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A Birmingham and Black Country thread for all things Brummie and Yam-Yam

I meant to post about this at the time, but the young lads murder was the same day and didn't want to distract from that important conversation, and then I simply forgot. Sorry folks.

Anyway theres a public consulation taking place until March 26th, on the 'shaping our city together' program, which is basically the replacememnt for the 'big city plan' for the rest of the development of the city centre, which if course involves tons more sky scrapers, city living and coffee shops. Because we don't have enough of that already.

Although some plus points for lots of potential green returning, including the River Rea and a seemingly admittance that retail and high streets are are a thing of the past.

More info and relevant PDFs if you want to spread the word or have your say: Our Future City Plan ‘Shaping our City Together' - Birmingham City Council - Citizen Space

Youtube videos:








Proper council page: Official launch of Our Future City Plan - Central Birmingham 2040 | Our Future City Plan | Birmingham City Council
 
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Yes, thanks for that. I will have a proper look, I remember seeing something a while back for a sort of green corridor along the Rea through Highgate, inevitably with flats overlooking it, but it seemed like a pretty decent idea. Be good to see what's in the plans.
 
baldrick said:
Yes, thanks for that. I will have a proper look, I remember seeing something a while back for a sort of green corridor along the Rea through Highgate, inevitably with flats overlooking it, but it seemed like a pretty decent idea. Be good to see what's in the plans.
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Yes, the Rea Valley Urban Quarter (as well as an ERDF project for this and other sections of the Rea as well as green infrastructure work on the Tame and Cole
 
I LOVE the Hockley Meadow plan. It's utterly ridiculous but at the same time why the fuck not. There's very little green space around there. I don't know where the traffic from the flyover would go. I'll have to read the plans a bit more. Maybe the clean air zone will help to reduce it.
 
baldrick said:
I LOVE the Hockley Meadow plan. It's utterly ridiculous but at the same time why the fuck not. There's very little green space around there. I don't know where the traffic from the flyover would go. I'll have to read the plans a bit more. Maybe the clean air zone will help to reduce it.
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I've just had a quick look through the screen version. Yes Hockley Meadow sounds great. Imagine being able to walk/ cycle up to the Lord Clifdon, no traffic or fumes.
I walked from Handsworth to Brum some time back, got lost crossing the dual carriageways by the flyover and couldn't breathe for traffic fumes. Almost as bad as Brixton Hill.

Would be nice to see Hockley Brook rediscovered in the same way they're planning to resurrect the river Rae.
 
baldrick said:
Yes, I read something the other day about Hockley Brook that the boating lake in Handsworth park that always has a puddle running over the path - that's the brook! It's not just terrible drainage. I found that really interesting :oops: there's some good stuff posted on some of the local Facebook groups about the history of the area.
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Yep some of the old factories and foundries round here and towards Smethwick have amazing histories, Soho House too. The musical heritage round here is great to dig into too.
 
Yes, Hockley Brook is very interesting, most of it gone underground now I imagine, the same as what's happened to most big city small rivers.
It ran through Black Patch near Smethwick which is claimed as a possible birth place for Charlie Chaplin - his mother reputedly having lived in a caravan there for a while.
 
blossie33 said:
Yes, Hockley Brook is very interesting, most of it gone underground now I imagine, the same as what's happened to most big city small rivers.
It ran through Black Patch near Smethwick which is claimed as a possible birth place for Charlie Chaplin - his mother reputedly having lived in a caravan there for a while.
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I went past Black Patch the other day, it looks in a bit of a state given the historical significance of it ☹️ it is in the middle of an industrial estate but it looked pretty neglected.
 
blossie33 said:
Yes, Hockley Brook is very interesting, most of it gone underground now I imagine, the same as what's happened to most big city small rivers.
It ran through Black Patch near Smethwick which is claimed as a possible birth place for Charlie Chaplin - his mother reputedly having lived in a caravan there for a while.
Click to expand...

Theres a small stretch of it on show in Reynolds Road, other than that I've not physically seen it,not even the bits of it that appear in the park though I rarely venture that deep in to the park.
 
baldrick said:
I went past Black Patch the other day, it looks in a bit of a state given the historical significance of it ☹ it is in the middle of an industrial estate but it looked pretty neglected.
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I used to work as a gardener on Black Patch Park for Sandwell MBC, mainly looking after the cricket pitch. There was a nice little pub nearby, the Railway I think and maybe Pat Roach had something to do with it or he had a scrapyard nearby.
 
BCBlues said:
Yep some of the old factories and foundries round here and towards Smethwick have amazing histories, Soho House too. The musical heritage round here is great to dig into too.
Click to expand...

The soho foundry building always struck me as a potential sensational building for one.

That part of the north of the city and the Black Country bits in borders are steeped in sensational history: Boulton’s manufactory, Watt’s pump house, the Black Patch, the architecture and even the flyover.

Being Birmingham we don’t bother to make anything of it, or use to to tell others about us or even to tell us something about ourselves. Boulton’s house, a few plaques or signs and a programme of unthinkingly destroying own history. I can’t help wonder what places like Liverpool or London would do with all of this unique history just lying around. My guess is more than we do! Very depressing to hear the black patch is now neglected by the way...
 
The small, official, W Mids heritage sector does its best I suppose. But it’s a very top down history and doesn’t really focus on the lived experience of ordinary people. Labour and social history literature on the region is also relatively light considering how much of it there is.

I’m just wondering, I guess, why the culture that normally grows up around the official version - and which helps to inform the way a place understands its past and uses it to talk about itself- has traditionally been so weak here compared to the bigger northern cities and obviously London. By comparison we’ve always felt unsure, fragmented and almost culturally disposed to actively reject or underplay our history and culture. If you can have a culture that is grounded in rejecting culture that is..
 
Smokeandsteam said:
The small, official, W Mids heritage sector does its best I suppose. But it’s a very top down history and doesn’t really focus on the lived experience of ordinary people. Labour and social history literature on the region is also relatively light considering how much of it there is.

I’m just wondering, I guess, why the culture that normally grows up around the official version - and which helps to inform the way a place understands its past and uses it to talk about itself- has traditionally been so weak here compared to the bigger northern cities and obviously London. By comparison we’ve always felt unsure, fragmented and almost culturally disposed to actively reject or underplay our history and culture. If you can have a culture that is grounded in rejecting culture that is..
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I suppose the Black Country Living Museum is something for the region to be proud of. I've not been myself yet though, was due to take a mate from London there last May.
I'm still very Black Country orientated despite living over the border these days.
I've only just found out where Gib Heath is despite the fact it's on my doorstep.
 
Smokeandsteam said:
The small, official, W Mids heritage sector does its best I suppose. But it’s a very top down history and doesn’t really focus on the lived experience of ordinary people. Labour and social history literature on the region is also relatively light considering how much of it there is.
Click to expand...
birmingham maybe but black country history is very much the opposite and generally all about the living and working experiences of the working class. which is probably why the black country museum has more working class visitors than any other museum in britain.

related to this, and the work i did on my family tree, and the global geopark stuff i been thinking of starting my own business doing a walking tour kind of thing. kinda taking the black country museum out of the hole in the ground its located in and taking it to the top of sedgley beacon. i could dress up in the old clothes and do a kinda aynuk and ayli routine all the way round.
would cover the history of the place and people from when it was a shallow tropical sea to now. visiting fossil beds at wrens nest, collapsed bell pits in the woods at castle park, across the historically important valley at woodsetton, which opens up into coseley moor and tipton, then up past the abandoned lime kilns at hurst hill and onto the beacon for more fossils and views. then into the beacon hotel for a pint of mild and a cheese and onion cob, with a battered chip chippy right opposite.
i got the idea, i done the historical research, now all i need to learn is how to do everything else!
what do people think?
 
discokermit said:
birmingham maybe but black country history is very much the opposite and generally all about the living and working experiences of the working class. which is probably why the black country museum has more working class visitors than any other museum in britain.

related to this, and the work i did on my family tree, and the global geopark stuff i been thinking of starting my own business doing a walking tour kind of thing. kinda taking the black country museum out of the hole in the ground its located in and taking it to the top of sedgley beacon. i could dress up in the old clothes and do a kinda aynuk and ayli routine all the way round.
would cover the history of the place and people from when it was a shallow tropical sea to now. visiting fossil beds at wrens nest, collapsed bell pits in the woods at castle park, across the historically important valley at woodsetton, which opens up into coseley moor and tipton, then up past the abandoned lime kilns at hurst hill and onto the beacon for more fossils and views. then into the beacon hotel for a pint of mild and a cheese and onion cob, with a battered chip chippy right opposite.
i got the idea, i done the historical research, now all i need to learn is how to do everything else!
what do people think?
Click to expand...

That sounds great. You would have to stop off for gray pays n bercon somewhere too.
 
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