Paula Aubrey joined Stirchley Community Group over 20 years ago to get involved in the village’s community centre and she’s been hoping to see Stirchley Baths brought back into use for the community for quite some time. Paula is a member of the Stirchley Baths community stakeholder group. Here she explains why…
Brenda Thomas has been a stalwart of the Stirchley community for decades. She set up the Stirchley Tuesday Youth Club in the 1970s and was instrumental in the building of the village’s existing community centre in Pershore Road. Brenda is a member of the Stirchley Baths community stakeholder group. Here she explains why…
Click HERE to find out more about Brenda and the Stirchley Tuesday Youth Club
If you were out and about around the Baths or Stirchley Park on Wednesday between 7 and 8.30 you may have seen (certainly heard?) a group of 18 young people on a youth club evening out to…. Stirchley Baths!
The previous week I met 11 of the young people up at the Den Youth House in Dawberry Road where we talked about possible history and heritage-related activities that they might be interested in getting involved with as part of the restoration project.
On Wednesday, armed with flip cams, they interviewed each other talking about the Baths. Here is some very rough and ready footage – busy roads, lots of excitement – but some useful insight into how these young people view the Baths.
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The girls were really interested in the black and white pictures of the dancing taken in the 1940s and came up with the idea of organising a night of dancing back at the Baths – for the community! It was great to see them talking about this on camera; about how they would enjoy talking to the older generation about the kind of dances they would have done there – and even learning some moves, and teaching older people some of their own!
Brian and Rowena from the Friends of Stirchley Park joined us to talk to the young people about possible future graffiti art work in the park which illustrated the history of Stirchley, including the baths. and we asked for a hands up who would like to be involved if the money can be raised? And that would be everyone then!
A massive thank you to youth workers Stuart and Martin for rallying up these brilliant young Stirchley-ites and thanks to everyone for their contributions.
People came along to share their memories of Stirchley Baths at the first Splash Back In Time event on Monday at the library. And to find out more about the Heritage Lottery Fund second-round bid and the plans to transform the building into a community hub.
We’ve already posted an interview with Ron Coley from the first Splash Back In Time event HERE where Ron shares his memories of using the public bathing facilities with his dad every Saturday in the 1960s.
We’ll post more interviews soon.
The second and final Splash Back In Time event is at Stirchley Community Centre on Tuesday 19th March between 12.30pm and 4pm. We’d love to see you there!
Please share the event with friends and family, especially those who aren’t online but who have memories and stories of Stirchley Baths they’d like to share. If they can’t make the event they can jot their memories down and drop them in to the district office, library or community centre.
Robert Grosvenor is the chairman of Lifford Business Association, which promotes and represents businesses in Stirchley, King’s Norton, Cotteridge and Bournville. Robert is also a member of the community stakeholder group. Here Robert explains why he’s involved…
Robert mentions the Art Soak community event that’s taking place on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th March. More details on that HERE.