Gardens and Green Spaces in the West Midlands Since 1700

Garden history is more than the study of individuals such as "Capability Brown," who created estates for a wealthy élite. A new approach, which includes insights from geology and archaeology, the perspectives of social class and gender, the history of art and architecture, science, technology and literature, is changing our perspective so that we can see gardens and gardening within wider social, economic, political and cultural contexts. An examination of Victorian public parks reveals how their aesthetics were shaped by architecture made from the products of manufacturing industry while a study of three modest suburban estates considers how local industrialists shaped the environment of south Birmingham. The relationships between health, medicine and green spaces are explored through an analysis of the role of "therapeutic landscapes" in late-nineteenth- and twentieth-century Worcestershire. Enhanced with maps, plans and black-and-white and colour illustrations, this is a volume of important scholarship that places the West Midlands at the heart of landscape history.

Dr Malcolm Dick is Director of the Centre for West Midlands History at the University of Birmingham, Editor-in-Chief of History West Midlands and Editor of Midland History. He has written about the history of Birmingham, Lunar Society individuals and ethnic communities.

Elaine Mitchell developed her interest in garden history whilst studying for her History undergraduate degree and MA in West Midlands History at the University of Birmingham. She is completing a PhD on gardens and horticulture in eighteenth-century Birmingham.