Turves Green is an area of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

partly in West Heath and partly in Northfield (the boundary between these two wards runs through Turves Green). In addition the area of

Longbridge Longbridge is an area in the south-west of Birmingham, England, located near the border with Worcestershire, historically being within this place. Public transport Longbridge is described as a hub for public transport with a number of bus ...

borders Turves Green. A road with the simple name Turves Green runs through the area.

Past

In the

Mediaeval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and t ...

era Turves Green was considered good grazing, the name originally meant, "turf green" which meant

Common land Common land is collective land (sometimes only open to those whose nation governs the land) in which all persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...

and the land was probably enclosed during the late 1850s. The land remained agricultural till Austin Village was built there during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

for workers producing munitions in a Longbridge factory. Between the world wars council houses with gardens were built bordering Turves Green mostly on the West Heath side.

Present day

During the 1960s a

Council estate Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council housing or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011, when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. D ...

was built and Turves was conceived. The area round Fairfax Rd includes,

Semi-detached A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single-family Duplex (building), duplex dwelling that shares one common party wall, wall with its neighbour. The name distinguishes this style of construction from detached houses, with no sh ...

houses,

Terraced house A terrace, terraced house ( UK), or townhouse ( US) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses sharing side walls. In the United States and Canada these are sometimes known as row ...

s, single story bungalows, and nine ten story

Tower block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction. ...

s. There are also four story maisonettes where one lot of tenant occupy the lower two stories and have two small gardens while a second lot of tenants must climb two flights of stairs to reach their front doors and have balconies instead of gardens. There is a small group of shops on Fairfax Rd including two small

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

s selling food, also general goods and a furniture clearance store. A small area of Turves Green remains open without building and

Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the local authority for the city of Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. Birmingham has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been reformed several times. Since 1974 the council has been a metropo ...

maintains this as a recreation area. In 2011 Birmingham Council added a children's play area with attractions including a roundabout, swings and an assault course with slides. Turves Green Brook, which is a tributary to the River Rea runs through the recreation area, partly open, partly in

culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe (fluid conveyance), pipe, reinforced concrete or other materia ...

s. The recreation area consists of mown

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

, with a few benches and alongside the brook natural woodland. The woodland looks pleasant, during the spring there are pussy willow,

blackthorn ''Prunus spinosa'', called blackthorn or sloe, is an Old World species of flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae. It is locally naturalized in parts of the New World. The fruits are used to make sloe gin in Britain and patxaran in Basq ...

and hawthorn which flower in succession. After the willows have finished flowering white flowers of hemlock give the area a deadly beauty in sections which the council leaves unmown. Later in the year

Himalayan balsam ''Impatiens glandulifera'', Himalayan balsam, is a large annual plant native to the Himalayas. Via human introduction it is now present across much of the Northern Hemisphere and is considered an invasive species in many areas. Uprooting or cutt ...

and

bindweed Bindweed may refer to: * Some species of Convolvulaceae (bindweed family or morning glory family): ** ''Calystegia'' (bindweed, false bindweed, morning glory), a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants ** ''Convolvulus'' (bindweed, morning ...

flower there and stinging nettles are prominent. In winter

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

trees and plants including

ivy ''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern ...

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

trees provides some greenery together with the grass. Near the play area on either side of the brook is a small spinney with trees including

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere, where they are found in lowland forests in the high la ...

es and other

conifer Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...

s. Residents sometimes use the woodland for recreation but the brook is polluted and there is frequently a noticeable smell. The grassy area is acceptable and residents use it more. In the part of the recreational area nearer to

is a basketball court and post war private houses border the recreational area there. Older private houses are along Longbridge Lane which borders the top part of the recreational area. The council estate is socially mixed, some residents face

poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...

and

social exclusion Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. In the EU context, the Euro ...

, others enjoy better incomes and some could afford to buy their council houses. Those with jobs are typically skilled or unskilled manual workers.

Anti-social behaviour Anti-social behaviours, sometimes called dissocial behaviours, are actions which are considered to violate the rights of or otherwise harm others by committing crime or nuisance, such as stealing and physical attack or noncriminal behaviours s ...

may be reported to

who endeavour to prevent or reduce it. Overall there are far fewer problems with anti-social behaviour than in many

sink estate A sink estate is a British term used for a council housing estate with high levels of social problems, particularly crime. The word is often used in certain former British colonies. Origin The phrase came into usage in the 1980s, and was used by t ...

s. On the road, Turves Green there is a small shopping centre with a Cooperative shop and a

Dental technician A dental technician is a member of the dental team who, upon prescription from a dental clinician, constructs custom-made restorative and dental appliances. There are four major disciplines within dental technology. These are ''fixed prosthesis ...

among others, near those shops are more post-war council houses, maisonettes and flats with further tower blocks. The road, Turves Green has mainly private houses with some two-story private maisonettes and some council properties. Turves Green Boys' School and King Edward VI Northfield School for Girls, both

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

s and Turves Green Primary School are also all on that road.

References

{{coord, 52.3994, -1.9706, region:GB-BIR, display=title Northfield Constituency Areas of Birmingham, West Midlands