Castle Bromwich Aerodrome

Castle Vale is a housing estate located between Erdington, Minworth and Castle Bromwich. Currently Castle Vale makes up the Castle Vale Ward of Birmingham City Council which is part of Erdington constituency (having previously been part of Hodge Hill constituency until recent times), 6 miles (9 km) northeast of Birmingham city centre in England. The area has an approximate population of 10,000 people and has a distinctly modern residential character stemming from its history as a postwar overspill estate. The area was originally known as Berwood, from the Saxon 'Bearu' meaning 'the woods'. Historically being a boggy and wooded area, the area remained undeveloped for most of its history until the deforestation practices of Edward Darcy in the 17th century and the construction of the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal in the 18th century. In the 20th century, the land became the site for the first aeroplane take-off in Birmingham which led to a long aviation history being associated with the area. Castle Bromwich Aerodrome was established on the site and operated from 1914 to 1960, being a major airfield in both World Wars and also having industrial importance as the testing facility for locally manufactured aeroplanes and the location for the British Industries Fair. Despite being steeped in aviation history, Castle Vale became infamous from the 1970s onwards as a large scale example of a failed postwar overspill estate, which suffered from poor construction and maintenance, social deprivation and high levels of crime. The area became the focus of a targeted regeneration initiative, led by the Castle Vale Housing Action Trust (CVHAT) from 1993 to 2005, where the estate witnessed the demolition of many of its housing stock and facilities, the refurbishment of remaining properties, and the construction of new housing and facilities along with the remodelling of the estate, funded both privately and publicly.

Greenwood Academy is a coeducational secondary school with academy status, located in Castle Vale, Birmingham, England. The school opened in new premises in 1967. The buildings were completed and officially opened in 1969. It was built to serve the large new housing estate which was in the final stages of construction at this time. Later the school gained Performing Arts College specialist status. The school converted to academy status in January 2013. The school is sponsored by the Academies Enterprise Trust (AET).The school faced much uncertainty when AET arranged a number of Head teachers. Then Mr Harry French was appointed Principal in June 2013 and immediately took action to solve the problems the school faced. Under his leadership the school has been subject to a turnaround, with many esteemed visitors expressing compliments, echoing Lord Nash's comment "..the school oozes aspiration". Mr French and the staff have re-established open events and have regained the confidence of the community. The school will start a new sixth form in September 2014 and the school is scheduled to be rebuilt, hopefully in 2017. In 2018, during the annual OFSTED report, the school was rated as good.

The British Industries Fair was an exhibition centre in Birmingham, England. The large complex of buildings was built in 1920 and was situated between Castle Bromwich Aerodrome and the railway line. For two weeks every year it was the most visited attraction in the country. In 1933, the first diesel locomotive arrived for display at the BIF. The final B.I.F was on 6 to 17 May 1957. The associated aerodrome, which often showed air displays, closed with the final flight on 31 March 1958. The nearby Castle Bromwich railway station received many important visitors for the BIF, including King George V and Queen Mary in 1928, the Duke of York, Princess Mary and Lord Lascelles. They were often entertained afterwards by the Bradfords at Castle Bromwich Hall. The site was sold in 1960, along with that of the airfield. The buildings and the sites were cleared for the construction of the Castle Vale housing estate. The BIF was replaced by the National Exhibition Centre in 1976, 19 years after its demise.

Castle Vale Town Football Club is a football club based in the Castle Vale area of Birmingham, England. They are currently members of the Midland League Division Three and play at the Vale Stadium.

Castle Vale Shopping Centre (also known as Castle Vale Retail Park) is a retail park located on the Castle Vale estate in Birmingham, England. It is situated off the A452 Chester Road and was originally built in the 1970s. The original centre was built in 1970 to serve the new housing estate that was being developed at this time. It was initially very popular thanks to its wide range of shops and modern, functional design. But it was one of the most hard-hit parts of the estate during the decline that began towards the end of the 1970s. Shoplifting and vandalism became rife, traders moved out. By 1994, 30% of the units in the centre were vacant.Castle Vale Shopping Centre was completely rebuilt as a modern retail park during the early 2000s, at a cost of £35million. The first store to open in the new development was Sainsbury's, opened in 2000. Other major stores opened on the site are Argos, Comet (The Comet unit has been let out to B&M), T.K. Maxx, Smyths, SCS, William Hill and a Lloyds Pharmacy as well as a number of smaller units including a post office.In 2007 the retail park was sold by its owners British Land to PRUPIM for £90million.

The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal is a canal of the Birmingham Canal Navigations in the West Midlands of England. Its purpose was to provide a link between the Coventry Canal and Birmingham and thereby connect Birmingham to London via the Oxford Canal.

Castle Bromwich railway station was a railway station in the Castle Bromwich area of Solihull opened by the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway in 1842. It was on the line into Birmingham Lawley Street from Water Orton. Regular passenger services finished in 1968 but afterwards occasional excursions served the station for a few years but unknown when these ceased.

St Mary and St Margaret Church, Castle Bromwich is a Grade I listed parish church in the Church of England in Castle Bromwich, Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, England.

Sentinel (grid reference SP13789065) is a 16-metre-high (52 ft) sculpture by Tim Tolkien, installed upon Spitfire Island, a roundabout at the intersection of the Chester Road and the A47 Fort Parkway at the entrance to the Castle Vale estate in Birmingham, England.It is near Junction 5 of the M6 motorway and the present day Jaguar Cars plant (the former Castle Bromwich aircraft factory). It shows three Supermarine Spitfires peeling off up into the air in different directions. The half-scale Spitfires are made of aluminium, with curving steel supporting beams which act as vapour trails. It captures the dynamics of the Spitfire in flight and commemorates the nearby Castle Bromwich factory where most of Britain's wartime Spitfires were built. There are proposals to move the sculpture to a new site, near its current location, to allow for road widening.

Castle Bromwich () is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands, England. It borders the rest of the borough to the south east, Sutton Coldfield to the east and north east, Shard End to the south west, Castle Vale, Erdington and Minworth to the north and Hodge Hill to the west. It had a population of 11,857 according to the 2001 census, falling to 11,217 at the 2011 census. The population has remained quite stable since then; the 2017 population estimate was 12,309. It was a civil parish within the Meriden Rural District of Warwickshire until the Local Government Act 1972 came into force in 1974, when it became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull. In 1861, the population was 613. This rose to just over 1,000 in the 1920s, when half of the original parish was ceded to the City of Birmingham for the construction of overspill estates. This caused a drop to 678 (almost the 1861 level). Post Second World War estate building in Castle Bromwich increased the population to 4,356 in 1951, 9,205 in 1961 and 15,941 in 1971. The parish was then split into two, resulting in the lower 2001 figures.

Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens are situated adjacent to the west side of Castle Bromwich Hall, a Jacobean Mansion. They are in the old centre of Castle Bromwich, a large village in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull of the English West Midlands area.

Castle Bromwich Hall is a Jacobean mansion in the Castle Bromwich area of Birmingham, England. It is a Grade I listed building.