Tuesday May 22 2012
History Archive
Village History
When trams ruled the road
Posted on April 21 2010 at 6:50:53 0 comments
A new book pays tribute to a much-loved local transport system.
The tram is one of the most fondly remembered modes of public transport, and author Eric Armstrong has tapped into this nostalgia with a second volume of Seeing Birmingham By Tram.
The lovingly-produced book is divided into separate chapters, each looking at a particular route taken by the trams – of most interest to local readers is the Southern & South Western section, with trams travelling from Birmingham city centre out to Rubery and Rednal along the Bristol Road.
These were two of the network’s longest and most direct routes, and offered a “gateway to the Lickey Hills” where city-dwellers would often arrive to spend a day out in the countryside.
Seeing Birmingham By Tram starts with a brief introduction to the trams’ history – from the first horse tram in 1872, via the steam trams and cable systems of the 1880s, through to electricity at the turn of the century – and their eventual replacement by buses.
However, the main focus is on the illustrated history, with hundreds of photographs, postcards and reproductions of contemporary advertisements, documents and tickets.
With photographs not just of the trams themselves but of the streets and buildings along the routes, plus the people using them (from football fans to the first lady conductors), the book provides a social history of the region as well as appealing to transport buffs.
Seeing Birmingham By Tram is published by The History Press and available from good bookshops priced £12.99.
Pictured above: The terminus of the no. 70 route at Rednal.
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