Aston

Aston combines historic traces, green urban spaces and independent exploration to create a diverse destination. If you are looking for a holiday apartment for a stay combining culture, walks and urban history, you can bring together a wide range of experiences here: from historic landscapes and church art to a self-guided tour and the history of Birmingham’s canals.

Between parkland and green urban spaces

Aston Park is a remnant of the 934-acre deer park of Aston Hall. This unusual historical scale alone gives the park particular significance for the area’s history. For your travel planning, it provides access to Aston’s landscape character and complements the area’s cultural themes with time spent in green surroundings. If you do not want to spend every day exclusively visiting museums or densely built-up urban areas, you can make the parkland a focus of your stay.

Another green aspect is shown by Aston University’s Green Zone. On the urban campus, it combines fruit trees, wild gardens and habitats for wildlife. This creates a different perspective on Aston: here, nature appears not only as a historic park but also as part of an urban campus. When choosing your accommodation, you can therefore consider whether you want to focus your stay more on cultural discoveries or on a mix of urban history and green impressions.

Church art and other artworks in Aston

The Anglican church of SS Peter and Paul has a surviving 15th-century west tower. It also houses a significant collection of portraits and wall monuments dating from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. This chronological breadth makes the church an important cultural reference point for anyone wishing to learn more about historic architecture and surviving artworks. The church can be treated as a programme item in its own right, without limiting your stay to a single period.

The Aston Old Cross Stones are also among the notable artworks in Aston. The sculptor John Maine created them between 1975 and 1977. The work consists of five Portland stone elements arranged in the shape of a cross. Compared with the medieval church, this example shows a distinctly more recent artistic engagement with a traditional symbol. During your stay, you can therefore discover different historical layers side by side, without all the impressions coming from the same period.

Exploring at your own pace

The Aston Heritage and Art Trail is a self-guided tour. You can start it at any point and explore it at your own pace. This is particularly practical if you do not want to tie your day to a fixed schedule or would like to plan breaks between individual visits. The tour offers an independent way to discover Aston’s history and art, while you decide the order of your discoveries yourself.

Birmingham’s canal history can also be explored in Aston along a walking route. The walk to Aston Junction is 1 km long. Aston Junction is the connection between the Digbeth Branch Canal and the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal. This route therefore leads to a specific point in the history of waterway construction and complements the historical themes of the park, church and art with the development of the canals.

Choosing accommodation to suit your plans

When searching for a holiday apartment in Aston, it is worth deciding in advance what kind of daily rhythm you want. Families and other groups who want to combine different interests can include cultural attractions, the Heritage and Art Trail, green spaces and the short walk to Aston Junction in their plans. If you like deciding for yourself whether to begin the day with art, parkland or canal history, a flexible travel plan is a better fit than a fixed itinerary.

You can also include other destinations from this selection in your research: Birmingham and Bournville. This allows you to compare which place best suits your desired mix of culture, nature and urban discovery.

Return to the overarching travel overview: Birmingham.