I believe the original runway at Elmdon (now Bham airport) was RW 24 since the prevailing winds in UK tend to be southwesterly.
When aircraft requiring longer runways came along they could not extend RW 24 easily due to a railway line at one end and a housing estate at the other end. So they built RW 33 which is at 90 degrees to runway 24 and hence you often take off and land RW 33 with a significant crosswind. This coupled with the topography makes for some interesting approaches etc.