BDLHA Newsletter June 2002
Editorial EDITORIALAt this time of the year we are well into the season of Local Society Exhibitions and we have reports of three such events for this issue. It is always a pleasure to visit these shows, meet up with old friends and make new ones. In addition we have news of a Civic reception for the Local History Societies of North Birmingham, the usual update of information from the Smethwick Heritage Centre Trust and quite a few new publications, so there could well be something for all tastes. Due to the amount of material in this Issue I have held over another instalment from the memories of Ted Saunders until the next Issue. Finally, I should like to mention that the new membership year started on the 1st May and to extend a gentle reminder to those of you who have not yet renewed your membership, that the Treasurer would be very pleased to hear from you. Contact me: Joan Davies, 112 Brandwood Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham B14 6BX Tel: (0121) 444 7470. BARR & ASTON LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY - LOCAL HISTORY SPECTACULARSaturday, 4th May saw us off on our travels, in company with Bill Ainsworth the Association's former Vice-Chairman, to visit this interesting event, which was taking place in the St. Paul’s Church Hall, Walsall Road, Great Barr. This was one of many events taking place during Local History Week. On arrival we went down to the basement of the hall for a talk and slide show given by Peter Allen, Chairman of the Barr & Aston Society, on the subject of Great Barr Hall and the Scott family, who had been associated with Great Barr Hall since at least the 14th century but it was not until 1791 that Joseph Scott inherited the Manor from the Hoo family. In 1806 he was created a baronet. In due course, due to his own-extravagance he was forced to lease the Hall to Mr. Galton, the Birmingham banker and industrialist and during his-tenancy it became one of the meeting venues for the Lunar Society. After the death of Lady Bateman-Scott the estate was purchased by the Walsall & West Bromwich Joint Board for use as a hospital and from 1918 was known as St. Margaret's Hospital. The Hall was vacated by the hospital authorities in 1978 although some of the hospital buildings remained in use until some years later. The slides showed the many changes that have been made to the Hall and the various alterations to the extensive grounds. Great Barr Hall is now derelict and on the English Heritage 'Buildings at Risk register. Upstairs again in the main hall we started our tour of the rest of the stands. The first one reflected the presence of American G.I's in Pheasey and various other areas during World War II and contained many artefacts relating to the American presence, together with several books which were the result of Fran & Martin Collins research. Outside the Hall was a display of historic military vehicles of the period. A varied collection of childhood games, toys and books, shown by the Barr Aston Society itself, was attracting plenty of attention Family History was represented in the person of Bernard Francis of the Walsall Family History Group. Bernard presided over an extensive range of family history items and, as he is widely recognised as a local genealogist, was pleased to offer advice to researchers. Barr and Aston Society itself mounted several exhibitions of photographs relating to Perry Barr, Great Barr Hall and the Scott family, Hamstead Colliery and Aston. Dermis Harding was sat at another table with copies of his book 'From the Shadow of Poverty : 100 years an Englishman, '70 years a Brummie’ I had a pleasant chat with Dennis and looked through his book which is an entertaining of his life account / illustrated with many photographs. I was interested enough to purchase a copy and full details of where you can obtain this book are given in the ‘Publications’ section of this Newsletter. An eye-catching display on the history of Scouting was mounted by the St. Paul's Scout Group with a magnificent collection of trophies and books on Scouting. This stand was staffed by another enthusiast, Ken Christopher, who was a Scout Leader from 1947 to 1995. After a pause for refreshments, we moved off to our next port of call. Note: Peter Allen is the Secretary of the Action Group to Save Great Barr Hall. Check out their website: www.greatbarrhall.com SMETHWICK LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY EXHIBITION.Our second visit of the day, albeit a shorter one, was to the Baptist Church Hall at Rawlings Road, Smethwick where the Smethwick Local History Society were holding their annual Exhibition. This event is normally held in June but was brought forward this year to coincide with the date of Local History Week. We had arrived too late to hear Mary Bodfish's talk in the Church, so we took a look around the stalls, one of which displayed the Society's many papers and publications for sale. A collection of Chance glassware was presided over by members of the Smethwick Heritage Centre Trust and they, too, had a number of publications on sale. My attention was drawn to the Canals for Communities project, which is a joint venture, the result of a partnership between Sandwell MBC, British Waterways, BCES, BTCV, Groundwork Black Country, Sandwell Health Authority, The Inland Waterways Association and the Urban Wildlife Trust. This project encompasses approx. 14 miles of canals through Sandwell and linking Smethwick, Oldbury and Tipton. Canals for Communities aims to preserve and promote the importance of the canal network, increase awareness among local communities of this great asset on their doorsteps and improve access onto the canal network. As someone who, in my more active days, enjoyed walking the canal towpaths of south Birmingham, I think this is a great project. Anyone interested in knowing more can contact the Canals for Communities project co-ordinator, Gary Dowie on Tel No. (0121) 569 4191 or e-mail on garydowie@sandwell.gov.uk A cup of tea and a biscuit and a browse along Alan Vernon's well chosen selection of books rounded off our visit to Smethwick. HANDSWORTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OPEN DAYGolden Jubilees were very much in evidence when we visited the Old Town Hall at Handsworth on Open Day, Saturday, 11th May. The cabinets in the room downstairs contained mementoes of the two Queens whose reigns had reached the half-century mark, while, very appropriately, Handsworth Historical Society is also celebrating its 50th anniiversary this year, having been founded in 1952. The cabinet nearer the door featured Victorian items. Among its contents were pictures of the Queen and photographs of the period, contemporary pence and halfpence, hatpins, a parasol, fan and mug, and a cane and walking stick. Some of the things in the other cabinet included photographs and coins of Queen Elizabeth's reign, a Jubilee mug, Coronation mug and ashtray, and a model of the state coach. The same theme was pursued less directly in a wall display of material about 1950s entertainments just before or after the Queen's Accession. Subjects in the collection included ITMA, Roger Bannister's 4 minute mile and photographs of the Festival of Britain (1951). Underneath were programmes of two F.A. Cup Finals involving local teams - Preston North End versus West Bromwich Albion in 1954 and Aston Villa Versus Manchester United in 1957. Upstairs, in the first room off the landing, was a display of stamps issued for special occasions since 1952. The Coronation (1953), the Silver Wedding (1972), the Silver Jubilee (1977), 25th anniversary of the Coronation (1978), the Queen's 60th birthday (1986) and the 40th anniversary of her, Accession (1992) were all represented. In addition, there were also some definitive series of the reign. Besides the exhibits bearing on the main topic, there were also other things on view. In the same room as the stamps was a collection of perennially popular games - chess, draughts, dominoes, snakes and ladders, and Ludo - while the cabinet in the second room contained additional means of entertainment with jig-saw puzzles, marbles, whip and top, skipping rope, a yoyo and cards. Finally, in the middle of the latter room were some attractive prints of old Birmingham buildings on a stand. Places covered were the old King Edward's School, the B.M.I., St Chad's and St Martin's Churches, the old Bluecoat School and St Phillip's Church, the Market Hall, the old Crown Inn and the Tripe House in Digbeth, the Jewish Normal College and old St John's, Deritend. At the end of our tour we sat down and partook of some refreshment, which took the form of tea and a piece of the Handsworth celebration cake, which had been cleverly and painstakingly fashioned, in the form of the Old Town Hall. As usual, we spent an interesting and enjoyable afternoon at Handsworth examining the displays and meeting old friends. CIVIC RECEPTION HELD BY THE LORD MAYOR FOR THE LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETIES OF NORTH BIRMINGHAM.The Lord Mayor Councillor Jim Whorwood held an evening civic reception in the Council House on the 20th February 2002 for the Local History Societies of North Birmingham. The reception was in recognition of the contribution that the societies have made to the City's culture. In particular, the special projects that some of the societies had carried out to record aspects of the history of their area in the Millennium year 2000. Over 100 members of the societies were guests of the Lord Mayor, himself a local historian and member of the Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group. The evening consisted of a welcome and introduction by the Lord Mayor. Followed by a short talk from each of the Chairmen of the four societies: Barr & Aston, Erdington, Handsworth and Sutton Coldfield on the activities of their societies and their Millennium project. The Lord Mayor gave an interesting talk on his enjoyment of local history, noting the major social changes to city life that are recorded in the various local history records. Also his own family's research into the Whorwood family's long and fascinating history.
The work of the societies was put on display throughout the evening and it provoked, as always with old photographs, interesting discussions about people and places. The hospitality of the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress was a welcome recognition and reward for the contribution the societies had made to recording life in the city. This report was compiled by a member of the Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group. SOCIETY NEWSSMETHWICK HERITAGE CENTRE TRUST.Galton Valley Canal Heritage Centre - Smethwick heritage is open When our 'Roadshow Season' came to an end on 1st Dec. 2001 we concentrated on working to complete the catalogueing and labelling of all our archives and to do necessary DIY work in our storage area at the Galton Valley Centre. We also added more displays to our exhibition room - Chance Glass and Local Industries Today. The many cases and display areas show the widest possible representation of the many facets of Smethwick life, work, sport, leisure etc. The Smethwick Heritage Room at the Galton Valley Canal Heritage Centre is now open to the public. Opening times at the Centre are from 10am to 3pm Sundays to Thursdays incl. The Centre is in Brasshouse Lane, Smethwick and the telephone number is (0121) 558 8195. At this point that there are no facilities for refreshments, there are picnic tables outside and, on a fine day, a picnic may be enjoyed in many pleasant grassy areas overlooking the two canal levels. The Centre has many displays of local canal history and a slide show with commentary. Nearby is the very well-restored Pump House, complete with pump, which is motored on Open Days. Roadshow News Our first roadshow of every year takes place at The Old Church, Smethwick, which was built thanks to the Trust set up by its benefactress Dorothy Parkes. A visit to this church is very rewarding and it also provides a wonderful setting for our regular feature "the 2pm talk" given by Mary Bodfish. On this occasion her subject was “People of Smethwick” which reflected one of the themes of our roadshow - genealogy. The Roadshow exhibition was set in The Dorothy Parkes Centre which is a new, light, airy complex with excellent facilities and an atmosphere of warmth and welcome together with 'gentle' acoustic properties. The Centre stands on the site of the old school buildings and was opened just over a year ago. We were pleased to welcome Maureen Waldron from the Community History Archives Service in Smethwick and members of the Birmingham & Midland Genealogy Society who augmented our display on genealogy. Smethwick Heritage member, Marylin Cliff, who suggested and organised the display, was also on hand with the latest Census information. Many other displays caught the public's eye - especially that of Mitchells & Butlers Brewery which, sadly, will soon be no more. Many visitors recalled their working life at the Cape Hill Brewery and we were delighted that several visitors offered to give or loan to us photographs or documents, which will enable us to enlarge our archive. The imminent closure of the Brewery, and the possible loss of local records and memorabilia, underlines the pressing need for us, and for local historians in other areas, to be aware of what is disappearing or changing and to document it where possible. 1000 not out Many cricketers would like that score! However it simply commemorates the fact that at our recent Roadshow our 1000th member joined the Trust. Christine Round - Publicity Officer SHCT. For information about our next Roadshow see EVENTS & OPEN DAYS. Jubilee Photographs The following request has been made to all the members of the Smethwick Heritage Centre Trust and the general public - "Please take a photograph for us". The plan is to produce a complete snapshot of Smethwick in 2002. We know it will be an invaluable archive to lay down for future historians and family researchers'. Thanks to poster and leaflet appeals - and help from Carl Chinn’s programme which produced a good response - the message is being relayed that we would like anyone who lives, works or simply visits Smethwick, to take a photograph. It may be of a wedding, a traffic jam, a public building, children playing, building or demolition work, shops, works, offices, gardens, pets.... in fact anything that gives a picture of everyday life and surroundings of Smethwick, Jubilee Year - 2002. All details from me on (0121) 421 6557. Christine Round. Publicity Officer, SHCT. PUBLICATIONSThe Mayoralty and Birmingham City CouncilA Historical Perspective by Professor John Stewart. The Mayors and Lord Mayors of Birmingham have played an important role in the life of the city but it is a role which has rarely been recognised in academic writing on local government The role of the Mayor has changed over time. At one time the Mayor was, in effect, the political leader and could serve for two or three years. Gradually the ceremonial function came to be more important in the role of Mayors and Lord Mayors. Political leaders emerged and grew in importance. These changes in the role of the Mayor and After 1896, of the Lord Mayor of Birmingham are set against a background of other changes, which are illustrated in the paper. ISBN: 0 7044 2230 1 Price £8.00 (inclusive of P & P) Available from The Publications Officer, School of Public Policy, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT Tel (0121) 414 4986. Cheques to be made payable to University of Birmingham From the shadow of poverty100 years an Englishman, 70 years a Brummie by Dennis Harding. This book is a very readable account of Dennis's life, enlivened with many illustrations. ISBN 1-904078-07-9 The book may be obtained by post at £12-50 from Dennis Harding, P.O. Box 10234, Birmingham B42 2WB. (See report of the Barr & Aston Local History Spectacular, earlier in this Newsletter.) A history of the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra 1941-1999by Margaret Worsley This book tells the story of the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra from its early beginnings in 1941 up until the end of the 1998/99 season. As well as being a factual history it contains many amusing anecdotes and personal reminiscences from past and present long-serving members, and a number of interesting photographs. Also included is a comprehensive Appendix containing lists of conductors, leaders, soloists, officers and committee members over the years, charities supported and the complete repertoire of the Orchestra. The Foreword to the book is written by Michael Lloyd, the current principal conductor and musical director of the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra. (An extract from the book appeared in Issue 19 of 'Birmingham Historian' - March 2001) The book may be obtained by post at £8.99 plus £1.50 post and packing, from Margaret Worsley, 142 Yewdale Crescent, Coventry, CV2 2FT. Quinton Local History Societyare pleased to announce the society’s first book: “IMAGES OF ENGLAND ~ QUINTON”The book is being produced under the banner of Tempus Publishing Limited and will be available in July/August 2002. The chapters include, “Now and Then”- a glance back in time comparing photographs taken some 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and some 100 years ago to the same view taken in 2002, “Bourne College and Quinton Hall”- a most significant part of Quinton’s history. Also included are “Shops, businesses and public houses: Lost churches and chapels: Events, sports and entertainment: Farms: People and of course, Scenes around Quinton. The book is an intriguing collection of over 200 archive images of Quinton, or Ridgacre (as it was once known). The author, Bernard Taylor, is a keen local historian and chairman of the history society. The cost of the book will be 10.99 plus £1 for postage and packing. If you would like a copy please send your name and address together with your cheque for £10.99 plus £1 p & p (Made payable to Quinton Local History Society) to: - B J Taylor, 15 Worlds End Avenue, Quinton, Birmingham, B32 1JF If - the Pat Roach storyPat Roach with Shirley Thompson. This is a substantial book consisting of 18 chapters and 290 pages of text with Pat's favourite poem, Kiplings IF providing the framework. It traces Pat's life from poverty-stricken childhood to famous celebrity IF is designed for an international readership and a broad range of interests: biographies in general, travel, architecture, sports, local history and canal enthusiasts to name but a few. The range of contributors and subjects is extremely diverse and the contributions of the principal members of the cast of Auf Wiedersehen Pet make fascinating reading. ISBN: 1 85858 209 1. Paperback 290 pages with 80 plus illustrations. Available March 2002 onwards. Price: £14.95. One morning in MayPatrick Hayes. This book tells the story of the mysterious case of Mary Ashford. The year is 1817 and the annual Whitsun dance is held at a local Coaching Inn. Mary attends the dance with Hannah Cox and she meets a local farmer Abraham Thornton. They dance the night away and leave at midnight to walk home but Mary is never seen alive again. She is found dead in a marl pit in the grounds of the rambling mansion Pype Hayes Hall. She has been violently attacked and flung into the pit to drown. Abraham Thornton is accused. The evidence seems overwhelming. Three months later the jury at Warwick Assizes take eight minutes to find him not guilty. Fury rages throughout the village and plans are sought to bring Thornton to justice and the reader is taken on a fascinating journey via the Old Bailey, Liverpool Docks and eventually the United States. One Morning in May is more than a collection of historical facts but a historical novel that leads to interesting conjecture. The aim of the book is not to solve the mystery but to make the case and the facts known to as many people as possible. ISBN: 1 85858 193 1 Paperback 62 pages illustrated with beautiful line drawings by Mandy Farrar and photographs by Michael Madden. Available April 2002 onwards. Price: £6-95. How was it for you?Audrey Chalmers. Every former serviceman and women carries a little piece of history in his or her pocket. The fragment is just a small part of an immensely colourful landscape. Generals and war leaders may write dusty memoirs, which have considerable significance for the historian. The real stories are, however, contained within this book and come from those at the sharp end. They reflect the experiences of millions of ordinary people who were plunged into a hostile environment, which came to dominate their everyday lives. (Italics) All royalties arising from the sale of this book are being donated to the Royal British-Legion Warwickshire. ISBN: 1 85858 210 5 Paperback 174 pages with 31 illustrations. Canals in the heart of EnglandAlan Tyers. Britain's Canals have dramatically changed over the last decade and their renaissance from run-down, underused waterways to a major national asset is largely down to British Waterways and forward thinking local authorities This photographic essay covers several of the Canals that navigate through the Heart of England. Featured within the book are the boats and the people belonging to both urban and rural Canal environments. The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, the Birmingham & Worcester Canal, the Stratford-upon-Avon and the Grand Union Canals all feature in this book and finally it looks at the Coventry Canal section which starts in the city centre and runs to Hawkesbury Junction. Along the way the author meets and photographs boaters, British Waterways personnel and skilled men and women who are carrying on the great traditions of Canal crafts. ISBN: 1 85858 212 1 Paperback 90 pages with 90 full-colour illustrations. Available May 2002. Price £14.95. The above four titles are available from Brewin Books Ltd., Doric House, 56 Alcester Road, Studley, Warwickshire B90 7LG. Tel: (01527) 854228. Email: admin@brewinbooks.com. Website: www.brewinbooks.com |