Aston, Birmingham

Aston Hall, the Jacobean house built for Sir Thomas Holte between 1618 and 1635, is the star of the prints from this district of northern Birmingham, seen in Westall's engravings of around 1830 and in Bernard Porter's measured drawing of its north-east tower doorway of 1906. The park around it brings in the crowds: there are prints of a fete at the hall in 1856 and of the opening of the park, its entrance and a Band of Hope fete two years later, as well as the almshouses and a Wesleyan chapel at Lozells. The maps place Aston within the growing city, from Dawson's Reform Act plan of 1832 and Bacon's town plans of the 1880s and 1890s to sheets of 1945 to 1954 that follow it towards Witton, Saltley, Lozells and Handsworth.