Carl Chinn has shared parts of Birmingham where you could just stroll past and never know the incredible history.
The Brummie historian – given an MBE in the 2001 Birthday Honours for his “services to local history and to charities” – said you might be out in Edgbaston, Kingstanding or Moseley and never know the incredible things that went on there.
Some, such as Moseley Bog, are better known than others.
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For example, many do not know about the King’s Standing Bowl Barrow, or Kingstanding Mound, comprising buried and earthwork remains from the late Neolithic to the late Bronze Age.
It is reputedly the site from where King Charles I reviewed his troops on 18 October 1642, during the English Civil War; from which event both the mound and the area take their name.
Prof Chinn said we are fortunate to have the fascinating history we do in the city.
Moseley Bog.
He said: “There’s so many- Perrots Folly on the borders of Ladywood and Edgbaston which people think was an inspiration for Tolkein’s two towers.
“You have got Aston Hall, which was the setting for Bracebridge Hall, Washington Irving’s book, Old Christmas. He was the father of American literature. How often do we shout out that he was here and wrote Rip Van Winkle and Sleepy Hollow in Birmingham?
“What about where Tolkein used to walk as a child – what is now called Moseley Bog. You would be in a dell and when the wind is blowing, you can hear the creaking in the trees.
“Edward Burn-Jones, the greatest stained-glass artist in history, was a Brummie, born on Bennetts Hill. Look in the St Phillips Cathedral at his magnificent stained-glass windows.
“If you go to Kingstanding, look at the Odeon…for Oscar Deutsch, a Birmingham-Jewish man who started the Odeon chain.
“Just up from the Odeon on Kingstanding circle is a little mound which is probably the burial place of a Bronze Age leader.
“You have got Stirchley, now known for its bars and restaurants, which was originally Strutley – it was the clearing on the street.
“Same as Streetly – what street? The Roman Road that goes up – Icknield Street.
“There is so much to shout about our history.”