Handsworth (Birmingham)

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  kareley

  Handsworth is an inner city suburb of Birmingham in the West Midlands, England.Handsworth is just 2 miles from the centre of Birmingham. The name Handsworth originates from its Saxon owner Hondes and the Old English word weorthing, meaning farm or estate. It was recorded in the Domesday Survey of 1086, as a holding of William Fitz-Ansculf, the Lord of Dudley, although at that time it would only have been a very small village surrounded by farmland and extensive woodland. Handsworth parish comprises into the two manors and joint townships of Handsworth-with-Soho and Perry Barr.Handsworth and Soho form a large and handsome north-west suburb of Birmingham, bounded on the south and east by Warwickshire, and extending about three miles on the Walsall and Wednesbury roads, including many large assemblages of houses, several manufactories, and a considerable number of neat villas, mostly occupied by coal and iron masters, and merchants, engaged in the trade and commerce of Birmingham. From the 13th century through to the 18th century, it remained a small village until Matthew Boulton who lived at the nearby Soho House set up the Soho Manufactory in 1764 on Handsworth Heath. Accommodation was built for the factory workers. Over half the residents of Handsworth comprise Black, Asian and other ethnic minorities.Todays Handsworth is a rich multicultural town where people from all communities enjoy their lives.

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