After all those weeks in early summer when it seemed unable to stop raining, many plants will have been lulled into a false sense of security.  And those of us who look after the plants are also likely to have become a little too used to not worrying about what and how to water to […]

The Flight Shed, erected in 1936, was the first building constructed at Longbridge under the WWII Shadow Factory Scheme. It measured 180ft x 500ft with a height of 25ft. The impressive steel roof was based on a German design called Lamella Construction, developed in the 1920s. In 1929 rights were acquired by Horsley Engineering of […]

Saint Nicolas Place is the finest collection of medieval buildings in Birmingham owned and managed by Kings Norton Parish church for all to discover, enjoy and use. The Tudor Merchant’s  House, owned by Humphrey Rotsey, a wool merchant who wanted to flaunt his wealth, was built in 1492. The rooms inside include the Parlour, which […]

As you grow older, making sure your home is safe and secure gives you extra peace of mind. Even if you are fit and active, you may realise that at times you don’t have as much energy, find it harder to balance, or that your eyesight is not as good as it used to be. […]

               Becoming engulfed in an exotic world where you can meet new characters and imagine yourself in various breath-taking situations is just one of the joys of reading. A story is like a world where anything is possible, therefore being a great form of escapism. Reading material can come in all different shapes and sizes, […]

Spring 2012 – Here we go again… The one predictable thing about the British weather is, I suppose, its unpredictability. It’s one of the things that makes gardening here endlessly fascinating and challenging, and one of the reasons why you never know from year to year how things will go on the plot, which crops […]

After managing to invade Britain after only their second attempt, the Romans set about integrating their new territory into the empire. In order to achieve this they set about the construction of a vast military of forts linked by roads.  For a legionary marching along a road in the northernmost region of the empire, the […]

There’s more to Birmingham than  canals and factories. Since the dawn of history people have been utilising the landscape of the Birmingham plateau, leaving us a sign of their presence over millennia. In the late Nineteenth Century,  during the construction of the houses around Bond Street in Stirchley, a stone hand axe was found dating […]