Wholesale Memory

Friction Arts documenting our Wholesale market

For many people who call Birmingham home, the Markets are an afterthought, a part of the city that they may only occasionally dip into. What they may not realise is that Birmingham started its life as a Market Town, when Peter de Bermingham was granted a charter to run a market from what was at the time just a small settlement.

So, it’s something of a tragedy that the historic Wholesale Markets are set to close this year without many people making much of a noise.

Desert Island Archive

Exploring Archives of photos
from 2011 at Paganel School

Imagine you were to leave three items for future generations to use to study our society, what items would you choose? Or if you could only take three personal items with you onto a desert island, what would they be? These questions can be useful in establishing what is important to you as an individual. What items hold sentimental value? Or perhaps represent a particularly happy memory or an object from a loved one passed on to you. Archives are not only official records held in libraries or museums, archives can be a family photo album or a piece of jewelry from your great grandmother. We can create our own individual archives as representations of our lives and what we consider to be important to us and items which embody personal or family identity.

These were some of the questions we asked the children in Year 5 at Paganel Archive After-school Club, and their responses were surprising. 

Zeppelins in Birmingham?

Publicity Department, Central Recruiting Depot.
 Restoration by Adam Cuerden.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Division Washington, D.C

'On a foggy, frosty night of January 31 to February 1, 1916, Tipton, Bradley, Wednesbury and Walsall were bombed by Zeppelins in one of the heaviest air raids of the First World War. By the end of that terrible night, 35 local people were dead, including the Lady Mayoress of Walsall, Mary Julia Slater.'

The L21 Zeppelin responsible is still one of the largest 'combat aircraft' to have ever flown.  On 31st of January Captain Max Deitrich of the L21 was planning to bomb Liverpool when he saw the lights of the Black country below.  Birmingham had almost certainly been spared as the council had prudently put a police order in place to 'show no lights'.

Learning from history

Nigel Farage, John Bull gnome

2016 has certainly felt like an 'eventful' year. How does it compare with the past and what can we look forward to?  The Prince of Wales took the extraordinary step to use Radio 4 'Thought for the day' to raise his concerns over the recent rise in 'Populism', echoing 'the dark days of the 1930s'.

Recovery and recuperation in Bournville

Fircroft College during WW1
Thanks LoB: MS 466/3a/831

With the onset of World War 1 and in particular the Gallipoli campaign in early and mid 1915, the hospitals in Birmingham began to receive casualties, both ill and wounded servicemen. In addition to the acute facilities available at the 1st Southern General Hospital, convalescent homes were required to allow individuals to regain their health and strength. Throughout the city appropriate facilities were sought and requisitioned by the War Office. In Bournville two buildings were identified and made available by Cadburys – Fircroft and The Beeches.

Untold Stories: sharing stories across the generations

As part of The People's Heritage Co-operative's HLF funded project, 'Untold Stories: Birmingham's Wounded Soldiers from WW1', Year 8 pupils at Swanshurst School took part in a series of workshops with Rachel Gillies - Community Film Maker to learn how to conduct filmed oral history interviews.

In Soldiers Footsteps: Commemorating WW1 and the Somme

Often individual stories, especially in regards to the First World War, are lost when commemorating a big and significant part of history. The workshop I created for the Year 5 children at Paganel school was aimed at highlighting the individuals involved worldwide in the war and extracting their individual stories, not only of their experiences of war but their families, who were left behind.