Research into Digbeth (Heritage)

One of the first things I decided to do was research into Digbeth, and find out a little about its history. As a knew very little about Digbeth, other then the Custard factory. I was hoping by researching into Digbeth's history. I would gain some new ideas learning about Digbeth's  past. 

Widely regarded as the birthplace of Birmingham "Digbeth" was 1st settled upon in the 7th century by Beorma, who is alsothe founder of Birmingham which is Anglo-Saxon for Beorma's  home. The area where  there is a crossing on the River Rea  was the birthplace of what became the city. Historically the land to the west of the river was in the parish of Birmingham. This is Digbeth. The land to the east was in the more significant parish of Aston and is called Deritend. 

It is believe that Digbeth was originally called "Duck's bath"  in reflection of the water supply in the area, it has also been suggested that it came from Dragons breath, referring to air pollution during the industrial revolution.

During the late 19th century Digbeth had become one of the poorest areas in Birmingham. Poor quality houses, many of them in courts of back-to-back tearraces, were interpersed with industry. These  houses would later be demolished. People were moved out of  inadequate housing and the district was redefined as an industry zone.

Westley's 1731 map of Birmingham.

Narrative Construction, Adaptation and Interpretation

My first project in 2nd year is "Narrative Construction, Adaptation and Interpretation", For this task we would be working with the landscape architecture students in a group of three  consisting of one architecture student and two animators. The brief for this assignment was to create an 4-5 minute animation piece centered around a place in Birmingham called " Digbeth", as the brief for this task was pretty open this would give us room to experiment and create something that is hopefully new and original.