Talk About North Solihull l

IMAGE Fest Special

Edition 001

Sept 2015

Contents

Heritage Weekend in Castle Bromwich

Look Back in Time

7 Steps to Happiness Dance Yourself Fit

Meet Local Artists

Parade Magically Transformed

Last year saw the first Castle Bromwich

Heritage Weekend. Set in the beautiful historic

conservation area, it offered something for

everyone. Despite the very wet and windy

weather, it proved to be a great place to meet

up with friends.

Adults can enjoy objects that will amaze and

astound in the Palace of Curiosities, authentic

Victorian Musicians, a health review with a

Victorian Pharmacist and a trip up the bell

tower. All this can be washed down with a cup

of tea, a slice of cake and a glass of cider from

the Cider tent.

CASTLE BROMWICH HERITAGE WEEKEND

SEPT 12TH11 am -5 pm

SEPT 13TH12.30 pm - 5 pm

Last year saw the first Castle Bromwich

Heritage Weekend. Set in the beautiful historic

conservation area, it offered something for

everyone. Despite the very wet and windy

weather, it proved to be a great place to meet

up with friends.

This year promises to be even better with

plenty to keep all the family entertained. For

the children there will be a magician, traditional

games, balloon modelling, skittles, Splat the

Rat and much more.

Experience a relaxing day outAdults can enjoy objects that will amaze and

astound in the Palace of Curiosities, authentic

Victorian Musicians, a health review with a

Victorian Pharmacist and a trip up the bell

tower. All this can be washed down with a cup

of tea, a slice of cake and a glass of cider from

the Cider tent.

The best part of all is that entry is free. We

hope to see you there over the weekend. If you

have any queries please phone 0845 5212436.

Find the Heritage Festival at:

St. Mary & St. Margaret Church

Chester Road, Castle Bromwich B36 9DE

Enjoy the extraordinary world of Victorian England

Whatever your age, whatever your interests, Castle Bromwich Heritage Weekend has something to enthral and entertain you.

Marvel at the Palace of Curiosities. For The First Time in England - as seen by the Crowned Heads of Europe - objects that will amaze and

astound you in a feast of incredulity and disbelief.

Alleviate your aches and pains with cutting edge medical advances rubbing shoulders with centuries old traditions and herbal remedies. Try

the specially blended Victorian perfumes ‘Lord of the Manor’ and ‘Lady de Chateau Bromage.’

Greet the Empress of India, HRH Queen Victoria. Hear her tales of time travel and wonder at the voluminosity of her skirts.

Immerse yourself in the magic of children’s entertainer Craig and his balloon modelling. Try your hand at traditional children’s games.

Clamber up the ancient bell tower and admire the spectacular views. See the remains of the old wooden Medieval Church hidden within the newer

clay brick walls. Experience what it’s like to toll the bells.

Acquaint yourself with the selection of ciders on offer and learn about the medcinal uses of this ancient drink. Or try the delicious home made

cakes washed down with a refreshing cup of tea or thirst quenching coffee.

Listen to the authentic sounds of Victorian musicians including popular folk and parlour songs, some concertina tunes, guitar solos and

even a bit of tin whistle. Or maybe you’d prefer to stand and listen to an original Victorian barrel organ or drag yourself back to the present day to sing along with the Castle Bromwich Singers.

Look Back In Time Remembering

those summer fetes

ALBERT: I met Margaret at a house warming party in Manor Park Road. I can still remember how she sat on the settee with brilliant auburn hair and she had a blue dress on and I spoke to her, tongue in cheek, saying could we meet and from then on we did.

I remember that I said that I’d meet Margaret in town at Dunns on the corner of Corporation Street and Bull Street, that’s where the bus stopped. So, I was standing there and I thought, I wonder if I can remember what she looked like? But she got off and I remember her very well, she had a grey hat on.

I used to come home with Margaret. The last bus was 10 o’clock from here, so I used to bring Margaret home and her mum always used to give me beans on toast, and eventually I was still there, and I knew that I’d never get a bus. I used to walk to the Fox and Goose and get the last tram down to Bordesley Green Depot and then walk from there to the church yard and get the all night bus, which was 6 pence, up to Harbourne. I used to arrive sometime between midnight and 1 o’clock in the morning. We courted like that for two years and we got engaged and then we got married.

Memories for life

After Margaret and I married, I got involved with the Carnival.

MARGARET: It used to start at Hazlehurst Rd and we had the procession down the main road and up Manor Park, up here (Marlborough Road) and then up through the Village up to the Village Green. We’ve had all sorts of things on the Green, we had a battle, two ships and they had flour bags so you might know what it was like.

ALBERT: Even the apprentices from the Hall got involved; Ted Richards was one.

MARGARET: And most organisations who were in the Village then had a float in the Carnival, the Scouts and the Guides and all that.

ALBERT: We had Dunlop’s and all those people bring floats in, we had a lot of floats, on vehicles, on the Lorries and I used to do the signs for them. We used to finish up on the Village Green where we had a big fun fair. We sort of progressed from there, one thing led to another, there was the big show that we had on the grounds at Castle Hills, that was all open. We used to have the stalls there, and we also had big marquees, and the flower and vegetable show.

BOTH: We’ve had Tessie O’Shea, and we’ve had the Applejacks.

MARGARET: We had them on the paddock and there were five gates manned by Albert and the blokes on the committee and Albert took over three hundred pounds on one gate.

ALBERT: Yeah, well I did a big banner along Hall Rd, you know where the sign there is “You’re entering Solihull”, the worse thing I could have done. I had thousands of kids and young’uns, we were holding them back, linked arms holding them back around the arena. My shirt was covered in lipstick by the end they were singing and shouting and yelling.

MARGARET: We had Miss World as well for the Residents and when the Residents had their show day they always had a floral queen and we used to choose her.

ALBERT: I used to do the sashes and the banners for them. And you just took in your stride.

Castle Bromwich has a long tradition of community festivals as shown by these extracts from an Oral History recorded in

2013 with Margaret and Albert Turner

IN PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

For many people happiness doesn’t just happen. It’s easy to feel isolated, rushed, and deprived in comparison to the people we see around us. Research indicates that we are significantly less happy than previous generations., but, it doesn’t have to be that way. Happiness can be sought and Three Trees Community Centre has plenty on offer to help.

Learn new thingsLearning affects our well-being in lots of positive ways. It exposes us to new ideas and helps us stay curious and engaged. It gives us a sense of accomplishment and helps boost our self-confidence.

Be a leaf on a treeTo thrive, we need two things - to be an individual with a sense that we are unique and that we matter, and, at the same time, to be connected to something bigger. Whether it is spiritual connection or being part of a group - Three Trees has the answer.

Have fun and exerciseOur body and our mind are connected. Being active makes us happier as well as being good for our physical health. It improves our mood and can help ease depression. Join in Reza’s Fitstep classes and have fun as well as boosting your well being.

What’s Three Trees

got to do with it?

IN PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Cultivate a passionWe all know people who seem born to do what they do. The ones who can’t wait to get up in the morning. Whether they are musicians, doctors, artists, they wouldn’t do anything else. their assion enables them to stride through difficulties, still eager to face the next day.

Appreciate little thingsIt sounds corny, but rsearch demonstrates that we are happier when we cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Time to Shine guides you through the process of finding reasons to be grateful.

Connect with othersThe Olive Branch Cafe offers the perfect opportunity to sit and talk with friends or meet new people. Good relationships with family, neighbours and the wider community are important for happiness.

Mix with happy peopleHave you ever been in a sour mood and then someone has come along with a huge smile, some laughter or in a really good mood? Perhaps a baby that just looked up at you and smiled? How did this make you feel? When the person you are talking to or the people that surround you are smiling, you won’t be able to help but smile!

Henry Watsons Country PerryMade from perry pears and fully matured in old oak vats to develop its strength and character. (Alc 4.5% vol)

Westons Raspberry TwistRefreshing cider with a raspberry twist. A light, and fruity cider to delight the tastebuds and quench the thirst. (Alc 4% vol)

Wyld WoodFully matured in old oak vats, Wyld Wood cider has a truly appely, fresh and full-bodied taste with a ripe aroma - a true celebration of nature in a glass. (Alc 6% vol)

Old RosieAward winning Old Rosie is allowed to settle out naturally after fermentation resulting in an old fashioned, full flavoured, cloudy scrumpy; with a well balanced medium dry character. (Alc 7.3% vol)

Henry Westons 1880 Still CiderA specially revived recipe. Medium dry clear, light still cider full of flavour and character. (Alc 6.0% vol)

Rosie’s PigAn easy drinking cloudy cider with a fresh apple flavour with hints of citrus and spice. (Alc 4.8% vol)

From soaking the baby in it at 14th century baptisms to 19th century

gout treatments, cider has been the cure for maladies of the physical and

the spiritual. Join us September 12th and 13th at St Mary & St Margaret

Church in Castle Bromwich to find the cider to cure what ails you. Whilst

in times past farmers got their four pints a day as pay, it’s available to you

at: £3.00 a pint or £1.75 a half-pint.

Cider Cures What Ails You

A night to remember

Seeds of Hope in Kingshurst was transported back to 1945 for a community

dinner to celebrate the 70th anniversary of VE Day. Organised by Image,

the attendees were entertained by Reza who sang songs from the era

and encouraged everyone to try out their dance steps. The hall was set

out like a street party with bunting hanging from the beams and 1940s

memorabilia everywhere.

The dinner was partly organised to help promote some of the many

growing and environmental projects that have been initiated by the local

community and to encourage more people to get involved.

If you would like any further information on local projects or would like to

speak to someone about any ideas that you may have about a space local

to you, please email imagensolihull@outlook.com.

Environmetal projects showcased during the VE Day anniversary celebration

Victory GardenResidents have been involved in transforming a derelict plot of land into a replica WW2 Victory Garden. provides an outside space that can be used for growing fruit and vegetables for the residents of NorthSolihull. As the produce becomes ready to pick it is collected and sorted into bags to be given away to local residents.

Stories Behind the HeadstonesGraveyard ProjectA over grown graveyard has been restored by over 500 volunteers. The recipient of two outstanding awards from the Royal Horticultural Society for community involvement and environmental responsibility, this project has also uncovered the stories behind the gravestones and used them to produce an audio walk of Castle Bromwich.

Kingshurst Community GardenRun from the Kingshurst Art Space by volunteers, the community garden provides freshly grown vegetables for local residents. Participants have also planted wild flower beds to brighten the Parade.

St Mary & St Margaret Prayer GardenA tranquil space for quiet contemplation is provided by this oasis just minutes away from the M6. The project was funded from a legacy from a local resident. Working in partnership with a local school, the creation of the garden was overseen and managed by local residents connected with the church.

“Loved it, had a wonderful

evening. The quality of the food

was superb, the entertainment

was fab and made new friends.”

Resident of Cheshire Court

I’ll Be Who I Want To Be

“REZA” - Songstress, model, poet and dance fitness instructor is one of

the West Midlands’ foremost artists. She comes from a Brummie musical

dynasty with her aunt Megan Davies, the bassist with 60s Brumbeat band

the Applejacks, and her uncle Bob Brady a former keyboardist with Roy

Wood’s 70s glam rockers Wizzard.

Believing that you are ever too old to fulfil a dream, Reza has established

her own very successfully “Fitsteps” Dance company and is currently

seeking crowd funding to record her own solo album.

The nights are starting to draw in, the temperature’s dropping and Strictly is about to make a return to our television screens. Maybe this is the time, to make that resolution to get fit and learn something new.

Among the stars set to join the line up of the new Strictly series is Ainsley Harriott, whose knowledge of dancing is strictly limited. If like Ainsley your dancing experience is limited to “dancing around the kitchen with Suzy Salt and Percy Pepper”, Reza has the perfect class to help you perfect your steps and increase your fitness.

Fitsteps came to life in 2013 as a result of a collaboration between two of Strictly’s most famous dancers, Natalie Lowe and Ian Waite, and swimmer Mark Foster.

Mixing the graceful steps of Ballroom and the up tempo steps of the Latin dances together to create a really fun, energetic and effective way to stay fit and keep trim, Fitsteps appeals to everyone even if they can’t dance. A dance fitness programme that is ‘so much fun you don’t even realise you’re getting fit!’

It is more than art for art’s sake for two talented ladies. Pat and Dot are long-term residents of Chelmsley Wood, having moved here when the estate was built.

Pat moved from inner-city Birmingham to a newly built home in Fordbridge.

“We moved from Sparkbrook. They showed us round a house. The rent was £4, 10 shilling a week. My husband said ‘I can’t afford that!’ – but I loved it!”

In more recent years they’ve taken up art and have discovered more than just their own talent for painting.

Having initially been persuaded by friends to come to an art class at Bennetts Well School, the pair have been on a physical, as well as artistic, journey – with the class moving locations to Simon Digby and Hatchbrook before coming to its current location – Three Trees.

The pair enthuse about Sandra, the art class’s ‘advisor’ (I got told off for

referring to her as a ‘teacher’).“She’s not a teacher!” Dot corrects me. “She doesn’t teach us, she advises us.”

“We did a lot of sketching at first. We had to do a self-portrait – that was a scream!”

“When I did mine,” Pat says. “I took one look at it and thought – that’s

my mother!”

However, the art classes have proved to be

more than a chance to learn new skills – it’s connected Pat and Dot with each other, and with new friends.

“It’s good company, and it gets you out of the

house! We don’t just do art, we’ve been on trips. Last week

we went to Blackpool. In the summer we went up to Derbyshire and did well dressing.”

You can join Pat, Dot, ‘advisor’ Sandra and the rest of the art club every Wednesday afternoon 1.30pm-3.30pm at the Three Trees Community Centre.

Through art we explore life, our past, our present, and our future. Simeon Bright talks to Pat and Dot, two local artists,

about their lives, art and Chelmsley Wood.

Art isHome is where the

Simeon Bight Meets Pat and

Dot at IMAGE Fest Art Exhibition

Have You Seen the Potent and Evocative Artwork of

Ronnie Cashmore?

I grew up on a 1960s new estate very similar to Chelmsley Wood. My summers were spent on my bike riding out into the countryside, building dens and sitting in small copses sheltering from the rain, knocking together two stones trying to create the spark that would allow me to start a fire.

When I walked into the IMAGEFest art exhibition I was immediately drawn to a painting by North Solihull artist, Ronnie Cashmore. Most of us have fond memories of our summer holidays away from school. For those of a similar age to me, having grown up in the 1960s and 70s, those memories will probably encompass playing out all day and coming back as it gets dark. Ronnie's painting immediately transported me back to those halcyon days of my youth.

The painting wasn’t detailed, but it oozed atmosphere and was highly evocative of those childhood memories that I hug close to myself. Almost invariably, as I cycled home at the end of a warm summer day, the breeze would pick up and the air would cool. I’d see the flash of lightning and count the seconds until I heard the rumble of thunder which heralded the pounding rain.

Ronnie’s swirling, impressionist use of paint made me feel that I was there, reliving the storm. The fluid use of multi-hued strong colour wrapped me in a blanket of nostalgia. And, just as I took a trip down memory lane, other visitors to the exhibition spent time reminiscing, the lack of detail being supplemented with the connections their own memories made.

Inspired by Turner

Ronnie Cashmore has been painting all his life. He won a scholarship to Moseley Art College which he failed to take up preferring to attend the local school with his friends. After working in various jobs, he eventually returned to study art as a mature student. It was here that he developed a love of abstract painting which he describes as more challenging requiring a knowledge of why you make a mark. He would rummage in the skip at the back of the college and retrieve all sorts of materials for his art work, including painting with creosote. He maintains that you have to lose control of the painting in order to take control, allowing the canvas and the marks to feed back to you.

His tutor once referred to his work as Turneresque and even today his work still has this feel, with natural and man made objects seeming to blend into the air. It has a distant ambiance as though you’re looking in on it, rather than part of it, but not as something you’re alien to, but rather as something that you know well. Little details punctuate the impressionist feel making the place feel familiar and comfortable.

During the 1990s, Ronnie worked for the Sports Argos where he created the Sports Mascots and later published his own book, Ronnie’s View, which is still available on Amazon. More recently, he is known for the ressurection of Chelmund and his knowledge of local history. He is currently working on a series of paintings based on his memories of living in an inner city as a child.

I don't know why, but rain immediately comes to mind as soon as I think of my childhood

Terrie Knibb reflects on the impact of Ronnie Cashmore’s Art

Residents of all ages were invited to celebrate summer at Kingshurst Carnival on Saturday 15th August. Hosted around Kingshurst Parade, the event featured a packed programme of entertainment, including music, circus skills and craft workshops.

Event manager, Alison Saint, explained: “Visitor participation was a key theme of the carnival, whether it be in one of the circus skills workshops run by the CircusMASH group, the carnival-themed children’s fancy dress parade, or mask-making workshops inside Kingshurst Arts Space.”

Kingshurst Carnival also saw other summer favourites return to Kingshurst, including donkey rides, a sandy play area and magician Magic Bob.

Music, Magic and Circus Skills