Birmingham has no cathedral close or castle keep — its history is made of metal, moats and mills. Three days trace the manor of the de Berminghams, the Lunar Society workshops that powered the Industrial Revolution, and the back-to-backs where the workers lived.
The excavated remains of a 13th-century fortified moated manor house, licensed to crenellate in 1264 by the de Somery family. Stone footings, moat channel and well are visible from the raised viewing platform. Open access via Birmingham Museums; free.
Birmingham's original parish church, recorded in the 1200s on the market slope where Peter de Bermingham won his 1166 market charter. Inside are the medieval effigies of the de Bermingham lords and a Burne-Jones stained glass window.
The largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found (4,600 items, 5.1kg of gold), ploughed up in 2009 at Hammerwich 15 miles north and jointly owned by Birmingham. Sword pommels, a gold cross and the folded helmet cheekpiece.
A surviving medieval village green swallowed by the city: the 15th-century Old Grammar School and the Tudor Saracen's Head, where Queen Henrietta Maria lodged in 1643 during the Civil War. Restored after winning BBC Restoration in 2004.
Matthew Boulton's home 1766–1809 and the meeting place of the Lunar Society — Watt, Priestley, Darwin and Wedgwood dined here on the Monday nearest the full moon. One of the first houses with central heating; restored to its 1790s decoration.
William Bloye's 1956 gilded bronze of the three men who mechanised the world, gathered over a plan of the Soho Manufactory. Returned to Broad Street in 2022 after tram works; the only statue of the trio anywhere.
The world's oldest working steam engine, built by Boulton & Watt in 1779 to pump water on the Birmingham Canal and in service until 1891. Steamed on selected days; the Science Garden and City Made collections fill the rest.
The bombed shell of St Thomas' Church, Bath Row — 2,241 Birmingham people died in 77 raids between 1940 and 1943 on the city that built Spitfires at Castle Bromwich. Only the tower and west portico survive, framing a peace garden.
The last surviving court of back-to-back houses in the city, where 60,000 such homes once stood. Four dwellings furnished for the 1840s, 1870s, 1930s and 1970s, including a Jewish clockmaker's and a Caribbean tailor's.
The junction where the Birmingham Canal Navigations and the Worcester & Birmingham Canal met but refused to connect — the Worcester Bar of 1795 forced cargo to be transhipped by hand until an 1815 stop lock ended the feud.
George Cadbury's 1893 factory-in-a-garden: 313 acres of Arts and Crafts cottages, no pubs by covenant, and the Rest House of 1914. Selly Manor, a 14th-century timber hall moved here in 1907, holds the Laurence Cadbury furniture collection.
The bangle workshop that shut its doors in 1981 and left everything where it lay: tea mugs, ledgers, benches worn into hollows. Guided tours demonstrate the drop stamp and the original 1899 gas jets still used for soldering.