Qualla: Small Heath

Small Heath: Introduction

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brianboru100, CC BY-SA 4.0. On the evening of 19 November 1940, German bombers found their target. The Birmingham Small Arms factory on Armoury Road, Small Heath, was the only rifle producer in Britain that night. Production lines turned out 600 Browning machine guns a week for the Air Ministry, plus thousands of M20 motorcycles for the army, plus the Lee-Enfields the Home Guard had been demanding since Dunkirk. The Luftwaffe knew. Two BSA electricians, Alf Stevens and Alf Goodwin, were rescuing trapped colleagues that night when the bombs hit. The raid killed fifty-three employees and more than fifty local residents. Stevens received the George Medal. Goodwin received the British Empire Medal. Rifle production stopped for three months. Small Heath, an inner-city suburb that television now associates with the Peaky Blinders, was that night the most important piece of industrial real estate in the British war effort.

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Image: Brianboru100 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Small Heath: A Hill, a Heath, and a Football Club

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ordnance Survey, Public domain. Small Heath sits on a low hill of glacial sand, gravel, and clay. The poor soil produced rough grazing land, the heath that gave the place its name in 1461. By the late nineteenth century, the heath had become a football pitch. A bordered enclosure with farmland on two sides and ...

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Image: Ordnance Survey | Public domain

Small Heath: The Birmingham Small Arms Company

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michael Westley, CC BY-SA 2.0. BSA's Small Heath works, on Golden Hillock Road and Armoury Road, employed thousands. The firm made bicycles, motorcycles, rifles, machine guns, taxi cabs, and a great deal else, dominating the local economy from the mid-Victorian era until the British motorcycle industry collaps...

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Image: Michael Westley | CC BY-SA 2.0

Small Heath: The Luftwaffe Comes Three Times

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Statsfan, CC BY-SA 3.0. The first BSA air raid hit on 26 August 1940. A high-explosive bomb and a shower of incendiaries struck the main barrel mill, where the only operating rifle production line in the country had to be rebuilt around 750 destroyed machine tools. No one died that night. Three months l...

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Image: Statsfan | CC BY-SA 3.0

Small Heath: Tornadoes, of All Things

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Roy Hughes, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 14 June 1931, a strong tornado tore through Small Heath, severely damaging buildings and uprooting every tree in Small Heath Park. It was a freak occurrence, but not unique to the district. The 2005 Birmingham Tornado, which the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation rated F2...

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Image: Roy Hughes | CC BY-SA 2.0

Small Heath: The Peaky Blinders and Who Lives Here Now

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Oosoom at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. The original Peaky Blinders were a real Birmingham street gang centred on Small Heath in the 1890s, named for the flat caps with razor blades sewn into the peaks that they reportedly wore. The BBC One series of the same name turned them into national folklore, with Cillian Murphy...

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Image: Oosoom at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0