I know you must all be intrigued as to what’s happening construction-wise at the Baths (I know I am). I’ve been in touch with Jon Lucas, the Contract Manager for Mansell Balfour Beatty and he’s provided me with this update to share with you:

‘We are going through our procurement now (placing our orders with various subcontractors). One of the first things we need to do is to get the building itself safe to work within, so we’re organising edge protection to the pool and balconies so as to carry out the asbestos survey to the whole building. This will take a couple of weeks to complete and only then can we get the contamination removed and the building cleaned up so we can start working. We’ll also be doing surveys,organising things and design development during this time.’

Externally we’ll establish a temporary site set up next week and this will serve the activities described above. Also it’ll serve the initial tree surgery/root grinding to enable us to gain access into the bowling green area at the rear. We will then be able to commence the groundworks and establish our permanent site set up, and within 6-8 weeks we can start erecting hoardings, fencing, signage and start the external scaffolding.’

Hopefully this has wetted everyone’s appetite for what’s to come! All residents in the immediate vicinity will receive a letter detailing that the team will be setting up their site at the rear of the Friends Meeting House from 24th February onwards.

If you want to have a last glimpse of the Baths pre-restoration you can watch a short video filmed by Birmingham Conservation Trust.

 

Stirchley is a diverse community filled with professionals, young families, long-term residents and students. Once the Baths opens in 2014 there will be lots of facilities catered towards our needs and wants. These include the main multipurpose Gallery, the Main Hall (which has the facility to screen films – handy for Stirchley Happenings no doubt), an internet cafe and several flexible spaces that can be used for meeting hire, the details of which can be viewed here.

 With the Baths having been built for the community that existed in Stirchley in 1911, I started to wonder what those residents were like. A little research of the 1911 census shows an array of different professions. Looking particularly at the residents of Bond Street, which is across Stirchley Park, behind the baths, I discovered lots of people of interest. As expected quite a few worked at the Cadbury factory. Jobs listed included ‘Fitters Labourer’, ‘Moulding chocolate’, ‘Card box maker’s machine attendant’, ‘Overlooker stockroom’ and obviously ‘Confectioner’. Other professions on the street were ‘Postman’ (Edwin Hicken, no. 52), ‘Brewers drayman’ and ‘Boot maker’ (Tandy family, no. 44),‘Bookbinder’ (Lily Mary Elizabeth Law, no. 57), ‘Locomotive Engineer Driver’ (Frederick Lewis Hill, no. 55) as well as ‘Motor mechanic’, ‘Bricklayer’, ‘Blacksmith’ and ‘Electrician’. Doris and Nellie Luckman aged 13 and 10, who lived at no. 19 were even described as ‘scholars’. Obviously their parents had high hopes for them. And Alfred Howell who boarded at no. 39 was described as ‘Hamsters assistant’!

Along with a multitude of Williams, Johns, Alices and Georges there was also a Thirza, who’s name is of Jewish origin. She lived at no. 56 with her parents, Thomas and Beatrice and younger sister Braithet Smitter.

At no. 62 lived the Harris family. Similar in size with the family of three that live in their house in 2014, they were made up of William (father, 49), Mary (mother, 43), Arthur (aged 10) and Gladys (5), both of which were born in the parish of Kings Norton as it was then known. Next door to them, at no. 64 were plenty of children to play with. Joseph Payne is listed as head of that household and living with him are his five nieces and nephews, ages ranging from 16 to 4. There’s no immediate indication of where their parents were, but it’s hard not to wonder if they were orphaned.

The most interesting family I found lived at no. 1 Bond Street. David James owned his own greengrocers, his wife Betsey and two teenage children, Minnie and William assisted him. The James family was made up of 13 children! Can you imagine that many family members in a house that size? The census form only allowed for 15 names, so Albert Edward (8 months) only just made it onto the form!

Having investigated the people of this street, it’s hard not to look out the window and imagine them dressed in the Edwardian clothes of the era. I can see them now, on their way to the factory, sending their children off to school, going to drive a train through Bournville station and maybe even delivering beer to The Three Horse Shoes or British Oak. For all their different professions and individualism, the one thing they all had in common, was the use of the Baths after a long hard day.

Hello! I’m Louise, a new blogger for Stirchley Baths. I’ve only lived in South Birmingham for five years, but think Stirchley is a really welcoming area with a great sense of community. I also volunteer for Birmingham Conservation Trust and helped out with the event ‘Hands up for Stirchley Baths’. This was organised by Suzanne Carter who works for the Trust and was instrumental with the Heritage Fund Lottery Bid.

With the help of Nick Booth at the Social Media Surgery at Loaf last week I’ve been taught how to blog (fingers crossed this works), so will be catching up for a chat about the Baths with local residents, businesses and community hubs of Stirchley. I’ll also be blogging about Stirchley’s interesting history and heritage. I’ll be keeping in touch with John Lucas from Mansell Construction, who will be managing the building and restoration of the Baths. Hopefully with a bit of help there’ll be updates from him and his team about the building’s progress.

Watch this space!

At Loaf learning how to add blog onto web page.It’s my first attempt at this so we’ll see how it goes .