Aston is an area of inner
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
, England. Located immediately to the north-east of
Central Birmingham
Birmingham City Centre, also known as Central Birmingham and often known locally as town, is the central business district of Birmingham, England. Following the removal of the Inner Ring Road, the city centre is now defined as being the area w ...
, Aston constitutes a
ward
Ward may refer to:
Division or unit
* Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward
* Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
within the metropolitan authority. It is approximately 1.5 miles from
Birmingham City Centre
Birmingham City Centre, also known as Central Birmingham and often known locally as town, is the central business district of Birmingham, England. Following the removal of the Inner Ring Road, the city centre is now defined as being the area wi ...
.
History
Aston was first mentioned in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
in 1086 as "Estone", having a mill, a priest and therefore probably a church, woodland and ploughland. The
Church of Saints Peter and Paul was built in medieval times to replace an earlier church. The body of the church was rebuilt by J. A. Chatwin during the period 1879 to 1890; the 15th century tower and spire, which was partly rebuilt in 1776, being the only survivors of the medieval building.
The ancient parish of Aston (known as Aston juxta Birmingham) was large. It was separated from the parish of Birmingham by AB Row, which currently exists in the
Eastside of the city at just 50 yards in length. Aston, as Aston Manor, was governed by a Local Board from 1869 and was created as an Urban District Council in 1903 before being absorbed in the expansion of the County Borough of Birmingham in 1911, and a further part,
Saltley
Saltley is an inner-city area of Birmingham, east of the city centre. The area is part of the Washwood Heath ward, and was previously part of the Nechells ward. It is part of the Ladywood constituency in the city.
History
Saltley was originally ...
was added in 1911.
![Aston Hall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Aston_Hall.jpg)
Old buildings which became popular within Aston included the
Aston Hippodrome
The Aston Hippodrome (), also known as The Hipp, was a popular theatre in the Aston area of Birmingham, England."A ...
and the
Bartons Arms
The Bartons Arms () is a public house in the High Street (part of the A34) in the Newtown area of Aston, Birmingham, England.
Built in 1900-1901 by noted pub architects partnership James and Lister Lea for Mitchells & Butlers, it is a grade ...
public house
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
. Gospel Hall on Park Lane was opened in 1892 and demolished in the 1970s to be rebuilt at the top of Park Lane in 1979. The original hall had a seating capacity of 73. Another meeting place was the Ellen Knox Memorial Hall which was next door to the Midland Vinegar Brewery. The brewery was owned by the Midland Brewery Company was built around 1877. It was located on Upper Thomas Street. The brewery was a three-storey brick building with rounded corners, semi-circular windows and a slated roof. Other industry that was located in Aston include the Premier Motor Works which produced cars during the early 20th century. The works were situated at the junction of Aston Road and Dartmouth Street. On Miller Street was a tramcar depot which had a storage capacity of 104 tramcars. It opened in 1904 latterly being operated by the
City of Birmingham Tramways Company Ltd
The City of Birmingham Tramways Company Ltd operated trams in Birmingham, England, from 1896 until 1911.
The company was formed on 29 September 1896 by James Ross (President and Vice-President of the Toronto and Montreal Street Railway Co. ...
on behalf of the Urban District Council before formally passing to
Birmingham Corporation Tramways
Birmingham Corporation Tramways operated a network of tramways in Birmingham from 1904 until 1953. It was the largest narrow-gauge tramway network in the UK, and was built to a gauge of . It was the fourth largest tramway network in the UK behi ...
on 1 January 1912.
![Aston uni campus1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Aston_uni_campus1.jpg)
Aston underwent large scale redevelopment following the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. South Aston was designated a renewal area involving comprehensive redevelopment of the traditional area known as "Aston New Town". The area, was more commonly called simply "
Newtown" and is a large estate consisting of sixteen tower blocks, five of which have since been demolished. The project was approved in 1968. Three 20-storey tower blocks on the complex contained 354 flats alone.
![Villa Park](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Villa_Park.jpg)
Today, Aston gives its name to
Aston Villa F.C.
Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Pa ...
and
Aston University
Aston University (abbreviated as ''Aston''. for post-nominals) is a public research university situated in the city centre of Birmingham, England. Aston began as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School in 1895, evolving into the UK's first c ...
(the campus of which is not in Aston but about 1.3 miles to the south in Birmingham city centre). Aston University is one of four universities in Birmingham. Aston Villa have played at
Villa Park
Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway stations ...
since 1897, and it has traditionally been one of the largest football grounds in England that has staged many notable matches at club and international level. The park has also hosted other sports and events including international level
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
and
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
. This is one of the main attractions in this town.
Much of Aston consists of terraced houses that were built around the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Some of these houses were demolished in the late 1960s to make way for the
Aston Expressway
The A38(M), commonly known as the Aston Expressway, is a motorway in Birmingham, England. It is long and was opened on 24 May 1972.[M6 motorway
The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at t ...](_blank)
. In the late 1950s, Aston was the location of the famous 'Venus Baby' case of Cynthia Appleton (87 Fentham Road).
By the early 1980s, Aston was suffering from severe deprivation with many of the terraced houses being outdated for the requirements of the time. Many of them lacked bathrooms and indoor toilets, whilst the vast majority were suffering from decay as a result of a lack of maintenance. There was speculation that the homes would be demolished, but Birmingham City Council made money available to the homeowners for them to be brought up to modern standards.
From 2001 to 2011, Aston underwent a £54 million Birmingham regeneration project named "Aston Pride", as part of the
New Deal for Communities New Deal for Communities was a regeneration programme led by the government of the United Kingdom for some of the England's most deprived neighbourhoods. The programme was established by Tony Blair's Labour Government and was overseen by the Neigh ...
scheme in 2001. Many improvements were made, including reducing burglary, robbery and vehicle crime; spending £4 million on a health centre; and helping more than 1300 people find work (more than the target of 400).
Crime
Crime levels in Aston have remained stagnant in recent years. In December 2010, there were 369 reported crimes, the majority being for
antisocial behaviour
Antisocial behavior is a behavior that is defined as the violation of the rights of others by committing crime, such as stealing and physical attack in addition to other behaviors such as lying and manipulation. It is considered to be disrupti ...
, while in December 2019, there were 328, mostly for violent offences. The crime rate in the ward is 10.35, which is higher than in other areas like
Handsworth Wood
Handsworth Wood is a suburb of Birmingham in the West Midlands County, England.
Located within the metropolitan county of the West Midlands since 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, it was previously a part of the county of Staf ...
(6.59) but lower than
Nechells
Nechells is a district ward in central Birmingham, England, whose population in 2011 was 33,957. It is also a ward within the formal district of Ladywood. Nechells local government ward includes areas, for example parts of Birmingham city centr ...
(16.6).
The majority of the crime is due to violence, antisocial behaviour, vehicle crime, and robbery.
On 2 January 2003, gunmen shot at three innocent teenage girls who were celebrating the New Year in the
Birchfield area near Aston. Two of the girls were killed and another was seriously injured. More than 18 bullets were fired from at least two weapons. Four men were later tried and found guilty of murder in March 2005. Marcus Ellis (the half-brother of one of the two dead girls), Nathan Martin and Michael Gregory were sentenced to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
with recommended minimum terms of 35 years on two charges of murder and three of attempted murder. A fourth man, Rodrigo Simms, received life with a recommended minimum of 27 years for the same crimes. A fifth defendant, Jermaine Carty, had walked free from court after being cleared of possessing a firearm. The four men convicted were members of a notorious local gang known as the Burger Bar Boys, who had been trying to exact revenge on members of their rival gang the Johnson Crew: a notorious local gang originating in the mid-1980s.
Politics
The Aston ward is represented by two
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
councillors: Muhammad Afzal and Nagina Kauser.
In 2004, the ward saw a voter fraud scandal in which
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
councillors were accused of a systematic attempt to rig elections. They had set up a "vote-rigging factory" in a disused warehouse, stealing and intercepting hundreds and possibly thousands of ballot papers to achieve this. Three councillors, Mohammed Islam, Muhammad Afzal (later cleared of wrongdoing) and Mohammed Kazi were accused of voter fraud, with the elections having to be rerun. All three were barred from standing in the following election.
Aston is part of the
Birmingham Ladywood
Birmingham Ladywood is a constituency of part of the city of Birmingham, represented in the House of Commons since 2010 by Shabana Mahmood of the Labour Party.
Members of Parliament
Clare Short, elected as a Labour MP from the 1983 gener ...
constituency, held by Labour since 1940 and represented by Labour MP
Shabana Mahmood
Shabana Mahmood ( ur, شبانہ محمود; born 17 September 1980) is a British Labour Party politician and barrister serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Ladywood since 2010. Retrieved 7 December 2011 She has served in the ...
since 2010.
Demographics
![Aston railway station - 2007-09-25](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Aston_railway_station_-_2007-09-25.jpg)
The
2011 census found that 22,636 people were living in Aston. It is the sixth most populous ward in the city.
It is a very ethnically diverse community, with 44% of the population born outside the United Kingdom. The largest ethnic group was Asian at 69.1%. More specifically, the Pakistani ethnic group was the largest at 30.9% of all Asians. Black British was the second largest ethnic group at 16.4%. White British was the third largest ethnic group at 7.8%.
The ethnic makeup of the area drastically changed in the 1950s and 1960s with immigration from the
Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
. Most of the immigrants were from the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
most notably from
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
, though a significant number were also from the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
.
![A38(M) Aston Expressway](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/A38%28M%29_Aston_Expressway.jpg)
Aston is a young ward, with 33.5% of the population under 18, compared to the Birmingham average of 25.5%.
31.7% of residents in Aston have no qualifications, higher than the Birmingham average of 20.8%. Moreover, 15.6% do not speak English as their main language and cannot speak it well, well above the national average of 1.9%.
Aston has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the city, with 57.8% of residents classed as economically active compared to the city average of 69.3% and national average of 77%. It is the 11th most deprived ward in the city.
The majority of employed residents (56%) work in lower skilled occupations, such as caring, leisure and sales. The average income in Aston (£12,033) is 35% less than the average income (£18,788) in England as a whole.
Education
![KEASTON Main](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/KEASTON_Main.jpg)
There are three secondary schools in Aston:
Broadway Academy
Broadway Academy (formerly Broadway School) is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located in the Perry Barr area of Birmingham, England.
Originally known as Broadway School, the school building was rebuilt in ...
, refurbished and opened by the
Duke of Kent
Duke of Kent is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of peerage of Great Britain, Great Britain and the peerage of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom, most recently as a Royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom, royal dukedom ...
in 2011,
King Edward VI Aston
King Edward VI Aston School is a selective, all-boys grammar school and specialist sports college. The school, designed by Birmingham architect J.A. Chatwin, opened in 1883 and is still, with additional buildings, located on its original site, ...
, the only grammar school in the constituency,
Aston Manor School
Aston Manor Academy (formerly Aston Manor School) is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located in the Aston area of Birmingham, England.
Due in part to the fact that it is situated in Aston, it has children ...
and
Eden Boys' Leadership Academy.
There are seven primary schools: Aston Tower Community Primary School, Birchfield Community School, Manor Park Primary Academy, Mansfield Green E-ACT Academy, Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, Prince Albert Primary School, and Yew Tree Community School.
There are two libraries in the ward: Aston Library and Birchfield Library. Aston Library was due to be shut down by
Birmingham City Council
Birmingham City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local council area in the United Kingdom (e ...
in 2017 to save money; however, this decision was reversed after public consultation. It is now run by community organisations.
Aston Cross
Aston Cross was once the home of
Ansells Brewery
Ansells Brewery was a regional brewery founded in Aston, Birmingham, England in 1858. It merged with Taylor Walker and Ind Coope in 1961 to form Allied Breweries. The brewery remained in operation until 1981, after which production transferred ...
and
HP Sauce
HP Sauce is a British brown sauce, the main ingredients of which are tomatoes and tamarind extract. It was named after London's Houses of Parliament. After making its first appearance on British dinner tables in the late 19th century, HP Sauce w ...
. The six-acre Aston site was purchased by developer Chancerygate in 2007 at £800,000 per acre, but they subsequently sold it for half that price and it now houses a distribution warehouse for East End Foods. Aston Manor Brewery (Now
Aston Manor Cider
Aston Manor Cider (also Aston Manor and formerly Aston Manor Brewery) is a former brewery and current cider maker and bottling company in Aston, Birmingham, England. Having started out as a beer brewery, the company now produces exclusively cide ...
) was started in Thimble Mill Lane in 1982 by former employees of Ansell's after Ansell's Aston Brewery closed.
From 1956 to 1969, Aston Cross was the Midlands base of
Associated Television
Associated Television was the original name of the British broadcaster ATV, part of the Independent Television (ITV) network. It provided a service to London at weekends from 1955 to 1968, to the Midlands on weekdays from 1956 to 1968, and ...
(ATV) which had its Alpha Studios on Aston Road North. The ATV office building later became the studios of radio stations
BRMB
Free Radio Birmingham is an Independent Local Radio station based in Birmingham, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Birmingham and the West Midlands.
As of September 2022, the station has a ...
and XTRA-AM. Although both stations moved to Birmingham's Broad Street in the early 1990s, the building is still called Radio House. Launching in February 1974, BRMB was the UK's fourth
Independent Local Radio
Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2003, ...
station and, while in Aston, was the most listened to radio station in the West Midlands.
Places of interest
*
Aston Expressway
The A38(M), commonly known as the Aston Expressway, is a motorway in Birmingham, England. It is long and was opened on 24 May 1972.[Aston Hall
Aston Hall is a Grade I listed Jacobean house in Aston, Birmingham, England, designed by John Thorpe and built between 1618 and 1635. It is a leading example of the Jacobean prodigy house.
In 1864, the house was bought by Birmingham Corpor ...](_blank)
*
Aston Reservoir
Aston Reservoir, sometimes known as Salford Lake, Salford Park Pool or Salford Bridge Reservoir, is a 19th-century reservoir, formerly used for drinking water extracted from the River Tame,
*
Aston University
Aston University (abbreviated as ''Aston''. for post-nominals) is a public research university situated in the city centre of Birmingham, England. Aston began as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School in 1895, evolving into the UK's first c ...
*
Aston Villa Football Club
Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park, ...
and
Villa Park
Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway stations ...
*
Church of SS Peter & Paul, Aston
The Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul () in Witton Lane, Aston, Birmingham, England, is a parish church in the Church of England.
Background
The origin of Aston and its parish church is uncertain. A 2013 archaeological excavation on the ...
*
Spaghetti Junction
Spaghetti junction is a nickname sometimes given to a complex or massively intertwined road traffic interchange that is said to resemble a plate of spaghetti. Such interchanges may incorporate a variety of interchange design elements in orde ...
*
King Edward VI Aston
King Edward VI Aston School is a selective, all-boys grammar school and specialist sports college. The school, designed by Birmingham architect J.A. Chatwin, opened in 1883 and is still, with additional buildings, located on its original site, ...
*Former
Norton motorcycle factory
Notable residents
*
Pal Aron
Pal Aron (born 1969) is an English television and theatre actor, known for his roles as Adam Osman in ''Casualty'', Brandon Kane in ''The Bill'',
Jayesh Parekh and Sonny Dhillon in ''Coronation Street''.
Before professionally acting, he perform ...
,
English actor, attended Prince Albert Primary School in Aston.
*All the original members of the heavy metal band
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...
were born and raised in the Aston area:
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...
,
Tony Iommi
Anthony Frank Iommi () (born 19 February 1948) is a British musician. He co-founded the pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and was the band's guitarist, leader and primary composer and sole continuous member for nearly five decades. I ...
,
Bill Ward and
Geezer Butler
Terence Michael Joseph "Geezer" Butler (born 17 July 1949) is a English musician and songwriter. He is best known as the bassist and primary lyricist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath. He has also recorded and performed with Heaven & Hell ...
. All four members lived here during the early years of the band's trajectory.
* The author Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...
worked in the area for a short period.
*Former
Leicester City F.C. winger
Lloyd Dyer
Lloyd Richard Dyer (born 13 September 1982) is an English former professional footballer who played as a winger. During his 18 years as a professional, Dyer spent the majority of his career in the Football League, most notably with West Bromwi ...
was born in Aston.
*
Ateeq Javid
Ateeq Javid (born 15 October 1991) is a former English cricketer. He started his cricket career at Aston Manor CC where he was picked up for Warwickshire. He played club cricket for West Bromwich Dartmouth in the Birmingham Premier League when ...
,
English cricketer, attended Prince Albert Primary School and Aston Manor School. Started career at Aston Manor CC.
*
Victor Johnson, (1883–1951) was a track cycling racer who, in 1908, won a gold medal at the Olympics, became 'World Amateur Sprint Champion' and the 'British National Quarter-mile Champion'.
*
Albert Ketèlbey
Albert William Ketèlbey (; born Ketelbey; 9 August 1875 – 26 November 1959) was an English composer, conductor and pianist, best known for his short pieces of light orchestral music. He was born in Birmingham and moved to Lon ...
, composer, conductor and pianist, was born in Aston on 9 August 1875.
*
Harry Shelvoke
Harry Shelvoke (1877–1962) was one of the founding members of the British coachbuilding and engineering company Shelvoke and Drewry.
He was one of the last members to bear a family name that is documented to have become extinct in modern times ...
, founding member of
Shelvoke and Drewry
Shelvoke and Drewry was a Letchworth, Hertfordshire manufacturer of special purpose commercial vehicles. It was best known for its innovative waste collection vehicles that were the preferred choice of municipal authorities in the UK together ...
, born in Aston in 1877.
*
John Benjamin Stone
Sir John Benjamin Stone (9 February 1838 – 2 July 1914) was a British Conservative politician and photographer.
Life and career
Stone was born in Duddeston, Birmingham the son of a manager at a local glass works. The business passed into th ...
, a politician and prolific photographer, was born in Aston and inherited his father's local glass manufacturing business.
See also
*
Witton
References
*''The City of Birmingham Baths Department 1851 – 1951'', J. Moth, 1951
2001 Population Census information: Ward profiles
External links
*
Birmingham City Council: Aston WardAston LibraryThe History Of Aston by Aston PeopleProfile: Aston Birmingham
{{Authority control
Areas of Birmingham, West Midlands