area of family history research. ...

Written by one of the worlds leading obstetricians this extraordinary book takes a totally fresh look at what parenting means at the beginning of the 21st century. Addressing both parents the book looks at all aspects of life through the nine months of pregnancy & the following nine of the babys life. It is both a practical handbook for pregnancy birth & the early months of a new babys life & a stimulating exploration of this period of enormous transition. Taking a holistic approach it advocates integrated health care i.e. both conventional & complementary therapies & with its exhaustive medical content including a 160 page A-Z section also acts as a superb source of reference. ...

Following the massive success of the Demonata series Darren Shan is back where it all started
- telling the life story of the vampire
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