Castle Vale Estate facts for kids

Castle Vale is a housing estate near Erdington, 9 km (6 mi) northeast of Birmingham city centre, in England. The area has about 10,000 people. It has modern homes because a lot of new houses were built after World War II. It is known as a postwar overspill estate.

The area was originally known as Berwood, from the Saxon 'Bearu' meaning 'the woods'. Historically the area was a boggy and wooded area, and development only started when Edward Darcy began cutting down the trees in the 17th century and the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal was built in the 18th century. In the 20th century, the land became the site for the first aeroplane take-off in Birmingham which led to a long aviation history being associated with the area. Castle Bromwich Aerodrome was established on the site and operated from 1914 to 1960, being a major airfield in both World Wars and also having industrial importance as the testing facility for locally manufactured airplanes and the location for the British Industries Fair.

Castle Vale became infamous from the 1970s onwards as a large scale example of a failed postwar overspill estate, which suffered from poor construction and maintenance, social deprivation and high levels of crime. The area became the focus of a targeted regeneration initiative, led by the Castle Vale Housing Action Trust (CVHAT) from 1993 to 2005, where the estate witnessed the demolition of many of its houses and facilities, the repair of remaining properties, and the construction of new housing and facilities along with the remodelling of the estate, funded both privately and publicly. It is now hailed as an example of a successful community-led regeneration scheme.