Kings Norton Team Parish |The Parish Profile

Who We Are

You will find the most recent overview of Kings Norton Team Parish by clicking here.

A Detailed Explanation

Kings Norton is a Church of England Team Parish of 28,300 on the southern edge of Birmingham. Outer city urban and suburban, it also has a rural area with farming ... and sheep (map). Most people live in estate areas of the parish with multiple deprivation and disadvantage; Druids Heath, Chaddesley- Longfellow and the Three Estates New Deal for Communities area of Pool Farm, Primrose and Hawkesley.

The area around Kings Norton Green, now a designated conservation area, forms a significant local focus for the whole parish. It has Birmingham’s largest collection of medieval buildings, including the parish church, our open churchyard and the Old Grammar School and Tudor Merchant’s House, re-opened in June 2008 as Saint Nicolas Place after winning BBC Restoration 2004. These are all church-owned and in heavy and growing church, heritage, community and education use.

Hawkesley Church Primary Academy (C/E – Methodist Aided, N.o.R 310) is our church school, with a strong place in the past and future of its estate community. It is preparing for major change and growth.

We are involved in many pastoral offices, which draw out a growing range of mission and ministry. In 2008, we conducted 85 baptisms, 73 marriages and 210 funerals, 87 of wich were held in church. Those figures remained roughly the same in 2009 apart from a rise in the number of funerals.

We are involved in many local schools and organisations. There are ten primary schools (two RC) including Hawkesley Church Primary School, three secondary schools (one RC) and Cadbury Sixth Form College.

We are involved in major estate regeneration programmes, most of which still have to deliver fully

And we are involved in support for a significant number of isolated elders, vulnerable people and pressured families

Social Context

Kings Norton is a “mixed economy” parish. It is large and, though majority white (BME 11%), is socially highly diverse. Around 8000 people live in the more prosperous area around The Green. 20.000 live in decaying outer-city estates, including 6000 on Druids Heath and 9.500 on the “Three Estates” area of Hawkesley, Primrose and Pool Farm. Many, young and old, have experience of hurt and struggle. Many feel unsafe and vulnerable, and we take too many funerals of young people.

Yet, as in the area’s major regeneration programmes, the restoration of the church’s other mediaeval buildings and in the life of the schools and communities in which we minister, including our outer-estate church school, there is great capacity and longing for hope, renewal and growth and a willingness, against all the odds, to work together with others.

St Nicolas' Church

Within all this, St Nicolas is the ancient parish church in the fullest sense. It is highly visible. It is widely known and woven into the stories of so many, often very vulnerable, people. Liturgy and prayer are at the heart, but, in our local context and story, St Nicolas is much more than a theatre for liturgy or a place for praying where it has been valid for centuries, vital though these are.

The building itself, with its many and growing uses, is a living sign of Christ’s shelter, hope and welcome at the heart of our growth in mission across the parish and through our District Churches of Hawkesley and Immanuel. We are now beginning to re-order so that our generous building can be even more accessible and responsive to growing varieties of worship, use and need.