History of Shaw Hill

In 1901, the last year of Queen Victoria's long reign, Alum Rock Road Council School was opened on the corner of Anthony Road with accommodation for 1100 pupils.

They were organised in smaller classes of fifty pupils rather than the usual sixty. However, by 1915 the school had become the most over-crowded in Birmingham, and Nansen Road School was quickly built to cater for the extra numbers.

In 1940 during World War 2 the school was hit by a German bomb. The school was overcrowded again by 1953, and extra rooms were provided across the road in St Mary & St John's church hall.

In 1954 the school was renamed Anthony Road County Primary School, and Shaw Hill Primary School c1965. Although altered and modernised most of the original building remains visible. (Currently the school caters for 472 pupils)

Photos from the past: