An artefact from the Staffordshire Hoard courtesy of the BM&G flickr page

This weekend the Staffordshire hoard returns to Birmingham.  The Museum and Art gallery website says:

The Staffordshire Hoard attracted over 40,000 visitors to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery throughout its 19 day display in September and October last year and has attracted similar numbers at the Potteries Museum in Stoke on Trent with around 45,000 visitors over the 24 day display.

A selection of around 60 items, many not previously displayed will be on show including helmet fragments decorated with stylised animals and warriors. Other previously unseen items include decorative plaques in the shape of eagles and a golden duck’s head.

The campaign to raise the money to keep the hoard in the West Midlands goes on.  You can donate here or buying this  book, The Staffordshire Hoard by Kevin Leahy will also help.

• People’s history vitally restored | Kevin Morgan | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk – The Guardian reports on the revival of the Manchester People’s Museum: “Even the National Trust, which sometimes appears like a heritage version of the Countryside Alliance, has taken steps to acknowledge its wider remit. In Birmingham, the restoration of the city’s last-surviving back-to-backs has deservedly proved a popular attraction. Near Manchester, the Quarry Bank Mill, maintained by the Trust, is an industrial site of outstanding importance.”
• Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, West Midlands – Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery – “Previously unseen helmet fragments will go on display when the world’s largest hoard of Anglo Saxon treasure returns to Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery from 13th March 2010.”
• Can you spare an hour or two on Mothering Sunday (14th March)? « Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery – Friends of Brandwood End cemetery say: “We need to get as many signatures as possible for our Save Our Chapels petition. Sadly Mothering Sunday is one of the busiest days at Brandwood End Cemetery so we are meeting at 11am near the Lodge to attract more support. We were very kindly received by everyone on All Souls Day last year but unfortunately we just didn’t have enough people with enough clipboards to get more signatures.”
• Newman Brothers coffin fitters, Birmingham – Midlands Heritage Forum -

• MADE – Talking cities lecture series – “MADE’s thought provoking lecture series, supported by Cudos and Birmingham Architectural Association, kicks off on 11th March with a talk by Irena Bauman, Bauman Lyons Architects, entitled Happy Cities – Stitching the Disconnections”
• Birmingham museum in frame for national crown | birminghamnewsroom.com – The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter in Hockley has been shortlisted for the silver or gold award in the Enjoy England Awards for Excellence 2010.
• Revolutionary Players – Project Information – Revolutionary Players of Industry and Innovation is creating a website based on digitised material from libraries, museums and archives across the West Midlands region relating to the development of the Industrial Revolution and significant individuals who contributed to it. The focus is on the period 1700 – 1830.

Phyllis Nicklin's 1953 image of Curzon Street Station

Thanks to Dave Harte I’ve just come across a series if images taken by Phyllis Nicklin but also available online. All from the archive of Birmingham University.

• 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

Woodman Arms, Curzon Street and Millenium Point - image by hartlandmartin on flickr

There’s a couple of weeks left to see an exhibition at the Birmingham Central Library which celebrates the work of the Victorian Society and the part it has played in preserving historic buildings.

The Victorian Society was formed in 1958. In 2008 it celebrated 50 years of campaigning to save some of Britain’s wonderful Victorian buildings from destruction. The exhibition describing this work has come to Birmingham for a limited time and can be seen at the top of the first escalator in the Central Library. ( click here for a map)

There are large posters describing the buildings that have been saved: country houses and smaller scale domestic buildings, public institutions, such as Libraries and Museums, churches, industrial and commercial buildings. Some very impressive and important landmark buildings feature, from the Foreign Office in Whitehall to Clevedon Pier in Somerset.

Clevedon Pier in Somerset - picture by gibsonplayer on flickr

Birmingham has had its share of losses but also has reason to celebrate – all of this is described in the exhibition. It’s certainly worth a visit if you’re in the centre of town and have the odd quarter to half an hour to spare, and there’s a very high quality brochure published by the Victorian Society to take home with you.

But hurry – it’s only on until the end of February so catch it while you can.

The site says:

The JQ Lobby is for people who are passionate about the future of the Jewellery Quarter!

It has been set up by representatives of the following groups as a forum to raise awareness of the changes in funding provided by Birmingham City Council (BCC) to the Jewellery Quarter Regeneration Partnership (JQRP)

• Jewellery Quarter Association (JQA)
• Jewellery Quarter Marketing Initiative (JQMI)
• Jewellery Quarter Neighbourhood Forum
• Jewellery Industry Business Strategy Group

The view expressed on this blog are personal to each blogger and may not necessarily represent the official views of these organisations.

To see comments please look here. They are also on twitter @jqlobby.

• 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.”

• The Georgian Group: ‘Free February’ on Twitter – The Georgian Group is saying thank you to its followers on Twitter by offering a year’s free membership of the Group to all those who follow it in February. Existing Twitter followers are as welcome to take up the offer as new followers. The offer applies to new memberships of the Group. To claim your free year’s membership, please email ‘FF claim’ to office@georgiangroup.org.uk giving your Twitter username and your name and address. Offer runs until 28 February.
• Digbeth is Good » February Irish Heritage – Nicky Getgood reports from this month’s Irish Heritage meeting, including video.
• The (Kat)acombs: Save the Staffordshire Hoard (and keep it in the West Midlands…)! – Kat does her bit for the Staffordshire Hoard
• Museum 2.0: How Different Types of Museums Approach Participation – Interesting piece on the different types of public participation we find in different museums: “In my travels and research, I’ve seen all kinds of museums be incredibly successful–and incredibly uncomfortable–with visitor participation.”
• National Trust to cut fossil fuel use in half by 2020 | Environment | guardian.co.uk – The Guardian reports that “The National Trust has unveiled plans to reduce its use of fossil fuels by 50% over the next 10 years, to achieve its goal of reducing its energy consumption by 2020.”
• Save our Chapels – sign our petition « Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery – The Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery has started a blog. “The Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery would like to ensure that Birmingham City Council acknowledge their responsibility for preserving our architectural and cultural heritage….”

Bells Farm

The Conservation Trust has been granted £14,000 of funding from English Heritage to carry out an architect’s appraisal at the 17th century Bells Farm in Druids Heath. It’s great news for the farmhouse, which is a Grade II*-listed and in urgent need of restoration after decades of without proper repair.

Exposed timbers in Bells Farm

The funding, which will be matched by Birmingham City Council, will pay for an architect’s appraisal. It will then be possible to set out a proper plan for the building’s future maintenance and repair. Crucially, it will help to build a case for the Trust to apply to English Heritage  for a complete restoration of the building.

For more information on Bell Farm and what we will be doing please look here.

Anyone who would like to help us in any way in our work to save the Bells Farm should contact us. We’re keen to talk to anyone who knows about the building or, of course, anyone who can help with funding!