Tag: youth club

A night out at the Baths!

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.

The Stirchley Youth Tuesday Club

Committee member Brenda Thomas set up a youth club in Stirchley in the 1970s with other mums and grandmothers called the ‘Stirchley Youth Tuesday Club’.

It was originally held at Stirchley Primary School – and 200 children turned up on the first night over the two sessions that were held: 6-8pm for primary children; 8-10pm for secondary school.

Brenda says: “I was surprised how many people turned up because it was thick, pea soup fog. You couldn’t see across the playground. And yet all these children were waiting for this youth club, which was amazing.”

Listen to Brenda’s account of the first night here, and the kinds of activities that were held (including south Birmingham youth club swimming galas at Stirchley Baths)…

As well as providing activities for generations of children, the Stirchley Youth Tuesday Club had another legacy for the town too.

A need to find a new premises in the early 1980s (due to extra caretakers being required for out-of-school activities) led to the creation of the Stirchley Community Group and, eventually, Stirchley’s existing community centre in Pershore Road.

Were you there on the first night of Stirchley Youth Tuesday Club? Did you go to the youth club and get involved in the sports competitions and swimming galas at Stirchley Baths? Share your memories and stories with us – please email stirchleybaths@gmail.com – pop it on our Facebook page here or tell us on Twitter using @stirchleybaths or #stirchleybaths