Blogging Bout 'Bromwichham': Birmingham Municipal Bank - Birmingham's own Bank

Blogging Bout 'Bromwichham': Birmingham Municipal Bank - Birmingham's own Bank: After Mike Whitby single-handedly saved what is left of Birmingham's oldest motor car maker at Longbridge (albeit with some Chinese assis...

Birmingham Municipal Bank - Birmingham's own Bank

After Mike Whitby single-handedly saved what is left of Birmingham's oldest motor car maker at Longbridge (albeit with some Chinese assistance), he turned his considerable talents to single-handedly rescuing the bankrupt British banking system with his then ‘latest idea’ - The Bank of Birmingham. 

This is nothing new………….

The city council leader followed in the political footsteps of another great Birmingham Conservative, one Neville Chamberlain, whose fate as Prime Minister all Birmingham people are familiar with after Munich and the appeasement of Adolf Hitler in 1938. 

He was the son of Joseph Chamberlain, creator of the modern municipal Birmingham. 

While Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Neville Chamberlain first had the idea in 1915 of creating a Birmingham Bank….the ‘Birmingham Municipal Bank’.

During his time as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the National Government of the early 1930s, the Birmingham Municipal Bank moved to a prominent site at 301 Broad Street.

This magnificent classical columned building, next to the former Warwickshire Masonic Temple Building before it moved to the Clarendon Suite in Sterling Road, Edgbaston, would have been the ideal place for the new Bank of Birmingham. It would have acted as the gateway to the proposed Arena Central development off Broad Street behind Alpha Tower, on the site of the former ATV Studios and opposite the new ‘Library of Birmingham’, another Whitby ‘dream’ which he has managed to turn into reality.

The new Library along with the shiny new New Street Station will be Mike Whitby’s gleaming legacy to the city he ruled for 8 years as head of the first prototype ‘ConDem Coalition’ 

The founding of the Birmingham Municipal Bank at 301 Broad Street is commemorated in the foundation stone which lies to the left of the grand pillared entrance near to the gilded statue of three other great men, founders all of modern Birmingham, Boulton, Watt and Murdoch at the bottom of Broad Street. 

Mike Whitby saw in his "new" idea for the Bank of Birmingham echoes of the great Birmingham Conservative and Liberal administrations of Birmingham's municipal heyday which put our great global city on the map in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, led by Birmingham's first family, the Chamberlains. 

Certainly in "Old Joe's" case, he was both a Conservative and a Liberal during his long political career, similar to the former 'Progressive Partnership' of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats which pre-dated the current Cameron/Clegg Coalition by several years in Birmingham Council House. 

Joseph Chamberlain left a great legacy of adequate, sanitary housing and clean water for Birmingham's artisans and created the ‘Workshop of the World’ out of that "City of a thousand trades" which supplied Britain and its Empire. 

Mike Whitby’s ambitious aspirations to leave a legacy like Chamberlain will have come to fruition in 2013 with the new Library of Birmingham.

Joseph Chamberlain left a legacy of his own with Chancellor’s Court at the then new Edwardian ‘redbrick’ University of Birmingham and its magnificent campanile dubbed ‘Old Joe’ after the university’s creator and benefactor.

Chamberlain’s vision for Chancellor’s Court as a ‘crescent of learning’ has finally been realised in 2012 with the completion of The Bramall Building in Chancellor’s Court. The Bramall houses the Elgar Concert Hall in tribute to another great Edwardian: Sir Edward Elgar, the new university’s first Professor of Music.

The main political difference between Mike Whitby and Joe Chamberlain was that Joe was both a Conservative and a Liberal in his career, like his political rival, the young Winston Churchill. 

To Mike Whitby, Neville Chamberlain’s idea of a ‘Bank of Birmingham’ at that time (pre banking crisis and recession) seemed like good policy. Mike Whitby saw the ‘Bank of Birmingham’ like the old Birmingham Municipal Bank as a possible solution to the city’s financial woes as the BMB had been when it was in Broad Street back in another time of financial and political crises, the 1930s. 

This great Birmingham financial institution was a grand idea for young aspirational Brummies like my mom and dad, who were building their homes and families after the deprivations of the Second World War. 

They obtained their first mortgage from the Birmingham Municipal Bank in the late 1950s. My mom then opened a savings account with the bank to help pay off their mortgage. 

Mom and dad had grown up in the urban squalor of the courts in the back-to-backs of Summer Lane in Aston and Dugdale Street in Winson Green. To them, being able to buy their own home was the stuff that dreams are made of considering their roots and where they came from. 

From memory, I think they borrowed GBP 2,500 to buy their first home in Bearwood, following marriage and living in ‘digs’ in Rotton Park and Edgbaston. 

The Birmingham Municipal Bank made the difference for my mom and dad. As the family grew with the arrival of my brother and sister in the early 1960s the values, business sense and financial acumen that such a Birmingham institution brought to people of my parents' generation was incalculable. 

My dad's parents, after being moved after slum clearance in Aston, went from the back-to-back courts around the Gun Quarter and Summer Lane to the fields and open spaces of Weoley Castle which was bliss compared with the dirty insanitary streets of Aston. 

My Dad’s family the Bracey’s were not prepared to get into debt, as my grandfather and uncle put it, and could now only afford to live in council housing in Weoley Castle which was a great improvement on Aston nonetheless. 

My dad, as an aspirational risk-taker, was prepared to take a chance on his skills as a ‘blue collar’ electrician and take out the Birmingham Municipal Bank mortgage and get into debt in order to buy his own home and better himself and his family. 

Both Chamberlain and Whitby came up with a fundamentally sound idea with the Bank of Birmingham, borrowing against the assets of a 3 billion GBP business in Birmingham City Council. The new bank had to be structured to appeal to ordinary Birmingham folk as the BMB had done to enable aspirational Brummies to own their own homes like it did for my mom and dad back in the 1950s. 

The problem now post banking crisis and into a severe recession is that to make a real difference Birmingham City Council would have to put in considerably higher sums of money than it could afford especially after the recent High Court equal pay decision which means that BCC could be liable to pay over 700m GBP to its former women employees. This would consequently expose the council and its ratepayers to considerably more risk than might be wise in the current economic climate. 

However as traditional banking practices over the last few years have proven to be unreliable with the ‘casino banking’ of the investment banks, the LIBOR rate fixing scandal and money laundering by HSBC being just three of many examples of unsound banking practices.

Perhaps it is a time for radical thinking and a return to the old values of thrift, prudence and not borrowing beyond one's means?

It may do no harm and could lead to solution to a banking crisis brought about by the banks not lending to one another through lack of trust. 

The UK is undergoing a chronic shortage of affordable housing which affects Birmingham just as much as other major cities. 

We have seen protests by housing activists in Stirchley and Kings Heath against Birmingham City Council's perceived inertia in bringing forward sites in its ownership for affordable housing. 

Sir Albert Bore, the current leader of Birmingham City Council and his deputy Ian Ward, have put forward the idea of developing affordable housing in the Green Belt at the former Peddimore inward investment site in Minworth north of Sutton Coldfield just off the A38.

In my opinion this is seriously misguided and will be vehemently opposed by the residents of Sutton Coldfield just as the Peddimore investment site was in the late 1990’s, when Dutch-based global company Philip’s were offered the Peddimore site as a location for a computer chip manufacturing facility just as the bottom fell out of the world semi-conductor market.

We cannot afford to jeopardise the future of the Green Belt with such short-term thinking, when vision is needed to solve the housing crisis by building on brownfield sites and looking at innovative ways of developing cities and urban areas.

The germ of the idea of the new Bank of Birmingham, could, if soundly financed and run properly once again enable proud Birmingham citizens to own their own homes at affordable interest rates, provided by council borrowing at preferential rates which only Birmingham City Council can obtain as a 3billion GBP business. 

Whether Birmingham council tax payers would wish the city council to take on the risk of setting up its own bank in the current economic situation is a difficult question to answer. Most council tax-payers would say: ‘get your own house in order first’! 

However, Mike Whitby should have been applauded for innovative thinking "outside the box" and putting forward the idea of recreating one of Birmingham's greatest and soundest financial institutions. 

The Birmingham Municipal Bank was subsumed into the Trustee Savings Bank in the 1970’s. It then became part of what is now the biggest UK bank, Lloyds TSB, or as it is now known: the Lloyds Banking Group. The TSB ceased to exist as a separate banking entity as late as 1976. Coincidentally, Lloyds Bank was founded in Birmingham in the late 18th century along with the Midland Bank, the forerunner of what is the now the world’s largest bank HSBC. 

My rallying cry to Birmingham City Council should it wish to consider setting up the Bank of Birmingham would be:

 "We did it once, we can certainly do it again; a Bank of Birmingham, founded on the principles of hard work, sound business practice, sensible borrowing within ones means, and prudence allied to thrift can succeed once more." 

Birmingham citizens could once again have the ‘People's Bank’ in Birmingham, whatever you wish to call it. 

Perhaps innovative Birmingham people could teach the bankers of the City of London a thing or two about sound banking practice…….?

They certainly can't do any worse. 

A 'History of Dixonians Rugby Football Club 1913 - 2013'

The Old Dixonians Rugby Football Club was founded in 1913 by the 'Old Boys' of George Dixon Grammar School for Boys in City Road, Edgbaston, and will therefore celebrate its centenary in 2013.

The first game which led to the formation of the Old Dixonians Rugby

Football Club was played in Balden Road, Harborne between a school side and the Old Boys in harsh December weather in 1913.The Old Boys XV lost 16-11.

It is interesting to note that one of George Dixon Grammar School's most famous former pupils Michael Balcon (later Sir Michael Balcon and Head of Ealing Film Studios) played for Old Dixonians RFC after The Great War.

Michael Balcon later chose the name of his old school as the name for his 'Everyman policeman’ George Dixon in the film 'The Blue Lamp'. The character PC George Dixon played by Jack Warner later became the lead in the highly successful and long-running 'Dixon of Dock Green' police series on BBC TV.

'George Dixon' was a stalwart of the BBC TV schedules throughout the 1960's. Balcon did not like the name writer Ted Willis originally had wanted to use for his show, the first long-running police procedural TV series, pre-dating 'Z-Cars' and 'The Bill' and renamed the character after his old school.

Rugby started officially in the 1913-14 season mainly at the instigation of W G Haigh and AT Ridout who worked together at Chances Glass Works in Smethwick, then one of the most famous industrial names in the West Midlands. Chances manufactured the glass optics in Britain's lighthouses for Trinity House.

The first ground was somewhere behind Warley Woods on the border between Harborne and Bearwood and washing facilities were tubs in farm outhouses.

Selection meetings were held in The Mikado cafe in Martineau Street in

Birmingham city centre.

At that time negotiations for a new ground in Erdington fell through just as the First World War broke out. Several Dixonian players were killed and many were wounded in The Great War. A memorial was placed to the Dixonian dead in the George Dixon Boys Grammar school building in City Road.

Fixtures were revived in the 1919-20 season after hostilities ceased in November 1918.

In the Dixonians club archive here is a copy of the menu for a Dixonians RFC Dinner held at The Exchange in Birmingham City Centre in March 1914 – 4 courses for 3/6d!

In 1925 Neville Chamberlain MP a former Chancellor of the Exchequer and founder of the Birmingham Municipal Bank, the forerunner of Lloyds TSB was a dinner guest. This may have been an Old Dixonians'

Association dinner.

The first official games were played by the Old Dixonians Rugby Football Club in Ridgacre Rd, Quinton in Birmingham in the 1920’s.

At some time in the 1930's the club moved to a new ground in Illey Lane, Romsley where they played until 1958.

In that year the club moved to a bespoke rugby ground with a new clubhouse in Wassall Grove Lane in Hagley, next to old rivals Old Halesonians, another successful 'Old Boys' club linked to Halesowen Grammar School.

The new ground at Wassall Grove opened at the start of the 1958/59 season on 10th September 1958. Chairman of the club at that time was Philip 'Pip' Jones the husband of 1969 Wimbledon Women’s singles tennis champion Ann Jones, who lived in Westfield Road, Edgbaston, the Birmingham suburb from where the Old Dixonians drew most of its players and where the George Dixon Grammar School was based in City Road.

The official opening of the Wassall Grove ground was performed by G M Seldon, the President of the Rugby Football Union. Peter Robbins the England back row forward played as a guest for the Old Dixonians in a 3-3 draw against a strong North Midlands side which included Brian Whiteman another England international.

The move to Wassall Grove heralded an unprecedented period of success for the club in the 15-a-side game, although the club had enjoyed some success in 7's, winning several North Midlands 7's titles in 1953, 56, 58, and 1959. The club also won the Staines 7's in 1955, 56, and 1958.

Famously Old Dixonians appeared in the world-renowned Middlesex 7's at

Twickenham in the 1957 season playing against senior clubs like London Welsh and Harlequins.

The vintage 1957 Old Dixonians 7's team reached the final 12 teams from

preliminary rounds which originally involved 186 teams in front of a crowd of over 40,000 at Twickenham.

In the quarter-finals Old Dixonians led in the second half against favourites London Welsh fielding 4 internationals including Cliff Morgan, the famous BBC TV rugby commentator and Carwyn James who was later to go on to manage the legendary 1971 British Lions who defeated the All Blacks in a series in New Zealand for the first time.

Two late tries by Carwyn James snatched victory from Old Dixonians as they tired. Carwyn James took over the red number 10 shirt from Cliff Morgan as fly-half for Wales as part of Max Boyce's Welsh 'fly-half factory'. London Welsh, currently playing in the AVIVA Rugby Premiership in Oxford, knocked out a plucky Old Dixonians team not before they became the favourites of the crowd, particularly Dave Jeffries at 6' 9" who was a one man line out "tapping the ball back like swatting gnats" as described in The Times newspaper reports.

At that time the club had a number of excellent players, most notably

Arthur Coulthard, a centre who went on to play for the premier senior rugby club in Birmingham, Moseley and Harold Jessop, who went on to become Head of Sport at King Edward's School, Aston and was a fine player for Old Dixonians throughout the 1950's and 60's. Another contemporary to Arthur and Harold, Roy Reynolds played for England schoolboys in 1957.

At this time the club captain was Rex Harrison who in many ways was ahead of his time in junior rugby circles, instigating regular training and coaching at the club, which made the club so successful on the field.

His legacy was carried forward by Jim Kendrick in the 1970's and 1980's.

Jim proved to be an able administrator and Chairman of the club. The club being well-run off the field attracted good players which led to success on the field.

The club commemorates Jim Kendick's contribution to the club by holding

'Jim Kendrick Day' every year for its former players, Vice-Presidents and friends of the club to celebrate Jim's lifetime contribution to Dixonians:

As a player: Jim played in 5 different decades for the club in all of the sides, and as an administrator: he was involved with Dixonians for most of his adult life from the 1930's to the 1990's, combining able administration of the club with a very successful business career.

For many years Old Dixonians played Five Ways Old Edwardians in the 'Arthur Coulthard Memorial Match' on Boxing Day to commemorate its greatest player. The two schools had once shared the same site at Five Ways in Edgbaston. The two rugby clubs also had strong links, both being stalwarts of the Greater Birmingham Rugby Football Union and the 'Combined Old Boys' (or'COBS' as the representative side were known) and the North Midlands RFU.

The fixture ceased to be played in the early 1990's as league rugby came in and friendly games ceased to be as important as they once had been.

The club became 'open' to non-Old Boys of the school in the early

1960's. Many clubs became open to non-Old Boys, as there was a decline in the number of former pupils who played rugby. The name of the club changed to Dixonians to reflect the club's new found 'open' status.

This move coincided with the club's 'Golden Years' which led to their first North Midlands Cup win in 1975, Dixonians defeating a strong Luctonians side 21-3 at The Reddings.

At this time the club were coached by former Moseley winger Keith Hatter, who also played for the club after leaving senior rugby. There were a number of players who had turned out for Moseley in Hatter, Mike Evans, Malcolm Hall, who was probably one of the finest players to play for Dixonians, and Collin Osborne.

Collin Osborne, went on to play for Moseley as a quick, hard-tackling centre and has had a long career coaching and playing in senior rugby. Collin coached Zimbabwe in the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa. He is now Skills Coach to AVIVA Premiership Champions Harlequins and retains links with the Edgbaston Dixonians club.

Dixonians went onto to win their second North Midlands Cup in 1976,

defeating Stourbridge in the final 21-9. In the period 1974-76 Dixonians were the pre-eminent junior club in the North Midlands union and often defeated strong Moseley United and Worcester sides.

Throughout the 1970's and into the 1980's the Dixonians club enjoyed great success on the field winning several Midland Merit Table titles which were the precursor to League Rugby.

This culminated in Dixonian’s third North Midlands Cup success in 1986, the club defeating Droitwich 26-0 in the final again at The Reddings.

At this time Graham Viney, one of the finest scrum-halves produced by the club was one of the players who captained Dixonians to its successes with the Fenney brothers, Ian and Guy also being major contributors to the club’s success.

Tim Butler and Pete Richardson were two of the hardest-nosed forwards ever to play for Dixonians and played a significant role in the club’s success, captaining the club to several Midlands Merit Table titles.

The club's success was built around its abrasive pack, marshalled by the expert probing of Viney behind. Graham Viney went on to play for Moseley and was one of the finest scrum-halves playing the game at that time, being voted Moseley Supporter’s Club player of the year during one of the two seasons he played for the club in the mid 1980's.

The club had several North Midlands representatives at this time, including brothers Clive and Richard Meanwell who both played for Moseley. Richard Meanwell became an England Colt full-back while representing Moseley.

Graham Viney, Collin Osborne, Neil Sullivan and Malcolm Hall, who memorably scored a try for North Midlands when they played the touring Argentinians at The Reddings in October 1978, all played County Championship rugby for North Midlands during this halcyon period for the Dixonians club.

In the early 1990's the club moved from Wassall Grove, back to the George Dixon school in City Road, Edgbaston. Dixonians had always drawn its players from Bearwood, Harborne and Edgbaston in Birmingham, and Wassall Grove in Hagley was proving to be too distant from its player base in the west of Birmingham.

The club continued to be successful into the 1990's and early 2000's rising to Midlands 2 under the captaincy of Lee Irwin, one of the most athletic forwards ever to play for the club. Lee also represented North Midlands in the County Championship. This was the highest that the Dixonians club has risen to in the rugby pyramid, to the fifth tier of English rugby.

Around the turn of The Millennium the club played for a few seasons at the former St Philips Grammar School sports ground in Knightlow Road, Harborne, renting it from The Oratory Fathers. Following disagreement with The Oratory Fathers as to how the ground should be developed the club left Knightlow Road and entered into an arrangement with Lordswood School on Hagley Road in Bearwood, with the club changing its name to 'Lordswood Dixonians RFC'.

The new Lordswood Dixonians club now has its base at the school and it is hoped that through this arrangement the club will be able to grow and develop junior players from boys attending the school, by providing

coaching and support.

In 2005 Lordswood Dixonians reached the final of the North Midlands Shield, which has now replaced the North Midlands Cup, played at Stourbridge RFC. In an entertaining high-scoring encounter, which was a great advert for junior rugby, Lordswood Dixonians were only defeated by a spirited Solihull side late in the game.

The club currently plays in the Midlands West (North) Leagues and plays its 1st XV home games at the former Birmingham RFC ground at Portway after several seasons playing at the Birmingham City University sports ground in Moor Lane, Witton.

Edgbaston Dixonians RFC, as the club is now known, is hosting a Grand Centenary Dinner at The Botanical Gardens in Westbourne Road, Edgbaston on Saturday September 14^th 2013.

Edgbaston Dixonians invites those associated with the club and their partners and friends to celebrate 100 years of Old Dixonians rugby in Birmingham and beyond and hopes to attract over 400 guests to a traditional rugby dinner with good food, good company and entertaining guest speakers

Keith Bracey

Dixonians RFC Player 1976-2002, current EDRFC Vice-Presidents Secretary

Culture in Birmingham

I am looking forward to attending Sir Albert Bore's Cultural Conference at the University of Birmingham's new performance centre the Bramall Building on Thursday and Friday this week, 18th - 19th October.

My background is in inward investment, having worked for Birmingham City Council's former Inward Investment and Business Promotion Agency: Locate in Birmingham for 16 years from October 1994 until September 2010.

I am now working as an inward investment and 'Green' business consultant for my own company: Greensward Enterprise Ltd.

Marketing Birmingham and its CEO Neil Rami took over the inward investment and business promotion portfolio in 2010 as part of the new inward investment initiative: 'Business Birmingham' under the direction of Wouter Schuitemaker.

During my 16 years working in inward investment and business promotion for Locate in Birmingham I project managed the relocation of the Elmhurst School for Dance from Camberley in Surrey to the Calthorpe Estate's former Edgbaston College site next to Priory Hospital on Bristol Road, Edgbaston in Birmingham.

I worked closely with Birmingham Royal Ballet Director David Bintley to bring Elmhurst School for Dance to Birmingham as the 'feeder' ballet school for BRB.

David and I did joint presentations to the then Arts Minister and former Labour MP for Yardley in Birmingham, Estelle Morris MP in order to convince the then Blair Government to support Birmingham's bid to bring Elmhurst to Birmingham as a beacon school for ballet and performing arts in the City of Birmingham.

We also made representations to Dance England and Dance Xchange in order to access Arts Council grants for ballet and dance in order to help fund the Elmhurst relocation and the development of the site and buildings which included state-of-the-art performance facilities including a theatre and dance studios.

The original enquiry from Elmhurst was received by me way back in 2000 when Paul Spooner was Director of Planning and Economic Development.

I project managed Elmhurst's relocation working closely with Canon Robert Crossley who led the Elmhurst team along with sterling support from Robert McNamara, originally from the city of Birmingham and the first Principal of the new Birmingham-based Elmhurst School for Dance.

I project managed the Elmhurst relocation for a number of years and by October 2004, the brand new Birmingham-based Elmhurst School for Dance was on site and operating from a brand new ballet, dance and performing arts school in Edgbaston in Birmingham.

Elmhurst provides a 'conyeyor-belt' of talented ballet school graduates for the Birmingham Royal Ballet with its burgeoning reputation under Director David Bintley as one of the foremost ballet companies in the UK.

I feel a sense of pride whenever I drive past the white-washed walls of Elmhurst as I have given many, many Birmingham school children the opportunity of a first-class dance education in state-of-the-art facilities at a brand new school in Birmingham. 

In the past if a Birmingham child wished to get into one of the major Corps de Ballet, they would have to go to London to train at White Lodge, the Royal Ballet's School in Richmond Park or to schools such as Elmhurst then based in Camberley in leafy Surrey rather than train for a career in ballet in gritty, industrial Birmingham.

Birmingham was perceived by outsiders to have very little or no culture at all, whereas in reality with the CBSO, the BRB, The MAC, The Birmingham Rep, Birmingham Opera Company, The Barber Institute, BMAG, Artsfest, SAMPAD, The Drum, Stan's Cafe and other creative and cultural organisations too numerous to mention we are a city bursting with cultural talent and ambition

I would be happy to recount my Elmhurst experiences to Birmingham cultural conference delegates should you wish me to get involved in the conference......?

As an inward investment professional and former investment promotion agency business relationship manager with Locate in Birmingham with a special interest in cultural and heritage-related inward investment as it impacts on Birmingham and the West Midlands, I am particularly keen to attend this conference and put forward my ideas on how Birmingham's international cultural and inward investment offer can be improved.

I am especially looking forward to attending the workshops on Day 1 on our international position as it relates to cultural and heritage-related inward investment.

Birmingham needs to position itself carefully and correctly in order to garner maximum global inward investment related to culture and heritage. 

This was outlined by Professor Michael Parkinson of Liverpool John Moore's University some years ago in his Visioning Study for the Birmingham City Centre Masterplan produced when Clive Dutton was Director of Planning and Regeneration at Birmingham City Council. 

The major thrust of Professor Parkinson's argument was that Birmingham does not make the most of its cultural offer and its cultural and industrial heritage in leveraging in global inward investment to the city.

I am not sure that his ideas have been fully implemented as yet.....hopefully this conference will go some way to addressing those issues of under-achievement and a failure to make the most of what Birmingham has to offer culturally and from a historical and heritage standpoint......For example: why isn't more exposure and promotional use made of the legacy of those enlightened Birmingham-based 'Lunatiks'...'The Lunar Men' as author Jenny Uglow calls them in her book of the same name? 

Matthew Boulton and his protege and partner Scottish inventor and engineer James Watt developed the first efficient and practical steam engine, which they manufactured at The Soho Foundry and exported around the world. Without Boulton and Watt the Industrial Revolution would not have happened, not just in Birmingham but around the rest of Britain and the world.

That is how important these figures from Birmingham's past are in British and World History....why are we not making more of them and the fact that this all happened right here in Birmingham at Soho House and in the Soho Manufactory over two centuries ago?

The British Museum recently held an exhibition showing an exact replica of James Watt's workshop where he developed his revolutionary steam engine when he worked in Birmingham....why isn't that exhibition on permanent display somewhere in Birmingham? If London can do it, then why can't Birmingham, where it all actually happened.....?

I have some ideas as to how Birmingham can build on the Lunar Men's legacy in order to enhance our standing in global terms which I intend to outline at the Cultural Conference.

And as for how we can use 'The Hobbit', LOTR and J.R.R. Tolkien's legacy in using Birmingham landmarks like Sarehole Mill Moseley Bog and 'The Two Towers' in Edgbaston as his inspiration for some of the most popular books in the whole canon of English Literature, I have some ideas and observations on that opportunity for the city of Birmingham. 

The imminent launch of the first of the two new films of Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' puts that issue in the current spotlight. 

Hopefully 'The Hobbit' films will be as successful as the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the Hollywood blockbusters realised by New Zealand-born Producer/Director Peter Jackson.

I am looking forward to the conference immensely and look forward to meeting you on Thursday in the fantastic new surroundings of the Bramall Building at The University of Birmingham.

The recently-completed Bramall Building and Elgar Concert Hall can only enhance the University of Birmingham and the City of Birmingham's cultural and heritage offer going forward.

It completes the original Edwardian plans envisaged for the 'Crescent of Learning' that Chancellor's Court and the campanile clock tower was to give an increasingly ambitious and confident city of Birmingham: the 'City of 1000 Trades' and home of Joseph Chamberlain, the Birmingham MP and former Colonial Secretary's 'Workshop of the World', manufacturing industrial goods for the growing British Empire.

Chancellor's Court and The Campanile: 'Old Joe' were built in tribute to the driving force behind the establishment of Mason College and The University of Birmingham in the early twentieth century, former Lord Mayor of Birmingham: Joseph Chamberlain. 

The magnificent sweep of the buildings in Chancellor's Court shows the ambition of the Edwardian City of Birmingham....an ambition we need to reinvigorate, revitalise and regain in the modern 21st century Birmingham......... a 'City of Culture', second to none....!

Why I want to write about history in Bromwicham

I have applied for this job because I wish to become an 'Urban Historian'....like Professor Carl Chinn, but with a beret and matelot's stripy shirt, think Che Guevara with an historical perspective.

I have applied for the post of Operation Assistant with Eastside Projects because I believe that art and the creative process enriches all of our lives and I want to give Birmingham folk and those from around the world a 'Taste of Birmingham' and its creative scene, whether it be through museums, galleries, history, heritage, writing, painting, sculpture, artistic installations, books, video, music and opera, any of the creative art forms which all have the ability to enrich our lives and the human condition

As part of the Eastside Projects team I would see myself as a Creative Ambassador for history, the 'Urban Historian' and writer on history, heritage and art in this city. 

There is some fantastic artistic endeavour going on in Birmingham, from the triumph of the Birmingham Opera Company's unstageable opera by Stockhausen:'Mittvoch Aus Licht'.'Wednesday by Light' to successful maiden sailing of 'The Voyage' in Victoria Square against the fantastic backdrop of one of Birmingham's best and most iconic buildings The Town Hall, built in 1834. Both artistic creations were inspired by The Cultural Olympiad which as a 'sports nut' I was particularly inspired by and interested in earlier in 2012.

I played sport for over 30 years to a high if unpaid standard. 

My game Rugby Union did not go professional until 1995, whereas its 'Northern Cousin' whose players, who were paid to play, were absolute pariahs for over 100 years up until the advent of the 'Pro' Rugby Union player in 1995,

Rugby League, which can be a far superior game to watch and play went 'pro' fully 100 years earlier than rugby union in 1895 at The Grand Hotel in Wakefield showing northern practicality and pragmatism to its full extent....nothing much changes over time does it?

Union, my sport was always played and supported by the middle class, whereas League was always and continues to be a working man's sport, the 'flat caps and whippets' Eddie 'Up and Under' Wareing being the epitome of the Northern pro as a commentator in the 1960's and 1970's before he went downmarket and became presenter of the execrable 'It's a Knockout' with the 'Laughing Placeman' Stuart Hall, who featured in all of the radio and TV news bulletins yesterday in a rather less jocular way.

I owe the life I currently lead to rugby....I met my wife through rugby. As a Cordon Bleu-trained cook my wife introduced herself to me as the cook at my club the Old Dixonians Rugby Football Club from Wassall Grove near Hagley (Posh!...... I hear you cry....not so I retort...we had rats in the clubhouse and the communal bath was filthy!)

Mary Sherwood, as was, brought a whole new ambience to the parochial rugby clubhouse with her ingenious food offerings, rather than the usual suspect, the 'pie and beans combo'....she introduced goulashes, chillies, lasagne, bologneses, stews, lentil hot pots (a vegetarian dish, unheard of in rugby club circles as most rugby players are inveterate meat eaters), casseroles, curries etc. etc. It was a culinary revelation on the road to Hagley.

I was often to be found at the front of the queue at the kitchen food hatch asking for more, like a well-fed Oliver Twist, and in the end, after 21 years of marriage and two teenage children (both of whom play rugby) and a big mortgage later, I got more than I bargained for...........

That brief interlude is an example of my writing, in a jocular, conversational style.....please have a look at my blog, which mainly features history and heritage pieces, however there are some sporting pieces on there, one about my university rugby experience in Birmingham comes to mind....I am hoping to write for a living and that is my 'active creative or critical practice': my writing....on whatever subject I am asked to write on, including art, although history and sport are my two favourite topics for my musings and meanderings.

The Old Dixonians Rugby Football Club celebrates its centenary 1913 - 2013 with a 'Grand Centenary Dinner' at The Botanical Gardens in Westbourne Road, Edgbaston.

Dixonians most famous former player is Michael Balcon, who became Sir Michael Balcon as Head of the Ealing Studios who produced such timeless British film classics like 'Kind Hearts and Coronets', 'The Man in the White Suit' and 'The Lavender Hill Mob'

Balcon reminded us all of his school George Dixon Grammar in City Road, Edgbaston in Birmingham by naming his 'Everyman Copper' PC 'George Dixon' in the 1950's thriller: 'The Blue Lamp' where a young hoodlum played by a very young Dirk Bogarde, shoots dead PC George Dixon on a bomb-site when an armed robbery goes wrong in a bomb-damaged East End of London.

PC George Dixon was reincarnated for the 1960's black and white BBC1 TV 'Police Procedural' TV cop show: 'Dixon of Dock Green' where the avuncular PC Dixon patrolled the mean streets of Dock Green in East London. The TV series ran for many years into the 1970's, still played by the original actor and British film star Jack Warner.

I am currently working at the University of Birmingham in LIVING, Accommodation Services, helping students access decent housing, both university-owned and run and in the private sector. Some of the stories I could tell about student lettings would make your toes curl

The university has inspired me to become involved in art by becoming a 'Friend of the Barber Institute' dubbed the 'Best small gallery in Europe' and it is right here in Birmingham at the University where I work in student accommodation.

I am also involved with the University of Birmingham's 'Special Collections' in the basement of the newly-refurbished Muirhead Tower, where I used to attend lectures in 1976 - 1979 when I was a Bachelor of Commerce undergraduate, specialising in the economic and social history of the railways related to the 'Birmingham Railway Boom' from 1830 to 1870.

This saw railway lines such as the Harborne Branch Line from the city centre via Winson Green, Rotton Park, Summerfield Park and on to Chad Valley in Harborne at the end of the line. 

Look at the names of the suburbs the trains travelled through: a list of 'Parks' and 'Greens' which betray the middle-class nature of the line, in stark contrast to those same suburbs today, which are amongst the most poverty-stricken and most blighted by unemployment in the UK. They are among the deepest and darkest areas of Birmingham's inner city, in the  Ladywood area of the city, one of the poorest parliamentary constituencies in the whole of the UK, with one of the highest rates of unemployment, in the UK. Citizens of Ladywood rub shoulders with the professionals, business people and middle-classes in the watering-holes of Brindleyplace and Broad Street, where Ladywood residents, IF they have a job, will be lucky enough to work as waiters or bar staff pointing up Birmingham's inequality, in spite of and possibly because of its diversity as a city.

The Harborne Branch Line line was used by Victorian and Edwardian commuters from the Middle Class suburb of Harborne, ferrying professionals and artisans into the city centre and the Jewellery Quarter.

 As part of my 'Creative or Critical Practice' I would love to write the definitive history of the Harborne Branch Line, which has now been reinvented as the 'Harborne Walkway' with dogs instead of trains chugging up the incline in the cutting, dragging their masters and mistresses behind them.

On Saturday I took the chance to ride another 'younger' form of public transport the 'Art Bus' or charabanc as they were known in the early 20th century, to all of our Birmingham galleries: 'The Ikon Gallery, The RBSA Gallery, The MAC, a beacon for artistic endeavour in Birmingham and the Midlands, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and smaller commercial galleries like St Paul's Gallery in the art-lovers Georgian St Paul's Square, just up the hill in Northwood Street from the RBSA Gallery and Lee Benson's 'Number 9, The Gallery' in Brindleyplace. 

All play a prominent part in Birmingham's arts and cultural scene.

As an historian and writer I would love to become an 'Urban Historian' bringing history to the people through my writings and Blog on Google's 'Blogger': 'Bloggin' 'bout Bromwicham' where I post historical pieces mostly about Birmingham's history and its people, with much the same aim that the new BMAG Gallery: 'Birmingham, It's People. It's History' has to bring Birmingham's history to ordinary Birmingham folk who may have an interest in history after trying to trace their family and talking with older relatives who provided their memories and stories, but cannot put their family's role into some context within Birmingham's (hi) story.

In my researches I found out that my Grandad belonged to the Auxiliary Fire Service as a fireman at the Fire Station at Cape Hill Brewery and was involved in a fire watch during the 'Birmingham Blitz' in 1942.

This is something that I have found out for myself after looking through a family photograph album and through my writings I would hope to inspire other Birmingham folk to do the same and discover their family histories, through photographs, family stories and tales told by older family members. I am a trained 'Oral Historian' in the art of listening to and recording those who 'tell the tales' of family life using electronic equipment to record 'living history' before it is lost.

Professor Michael Parkinson of Liverpool John Moores University told Birmingham's planners 10 years ago that Birmingham needs to make more of its fantastic history and heritage, from 'The Lunatiks' of Boulton and Watt's 'Lunar Society' and the role they played in the 'Enlightenment' and Industrial Revolution to the motor industry last century, producing the iconic Mini motor car, a great piece of art and a triumph of design through to Birmingham's Alexander Parkes inventing the first viable plastic: 'Parkesine' named in its inventor's honour and the X-Ray, all of which were invented in the innovative city of Birmingham.

I have often thought that Birmingham's bye-line should be: 'Birmingham - City of Enlightenment' rather than the trite 'Global City, Local Heart' which I used when I worked in Inward Investment for Birmingham City Council's former investment promotion agency 'Locate in Birmingham' where I conducted international marketing campaigns such as 'Next Stop...Birmingham' to attract Government Agencies and Departments to Birmingham. Our campaign was successful with The Gambling Commission, The Museums and Libraries Association, The Heritage Lottery Fund and The Office for the Public Guardian, an Executive Agency of The Ministry of Justice, all of which relocated to Birmingham following my campaign 'Next Stop....Birmingham'

If I were to be appointed as a 'Distribution Assistant' by Eastside Projects I would try to make the history of our railways, especially in Digbeth and Eastside more accessible to local people and more prominent in our local Birmingham story. With High Speed Rail 2 set to hurtle through Eastside with the building of Birmingham's very own 'Grand Central Station' behind the oldest railway building in the city Curzon Street Station built in 1838 as the original terminal of the London to Birmingham railway, railways will play an increasingly important role in Birmingham's artistic story. I would try to find a definitive use for Curzon Street Station, a task that has eluded planners and the 'great and the good' of the city for many years. I recall seeing a photographic exhibition at Curzon Street Station some years ago...why could that not be replicated on a more permanent basis?

I have experience of putting on events having worked with fellow Birmingham University Alumnus Chris Tarrant on a university alumni event at The Globe Theatre on the South Bank of the Thames in 2005. Chris talked to the Birmingham students, all of whom lived and worked in London about what a great place Birmingham is to live and work in without the stresses and strains of London Life, the horrendous commute, the traffic, the transport problems, pollution, the expense of housing. Chris tried to convince these London-based Birmingham University graduates to return there to work. Lo and behold, this very week we are told by Marketing Birmingham that Birmingham is one of the best places to live in the UK.....well actually I must say that I agree with them!

I have extensive experience of the organisation and management of events when I worked for Birmingham City Council. One of the major events which I organised and obtained sponsorship for from one of my clients: State Bank of India. I helped State Bank of India set up their then new Birmingham branch  in Soho Road, Handsworth for India's largest bank.

The event was a celebration of the 60th Anniversary of India's Independence 1949 - 2009 and I secured the Council House Banqueting Suite as a Birmingham City Council employee at the time.

The event was very successful and State Bank of India were very pleased with it as it enhanced their reputation and status in Birmingham. SBI were also very pleased with my organisation of the event and my contribution.

I managed a team of Customer Relationship Managers when I worked at Birmingham City Council who were temporary workers from Pertemps Recruitment Agency for a number of years. This experience would be invaluable should I be appointed in managing a team of Eastside Projects Gallery Volunteers and looking after and mentoring the Operation student intern.

I have two children of my own and have attended Workshops and Children's Study Days at the Barber Institute in the past with my kids. I particularly enjoyed the Childrens' Study Day as part of the 'Court on Canvas': Tennis in Art' Exhibition curated by Professor Ann Sumner, then Director of the Barber Institute and now the newly-installed Director of the Birmingham Museums Trust. As an historian I was particularly pleased and fascinated to find out that Lawn Tennis was invented in Birmingham in 1867 at 8 Ampton Road in Edgbaston, by Major Harry Gem and his friend and Spanish Merchant Augurio Perera. Hence we have 'Sir Harry's Road' in Edgbaston where the Edgbaston Priory Tennis club is based close to the 'oldest operating Lawn Tennis club in the world' in the Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis Society (E.A.L.T.S.) in the shadow of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens in Westbourne Road, Edgbaston.

As an ex-history teaching trainee whilst doing a Postgraduate Certificate of Education in Secondary History at The University of Birmingham from 1987-88 working at Handsworth Grammar School and Solihull School. I left my PGCE for more lucrative employment with Lambert Smith Hampton Surveyors in Birmingham as a Rating Surveyor which gave me an interest in the creative processes involved in buildings, premises, property and architecture, especially that of Birmingham.

One of my two favourite Birmingham-themed books are Andy Foster's Pevsner Guide to Birmingham's Architecture, the other being Jenny Uglow's definitive history of The Lunar Society and their role in the 'Enlightenment' and the Industrial Revolution: 'The Lunar Men'. 

I am very active in the local Birmingham and West Midland's historical and heritage communities.

I am a member of the Smethwick Local History Society run by its chair Mary Bodfish and her 'collaborator' Dorothy H. Williams. 

I am also a member of the Smethwick Heritage Centre Trust, based at The Lodge in Victoria Park on Smethwick High Street, opposite The Red Cow pub.

I belong to FOBAH, the 'Friends of Birmingham Archives and Heritage' based at the Birmingham Central Library on the 6th Floor, which will soon move to the new 'Library of Birmingham' in Centenary Square

I am looking forward immensely to using the new 'Library of Birmingham' in my writings and researches. 

I know Carl Chinn ( I hope to emulate Carl, with a somewhat more 'artistic bent as the 'Urban Historian': 'Carl Chinn with a Beret'

I am hoping to help save Carl's own personal archive and that of his friends, followers and collaborators: 'Birmingham Lives' for the city of Birmingham. 

Hopefully Carl is donating his archive to the new 'Library of Birmingham' so that it can be displayed and nurtured to become a very valuable resource for Birmingham's history and heritage community. 

I am also a member of the West Midlands History Forum which is publishing a new West Midlands History magazine in March 2013, so you can see I am very active as the 'Urban Historian' in the local history and history and heritage writing community.

Indeed I attended a talk by prominent local historian Dr Sue Tungate at the University of Birmingham's Special Collections this week on the Soho Mint: Matthew Boulton's coinage manufacturing facility situated behind his home Soho House in Handsworth.

I am very active in Social Media and would bring that skill with me should I be appointed. I use Facebook, Linked IN, Twitter, Google+ and of course my blog.

I am very good with people having spent 16 years working for Birmingham City Council's former Investment Promotion Agency; 'Locate in Birmingham' building relationships with business people to try to persuade them to invest in my home city of Birmingham - 'The City of Enlightenment' for me, so conducting gallery visits would be very enjoyable as I conducted tours of the city for foreign delegations mostly from China and India and also the USA but from all around Europe and the world...from Israel, Italy, Poland, The Czech Republic, Australia and others from every corner of the globe.

I also trained as a history teacher so presenting and talking to large numbers of people is something that I am used to

I would like to make a living as a writer and author and as part of that I have set up my blog and I have also been commissioned to write some articles for The Gem Magazine a general interest magazine for Bearwood, Harborne, Selly Oak, Moseley, Kings Heath and Bournville. My articles will have local historical interest as their theme, one being TV-related, the other on a sporting theme.

I also would like to write an autobiography for which I already have the title: 'A Bearwood Lad' about growing up in Bearwood on the 'cusp of Smethwick'.

I would hope that if I were appointed i would be able to write on local history around the themes I have outlined above.

I hope this explains my interest in working for Eastside Projects, the reasons why I want to work at Eastside Projects, my relevant experience and skills and how working at Eastside Projects would enable me to achieve my goal of becoming a writer.

Nottingham University Rugby Football Club 1984-87: Memories of Brian 'PIt Bull' Moore, England and British Lions Hooker

I went up to Nottingham University in October 1984, just as Brian Moore had graduated in law the previous July. 'Mooro' was still hanging around Nottingham and playing for Nottingham RFC. He was about to make his debut for England, whose hooker at the time was Coventry and England's Steve 'I haven't got one' Brain....Brian was a shoe in for England hooker and took over from 'Brainy' in 1986. He was vying for the England hooker berth with 'Farmer Graham Dawe' the England and Bath hooker at the time....needless to say Brian saw off the challenge of both of these two 'hard men' and became a British Lion twice over in 1989 in Australia and also in 1995 in New Zealand. Any way on to my anecdote......As a callow 26 year old mature student at Ancaster Hall at Nottingham University in Autumn 1984, I was made Security Representative on the Ancaster Hall Committee in Autumn 1984 as I was a seething mass of rugby playing muscle, and you got paid for 'working the door'. The first event I was asked to 'do security' for was the first Ancaster Hall Disco/Party in early November 1984.....One of my play mates at Nottingham University Rugby Club, knowing that I was on the lookout for 'back-up' on the door at the Ancaster Hall Disco, suggested I might approach Brian Moore, whom I was told could 'handle himself' to police the door with me at Ancaster Hall. This I duly did and an interesting evening ensued.....A drunken 'Townie' tried to gain access to the Ancaster Hall Disco after the local pubs had shut at 10.30pm as we had a 'Late Bar' until 1.00am. The first mistake said 'Townie' made was to refer to Brian's oriental heritage.....and accused him of being a, and I quote: 'Slant-eyed little Chink'....at this unfortunate (for the 'Townie'!) outburst Brian grabbed said Townie and marched him around the back of Ancaster Hall and administered 'one hell of a beating' to quote a certain Danish TV Soccer commentator when England were being put to the sword on the soccer field once more by the rampant Danes....needless to say the miscreant 'Townie' staggered back to his hovel in nearby Beeston and Brian and I continued to enjoy our evening as Doormen together.....Happy University of Nottingham days......Brian coached Nottingham University Rugby Club to the Universities Athletic Union (UAU) Rugby Final in March 1986 at Twickenham where my best mate Brummie Lyndon Eales former captain of local rugby club Camp Hill Old Edwardians captained the NURFC side to a 14-nil defeat by captain Andy Robinson's Loughborough Students XV......Lyndon once kept Will Carling on the bench for England Students, and is the unluckiest rugby player I know.....In the UAU Final he was taken off after 10 minutes with a cut head requiring 10 stitches after clashing heads with his fellow Nottingham University centre Martin Clark...he also had some of the tightest hamstrings in the game of rugby and they could be heard twanging from the sidelines at times during his all too brief rugby career.....Orrrroight Lyndon!!!!! A brilliant Brummie who made his debut at centre for Moseley Rugby Football club against London Welsh, Wales and British Lion Robert Ackerman in October 1984 as an 18 year old 'Freshman' at Nottingham University.... Great rugby memories and days!

Duckers and Diving: MOORE’ S SCRUMDOWN

www.duckersanddiving

India facing Olympic suspension after tainted official moves from jail to top role - insidethegames.biz - Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games News

India facing Olympic suspension after tainted official moves from jail to top role - insidethegames.biz - Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games News    Corruption in India is a way of life......no surprise in this news then.......?