Meeting the heritage people

The first HeritageMeet was well attended (16 people), filling the back room of Kitchen Garden Cafe, who kindly let us use the room and kept our thirsts quenched too!

We raised a number of questions in informal chat, and asked people to leave their comments:

What kind of projects would you like to do?

The busiest sheet for responses - a range of great ideas, many of which we will be acting on - film, oral history, walking trails, 'street-by-street', women's and children's histories, intergenerational and not forgetting work in a local cemetery - the last one is something I'm hoping we'll be hearing more about soon! 

What skills would you like to share as part of the co-op?

Again a real range of skills - bid-writing, research, delivering workshops, promoting & networking, planning, digital archiving, conservation, blogging and social media, genealogical.

Such a great range of skills in our members, all of which we'll be drawing on to deliver some great projects. 

 Which other groups do you think we should work with?

Some great suggestions, some more general (youth groups, School Groups) which is great, perhaps building on some of our previous projects with Sarehole Mill, Hall Green Arts, Paganel Primary, Swanshurst School, Swan Corner Community Group, University of Birmingham.

Others more particular, all of which I hope we can work with in the future: Friends of the LoB, Northfield Arts Forum, FoBAH, Secret City Arts, Friends of Northfield Library, the Play House, Birmingham Peace Hub, Northfield Community Partnership, Civic Society Heritage, Bham Solihull Women's Aid, Heritage Forum, U3AHallfield School and Victoria College.

How do you think being part of a co-op could help you?

Great to see our objectives reflected back to us by our members! We will be working on how best to deliver:

Being part of a supportive network, keep me using Public engagement skills, Collaborating, connecting, new perspectives, learning and sharing new skills.

Next meeting 27th March 

Thanks everyone for coming to our first HeritageMeet.  Friday 27th March 1pm Cafe Aroma, Staff House, University of Birmingham will be our next regular Coop meeting, which you are all invited to.  It's been fantastic to meet so many inspiring individuals all interested in working together to better represent and promote People's Heritage!

HeritageMeet

Join us at HeritageMeet  Tuesday evening at the back of Fletcher's Bar, Kings Heath, for an informal drop in - find out what we're up to, and what's going on locally.

Rally for the Library of Birmingham

The rally was against the cuts being proposed to the libraries of Birmingham on National Libraries Day 7th Feb 2015, with speeches and performances from:

• Carl Chinn, historian
• Birmingham Poets Laureates, past and present 
• A message of support from Benjamin Zephaniah
• Vanley Burke, photographer
• Judith Cutler, Writer
• The Indian Workers Association
• A representative from Refugee Action

Peoples Heritage Cooperative were there to show our support and also to document some of the visitors and protesters voices on 7th February. Please see this short video from the day, with clips from those interviews:

listen to ‘Libraries deserve more funding’ on audioBoom

listen to ‘Forward ever backward never’ on audioBoom

listen to ‘Studying in Libraries’ on audioBoom

listen to ‘Volunteers dont replace librarians’ on audioBoom

listen to ‘Join your union song’ on audioBoom

listen to ‘A citizen of no mean city’ on audioBoom

listen to ‘Jangle your Bangles’ on audioBoom

listen to ‘Protect the library’ on audioBoom

listen to ‘Ode to LoB’ on audioBoom

listen to ‘Here come the Philistines’ on audioBoom

For more details see:

• Friends of Library of the Library of Birmingham
• Rally Event facebook page
• Birmingham Post - Library of Birmingham rally calls halt in cuts
• Brian Gamble presents cut proposals to the Culture, Learning and Skills Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Birmngham City Council
• Public rally to take place over Library of Birmingham cuts

Rescue!History and Climate Change

Rescue!History - not, as you might think, a group attempting to rescue History, but historians (mostly) who want to help save the world from climate change (see bottom of page for more detailed statement from their webpage).

I was lucky to be invited to present at their event at BMI Birmingham on the subject of  'Archivism, activism and climate change'.  The event as a whole took on a broad range of very different historical perspectives on how climate change might be changing our view of history, and how history and historians might best save the world.

There was nothing too conclusive, as you might expect but in the mix a lot of interesting points made, a healthy meeting of opinions on crisis and history, and a less healthy meander into eco-eugenics and the futility of fighting the selfish gene.  I kept fairly well clear of the toxic parts of the debate, and was keen mainly to put over the relatively simplistic point - people need to ask their own questions, find out for themselves, relate to the issues if they are going to take any meaningful part in the solutions.

We all need to be historians, if we are to understand any of history's lessons (and using example of Paganel Archives we can!)  I'll certainly be following more closely Rescue!History and keeping in touch with new found historian friends.

For more see: https://storify.com/CareersNetwork/history-and-climate-change

Also see my presentatin, Archivism, activism and climate change

Rescue!History are:

'practitioners of the Humanities and Social Sciences wish to affirm that investigations and findings from our colleagues in the scientific community overwhelmingly support the conclusion that contemporary global warming is anthropogenic: that is, at least in considerable part, a consequence of our own individual and collective human actions, at all levels of local, national and international society, economy and polity.'

 Who:

'recognises the urgency of the situation we are now in, and seeks to develop, both individually and collectively, research, curricula, and other educational programmes of past and present societies that will contribute to disseminating knowledge about the human origins, impacts and consequences of anthropogenic climate change, while also enabling and empowering the broader public to make the epochal changes that are going to be needed if we are to survive and sustain ourselves in the face of the challenge before us.'

http://www.rescue-history.org.uk/

My family in World War 1

It's hard to appreciate what life might have been like 100 years ago.  Until recently I knew nothing about  Heinrich Hoenen, my Great Grandfather who died in 1941 when my Mother was 2 years old.  Here's a clip of my Mum talking about him, some photos and an extract from an Obituary in the newsletter of the Lutheran Parishes Osnabrueck (1941):

listen to ‘Heinrich Hoenen’ on audioBoom

"...Early in life when only 9 years old, he lost his father. Five years later his mother also died. 

Following his father's death, his mother moved with her children to Lengerich in Westphalia.  Of the six children four died in very early childhood, leaving only two brothers who loved each other dearly - Heinrich and Leonard.  Upon their mother's death the family was torn apart. Heinrich Hoenen became an apprentice to a master-saddler who also took him into his home as a foster-son... 

Heinrich was a dispatch rider during WW1

...[Heinrich married and was] blessed with four children. However, they were not spared devastating heartache, having to bury one son at an early age (Walter, 22/12/1912 - 19/12/1920 - died in the 'Spanish' flu epidemic that swept across Europe after the war). 

Heinrich Hoenen served in the First World War from 1914 - 1918. In the very first year of the war he was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class (Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse). He returned as Warrant Officer (Offizier-Stellvertreter).  The war was over; but in what state did he find our beloved fatherland and, in particular, Alsace-Lorraine (Elsass-Lothringen), Hoenen's second home! The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Haus in Metz had to be vacated immediately. Because of his German nationality Hoenen was forced to leave by the French, along with his family, having to abandon almost all of their possessions. Where should they go? He found a place to stay in Osnabrueck, and thus a new home. These few words contain much sorrow and pain that can hardly be appreciated by outsiders..."

Heinrich with his wife and family

My mother is translating his book 'The Guiding Hand' into English - as I don't speak German, I'm looking forward to reading more.

Favourite place at Sarehole Mill

Irene de Boo, curator and property manager at Sarehole Mill, shared her story with us this week. Irene was instrumental in the Mill's recent refurbishment project and in developing the site as a working mill that now regularly provides flour to a local bakery and restaurant.  You can also buy flour from the Mill itself, milled by a team of volunteer millers.

All the Sarehole Mill Stories will be available to listen to on this blog from the end of January and will be in an exhibition at the Mill in the Spring. Details will follow here.

listen to ‘Favourite place at Sarehole Mill’ on audioBoom

More stories from Sarehole Mill

Richard Albutt writes:

We had a very successful afternoon at Sarehole Mill  on Sunday 28th September, with Diana, Ann and Natalie  all sharing their mill memories with us. Here is a short clip of Natalie, and Elijah, talking about childhood memories of Moseley Bog:

listen to ‘Natalie and Elijah extract’ on audioBoom

We're now at work transcribing and working on interviews and photos for presentation in the new year at Sarehole Mill.  Interviews will also be available online.