Sunday 3rd August

Another sunny but quiet day at the Dovecote. Only about 20 people visited during the afternoon, but there were some significant additions to the exhibition. Dominic Gauden brought in two boxes of picture frames that his mother had bought from a company called Matthias Watts that was based in St.Mary's Row.

Matthias Watts had a gallery and shop but also manufactured their own frames called 'Moseley Ware'.

Dominic even gave me the receipt that his mother had kept.

There were hundreds of miniature metal frames in the boxes, each with 'Moseley England ' stamped on the side.

Counting the small metal ones, I discovered there are 263 rectangular and 165 oval frames in total.

Saturday 26th July

A very hot afternoon at the Dovecote. I shared the venue with the Moseley Society, who had one of their regular open afternoons, which also includes opening the Ice House in Moseley Park. I had to put the gazebo up to try and stop the ink from drying out and the wood blocks from cracking on the print table

Around 50 people came through between 2.30 and 5.00pm.Verity did a sterling job in the Cow House, encouraging visitors to leave stories. Below - Emma-Jayne writes up her story and Verity helps John to tie up his contribution ready to leave in the pigeon hole.

The pigeon holes are gradually filling up with a range of tales. Here are those that were left this week.

Hilary Grant had a moving memory of her Irish Grandmother.

"My grandmother Kate Morris, Tramore, Co. Waterford, Ireland had two brothers. One went off and fought with the British during the 1st World War. When he returned to Ireland, he was rejected by his friends and community. He became isolated and depressed and went to the cliffs in Tramore and shot himself. My grandmother carried the loss with her all her life."

Veronica left a beautifully written ode to taking pleasure in simple things.

" I came home in a pinky orange sunset, to my little front yard of flowers, and sat in my happiness with the playful black cat from next door. A warm and fragrant big strawberry dripped red juice on my hand as I ate it, and felt grateful."

Emma- Jayne Postle left us a story from her childhood in Portugal and why she came to Moseley.

"We travelled to Portugal when I was a child. We were just a quarter of a mile from our new home, a stone low house with no electricity or running water, when we broke down. So we decided to walk to the house and return the following morning for our possessions. When we returned to the caravan....it was still there.....but all of my toys were stolen. Well I was just 5 years old and I was born a hippy and a humanitarian.

Portugal was dry and arid so I decided that who ever had my toys needed them more than me.

I love Moseley and JRR Tolkein. I am a jeweller. When I first came to the village with my big brother, there was a sign that said Come and Aspire in Balsall Heath. So I did.

I love Birmingham. It is the heart of metal with the Jewellery Quarter. I hope to become a success in my work and I aspire to become the Lady of the Rings."

Devi told a sweet little tale of a teenage summer romance. I wonder where Mutley is now?

"When I was sixteen, I spent an afternoon walking around Highbury Park with a good friend, affectionately known as Mutley.

A week after, he was my boyfriend, and we spent most of that summer in Highbury Park."

The Birmingham Tornado of 2005 has been a source of amusement for some, but for those caught in its path, it was no joking matter. John Newson related how it affected him and his neighbours, and how they rallied to help themselves.

"Everything was very dark, because all the electric supply had been turned off in our area and remained so for weeks. Our houses were declared unsafe and threatened with demolition. I picked up roof tiles and saw asbestos fibres hanging from them, so my house was decontaminated by a specialist team. There was dust, dirt and damp everywhere. When the house was redecorated it began to blister off, as it hadn't been done properly. We started a hardship fund and gave grants for bedding, essential furnishings "We though no-one cared" "No-one asked how we were". I learnt about climate change and denial."

Print based on the Horse Bridle

I have completed a lino cut of the horse bridle that Dominic donated. It has been printed in black and is now displayed along with the bridle.

Sunday 20th July

A quiet day today, as nothing particular was happening in Moseley. However there was a steady trickle of visitors, including a few enthusiastic printers.

There were a few people who all promised to return next week with some interesting stories. Billy was on a Sunday run, when he stopped by for a breather, he said that his mother was a retired district nurse and would have lots of anecdotes. Arthur works as a security guard at the hospital, and he confirmed Ken Watson's story about the secret passage running under the Moseley Hall.

Naz stopped by towards the end of the day, he was born in Moseley, his parents originally coming from Kashmir. He told me the story of how he and his brother went hunting for pearls in Moseley Park after a school friend told him they were worth millions. He later emailed me the full story.

"The Pearl of Moseley

I must have been 9/ 10 years old, I was attending Park Hill School. One day a friend at the school told me something so interesting.  It was absolutely amazing.  When I went home I told my younger brother, Zahir.  Zahir is 2 years younger than me so he must have been around 7/8 years old.
Well this friend had told me that if we find this thing in the sea or pond we will become millionaires.
He describe the thing to be a shell that opens up and inside there is a special stone and if we were ever to find it we will become so rich.

So I said to my brother, look this is what this boy told me at school, so let’s go to find this thing.

So we went to Moseley Park.  We must of climbed over the fence from the bottom of Chantry Rd as we never had a key. To be honest with you I can’t remember if we had taken a child’s fishing net or we made some sort of rod.  I think it was a Saturday.

Guess what?   I think we caught something that was very similar to what Juggy had described at school. So we took it home.  But we had a big problem.  This stupid thing was still alive, and it was too cruel to kill it.

So I put it in water in and a week later it had died. At that time I was thankful it had.  Then I opened the shell and with my fingers and hands I had worked through the flesh of this creature looking for this special stone.   And bingo.  There it was, I had found it.  I took it to my mum and told her we will be rich, we had found what we were looking for and this will make us so much money it will be unbelievable.

My parents are from the Valleys of Kashmir and the sea is not close to where they had lived and my mother wasn’t too sure of what we had found.  Any way she decided that we go to see my granddad bless him, as he was the wise guy, to see if he could assist us in our fortunes.  So off we went and we showed it to him.  He told us this was a pearl and it was not going make us so rich.

Ased Naseem.  Age 40, "

Naz says he still has the pearl somewhere and will try to find it to show me.


Geoff Jones was trying to find the hospital entrance, on his way to visit a friend, when he wandered into the Dovecote garden. Geoff told me that he used to be a fireman on the railways, when steam engines were still being used. The fireman would stand on the engine foot plate and shovel coal into the fire box - a physically difficult and technical job that required a long training period . He had written down his memories of his first day at work at Tyseley and how he progressed from an engine cleaner to a fireman. He later sent me a copy, some extracts of which are below.  It also turned out that Geoff wrote stories and in particular had written several plot ideas for Flash Gordon comic books.

"I had worked at the Tyseley loco sheds since August 13th 1951, and wondered when I would get my first firing turn; of course it was all down to that word 'seniority'.

However on Monday 25th February 1952, I was promoted to what was known as a 'passed' cleaner, I was to have my very first official firing turn albeit in the loco yard.

There were 247 sets of enginemen and firemen at the Tyseley depot, of who 72 were classified disabled in some way, most cases were due to deteriorating eye sight. My driver for that day was Bob Chambers, he was one of the 72, in his case it was a broken neck, and he had to wear a special collar.

I asked "how do you know when to put the coal on the fire?' Bob would look into the fire box and say something like "it needs a light shovel full in each of the front corners and a little heavier charge in each of the back corners".

All in all it was a successful day. When asked by another driver concerning my progress; Bob said that I was doing fine and that I had the makings of a good fireman. However, it appeared that I had two main faults, when using the shovel I tended to put the coal on the fire upside down and I had the bad habit of twisting the steam!

I was just 15 years old. I would go on to have another 130 firing turns, all in the shunting yards or local trip work, before becoming a registered fireman. Then it was a slow case of climbing up the goods 'links'. Firing on express freight, parcel or passenger trains would be in the future, 'seniority' being the golden rule."

Sunday 6th July

We had another 60+ visitors come to see the exhibition today. We were able to have the Dovecote open too and the volunteer gardeners were busy preparing for the Britain in Bloom judging later this month.

More stories came in today. One linked to an old credit card recently found on a litter pick alongside the golf course by Fiona Adams from the Moseley Society. The card expired over 20 years ago.

"The Moseley Society has been organising litter picks since 1st April 1979. Monthly in the car park and special events. I found this Access card which expired in 1993, during a recent litter picking around the perimeter of Moseley Golf Club. Its already social history as most expired cards are cut up. Who was Jayne Russell? The Jane Russell?"

For those too young to remember Jane Russell was a curvacious Hollywood star in the 1950's. Well you can see how she could have lost her credit card.








Another story was left by Ken Watson. It was about the time in the early 60's when his mother worked as a night sister at the Children's Hospital (now Moseley Hall Hospital). She used to have to go on the bus, but when Ken passed his test and got his first car, he proudly took her to work. He could still remember the car registration. He also said that he had been told about a secret passage in the original hospital building and reckoned it must still be there.

"In the early 60's my Mum was a ward sister at the Children's Hospital. I used to bring her down on Sunday nights, Monday nights in a Ford Popular (and on Tuesday night). She was a night sister. her name was Florence May Watson. When it closed down, she went to work at the Sorrento Hospital. The Matron said there was a secret passage in the Children's Hospital from her bedroom in the main part of the hall. Somewhere around Christmas, when the hospital was closed, me and Mum used to come and keep her company. Before the old people's home there was a tree that was knocked down, the left of the front door (copper beech tree) (the car was a Ford Anglia - registration number 610 CLF)"

Ken had his arm in a sling, so his friend Gail Sheldon wrote his story down for him. Like many Moseley folk, Gail was born in Sorrento Maternity Hospital on Wake Green Road where Ken's Mum moved to after the Children's Hospital closed.

"My Mum June Mary Sheldon, with Doug Sheldon, lived in a bedsit opposite St Ann's Church. She used to watch the weddings taking place in the 1960's. I was born at the Sorrento Hospital on 11th November 1968. They moved from Ladywood to Moseley. We then moved to Pineapple Road."

Julia Macauley left a story from her childhood living on Salisbury Road. She recalls the time she and her brother and sister were shouted at by a local builder for leaving footprints in his newly laid concrete. Julia thinks the concrete prints must still be there somewhere.

"As a child I lived in Salisbury Road with my brother and sister - backing on to our house was the butchers which was undergoing building work and we three kids had a whale of a time playing in piles of sand and clambering around on scaffolding. One day one of the workmen remonstrated with us and told us not to play there again. I cheekily said 'how do you know it was us?' - he pointed to 3 sets of footprints in the concrete."

Our first contributions

It was a busy day today, as Moseley in Bloom were holding their Open Gardens Weekend. The Dovecote Garden was one of the points for ticket sales and 130 people came through the gate to buy a ticket. In addition there were others who just came to see the Dovecote. Everyone came to have a look at the exhibition. As it was the first opening, most people were simply finding out about the event, but we did start to get some contributions.

This bride was donated by Dominic Gauden.

Verity Montague-Smith's story of the 'Blue Balloon' was one of the first stories that I took from the local history archives to produce a pair of prints for the exhibition. Verity's memories are of the small details of childhood, but placed in the context of the momentous events of the Second World War, and they are still vivid and affecting. She told me of the time her Mother stood on their doorstep in tears looking at a huge red glow in the sky, when she asked what it was, her Mother replied "Coventry is burning". It was clear Verity found recalling this event very upsetting.

She left two more stories about her experiences in the metal pigeon holes I have placed in the Cow House. One about the fear she experienced on VE (Victory in Europe) night, not understanding that the war had ended. The other about a street party, where she describes the food in great detail.

"VE Night - A Night of Terror. The war dragged on after the tension of D-Day - expectation which had been raised, dropped and we stumbled on - then suddenly everything changed and people were cheerful and excited - one day they went mad. Mum didn't draw the curtains! No one shouted "Put out that light!' We all walked up the road towards the static water tanks near which an enormous bonfire was blazing away - my terror was overwhelming - I thought that I was the only person who understood that we were all going to be killed in the next few minutes. Howling and yelling I tried to rescue my parents and sisters - only to be smacked and told to be quiet. The terror is with me still."

"Street Parties. After VE Night came the street parties - long lines of tables made from old doors covered with sheets and table cloths smelling of moth balls. Everyone brought out precious horded tins of meat and fruit. Cakes were made using rancid butter. sandwiches made from spam, fish and meat paste, fairy cakes made with dried egg and little or no sugar.

Huge amounts of crepe paper were used for decorations and bunting made from old clothes fluttering above us. We drank weak orange squash and ribena.

We sang 'Daisy, Daisy' and 'It's a long way to Tipperary', played musical chairs and pass the parcel.

One evening my father found a firework but it didn't flash or spark just floated away over the trees - magical."

June 28th 2014 - The Exhibition Opens

The exhibition opened on Saturday 28th June at the Cow House. Currently on display are five sets of prints based on stories of Moseley people over the last 120 years. These years have seen many changes for the once rural community and these tales from ordinary people's lives reflect those changes.

Alongside the prints there is a collection of artifacts and memorabilia that also tell stories of their own.

Over the summer months the exhibition will be open regularly at the weekends and we want you to come along with your own Moseley Stories. You can tell us your story, write it down, record it, show us photographs or loan us an object. If you don't want to leave any precious photos or objects, they can be recorded on the online gallery. You could even do a wood block print.

Keep following this blog for more details.