A good place to start (England/Wales) is registering with the GRO, cost nothing to search: General Register Office - Online Ordering Service - Login (gro.gov.uk) Of course if you have need of copies of birth, marriage, death certificates there is a charge.
This site is also free to search: FreeBMD - Search Using these two sites should get you names and dates back to 1838 when registering started.
To get back further, along with census and Parish/Church records try: FamilySearch • Free Family Trees and Genealogy Archives free to sign up.
Newspaper archives are also great for finding out what ancestors got up to: Home | Search the archive | British Newspaper Archive some searches
free, others with monthly/yearly subscription. £13/ £76
Both sides of my family are from brum over the last 150-200 years then pick them up in the Shires before then.
I've been at it for about nine months (I'm retired) just coming to the end of it now.
Ancestors found of note:
An Olympic champion.
A Villa player.
A drummer in a pop band.
A war hero.
Of course there is always the rough with the smooth, loads of infant/child deaths and two suicides.