These are our links for June 3rd through June 9th:
Another landmark in the Staffordshire Hoard campaign | birminghamnewsroom.com – The campaign to permanently display the Staffordshire Hoard in the Midlands has passed another major milestone.<br />
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent have now transferred £3.3 million to the British Museum for the joint acquisition of the world famous collection of Anglo-Saxon gold.<br />
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That means the farmer on whose land the treasure was found, and the metal detecting enthusiast who discovered it will now receive their money (a 50/50 split of £3.285 million).
Lord Mayor visits Old Town Hall | Hands on Handsworth – The Old Town hall is just off Slack Lane in Handsworth and is looked after by the Handsworth Historical Society, all volunteers.<br />
The society were delighted in May to win the Arts & Culture Award at the Pride in Handsworth Award and said “that they had never in over forty years been recognised for the work they have done”. On the 11th May they were also delighted to welcome the Lord Major & Majoress to the Old Town Hall
BLDGBLOG: Bloggers in the Archive – "…what if you could install an architecture blogger—or a film blogger, a food blogger, an archaeology blogger, a fiction blogger—in an overlooked archive somewhere, anywhere in the world, and thus help to reveal those items to the general public?"
Sometimes you spot some things that are surprisingly mundane and interesting. This map charting the growth of Birmingham’s local authority to 1938 fits into that category and comes from the website www.british-history.ac.uk and the 1964 book A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 7 edited by WB Stephens.
Best views in Handsworth From St Mary’s Church | Hands on Handsworth – St Mary’s is a historic gem of Handsworth and well worth a trip to see the resting places of James Watt and there are three monuments in the core of the church honouring Watt, William Murdoch and Matthew Boulton.
These are our links for February 16th through February 18th:
BBC News – National Trust may launch campaign to buy Abbey Road – The National Trust has confirmed that it may launch a campaign to buy the threatened Abbey Road Studios.The charity said in a statement that “if there is enough momentum, we may launch a campaign to save the studios”.
Soho Melodies new Handsworth Music Heritage Project | Hands on Handsworth – The project will provide an interesting exploration of the musical heritage of the Soho Rd from the 1950s right up to the modern day. It may surprise people to learn once the project is complete the influence and contribution that Handsworth musicians have had on the music industry
These are our links for February 14th through February 16th:
National Trust | 2010 & beyond – “This strategy means nothing less than a cultural revolution for the Trust. It demands a new mindset and a new way of working.”
The Cadbury legacy – take a walk around historic Bournville | Culture24 – The website Culturre24 reminds us of the history of Bournville: “Richard and George Cadbury moved their growing chocolate manufacturing business from a cramped and polluted site in Birmingham in 1879 to a rural site called Bournbrook. Bournbrook was largely farmland, but it benefited from access to the canal and railway, fresh air and space to expand. Its name was changed from Bournbrook to Bournville as French chocolate was the most fashionable at the time. Once the factory was finished, well hidden in a dip of land, the first houses were built for the key workers.”
Soho House and Gardens in Birmingham | Garden Design And Landscape Architecture Blog – Gardenvisit.com – Tom Turner reviews Phillada Ballard, Val Loggie, Shena Mason’s book : A lost landscape – Matthew Boulton’s gardens at Soho (Phillimore & Co, Chichester, 2009 ISBN978-1-86077-563-5)]. “The book should have been a study in the early development of the picturesque. But I recommend the book to local historians and to specialist garden libraries.”
Matthew Boulton was born in Birmingham in September 1728, the son of a buckle-, button- and ‘toy’-maker. ‘Birmingham toys’ were not children’s playthings, but small decorative objects such as snuff boxes, toothpick cases, nutmeg graters and other trinkets.
It is 200 years since the death of one of Birmingham’s key industrialists, indeed one of the fathers of the industrial revolution.
This new website from Birmingham City Council celebrates his contribution. Besides his direct industrial impact they register that:
The canal network which threads its way through our countryside and cities, is a legacy of the faith of the generation of early canal investors like Matthew Boulton, who wanted to improve transport links and achieved the extraordinary feat of making Birmingham the most landlocked port in Britain.
Moseley Road Baths in Balsall Heath and the Red Lion Pub in Handsworth have made it onto a list of the Victorian Society’s 10 most endangered buildings in the UK. The list was a product of a public vote and campaign.
As a city that saw massive expansion in the 19th century we have a large proportion of Victorian buildings, so it’s no great surprise that two Birmingham buildings are on the list. What is interesting and encouraging is that the local communities felt strongly enough about these buildings to vote them into the top ten.
The Red Lion closed more than a year ago and the local Victorian Society’s casework group (chaired by one of our Trustees Joe Holyoak) writes:
A possible sale by auction of this remarkable grade II* listed pub of 1901-2 by James and Lister Lea in December did not take place, and the building with its fantastic interiors stands empty and vulnerable. We have urged Birmingham City Council to take action, and a full record of the building is currently being made. Efforts are also underway to resolve structural problems, negotiate new tenants and find a suitable use. We are particularly concerned that this building should not suffer a similar fate to other local pubs, as was highlighted through the Society’s “Crawl to Save our Pubs” last August, and resulted in some positive media coverage, including a short piece in the Guardian. Last year the grade II listed Duke of York, Hockley was lost, though its fittings and those of the now derelict but also grade II listed George and Dragon, Albion Street had been stolen some years ago. The grade II listed Wharf Inn, Cradley Heath is about to be demolished following several fires, and the interior of the grade II* listed Bellefield Inn in Winson Green was destroyed in a fire three years ago, and is now being converted to housing. Across the region unlisted, but nevertheless often interesting pubs of the 19th and 20th centuries are being closed at an accelerating rate and stand boarded up, many of them awaiting almost certain demolition or less than suitable conversion to other uses.
The Moseley Road Swimming Baths are the last working Grade II* Edwardian baths in Britain, according to the Victorian Society. They are the centre of a longstanding campaign to keep the pools working, often led by Cllr Martin Mullaney (a onetime trustee of ours!). See this, the first of many youtube films he has made to help the cause:
Stonebridge School, Brent, London
Gustav Adolfs Kyrka (The Swedish Church), Liverpool
Newsome Mill, Huddersfield
St Maries’ Church, Widnes, Cheshire
Chapels at Cathays Cemetery, Cardiff
Holy Trinity, Hove, East Sussex
Palace Theatre, Plymouth, Devon
Fletcher Convalescent Home, Cromer, Norfolk
