Birmingham (recorded in the Domesday Book as Bermingeham) is a city in the English midlands (in the north-west of Warwickshire, with suburbs extending into Staffordshire and Worcestershire) situated on the river Rea near its confluence with the Thames. Originally Birmingham was a village, and from the 14th century the it was noted for its ironwork, and centuries of expertise in the metal trades gave Birmingham a head start during the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, when its plentiful supplies of coal and iron made it a major industrial centre and led to its population explosion and expansion - In 1801 the population of Birmingham was 73,670 in 1901 the population had grown to 522,182.
In 1905 Birmingham was described as the principal seat of the hardware manufacture in Britain, and reportedly was producing metal articles of all kinds from pins to steam-engines. At the start of the 20th century Birmingham was manufacturing fire-arms in great quantities, swords, jewelry, buttons, tools, steel-pens, locks, lamps, bedsteads, gas-fittings, sewing-machines, articles of papier-mache, railway-carriages, etc. The quantity of solid gold and silver plate manufactured then was large, and the consumption of these metals in electroplating was also very great.
Birmingham originally returned one member of parliament, but the Reform Act of 1832 made Birmingham a parliamentary borough with two members; the act of 1867 gave it a third; while the Redistribution Act of 1885 divided it into seven divisions, each sending one member to parliament. Birmingham became a city by royal grant in 1888.
The University was opened in 1900, and developed from the Mason University College, founded by Sir Josiah Mason in 1875, opened in 1880 and united with Queen's College (as the medical department) in 1892.
Abbreviations
Gazetteer
Research Birmingham