PAST PRESENT FUTURE

The Newsletter of West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust and Worcestershire Building Preservation Trust Cost of Printing/Postage: £2.50 – Free to Members ______SUMMER 2015

see pages 4-7

Contents also include

Lye and Wollescote Cemetery Chapels Open Day: report on page 3 Contents also include View From The Newsletter Editor Project Director’s Report Appointment of Glass Artist for the Chapels War Graves Walk: 16th August 2015 Bournville……Without the Chocolate! Gorcott Hall Visit Report “Touching History” ______Company Offices: Adam House, Birmingham Road, Kidderminster, Stourbridge DY10 2SH Registered Company No. 1876294 Registered Charity No. 516158 VAT Registration No. 669 8183 73

WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 1 VIEW FROM THE…… WMHBT & WBPT NEWSLETTER EDITOR Projects Progress Reports by David Trevis-Smith, Regular readers of the Trusts’ Projects Organiser Newsletters will know that each one begins with a “View From The Work by Croft Building & Chair”. Conservation to deliver the West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust However those who read the Spring project involving the Lye and 2015 Newsletter and those who Wollescote Cemetery Chapels attended the Annual General building is making steady progress, Meeting will know that, as a result of despite a couple of unanticipated health scares, the then Chairman, discoveries; works are still on course Bob Tolley, has stood down. At the to be completed before Christmas. AGM the then Vice-Chairman, John Woodall, thanked Bob for his skills Asbestos revealed when removing and hard work over the years, which roof tiles and three long-eared bats was acknowledged by all present. revealed when removing one of the Fortunately for the Trusts, Bob has boarded-up windows, were our agreed to continue to serve as a unexpected guests. The former Trustee so that we can still take required removal and disposal by advantage of his knowledge and specialists, the latter required all experience. work to be stopped until the methodology for an ecological John has taken over temporarily as watching brief had been written and Acting Chairman and, while we approved by Natural England. search for a new Chairman, this is of Thankfully the delay was minimised course a very exciting time in the life thanks to speedy attention by our of West Midlands Historic Buildings architects at Brownhill Hayward Trust in particular, as it moves Brown, our appointed ecologist forward with its third “live” project at Middlemarch Environmental, swift Lye and Wollescote Cemetery processing of the proposal by Chapels. We celebrate this Natural England, and a pragmatic achievement with a special, all- approach by Croft to re-schedule colour edition for our Summer 2015 their work programme. Newsletter featuring a number of articles about different aspects of the Meanwhile the heritage-related project. Thank you very much for project activities are continuing your continued support. apace, as featured in separate articles in this Newsletter edition. Nick Hogben, Newsletter Editor.

WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 2 The short-term restriction on access way, please contact John Woodall due to the bats caused a break in a (email: [email protected]; programme of school and college tel: 01384 292644). visits and came at an unfortunate time in the academic calendar. It is I’m pleased to say the pace is also hoped to pick this up again in the starting to quicken with our other autumn term, albeit the programme ‘live’ project, by The Worcestershire will need to be slightly different. Building Preservation Trust, at the Weavers’ Cottages in Horsefair, Our Community Facilitator for this Kidderminster. project, Carolyn Healy, is inviting people to get in touch who are Our architects, Rodney Melville & interested in joining a new ‘Friends Partners, have completed the of Lye & Wollescote Cemetery’. detailed design drawings and There are lots of ways to get Schedule of Work; these are with our involved; for more on this, Carolyn quantity surveyors, Austin Newport, can be contacted by email: to prepare the Bill of Quantities and [email protected] or tel: other documentation to issue 01952 433932. invitations to tender for the building work. Provided tenders are within Amongst other things, we’re hoping budget, the Trust will be able to let the Friends will be able to help with the contract with the aim of starting finding local venues willing to host work on site towards the end of this temporary displays about the project: year. an exhibition stand about the World War 1 book is already available, with Following on from fitting three new a second stand about the secure doors to the cottages refurbishment project currently being reported in my last article, a new designed. Please contact Carolyn if gated access has now been created you know of a potential venue or with space for a skip. This means venues. the next volunteer work party, th scheduled for Saturday 29 August, Following my request for help in the can focus on clearing the last Newsletter, I’m pleased to report accumulated debris from previous that a small team of volunteers came work parties and apply a layer or two forward with an offer to keep the of primer to protect the new gates. grass cut and the garden tidy The final work party in the current th alongside the Superintendent’s series is scheduled for Saturday 26 Lodge. This will help to create a September 2015; work parties run good impression when the time from 10am to 1pm. comes to arrange viewings for prospective tenants. A few more All are welcome to attend work volunteers would be very welcome; if parties, including family and friends. you would be willing to help in this Please bring along your own WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 3 equipment for gardening work (saws, point during the course of the work. cutters, loppers, rakes, spades, etc.) Not only did the contractors welcome and wear suitable clothing, visitors to see the building but they especially sturdy boots or shoes. also laid on demonstrations in the car-park by some of the specialist For safety reasons we have a craftsmen who are involved in the minimum age of 18 and to ensure project. cover under the Trust’s insurance policy all those attending work parties will need to be members of The Worcestershire Building Preservation Trust. New members are welcome to join the Trust at the start of a work party and, as a welcome gesture, membership from that date to the end of the current subscriptions year will be free of charge. To help plan each work Chapels Open Day 20th June 2015 party, please let me know if you’re aiming to attend (email: david@dts- We were first welcomed by Adrian solutions.co.uk; or tel: 07711 Mathias of Brownhill Hayward 601560). I look forward to seeing Brown, Project Architects, who you there. summarised the proposals, which will provide a suite of facilities for LYE AND use by Dudley Metropolitan Borough WOLLESCOTE Council Citizenship and Registration CEMETERY CHAPELS Services and, specifically, use by the OPEN DAY REPORT Registrar as a venue for weddings and other civil ceremonies. Then, following a health and safety More than forty Trust members and briefing from Croft’s site foreman, local residents were treated to a Andy Hutchings, we were allowed unique view of “works in progress” at into the site. Lye and Wollescote Cemetery th Chapels on Saturday 20 June In the car-park, Croft’s leadworker 2015. was demonstrating traditional leadworking techniques and their The contract for the building works stonemason was carving new stones between West Midlands Historic to replace those which were Buildings Trust and the principal damaged beyond repair. A contractors, Croft Building and representative from tile suppliers, Conservation Ltd of Cannock, Dreadnought Tiles, was making included a requirement that public replacement ridge tiles to match the access should be provided at some originals and visitors were allowed WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 4 and indeed encouraged to join in the showing how surviving pieces of process! glass were being removed from the damaged leadwork and cleaned ready for re-instatement into new leadwork. We were then free to look around the outside of the building while Adrian was conducting tours around the interior.

Externally, the restoration of the weather-vane and spire had been completed and these now rose triumphantly above the scaffolding which still encased the rest of the building. Roofs had been stripped and covered temporarily in polythene sheeting. Croft’s stone mason carves a new piece of stone for the Chapel Repairs to stonework were in (above) and (below) a young visitor progress and Adrian had already makes a replacement ridge tile with explained in his initial briefing that a little help from the representative the overriding philosophy throughout from Dreadnought Tiles the whole contract was to retain as much as possible of the original fabric. We saw therefore that, although some stones seemed to be quite eroded, they were only being replaced where it was absolutely necessary for structural or weathering reasons.

Ashmore Conservation Metal Smiths, who have completed the restoration and re-instatement of the weather vane on top of the spire, were working on the repair of the perimeter railings and glaziers from A small surviving fragment of original N. G. Beacham Stained Glass were glazing WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 5 Sadly, very little of the original glazing had remained intact but all surviving pieces of glass from the leaded light windows had been carefully numbered and catalogued in situ, and the damaged lights themselves then removed for repair or replacement by the glaziers.

Project Architect Adrian Mathias leads a tour of the inside of the building

Some compromises will need to be made to ensure the satisfactory re- use of the building. For example the rafters, which are currently exposed, will be hidden from view as a result of the need for insulation, although the trusses and other parts of the roof structure will remain on view. Glazing repairs being carried out by N G Beacham Stained Glass In terms of the curtilage, the perimeter railings were actually in There was almost as much much better condition than they scaffolding inside the building as appeared, many needing only to be outside to provide access to the cleaned of rust and re-painted. upper parts of the interior but, although some stripping out had been undertaken, repairs were awaiting the completion of works to the shell and access was therefore quite limited. As with the external works, as much of the original fabric and features as possible will be undisturbed so that, for example, where the Minton tiled floor in the entrance lobby had been subject to some limited settlement, this movement had now ceased so the Blacksmiths from Ashmore tiling would be repaired as existing Conservation Metal Smiths working rather than being lifted, levelled and on a panel of the original railings re-laid. WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 6 The car-parking area had also been LYE AND WOLLESCOTE laid out, which is a slightly unfortunate but completely CEMETERY CHAPELS necessary intrusion into the setting APPOINTMENT OF of the building. GLASS ARTIST

However, the adjoining sunken garden will be restored to provide an As part of the process of applying for appropriate setting for wedding a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) Grant photographs. for the Chapels project, West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust There had been only one incident of (WMHBT) commissioned an Activity vandalism since the contract began, Plan. This covers every aspect of the when the lower part of the copper project apart from the capital costs lightning conductor was stolen and includes details about following unauthorised access to the interpretation of the heritage, scaffolding. education and learning, community engagement and audience There had been some unfortunate development, volunteering and delays in the progress of the work heritage skills training. This seeks to after asbestos was found under the ‘bring the site alive’ and helps roof tiles and bats were seen flying achieve one of the HLF’s strategic (but not roosting) inside the building, aims of learning and participation. as described by the Project Organiser in the previous article in The Activity Plan proposed amongst this Newsletter. many other things that two original plain glass windows in the chapels This was despite the fact that one should be replaced by new windows asbestos survey and two bat surveys designed by students at Birmingham had been undertaken prior to the Metropolitan College and an commencement of the work! The appropriate secondary school. The project is now due for completion in students would work with a November 2015. professional glass artist who would synthesise the concept designs and, Local historians and authors, Jean following Trustee approval, Weston and Marlene Price, were on manufacture the glass which would hand to lead Cemetery tours and the then be installed by the main Trust is extremely grateful also to contractor as part of the restoration Carolyn Healy, Andrew Meredith, Ian contract. Parkin and Shirley Ochi for their assistance in organising the logistics A Brief for the project was prepared and promotion of this most and approved by the Trust and the interesting and enjoyable event. HLF Monitor, requiring that the new windows should be based on two WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 7 themes, namely (a) the industrial students for the window designs. He heritage of the area and (b) the also included a presentation on characters and personalities who glassmaking techniques and took stamped their mark on the samples of his work in order to community through their deeds. This illustrate that, while most of their was sent out to six experienced ideas would be presented on paper, glass artists and the three who he would be working in a very responded were all interviewed. different medium and that they would not necessarily see an exact replica Each artist was extremely proficient of their designs in the finished and had an outstanding track record, windows. but the panel was unanimous in the selection of Paul Floyd, who is based at the Ruskin Glass Centre in Amblecote and who, at interview, illustrated a range of outstanding work carried out with the involvement of pupils, students and members of the public in exactly the way the brief had envisaged.

Paul completed a Diploma course in Design Crafts, before subsequently Students from Redhill Secondary specialising in Architectural Stained School (above) and Birmingham Glass, starting his own business in Metropolitan College (below) visit the 2003. Chapels

Following his appointment, Paul began with visits on his own to the Borough Archives and to the Chapels themselves where he gathered together as many images as possible of the industrial history of the area (as this was to provide the inspiration for the designs) and of the building, its architectural detailing and its context.

Paul then worked with the students After a further visit to the Chapels in small groups to develop their with the students, Paul then went to ideas and designs based on his the schools and gave a slide show of presentations and what they had the images he had collected, in order seen on site. The students in fact to prompt ideas amongst the WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 8 needed very little encouragement as image refers to the transportation they were extremely enthusiastic across the globe of the products about the project and were very made in the Lye and Wollescote knowledgeable about the history of area. the area and its industries.

Paul says that one of the greatest challenges was to bring together into two relatively small windows the ideas of all of the students who took part in the project. He therefore went to great lengths to emphasise that, although not all of them would recognise their specific designs, all had made an important contribution, if not with a complete design, then with an element of a design or a Students from Redhill Secondary shape or a colour. School (above) and from Birmingham Metropolitan College The overall design for the first (below) work on their designs window was inspired by the ideas and artworks of students from Redhill Secondary School.

The design begins with the flames of industry at the bottom, with the names of the characters who worked within this industry. Running up through the centre of the window is the Stourbridge Viaduct, which was built from blue/red bricks manufactured in Lye. Circles superimposed onto the viaduct The overall design of the second contain artworks from the school window was inspired by the pupils depicting items or images artworks, concepts, ideas and linked to or made within the area stories from the students at including frost cogs, nails, shovels, Birmingham Metropolitan College. buckets and horseshoes. At the bottom of the window there is A canal/river and then a railway line a design of the Cemetery Chapels run upwards from the flames (laid out as a repeated pattern of the towards a circle at the top. This building shape) and a simplified circle represents the world and the version of this design runs up the WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 9 window as side borders. Above this 399412 or by email to is the Stourbridge Viaduct and within [email protected]. You can also the arch an area for text. The text find out more on his website at will contain stories/memories from a www.transparentglassstudio.co.uk. conversation between one of the students and her grandmother, All photographs in this article are about her great grandparents (buried in the Cemetery) and their by Paul Floyd. haberdashery shop in Lye. WAR GRAVES WALK Above the viaduct are flowing lines 16th AUGUST 2015 and shapes of colour rising towards the top of the window, which take their inspiration from the trade routes Within Lye and Wollescote Cemetery of ships transporting goods there are a number of produced in the area across the Commonwealth War Graves where oceans. These spaces have areas men who died in both world wars are that can be etched with the names of buried and commemorated. goods and products made in the Lye and Wollescote area. The lines flow To mark VJ day, which was the final to a circle at the top of the window end of the Second World War, the which has a clock representing the Friends of Lye and Wollescote past, present and future of the Cemetery and Chapels are holding a Cemetery Chapels. The background guided walk to discover more about is a ‘collage’ of OS maps of the area the brave men who fought and died from 1880s onwards. all over the world and are remembered in the cemetery. In both cases, the names of the students involved in the project will The walk, on Sunday 16th August, be engraved onto the glass. will be led by local historians Jean Weston, Marlene Price and Ray Paul has now completed the designs Griffiths. Ray is himself a veteran of and these have been approved by the Second World War and fought the students, WMHBT and the alongside Cedric Holdnall, who was building’s future tenant, and the killed in action at Teutoburger Wald windows are now in the process of in Germany during the last weeks of being made. the war in Europe. He was just 18 years old and the youngest of the men from Lye to lose their lives Paul can be contacted at The during the war. Cedric is buried in Transparent Glass Studio, The Hanover War Cemetery and his Ruskin Glass Centre, Wollaston parents were laid to rest in Lye and Road, Amblecote, Stourbridge DY8 Wollescote Cemetery where Ray still 4HE or by telephone on 01384 WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 10 tends their grave in honour of his BOURNVILLE… … friend. WITHOUT THE Those joining the walk will also hear CHOCOLATE! about a family’s five year search for For £16-25, you can visit Cadbury a lieutenant missing on the Somme World in Bournville and see some during the First World War, and the chocolate. terrible events of the of 31st March 1944 when the RAF suffered their Alternatively, at no cost, you can worst night of the Second World War take a walking tour of the factory losing 545 men including Sergeant grounds and Bournville village and Kendrick of Lye. marvel at the extraordinary social and architectural legacy of the Some of the soldiers are buried in Cadburys from the late 19th and the cemetery, others were buried early 20th centuries. abroad or their bodies never found In 1824, John Cadbury had opened and instead are remembered on a grocer’s shop on Bull Street, in family graves. Jean, Marlene and Birmingham city centre, producing Ray have painstakingly researched and selling tea, coffee and, of the lives of these men and will share course, drinking chocolate, which he their stories during the one and a believed to be the healthy alternative half hour walk which starts at 2pm to alcohol. He later moved his from the Springfield Road entrance. production into a factory in Bridge The walk will finish around 3.30pm. Street and, soon after, his brother Benjamin joined him to form a For more information contact company called Cadbury Brothers of Carolyn by email Birmingham. [email protected] or call 07805 489296. However John’s health rapidly declined and he finally retired in 1861, handing over complete control TWITTER AND of the business to his sons Richard FACEBOOK and George who were just 25 and 21 when they took charge.

When the Bridge Street factory This is just a reminder that you can became too small, the brothers follow West Midlands Historic began searching for a very special Buildings Trust on Twitter @WMHBT site for their new factory and, in and Facebook at 1879, moved their business to http://www.facebook.com/WestMi Bournbrook Hall, a 14 and a 1/2 acre dlandsHistoricBuildingsTrustwmh site then in the heart of the bt Worcestershire countryside some

WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 11 four miles to the south of as park and recreation areas to Birmingham. encourage swimming, walking and indeed all forms of outdoor sports. The brothers were generally However, as George Cadbury was a appalled by the poverty and squalor temperance Quaker, no public of the overcrowded industrial slums houses were allowed! of the big cities and set out to In the same year, the Bournville challenge the thinking of the day and Village Trust was set up formally to change current attitudes, not by control the development of the lobbying, talking or campaigning, but estate, independently of George by practical example; this location Cadbury or the Cadbury company. was chosen because it was The trust focused on providing regarded as cleaner and healthier for schools, hospitals, museums, public the workforce and, although rural, baths and reading rooms, all centred was close to the canal, upon which upon a triangular village green, and they were reliant for milk deliveries, today many of these buildings and and to the railway, which brought in other features survive as a cocoa from the ports of London and testament to the work and beliefs of Southampton. the Cadbury family. Birmingham architect, George H. The central feature of The Green Gadd, worked closely with George is now the Rest House, which was Cadbury to draw up plans for the erected in 1914 to designs by W factory. The first bricks were laid in Alexander Harvey to January 1879 and 16 houses for commemorate the Silver Wedding foremen and senior employees were of George and Elizabeth Cadbury built on the site. Then, in 1893, the previous year and was paid for George Cadbury bought 120 acres by Cadbury’s employees. of land close to the works and planned what he described as a “garden village” for the benefit of the workers.

By 1900, the estate included 313 cottages and houses, many of which were in striking “Arts and Crafts” style and designed by resident architect William Alexander Harvey. The Cadburys were particularly concerned with the health and fitness of their workforce, and the The Rest House dwellings generally had large gardens, while at least one tenth of It is octagonal in shape and built the estate itself had to be developed of brick with stone dressings. WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 12 Each face has, at ground floor and, above, a tall two-light level, a 3-light mullioned window mullioned window with two with, above, a projecting gable transoms. To the left and right of containing a 2-light mullioned this, the lower subsidiary rooms window. The 2 tiers of windows project diagonally to terminate in are separated by deeply gabled facades. In an alcove in overhanging eaves supported on the gable end of the right-hand brackets. The steeply-pitched roof projection there is a bust of is surmounted by a small glazed George Cadbury (1839-1922) and lantern with elaborate metal a tablet recording the burial there weathervane. of the ashes of him and his wife.

To the north of The Green is the Day Continuation School which was opened in 1925. George Cadbury was a prominent supporter of adult education and all employees under the age of 18 were released from work one day a week to further their education here and attendance was compulsory. The Friends’ Meeting House (above) and (below) the bust of George Cadbury

The Day Continuation School

To the west of the Day Continuation School, fronting Linden Road, is The Friends' Meeting House which was built in 1905 by Harvey of red brick with On the west side of Linden Road stone dressings under a tiled roof. are the Junior and Infants’ The tall and gabled main hall has Schools which were built in 1902-5 an arched doorway flanked by and 1910 respectively, both also small two-light mullioned windows to designs by Harvey. WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 13 The Junior School is built of red blocks, asymmetrically placed one brick with stone dressings under a behind the other. It is built of red slate roof. The main feature of the brick with some timber-framing building, on the left, is the big and plaster under a tiled roof with square entrance tower containing tall “Tudor” chimneys. a pointed arched doorway approached up steps. Its substantial keystone carries an oriel window with carved base and pointed stone roof and above and to the left of this is a clock. The tower is surmounted by a cupola consisting of eight slender copper- clad columns supporting a shallow ogee copper roof and the cupola houses an extraordinary carillon containing 48 bells. The Infants’ School

The present Church Hall in Linden Road, to the south of The Green, was built in 1913, again by Harvey. The Church of St Francis of Assisi was built by the same architect in 1925 adjoining to the south and linked to it by a contemporary cloister. Both are built of brick with minimum stone dressings under Roman tile roofs The Junior School and the Church is Basilican in plan with apses east and west, narrow To the right of the entrance tower lean-to aisles and north and south and set back from it, is the central porches. hall, in front of which project three lower gabled classrooms. Inside, the roof of the hall rises from lance curved braces and there are frescoes of 1914 by Mary Sargant Florence and Mary Creighton McDowall with carving throughout by Benjamin Creswick.

The Infants' School is a low irregular composition consisting essentially of two long, parallel The Church of St Francis of Assisi WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 14 it went into decline and, by the th The row of shops in Sycamore end of the 19 century, it had Road to the south-east of The been divided into three houses in Green was built to designs by the poor condition and with an architect Henry Bedford Tylor uncertain future. between 1905 and 1908 and originally included a pharmacy, butchers, bakers, grocers and Post Office.

Selly Manor (above) and (below) the Hall – photos copyright and reproduced by kind permission of The Sycamore Road Shops Selly Manor Museum and Bournville Village Trust To the north-west of The Green, in Maple Road, are two much earlier buildings which were brought here by the Cadburys from elsewhere, both under Harvey’s supervision.

Selly Manor was bought by George Cadbury in 1907 and re- erected here in 1912-16. The building is timber-framed with th plaster infill and some 16 century brick noggin under an old tile roof th th Minworth Greaves is a timber- with large 16 or 17 century star- framed building with plaster infill shaped chimney stacks. There are under an old tiled roof. It is, in three gabled bays of different part, probably 14th century and dates, the earliest perhaps that on includes a two-bay hall of cruck the left, set forward and with the construction. It was moved from upper storey overhanging on Minworth near Sutton Coldfield curved brackets, probably dating th and re-erected here under the from the 15 century. Originally supervision of Harvey in 1929-32 known as Smyth’s Tenement, it for Laurence Cadbury, George was home to yeoman farmers but Cadbury’s son. WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 15 corner of north Warwickshire by the roaring double-carriageway of the A435 as it thrusts north towards the M42 and Birmingham!

This house was left, when the new road was built, with its imposing entrance gates facing onto a lane truncated by the new road. Its entrance now, one which is its back gate, not noticed by those who speed by on the dual carriageway.

Minworth Greaves

Both Selly Manor and Minworth Greaves are open to the public and contain the Laurence Cadbury Collection of early furniture, domestic objects, agricultural artefacts, armour, archives and Gorcott Hall (photo by Shaun other decorative works. Regan) But, finding the back gateway to Not all of the buildings of interest Gorcott is a revelation, as one enters are arranged around The Green the quite private world of this little and we will conclude our tour of estate. The modern world rushes by Bournville in the next edition of the outside oblivious of the pleasure and Newsletter with a look at buildings interest just behind the hedge. in other parts of the village but of equal interest and importance in The Hall was bought by its present terms of the Cadbury legacy. owners in 2009, having been unoccupied for some time. Fortunately, its hidden location had REPORT ON VISIT TO preserved it from the ravages of the GORCOTT HALL scrap merchant and his ilk and had JUNE 2015 only had to withstand the ravages of wind and weather.

Finding Gorcott Hall was a challenge Jon Goodchild and his family set as this beautiful old house has been about renovation/conservation. almost elbowed into a quiet forgotten There has been both to bring this WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 16 house to what it is today. Some of difference as they move from one the architectural specialists in our area to another – the overall effect party were a little critical of some of is, to the layman, quite pleasing. the outcomes of this project, but at least the place has been restored to Beyond, and separate, is a barn use with a fair modicum of loving which retains its threshing floor as care and put to a use which sees it an open area between two small enjoyed by a wide variety of folk who flats which occupy the previous get the chance to experience an old storage areas. These have a lower house presented with flair and some lounge with bedroom and bathroom good taste. above. Across the courtyard area and next to the car park is the The main part of the house which is converted byre - now a th probably 15 century and Grade II* restaurant/banqueting suite with a listed retains lots of original features large balcony overlooking the and its original hall still has the garden. screens passage alongside. The hall has a great fireplace which it We were well entertained by host acquired when the house underwent Jon Goodchild and enjoyed a very rebuilding in brick in the mid 1500s. pleasant evening which ended with a We were able to see the remains of very welcome supper and a chance th th the 16 and 17 century glass in the to share conversation. To complete south windows. The family our enjoyment Heather Wastie (aka accommodation upstairs is quite Heather Cox and nee Trevis-Smith), modest and reached by an Worcestershire’s Poet Laureate, intriguingly narrow staircase which read for us her poem which winds around one of the large celebrates WMHBT, commissioned th chimneys. The bedrooms access off in this its 30 year. a large and comfortable lounge area and each has en suite provision with Philip Adams. interestingly small and shapely baths in some. TOUCHING HISTORY

The stabling alongside the Hall has been converted into accommodation Commissioned by Philip Adams - A which suits its use as an upmarket tribute to the West Midlands Historic wedding venue. Our architectural Buildings Trust with particular reference to members of my family specialists took issue with the way in which the Hall had been linked to and a special friend. With thanks to this converted space with timbering my mother Sheila Smith, my brother which does not match that found in David Trevis-Smith, and Philip the rest of the house. In defence of Adams and Sue Whitehouse for the outcome one can only say that providing me with many of the words most folk will probably not notice the in this piece. WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 17

The story began with abolition, Generate an army the Local Government Act of 1985, with shovels, brushes, face masks, Metropolitan County Councils lost, gloves - and a history of demolition. work gloves, rubber gloves, gardening gloves; A clued up Chief Planner called Alfie secateurs, tree loppers, rakes, Wood screwdrivers, hand saws, chainsaws, saw a future he didn't like small hammers, sledgehammers, where everyone's town kango hammers, looked like everyone's town hoping there won't be any spanners in the works, where beautiful buildings languished, marooned and crumbling without hope, black bags, matches, cables, bulbs ... pathways to everyday history buried, enthusiasm, energy and very old consumed by weeds and lost over time, clothes, a picnic lunch which is always enjoyed small buildings sitting together in the middle of the in need of a friend, chaos, someone to trust. not everyone's cup of tea but for some it's right up their Kinver Bring on the Trust, street. people with knowledge, experience, passion, Bring on the Architect, visionary, conservation officers facing redundancy, sensitive, architects, planners, surveyors, who draws the past, who crafts the accountants, woodwork, engineers, solicitors, people with conjures a staircase, rebuilds walls influence …. and rescues an old enamel bath from the garden. Bring on the Do-ers who get their hands dirty, Bring on the Chairman, the Driving ready to tackle all manner of rubbish, Force undergrowth, overgrowth, old office who chivvies them all and persuades the papers, council timber, dust, bricks, dust, rubble, dust, to trust the Trust, a man of smiles and cans, bottles, concrete, dust, pigeon gritted teeth droppings, charged with angst when Corngreaves pigeon bodies, tramp droppings, came a cropper. mattresses, unmentionables! Bring on the Chairman's wife and roadie Walls to be demolished, who stood in the cold on her wedding trees to be cut down, anniversary fires to be started being told, “You see that brick? Pull that in the dumps of the downhearted, out love and light to be shed in the and these Weavers' Cottages will all fall darkness. down!”

WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 18

Bring on the Project Director with a dream: THE MANAGEMENT a thrilling - slow motion - adventure film featuring a diplomatic Indiana Jones, COMMITTEE a man with a vision charged with a mission, to rescue a treasure against the clock, Acting Chairman: deftly high-jumping over snake-pits John Woodall; (shouting something about the Olympics) indigenous people cheering him on, Vice-Chairman: impressed by his grasp of strategic Jayne Pilkington; thinking. Treasurer : Bring on the funders, the builders, the Andrew Bradley; buyers. Bring on the Friends, the Management Membership Secretary : Committee, Steve Mason; newsletters, talks, visits, dinners ... all for the people Minutes Secretary : who lived in the house Peter Arnold; who worked in the factory, who went to the chapel on a Sunday, Newsletter Editor : the soldiers who lie in the cemetery, Nick Hogben; mothers who carried flowers to their graves, Trustees : Philip Adams, people like the Grandad I never knew, who worked in the Harrison Pearson Katherine Andrew, building, Mark Balkham, pushing the weights on the weighing David Bills MBE, machine Nigel Brown, with his hook for an arm he lost in the Nigel Heardman, war. Nick Joyce, Robert Tolley; Conservation in a throw-away world. Social return, not financial return. Project Director : Helping the future lay hands on the past. Leaving a legacy that will last. David Trevis-Smith;

Company Secretary : © Heather Wastie June 2015 Peter Copsey. www.heatherwastie.co.uk

WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 19

PAST PRESENT FUTURE

The Newsletter of West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust and Worcestershire Building Preservation Trust ______

Designs for new stained glass windows at Lye and Wollescote Cemetery Chapels (Copyright and reproduced by kind permission of Paul Floyd) see page 7

______Company Offices, Adam House, Birmingham Road, Kidderminster, Stourbridge DY10 2SH Registered Company No. 1876294 Registered Charity No. 516158 VAT Registration No. 669 8183 73 WMHBT & WBPT Summer 2015 Newsletter Page 20