Date:1896 - 1915 (c.)
Description:The Handsworth Magazine started publication in July 1896 and described itself as a "local society magazine". The local areas targetted were Handsworth, Perry Barr and Birchfield and the appeal was towards the upper class of the area. It was published monthly and each issue contained a mix of biographies of local people, articles about exotic foreign places, articles about British History or Topography and brief news reports. Births, marriages and deaths plus Society Weddings were also featured. Probably the death blow for the magazine came with Handsworth's incorporation as part of Birmingham in 1911. Incorporation was something that the magazine had been cautiously in favour of but there is a perceptible loss of identity to the magazine afterwards. By the outbreak of the First World War some colour adverts had started to appear and the Magazine changed its coverage slightly - profiles of local people were largely replaced by profiles of the Royal Family, the Government and high ranking officers in the Armed Forces. The Handsworth Magazine did its bit to support the War in this way, as did the rest of the Press. The run of magazines held by Birmingham Central Library stops in December 1915 - by then a much reduced in size issue and the bustle and liveliness of the earlier issues is missing. For the local historian or genealogist the magazine is a treasure trove of biography. Many people can be found amongst its pages who you would be hard pressed to even find mentioned elsewhere, let alone with a photograph. The Digital Handsworth Project have brought many of the "local portraits" to this site and, as the magazine is unindexed, this will be the first time that anyone will have been able to find them quickly and conveniently. The following pages are some of the biographies contained within the magazine - a roll call of Victorian Handsworth scoiety.
The timeline shows resources around this location over a number of years.
William Bruckshaw traded at 139 Soho Road, which is located near to the junction ...
Tiptaft contested the 1918 General Election as an Independent candidate. Here he ...
Barbara Lewis contested the 1945 General Election as a Liberal. Her biography here ...
Click on an item to view details for that resource
The Handsworth Magazine started publication in July 1896 and described itself as a "local society magazine". ...
An abridged version of his biography from the Handsworth Magazine. The full version is available as ...
A Biography of Somerset Calthorpe, owner of Perry Hall in 1899, taken from the Handsworth Magazine. Lieutenant ...
This is an abridged biography of William Cook, the full version is available on this page as a download. Mr ...
This is an abridged version of his biography, the full version being available as a download on this ...
Share:
Image courtesy of: Birmingham Central Library
Donor ref:LSH/ Handsworth Magazine L93.1 (14/3751)
Source: Local Studies & History Department , Birmingham Central Library
Copyright information: Copyrights to all resources are retained by the individual rights holders. They have kindly made their collections available for non-commercial private study & educational use. Re-distribution of resources in any form is only permitted subject to strict adherence to the usage guidelines.