Aston Hall Museum is a Jacobean manor built on high ground in Aston Park by Sir Thomas Holte in 1618-38.

The museum, which is owned by Birmingham City Council, is entered through a central doorway whose entablature, supported by Doric columns, bears the inscription "1618".

The ceiling of the Reception Hall is decorated with plaster moulds and its walls with finely-carved oak panelling. The Reception Hall leads directly to the Great Hall which features Jacobean panelling and an elaborately carved strapwork staircase with an oak balustrade.

The first floor features the Great Dining Room which possesses a Jacobean plaster ceiling and monumental fireplace. Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria spent the night of 18 October 1642 in the neighbouring room which contains original Van Dyck portraits of the royal pair and a walnut cabinet that they gave to Sir Thomas Holte.

The first floor also contains a 37-metre Long Gallery with a strapwork ceiling, oak panelling & monumental Jacobean fireplace.

The displays include period furniture, paintings, textiles and metalwork from collections owned by Birmingham City Council.

The museum also contains a shop, cafe, activity rooms and an exhibition space. It is generally only open during the summer and is always closed whenever Aston Villa play weekend home matches.

Blakesley Hall Museum is located on Blakesley Road in Yardley. It is a half-timbered Tudor farmhouse (circa 1590) that was converted into a museum by Birmingham City Council in 1932.

The museum was refurbished in the 1970's according to an an inventory dated 1684 which lists several exhibits including the Long Table in the Great Hall. The Great & Little Parlours were reinstated and the original herringbone floor preserved.

The upper floors contain the Long Gallery and several bedchambers, one of which features the Moorish Mural (circa 1590): a painted wall decoration that had been concealed and was only rediscovered when plaster was shattered by a wartime bomb.  The curators have furnished a second bedroom in the style of the painted chamber.

Blakesley Hall stands in a traditional walled orchard and herb garden that contains a visitor centre with a cafe, shop and exhibition hall.

The grounds also contain the stocks that once stood outside Sutton Coldfield Town Hall and the Gilbertstone: an Ice Age Erratic supposedly rolled to Yardley by Gilbert the Giant. A converted 17th century barn provides additional facilities for schoolchildren.

Blakesley Hall is generally closed during the winter.

Sarehole Mill is an historic working water mill in the Shire Country Park off Cole Bank Road in Hall Green. It is now a museum owned by Birmingham City Council.

The mill was built in 1765 on the site of an earlier 16th century mill that was used for rolling metal by Mathew Boulton.

The mill  is powered by water stored in a millpond fed by the River Cole; it is equipped with a south wheel and a north wheel but only the south, an overshot made of elm and cast iron, still functions.

Water is channelled from the pond through a sluice gate from where it falls into buckets on the top side of the wheel, causing it to turn. A system of gears increases the revolutions from 4 to 120 per minute.

The mill was used to grind corn, cutlery, swords & gun barrels. Its chimney was added in 1855 when steam power was introduced.

Sarehole Mill is only open to the general public between April and November. The machinery and flour-making process are demonstrated on special days. The facilities include a cafe, shop and visitor car park.

The museum also contains displays dedicated to J R R Tolkien, the author of Lord of the Rings, who lived within 300 yards of the mill as a child and who was fascinated by its pond and machinery. His fictional Hobbiton Village is a fantasy version of Sarehole Mill which forms part of the Tolkien Trail.

An annual Tolkien weekend is held in May at the mill, in the adjoining meadow and on the nearby Sarehole Recreation Ground.

Weoley Castle on Alwold Road is the ruin of a fortified mediaeval manor which may viewed from a platform.

Visitors will see the dry moats and fishponds, the remains of a bakehouse and chapel, and the ruined gatehouse whose stone walls still bear the grooves that carried the drawbridge.

The ruin is a Scheduled Ancient Monument owned by Birmingham City Council. Admission to the viewing platform is free. There is limited roadside parking.

A new education and community centre opened at the castle in October 2010; it was built as part of £1.14 million refurbishment that included the cleansing and re-pointing of the ruin (News Archive 21/10/10).