Skill India

conferencing facilities.The oldest human artefact found within Birmingham is the Saltley
Handaxe: a 500,000-year-old brown quartzite hand axe about 100 millimetres (3.9 in) long,
discovered in the gravels of the River Rea at Saltley in 1892. Other parts of Birmingham are
quite similar in this way, as people seem to have lived there for millennia .The area became
uninhabitable with the advancing glaciation of the last ice age, and the next evidence of human
habitation within Birmingham dates from the mesolithic period. A 10,400-year-old settlement –
the oldest within the city – was excavated in the Digbeth area in 2009, with evidence that
hunter-gatherers with basic flint tools had cleared an area of forest by burning.Flint tools from
the later mesolithic period – between 8000 and 6000 years ago – have been found near
streams in the city, though these probably represent little more than hunting parties or overnight
camps.The 18th century saw the sudden emergence of Birmingham at the forefront of
worldwide developments in science, technology, medicine, philosophy and natural history as
part of the cultural transformation now known as the Midlands Enlightenment.By the second half
of the century the town’s leading thinkers – particularly members of the Lunar Society of
Birmingham such as Joseph Priestley, James Keir, Matthew Boulton, James Watt, William
Withering and Erasmus Darwin – had become widely influential participants in the Republic of
Letters, the free circulation of ideas and information among the developing pan-European and
trans-Atlantic intellectual elite.This “miracle birth” has traditionally been seen as a result of
Birmingham’s status as a stronghold of religious Nonconformism, creating a free-thinking culture
unconstrained by the established Church of England. This accords with wider historical theories
such as the Merton thesis and the Weber thesis, that see Protestant culture as a major factor in
the rise of experimental science and industrial capitalism within Europe.Birmingham had a
vigorous and confident Nonconformist community by the 1680s, at a time when freedom of
worship for Nonconformists nationally had yet to be granted; and by the 1740s this had
developed into an influential group of Rational Dissenters.The factors that drove Birmingham’s
rapid industrialisation were also different from those behind the later development of textile
manufacturing towns such as Manchester, whose spectacular growth from the 1780s onwards
was based on the economies of scale inherent in mechanised manufacture: the ability of a
low-wage, unskilled labour force to produce bulk commodities such as cotton in huge quantities.
Although the developments that enabled this transformation – roller spinning, the factory system
and the industrial steam engine – often had Birmingham origins,they had little role in
Birmingham’s own expansion. Birmingham’s relatively inaccessible location meant that its
industries were dominated by the production of a wide variety of small, high value metal items –
from buttons and buckles to guns and jewellery. Its economy was characterised by high wages
and a diverse range of specialised skills that were not susceptible to wholesale
automation.Birmingham is said to be the home of heavy metal with the likes of Black Sabbath
(led by Ozzy Osbourne), Judas Priest and lead singer of Led Zeppelin originating from the city.
The Streets, UB40, Wizzard, Laura Mvula and Duran Duran also originate from Birmingham.
We host over 50 festivals across the city each year, such as Moseley Folk Festival and MADE
festival.
9. Transportation
Birmingham New Street is the busiest train station in the UK outside of London.
The world’s oldest railway roundhouse was recently discovered just steps from our City Centre
Campus.
We’re well known for our canal system originating back to 1768, and have more miles of canals
than Venice!
Birmingham International Airport is the third largest in the UK, and the city sees over one million
international visitors each year.
10. Parks
Birmingham is one of the greenest cities in the UK with over 8,000 acres of parks and open
space (that’s more than Paris!).
We’re home to Sutton Park, one of the largest urban parks in the UK, and one of the largest in
Europe outside of a capital city.We’re one of the top three shopping destinations in the UK. With
our high street, the Mailbox, Bullring, Grand Central, the world’s largest Primark, independents,
vintage shops and so much more, there really is something for everyone!
Birmingham’s Bullring is also one of the largest shopping centres in Europe, and has been ‘the
place to shop’ since the Middle Ages.Birmingham, second largest city of the United Kingdom
and a metropolitan borough in the West Midlands metropolitan county. It lies near the
geographic centre of England, at the crossing points of the national railway and motorway
systems. Birmingham is the largest city of the West Midlands conurbation—one of England’s
principal industrial and commercial areas—for which it acts as an administrative, recreational,
and cultural centre. The city lies approximately 110 miles (177 km) northwest of London.The
historic core of Birmingham, along with Edgbaston and northern neighbourhoods such as Sutton
Coldfield, Erdington, and Sheldon, lies in the historic county of Warwickshire. Northwestern
neighbourhoods, such as Handsworth and Kingstanding, and Harborne in the southwest lie in
the historic county of Staffordshire. Southern and eastern neighbourhoods—such as Bartley
Green, Northfield, Moseley, and Yardley—belong to the historic county of Worcestershire. Area
city and metropolitan borough, 103 square miles (268 square km). Pop. (2001) city and
metropolitan borough, 977,087; urban agglom., 2,284,093; (2011) city and metropolitan
borough, 1,073,045; urban agglom. (West Midlands built-up area), 2,440,986.Birmingham’s first
market charter was granted in 1166, but it was not until the 14th century that it emerged as a
settlement of any significance. Its lack of river transport, by cutting it off from maritime contacts
important in the medieval period, impeded its development from a small manufacturing town to
a large city until the late 18th century, when it became the leading nucleus of the Industrial
Revolution in Britain. Birmingham’s population grew from 15,000 in the late 17th century to
70,000 a century later; its metal and gun-making trades expanded, fine jewelry was made
alongside cheaper lines, and its brass buttons and trinkets served a world market. The
engineers James Watt (inventor of the steam engine), Matthew Boulton, and William Murdock
(pioneers in steam engine development), the chemist Joseph Priestley, and the printer John