We’ve taken a look back at the city’s ancient history to discover Birmingham’s oldest streets.
When we think of Birmingham’s history, we often think of the city’s contribution art, culture and music - it’s the home of Black Sabbath and the Peaky Blinders. The city also led the Industrial Revolution from 1760 to 1840 and was hailed as the ‘City of a Thousand Trades’.
But we’d be amiss to forget the older history of Brum. The development of Birmingham as a city is said to date back to 1166 when Lord of the Manor Peter de Bermingham obtained a charter to hold a market on his land around the site where the Bullring is today.
And with transformation of Birmingham city centre reaching new heights with all the skyscrapers popping up you may not realise that some of the city’s most ancient streets which you walk on today date back centuries.
Here we take a look at some of the oldest streets in Birmingham which still remain in the city today. Let’s take a look:
1. Icknield Street, Sutton Park
Icknield Street or Ryknild Street, is a Roman road which passes through Birmingham, including Sutton Coldfield. What is today referred to as the Icknield Street road acquired the name Ryknild Street during the 12th century. A preserved section of the Roman road can still be seen at Sutton Park Photo: Flickr photo (Elliott Brown)
2. Park Street, city centre
Park Street has also been named as one of the city’s oldest, with the street in existence in 1296 according to the museum and art gallery
3. New Street, city centre
New Street is first mentioned as novus vicus in the surviving borough rental records of 1296, at which point it was partly built upon with burgage plots, but was also the site of most of the few open fields remaining within the boroughs
4. Edgbaston Street, city centre
According to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, some of Birmingham’s best-known streets today were already in existence by 1296. This included Egebastonstret - today known as Edgbaston Street