Immanuel Parish Church was consecrated in 1940 and so the year 2000 is very special to us, being not only the Millennium but also our Diamond Jubilee.

At the end of the First World War the Maypole / Highters Heath area was very much a rural area, lying outside the City of Birmingham boundary. However, the war had brought more industry to Birmingham and with it an inflow of population. Consequently, in the 1920's Birmingham was compelled to push out its boundaries and the city boundary was placed at the Maypole.

At this time there was a small community centred on the crossroads where Druids Lane, coming from the west, met the Alcester Road. There was at one time a 'maypole' erected at the crossroads, but this had disappeared many years earlier. There was a timber yard on one corner and a smithy on another, which was kept busy shoeing farm horses and repairing agricultural equipment.

Quite soon a large estate was commenced to the east of the Alcester Road. The great proportion of the land to the west belonged to Canbury and Monyhull Colony and was later declared a green belt area. People began to move in and a bus service was established with its terminus at the crosswords, as the corporation trams only ran as far as Alcester Lanes End. The area on which this estate was built was then in the parish of Christ Church, Yardley Wood; the west side of the Alcester Road being in the parish of Kings Norton.

It was soon apparent that Yardley Wood church could not cope with the large number of people who were now living in the area, so that in the early 1930's the Bishop and the Diocesan authorities decided to create a new parish to be called 'Highters Heath' and to build a new church.

A plot of land was acquired in Highters Heath Lane large enough to accommodate the church, the hall and the vicarage. It was not long before a temporary wooden building was erected at a cost of £1,100.00 to serve as a church and hall and on the 26th March 1938 the new parish of Highters Heath came into existence, separate from Yardley Wood. The new building was dedicated by the Bishop of Birmingham, the Right Reverend E W Barnes and the Reverend Gilbert Cope was installed as Priest in Charge to serve the new communit

Life in the new parish began with services held in the hall. Essential furnishings were generously provided by local churches and a modest sum was borrowed to purchase other requisites such as curtains and cupboards. Plans for the new church were drawn up in 1938, and in 1939 building began, with the sum of £5,500.00 being granted by the Bishop's Appeal Fund to complete the first phase of building.

However, the clouds of war descended and when the nave was completed in 1940 a temporary wooden wall and a small wooden vestry were erected at the east end. The nave was consecrated by the Bishop on Saturday 25th May 1940 and Immanuel Parish Church was in being.

During the course of the war, the work of the new church was pushed forward inthe area, and continues to this day.