England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Birmingham St Thomas

The Parish

The city of Birmingham is located in the extreme west of Warwickshire, not too far from the border with neighbouring Worcestershire and also forming part of the border with neighbouring Staffordshire. Birmingham is situated some 110 miles northwest of London and is one of England's major conurbations. Birmingham grew spectacularly as a result of the Industrial Revolution becoming known as the workshop of England. Population also grew exponentially and in the early 1820s it was necessary to build additional churches to accommodate the growing volume. St Thomas was the one of such churches to be built with funding from the Church Commissioners. The parish was carved from the wider parishes of St Martin & St Philip occupying an area beyond the then urban boundary and covering the southwestern corner of the town, as Birmingham was still at that time. Birmingham is drained (largely subsurface today) by tributaries of the River Tame, which heads northwards to reach the Trent near to Alrewas and thence to the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Birmingham St Thomas was sited at around 130 metres above the sea and land rises gently to the northwest for a further 20 metres or so within the metropolitan area. St Thomas parish was small in area and its population growing rapidly, as a new church its parishioners would have been counted within the wider Birmingham head-count.

The Church

St Thomas' church was built between 1826 & 1829 and sited on the city's Bath Row, only a few hundred metres south of the iconic Gas Street Basin beloved of film makers. Funded by the Church Commissioners it featured the Greek Revival style and Ionic quadrant colonnades. Sadly on the night of the 11th December 1940 the church was destroyed by enemy action with bombs leaving only the tower and western portico. Sitting for many years as a ruin the area was laid out in 1992 as a Peace Garden with the remains of the church a poignant reminder of the costs of warfare. Whilst this is quite inner city there is permitted street parking on the southern side of Bath Row enabling the gardens & remains of the church to be appreciated.