This area guide will help you find out more about Erdington (and the rest of Birmingham) in the 1930’s. It was published in 1933 while Birmingham was still a County Borough. The opening page states that it ranked in point of population as the third city of Great Britain. It was ideally situated close to valuable coal and iron fields and has become a great industrial and commercial centre with railways and canals radiating in all directions. Its pre-eminence in the manufacture of all kinds of metal ware, as well as of other products of great extent and variety, has raised it to the proud position of being the virtual capital of the English Midlands.