DECEMBER NEWSLETTER

A very happy new year to you all. 2008 will go down as one of the years we would probably all rather forget, especially if you are selling your house.

Can I thank all of you who sent me details of their internet providers. I finally managed to sort out my own provider Streamline so for the meantime I will stay with them to keep it simple. I am glad to be able to announce that I have finally got some help with the website and that Debbie Hughes will take over as webmaster in early 2009. Debbie's partner Mark Howard is all ready well known to our motorcycling fans as the Chief Marshal on The Birmingham Testers Run and the Mike Hailwood Run, what is not generally known that Mark, who holds a Private Pilots Licence, also runs a very fine website on the Javelin aircraft (the world's first twin-engined delta-wing jet fighter) which he looks after at the Midland Air Museum.
Gloster Javelin Website

I thank Louis Dalby for sharing the above image of BSA Tester, Reg Griffiths at Armoury Road, with us--see more pics at his Flikr site
Louis Dalby's Picture Site

Those of you who keep up eye on this newsletter blog will know that there was a November newsletter (click on left menu) reminding you of the need to support The BSA Memorial Appeal and including the very fine picture by Charles Cundall of the fire at BSA after the air raid. Thanks to our efforts this picture is on permanent show at BMAG.


The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.
- Thomas Szasz

The last steam engines on BR were Black 5s and scenes like this could be seen at most steam depots in the North of England when steam was finishing 40 years ago this year--proud to say I was here at Leeds to see the last class 5 on shed.

Settle - Carlisle walks

The Ross - Monmouth Railway

Kings Heath History

Canals

Is the THREE TUNS at Sutton haunted?

Closed UK Railway Stations

It has been very sad to witness the demise of our favourite high street store, Woolworth but it is not the first time Woolworth have been in trouble as this interesting article reminds us Sex drugs and Woolworths?

As I often mention to you I get messages from all over the world enquiring about Birmingham companies, often these messages ask me to supply parts! Here is an example;

hi, do you still make cartridges(for hunting )for Mannlicher-Schönauer?? Can you tell me which sizes do you have??? thanks!

U TUBE

The U Tube video seems to have really caught on in 2008 and there are some splendid clips, here are some of my favourites I would like to share with you.

People often ask me is flying dangerous, you tell me?

So you think British trains are overcrowded?

Triumph Motorcycles Factory Film

Mike Hailwood

REG VARNEY(Click on the text below for the links)

2008 saw the death of comedy star Reg Varney at 92, best known for ‘On The Buses’.

Reg Varney - -Wogan

This is Your Life

BIRMINGHAM MUSIC

The Rockin Berries

The Applejacks from Solihull, first Birmingham group in the Top Ten

Applejacks Info

ELO -- Mr Blue Sky

Moody Blues

The Move


THE BIRMINGHAM TESTERS RUN

We have been talking to the Llandudno Transport Festival about us taking part in May 2009 and I am still awaiting a response, if not we will most likely be going to the Llanberis Slate Mine.

THE MIKE HAILWOOD MEMORIAL RUN

Please note the date of the 2009 run-IT IS NOT THE DATE YOU MAY THINK! This is because the usual date would clash with Mothers Day!
Check the web page for details;

MH Memorial Run

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NOVEMBER 2008 NEWSLETTER

PLEASE DO NOT FORGET THE 19th NOVEMBER AS MOST OF BIRMINGHAM DOES EVER YEAR.


BSA MEMORIAL WEBSITE

OCTOBER NEWSLETTER 2008

Sorry this newsletter is a little late but I am very busy at the moment. The website and forum are down at the moment thanks to the incompetence of the hosting company STREAMLINE. I have been trying to change back to MS Front Page to edit the site but apart from taking my money for the change I have had little success and their latest answer seems to have involved them making the site unavailable. If anyone can recommend a decent website host please let me know as I am definitely not staying with Streamline.

Below are some links to pertinent news websites of interest to us.

First MG’s from Longbridge go on sale

The New Longbridge

Nechells Oral History Proiject


Railways are in the news this week and it kicked off with a Pete Waterman documentary telling us that Beeching may not have as been as bad as we thought. BBC Birmingham got in on the act too running a week long feature within the main news on the effect of the Beeching cuts on Birmingham and the surrounding area. I was asked to provide some information which I did in the form of my old station master Les Hollins of Streetley, who was interviewed.

www.madeinbirmingham.org/wamley.htm

Les was in charge of Penns for Walmley until Beeching, with his crooked survey, decreed that the station should close. Les lost his job along with 1000s of other railway workers. There have been plans discussed for the last 20 years to reopen Penns Station but so far there has been no progress.


Rather nice short video of Coalport Station

New Street Station Re-vamp

Moor Street Memories


While searching on the web I found this letter that I had completely forgotten about, I wrote it in 1999!

-----------------

Marples was a director of Marples Ridgway a road building co. that built the Chiswick flyover.
Because of the advent of cheap motor cars (The Mini) a social revolution took place that many people choose to ignore when debating this subject. What ever happened to the British Motorcycle industry, the mini ruined it not the Japanese? They did help of course.
Macmillan and co saw the railway as a Victorian antiquity, a form of transport left over from a time gone by. The attitude towards the railway at that time was remarkably different from today, it is wrong to look at the railway then with the eyes of today. Today the railway is seen as the way forward in reducing gridlock on the roads. Then the railway was a leftover, with quaint steam transport, unprofitable and uneconomical. Even the rail unions didn’t fight the Beeching cuts.
England and Wales had been over ‘railwayised’ from the start and still today it has the densest network in the world. Railway mania saw railways built that never made a penny from conception to closure. Note that of all the railways that were taken over by preservation schemes after closure, not one of them has operated a successful public transport service, they only exist for novelty entertainment and nostalgia.
From the social point of view many many of the Beeching closures were wrong. Again social values were different in those days. Remember we are talking of the days when a union could bring the country to a standstill. People, equality and rights were also different in those days.
I believe the major mistake of the Beeching plan was that it allowed removal of the infrastructure. It is interesting to note that were BR did re-establish services it was only on lines were the infrastructure was intact.
There is nothing to stop railways being built again.
Public transport will never entirely replace the private car and what a god forsaken world it would be if it did.
What is needed is good government management of private transport.
Even if it was free there is never going to be a mass move towards public transport.
Rail privatisation is the best step ever towards making the railways successful and encouraging investment but you are only going to see that on long distance peak lines and dense commuter networks. Money talks and we live in a world dictated by MONEY that’s why railways were built in this country in the first place.
In case you are wondering I am a life long railway enthusiast and REALIST.
Regards JP
15th November 1999


WEBSITES OF INTEREST

South Wales Valleys

Llandrindod Wells Victorian Festival

William Powell Gunmakers


BIRMINGHAM LORD MAYORS

Birmingham has had a Mayor (and elected council) since 1838. One of the most famous was Joseph Chamberlain
(1873-76) who brought water from the Elan Valley and redeveloped the town centre. In 1889, along with city status, Birmingham had its first Lord Mayor.

Each Lord Mayor stands for a year, and is installed into office at the Annual Meeting of the City Council, Lord Mayors are non-political and non-executive during their term of office and act as Chair of the Council. As the First Citizen of Birmingham, the Lord Mayors represents not only the City but also the people of Birmingham.

The Parlour
The Parlour staff support the Lord Mayor by managing the Civic Diary and assisting the First Citizen to reach all sectors of the community. The Parlour also co-ordinates major annual events such as Remembrance Day and Civic Receptions to regional, national and international visitors.Support is also given to organising many charity fund raising events.

Courtesy Birmingham Council website


HALLOWEEN, What is it all about really?

History
Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (Irish pronunciation: [ˈsˠaunʲ]; from the Old Irish samain).[1] The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes [2] regarded as the "Celtic New Year".[3] Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the alive and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them.[4][5]
History of name
The term Halloween is shortened from All Hallows' Even (both "even" and "eve" are abbreviations of "evening", but "Halloween" gets its "n" from "even") as it is the eve of "All Hallows' Day",[6] which is now also known as All Saints' Day. It was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions,[3] until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 (which had itself been the date of a pagan holiday, the Feast of the Lemures) to November 1. In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All Saints' Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day. Liturgically, the Church traditionally celebrated that day as the Vigil of All Saints, and, until 1970, a day of fasting as well. Like other vigils, it was celebrated on the previous day if it fell on a Sunday, although secular celebrations of the holiday remained on the 31st. The Vigil was suppressed in 1955, but was later restored in the post-Vatican II calendar.
Symbols
The carved pumpkin, lit by a candle inside, is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols in America, and is commonly called a jack-o'-lantern. Originating in Europe, these lanterns were first carved from a turnip or rutabaga. Believing that the head was the most powerful part of the body containing the spirit and the knowledge, the Celts used the "head" of the vegetable to frighten off any superstitions.[7] The name jack-o'-lantern can be traced back to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, [8] a greedy, gambling, hard-drinking old farmer. He tricked the devil into climbing a tree and trapped him by carving a cross into the tree trunk. In revenge, the devil placed a curse on Jack, condemning him to forever wander the earth at night with the only light he had: a candle inside of a hollowed turnip. The carving of pumpkins is associated with Halloween in North America,[9] where pumpkins were readily available and much larger, making them easier to carve than turnips. Many families that celebrate Halloween carve a pumpkin into a frightening or comical face and place it on their home's doorstep after dark. In America the tradition of carving pumpkins is known to have preceded the Great Famine period of Irish immigration. The carved pumpkin was originally associated with harvest time in general in America and did not become specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.
The imagery surrounding Halloween is largely an amalgamation of the Halloween season itself, nearly a century of work from American filmmakers and graphic artists,[10] and a rather commercialized take on the dark and mysterious. Halloween imagery tends to involve death, magic, or mythical monsters. Traditional characters include ghosts, ghouls, witches, owls, crows, vultures, pumpkin-men, black cats, spiders, goblins, zombies, mummies, skeletons, and demons.[11]
Particularly in America, symbolism is inspired by classic horror films, which contain fictional figures like Frankenstein's monster and The Mummy. Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins and scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween.


BEST WISHES TO YOU ALL


JP

SEPTEMBER 2008 NEWSLETTER

Welcome to the new newsletter in our new format, published as a blog and accessible at anytime, thanks to Google.

Please make a note of this address

http://madeinbirmingham.blogspot.com/

You will also be able to add your own comments, I think! So please feel free to write something repeatable (all comments are moderated), you can also contact me directly at madeinbirmingham at gmail.com

JP's retirement.

Reports of my early retirement, after nearly 20,000 flying hours are true, I am very glad to say!

My last flight on the Airbus 319, note the BR porters hat from Snow Hill Station which I found around 1967 in the main booking office! Bet the Porter who wore that hat never guessed where that would end up!

AT LAST SUCCESS!

After a three year campaign, first to save the factory, then to get it listed ( both failed) and finally to get two roads named after the industialist who bought the factory in 1939 from New Imperial Motorcycles, I can report success. Clifford Road and New Imperial Crescent are now the official road names at the Barrattt Spring Road development in Hall Green. If your wondering what the connection is the full story of the amazing Solomon Cliffoird Joseph is at;

CLIFFORD & NEW IMPERIAL

TWO BIG MIDLANDS RAILWAY EVENTS

FIRST PUBLIC PASSENGER TRAINS FOR BRAND NEW STEAM LOCOMOTIVE TORNADO AT THE GREAT CENTRAL RAILWAY

Book your seat in railway history, Monday 22nd, Tuesday 23rd Sept 2008

The country’s first brand new steam locomotive to be built for the main line, since 1960 is now ready to pull passengers at the Great Central Railway.

“We’re honoured to be involved in running the first passenger trains with Tornado,” said GCR president Bill Ford. “This is our year of Express engines and Tornado is top of the bill! The engine has been attracting international media attention and our phones have been ringing off the hook with people wanting to know when they can ride behind it. The good news is the date has finally arrived!”

The engine has been built by the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, an independent group of railway enthusiasts based in Darlington. The A1 Class of Pacific locomotives was designed by Arthur H Peppercorn for the London and North Eastern Railway and built in 1948/49. They were the last of the East Coast Main Line's series of thoroughbred express passenger steam locomotives. Examples of many other Darlington and Doncaster built locomotives have been saved for preservation, but not the Peppercorn A1s which were scrapped. It has cost £3 million to build and taken 18 years to complete.

The engine will pull its first trains on Sunday 21st of September. These are exclusively for the supporters of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust who have financed the construction of “Tornado”.

The first public trains are due to run on Monday 22nd of September. They will depart from Loughborough Central station for the roundtrip to Leicester and back at 10.15am, 12.15pm, 2.15pm and 4.35pm. This will be the very first time fare paying passengers will have experienced the thrill of riding behind this new and very powerful loco.

On Tuesday 23rd of September, Tornado is expected to pull trains at the same times.

The engine was tested at the Great Central Railway because the heritage line has permission to run non passenger services at up to 60mph.

More details http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/

SEVERN VALLEY RAILWAY Autumn Steam Gala

September 19, 20, 21, 2008:(Special Timetable)

A very special Steam Gala this year and a must for GWR fans as visiting locomotives include 3440 'City of Truro' and 9017 'Dukedog' . Autocoach 225 will also be in attendance.

Continuous running for three full days, with with an extensive train service between Kidderminster and Bridgnorth.

The Engine House, the Visitor & Education Centre at Highley will be open for extended hours throughout this event as follows:

Friday 10-00 am to 8-00 pm
Saturday 8-00 am to 8-00 pm
Sunday 8-00 am to 5-00 pm

More details at

http://www.svr.co.uk

MIDLANDS HISTORICAL DATA

Midlands HThis is a project to make digital copies of a collection of rare old books, maps, photographs and documents relating to the West Midlands. There are several reasons why this makes sense :-

· to conserve the archives (through reducing wear and tear on originals by enabling digital copies to be viewed)

· to create searchable archives (through using optical character recognition to generate indexes)

· to provide wider access to the archives(through providing copies of CD's, and by giving access to digital images via the internet)

This is a private initiative to help libraries, archives and family history societies in the West Midlands to achieve these aims. Put simply, we do the preparation of the digital images for free for these bodies, and cover the costs through sales of CD's and pay-per-view. The project is non profit-making to keep prices as low as possible. Some money is ploughed back into restoring original documents so they can be conserved for future generations. We also work closely with local Family History Societies, Local History Groups and any other local body with an interest in preserving the printed archives of the Midlands. We are always interested to hear from any archives, libraries, family history & local history societies that need digital copies to be made of their holdings. We launched a newsletter at the end of June 2003 to keep you informed as we release new titles. At present, we are adding about 3 or 4 titles a week. If you would like to receive the newsletter, please subscribe to the newsletter by following the link. Alternatively, to see our recent new releases, please go to the New Releases page

http://www.midlandshistoricaldata.org/index.html

WALKING TOUR DIGBETH

Sorry, still awaiting Ray Shill to contact me!

THE FORUM

http://madeinbirmingham.org/forum/

Salford Park

Does anyone have memories of Salford Park?

http://www.madeinbirmingham.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=529&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

Remember the ALDIS signal light, made in Sarehole Road

http://www.madeinbirmingham.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=370&highlight=aldis

SNOW HILL STATION

http://www.madeinbirmingham.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1882#1882

DRIVER FREDRICK GIBBS, ASTON TOP LINK

http://www.madeinbirmingham.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1883#1883

ROVER /BSA

http://www.madeinbirmingham.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1899#1899

Hope you like the new newletter I will leave you this month with some quotes;

I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.
- George Best

"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal."

Emma Goldman

You know that children are growing up when they start asking questions that have answers.
- John J. Plomp