00:00Birmingham's story doesn't start in the Bullring. Long before the skyline, the steelworks or the sprawl, there was Aston, a village in its own right.
00:10Mentioned in the Doomsday Book, its name, Estown, meant Easttown. That was nearly a thousand years ago.
00:16Back then, Birmingham was little more than a manor and a market, but Aston already had farmland, a mill and a priest.
00:23What's left of that story begins behind these gates with a Jacobian mansion that once commanded the entire district.
00:31You can chart Aston's growth through its churches. This one, St Peter and St Paul, still carries a 15th century spire, though there's been a church here for even longer.
00:41It once served an area stretching miles in every direction. The old rectory and graveyard tell of centuries lived and lost here.
00:48Now, the church sits alongside warehouses and industry, but that doesn't erase what it once was, the spiritual and social core of early Aston.
00:59Next door is Aston Park. It's easy to miss how radical it was, opening grand landscaped grounds to the public in the 1850s.
01:07Queen Victoria herself did the honours. Cricket, boating, cycling, this was Birmingham's Victorian playground.
01:14Even now, it remains a patch of a breathing space in a crowded city.
01:18For many here, it's not history. It's where they go for a five-a-side to teach their kids to ride a bike or just to sit and think.
01:25The past lingers, even if no one's narrating it.
01:28Aston's soul isn't in its landmarks, it's in its streets. These terraces tell a different story of industry, migration and sheer survival.
01:38In the 19th century, workers flooded in. In the 20th, many left or were moved on.
01:43And in the 21st, it's still one of the most deprived areas in Birmingham.
01:47But don't mistake that for weakness. This is where you'll find brummy grit, scratched into shutters, painted on brickwork and passed between generations.
01:59Then came the wrecking ball. In the name of progress, Aston was carved up.
02:03The Aston Expressway split the community in two. Tower blocks replaced terraces.
02:08Streets were rerouted or raised. Aston became a symbol of the city's post-war gamble.
02:14Modernist plans laid over living neighbourhoods. The cost? Community cohesion. The benefit? Debatable.
02:20The view from here isn't pretty, but it explains a lot about why this area still feels bruised.
02:29And yet people still gather here. Football brings life back to Aston, if only temporarily.
02:34Villa Park has stood since 1897 through war, depression, relegation and revival.
02:40It's anchored this part of the city in something bigger than itself.
02:43It's more than a stadium. It's a monument to loyalty, identity and the strange way sport keeps places alive.
02:50Aston is old, yes, but it's not over. It still matters to the people who live here and to the city built around it.
02:57Round it.
02:58Round it.
02:59Round it.
03:00Round it.
03:01Round it.
