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West Midlands Leasing

Did You Know?

West Midlands has several universities, colleges, and cultural institutions, but it remains best known for its manufactures, ranging from the luxurious (Rover cars from Solihull) to the everyday (chocolate and cocoa from Cadbury's model workers' settlement at Bournville)

Birmingham is the largest city of the West Midlands conurbation—one of England's principal industrial and commercial areas—for which it acts as an administrative, recreational, and cultural centre.

Why is Midlands called black country? - The name has been in use since the mid-19th century and is thought to refer to the colour of the coal seam or the air pollution from the many thousands of foundries and factories around at the time. In 1862, American diplomat Elihu Burritt famously described the area as 'black by day and red by night'

Birmingham's West Midlands Jewellery Quarter produces 40% of the country's jewellery, alongside boxing belts, the FIFA World Player of the Year awards and 12 million items at Europe's largest Assay Office. Located in the heart of the famous quarter.

Born in Birmingham, West Midlands in 1813, Alexander Parkes invented celluloid, used across the globe in cinematic film. Its development is heralded as the birth of the Hollywood film industry. Birmingham businessman Oscar Deutsch, who - along with Birmingham-born film pioneers Michael Balcon and Victor Saville - was instrumental in starting the UK's film industry, founded the Odeon chain of cinemas in 1930.

West Midlands John Byrne is a comic book writer who has co-created a number of Marvel characters such as Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, Sabretooth, Shadow King, Ant-Man, Bishop, Omega Red and Rachel Summers. In 2015, the first instalment of Ant-Man was released in cinemas and made more than half-a-billion dollars at the box office.

Bird’s Custard was first formulated and cooked in 1837 at a chemist shop in the West Midlands. Alfred Bird’s unique powdered custard recipe was so well received by dinner guests, he would form Alfred Bird and Sons Ltd to increase wider production. He went on to invent a baking powder, which is the same used in kitchens across the world today.

Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Napalm Death and Led Zeppelin are bands from Birmingham and the West Midlands that pioneered the heavy metal music genre. Influenced by the industrial, urban environment of the West Midlands region at the time, the unique sound inspired successive bands such as Iron Maiden, Metallica and Nirvana.