Women Chanmaker's Festival

The festival will take place on Saturday 17 September at Beamore Playing fields in Old Hill / Cradley.

This will be a day of music, theatre, storytelling and of course the chain women's march. The Headline act of the day is multi-award winner chris wood as well as support on main stage with all other performers, organised by Roosterspake (Brian Dakin and Lozz Hipkiss).

There will be a small charge on the gate and under sixteens are  free.

 Be great day, some bostin talent

Save Brook Street Community Centre (Tipton)

This mail is just to let you know about the 'Open Day' at Brook Street Community Centre on Friday 26th August from 11am until 6pm.

Please come along, even if you only just drop in, to see what Brook Street has to offer and also to find out what we may not have any more if we lose this popular venue and local hub.

There will be live entertainment, drink, food and more. For details please go to

http://www.brookstreetcommunitycentre.com/forthcomingevents.htm

Due to the circumstance of the centre being under threat of closure Brook Street CC's management and trustees as well as the user groups need all the support they can get so please come along and show yours. As chairman of Tipton Community Association I am concerned about the impact on our group and the threat of losing our operation centre which could greatly affect our ability to organise our full calendar of Tipton events.

We are looking forward to your support.

Thanks & regards.

Malcolm Jones

The Black Country and the White Slaves of England

The Black Country and the White Slaves of England

This exhibition, within the Museum's exhibition halls, displays historic photos of women chainmakers at work, telling the story of how under the inspirational leadership of Mary Macarthur and local trade unionists the women chainmakers staged a 10 week strike, attracting international attention to the Black Country town, Cradley Heath.

Photographs of the protests and processions of Cradley Heath can be seen along with a display of chains and tools that the women chainmakers would have worked with in 1910.

In the Museum's village is the impressive Cradley Heath Workers' Institute, exhibiting further displays about the women chainmakers strike.

Dr Jean Debney, author of 'Breaking the Chains - the Story of the Women Chainmakers from Cradley Heath' will be one of the speakers at the forthcoming Black Country History Day on Saturday 15th October 2011 when she will examine Mary Macarthur's role in the ten week strike.

Where all our grannies worked

Dear all,

There are a couple more items on the distinctly black country website:

Where all our grannies worked

Almost everyone in the country will have a grandparent or great grandparent who worked in industry. Read more here.

The sound of metal on tape?

Do you know of any recordings of metal working in the Black Country, past or present? Read more here.

Rich history in the landscape now online

Just a quick note to point you to the fact that the Historic Environment Record for Walsall and Wolverhampton is now available online.

You can read the item on the distinctly black country website here:

http://distinctlyblackcountry.org.uk/news/

Black Country waterways enthusiast takes new appointment

Waterways enthusiast Graham Fisher has been appointed as a member of the team overseeing the transition of British Waterways to the charitable sector.

 

Graham, a writer and broadcaster based in Kingswinford, becomes part of the the trial Local Waterway Partnerships that will advise on and influence the management of canals and rivers in the North West and the West Midlands.

 

These trial Partnerships, alongside a third trial already underway on the Kennet & Avon Canal, will work with local waterway managers until the new waterways charity becomes fully operational in 2012.

Full details at: http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/newsroom/all-press-releases/display/id/3116

Kingswinford map expert celebrates after scooping two prestigious awards

A Kingswinford map expert is celebrating after scooping not one but two prestigious awards at a cartographic symposium held recently in Macclesfield.

Mary Spence MBE, of High Wood Close, staved off stiff competition from around the world, including National Geographic, to win the Stanfords Award and the British Cartographic Society Award for her map entitled The Environmental World.

Mary, who combines her role as map-designer for Global Mapping (UK) Ltd with her own publishing house Sparrow Publishing, says: 'It is a great honour to win these awards in the face of such giants in the world of maps. I can now allow myself the whole weekend to celebrate before it's back to the drawing board first thing Monday morning.'

Mary Spence is of Scottish extraction but is now based in Kingswinford where she lives with her long-term partner Graham Fisher MBE. Holding a degree in Geography from Aberdeen and a post-grad in Cartography from Glasgow, she has been a cartographer and publisher for all of her professional life.

She is former President of the British Cartographic Society and organiser of better mapping seminars across the UK. Mary was awarded the MBE for cartographic design in the New Year's Honours list of 2004

The Environmental World is an educational map which highlights the influences on our environment, from natural phenomena to problems occurring through man's activities, and follows on from her award-winning The Dynamic World, which examines natural occurrences such as earthquakes, volcanic activity and tsunamis. Both are available from www.mapstop.co.uk

Lighthouse Wolverhampton - The Street Exhibition Talk Thursday 16 June 6.30pm

Peter James, Head of Photographs at Birmingham Library will be talking to Dean Kelland and Andrew Jackson about their exhibition The Street. Pete will be quizzing Dean and Andrew Jackson about their approach to making a new exhibition based on archive images, and will also be sharing his opinions on the responsibilities of archives and how they view their role in preserving a constantly evolving past.

Admission to talk and exhibition is free. The Street continues until Friday 17th June.

Black Country Stories by Martin Parr opens on 1 July. Distinguished documentary photographer Martin Parr will be giving a talk at Lighthouse on 27 July at 6.30pm Tickets £3 on sale now. Black Country Stories was commissioned by Multistory and will run at Lighthouse until 30 September.

For more information visit www.light-house.co.uk or contact Light House on 01902 716055

Chart The Footsteps of The Mercians with The Staffordshire Hoard on Tour!

This summer, follow in the footsteps of our ancestors and embark on a voyage of Anglo Saxon discovery at the first ever touring exhibition of glittering items from the famous Staffordshire Hoard.

The series of free exhibitions will run from 2 July–18 Septemberand chart the exploits of the bloodthirsty Mercians through the heartland of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Merica, with each venue giving visitors a chance to explore a different aspect of the internationally renowned collection.

The grand tour begins in Stafford at Shire Hall Gallery (2-24 July) where visitors can find out how the hoard was unearthed, what archaeological methods were used and how the soil revealed untold mysteries and stories. There will also be a chance to discover how diligent archaeologists worked in secret to save the Staffordshire Hoard for the nation!

The tour then moves to Lichfield Cathedral (30 July-21 August), the origins of which are rooted in the same era that scholars believe the hoard was buried. At this grand venue, visitors can delve into the ‘Christianisation’ of Mercia and the heroic figure of St Chad. This exhibition will also explore the significance of some of the most famous items in the collection, the folded cross, the pectoral cross and the Biblical inscription.

The Hoard will reach its final destination in the ancient capital of Mercia at Tamworth Castle (27 Aug-18 Sept) once home to the King of Mercia’s palace. In homage to the Anglo-Saxon military history of the town, this section of the tour presents the opportunity to discover the bloodthirsty nature of the military items in the hoard, and handle replica sword and helmets! There will also be film footage of the find and a host of interactive exhibits to bring the tour to life.

Discovered in 2009 in a field in Lichfield by amateur metal detectorist Terry Herbert, The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork ever found.

Consisting of around 3500 items the collection has been dated to the 7th or 8th Centuries, placing the origin of the items in the violent and grisly time of the Kingdom of Mercia. This summer’s displays are set to feature more than 40 star items from the world’s largest find of Anglo Saxon gold, including the pectoral cross, the biblical inscription and the seahorse.

For further information about The Staffordshire Hoard On Tour simply visit staffordshirehoard.org.uk, follow them at @StaffsHoard on Twitter, or become a fan of the Staffordshire Hoard fanpage on Facebook.

For more information about events in and around Staffordshire this Summer visit www.enjoystaffordshire.com, join the Enjoy Staffs Facebook Fanpage or follow us on Twitter @EnjoyStaffs.

Youth Theatre Officially Launch City Dance Festival

On 23 May Central Youth Theatre will be celebrating the official launch of their Everybody Dance Now festival, which will run from 29^th July – 6^th August across the city of Wolverhampton.

Everybody Dance Now is part of Dancing for the Games which is inspired by London 2012 and part of the Cultural Olympiad in the West Midlands. It has been funded by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity set up to help build a lasting cultural and sporting legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as Arts Council England and Advantage West Midlands.

The festival is a celebration of social dance in the city. For almost a year young members of the group have been working to prepare for the festival. The group spent last Autumn interviewing local people for their memories of dancing and dance halls in Wolverhampton, and are now in rehearsal for four newly commissioned shows, based on these recollections. Young people have also been involved with planning the events of the festival itself.

The festival week will see performances across the city from Central Youth Theatre, local youth theatre Kuumba Arts Movement, and six European youth theatres, as well as public dances and an exhibition of local memories. It also involves the transformation of the former Low Level railway station into a site specific ballroom space in which some of the performances will be staged.

Youth Theatre director, Jane Ward, says, “We are pleased to announce that we are now ready to officially launch our programme and festival guide. The festival is going to be a jam-packed week, with performances from some of the most talented young theatre groups from across Europe, the chance for everyone in Wolverhampton to get involved with dancing, and a fantastic celebration of the history of our city and its residents. We’re bringing the Cultural Olympiad of London 2012 right into the heart of Wolverhampton”.