Hagley Historical and Field Society

Along with Hagley, Chaddesley Corbett has also been marking the centenary of the start of WWI. In her talk entitled ‘The Boys on the Board: Chaddesley Corbett and World War One’, Sylvia Beardshaw described how the lives of the people living in her village were so drastically affected during the conflict. Her published research has revealed not only the names of those that perished but also those who served and survived.

The book “Hagley Miscellanea” by John-Homery Folkes, the architect of St.Saviour’s Hall, was first published in 1974. It was for private circulation and only 25 copies were printed. Forty years later it is considered sufficiently interesting to merit this reprint. The author (born 1906) has gathered a wide range of reminiscences that together give a picture of Hagley’s inhabitants, houses, industries, celebrations and entertainments in the century and more before the explosion of house-building in the 1960s.

The book includes: the early days of the railway station; the building of St. Saviour’s church and planning the cemetery; houses large and small; an attempt at encroachment in Church Street; the Rifle Corps and the Range; the nursemaid question!; Hagley celebrities; the Sunday postal delivery and church attendance and an eyewitness account of the fire at Hagley Hall on Christmas Eve 1925. The “Illustrations” section includes the programme for the Coronation Celebration of June 1911.

It is available from Happy Families or can be ordered online from Hagley Historical and Field Society, priced as £5.

Our meeting on Tuesday 3rd February at 8pm in St. Saviour’s Church Hall sees Deborah de Haes presenting ‘The Work of the Friends of Birmingham Museums 1931 – 2014’. She will describe how the Association of Friends has supported Birmingham Museums Trust to finance some of its acquisitions and how its members volunteer in other practical ways. Visitors are most welcome at all our events – see home page for details and contacts.