Videos
The Queen visits Hagley – Click on each picture to view video
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip came to Hagley on St.George’s day,Tuesday April 23rd 1957.
“The Royal visitors arrived by train drawn by two gleaming engines, Sir James Milne and Thornbury Castle which steamed slowly into the station in a blaze of sunshine”. They were received by the Lord Lieutenant for Worcestershire, Admiral Sir William Tennant.
The Express and Star of the time tells us that “Hagley station, normally a cheerless place, as indeed most country stations are, was transformed into a gay and colourful scene and almost every house, shop and other building in the picturesque village a mass of flags and bunting”.
Click on the icon to view the video (running time 7m:12s). See Local History for an eyewitness account of the occasion.
The Queen visits Stourbridge
After leaving Hagley the Queen and Prince Philip continued their Royal Tour of the West Midlands via Halesowen, Stourbridge and then on Kidderminster, Worcester, Ledbury and Leominster. This video shows the Royal couple travelling through Mary Stevens Park
Click on the icon to view the video (running time 2m:27s)
Mr Harry Earl Heighway (1912 – 1990) was a cine enthusiast who lived in Hagley and filmed the Queen’s visit to Hagley and Stourbridge in 1957. He later gave his films on these topics, and others, to the HHFS. He had a dental practice in Edgbaston.
Irene Oliver, a long standing member of HHFS and its research group, had noted with interest Mrs. Nock’s presentation of her diary entries to the Society. At a later date Irene presented those diary entries herself. Later still the story of the Queen’s visit held within those diaries was added as Irene’s voice-over to video tape version of the original cine film. The video tape was digitised and made compatible with computers in 2011, then a new digital sound recording was made which was then added to the digital video. The sound recording was made in February 2012 by Roger Guest, a professional sound engineer.
Hagley Daubers
This video shows a group of artists sketching and painting St. John the Baptist Church, Hagley in about 1955. One of the group appears to be helping others to improve their work. They are positioned, with their easels, close to the wall of Hagley Hall which gave them a view of the church and its tower from the south-west. The video ends with a direct comparison between the church building and a completed painting.
1953 Fête at Hagley Hall
This fête took place in the garden at Hagley Hall on Saturday June 27th 1953 and was held to raise funds to support the children’s home at Holy Cross Lodge in nearby Clent. At that time 16 homeless children were living at the home and nearly £300 in proceeds from the fête were donated to the home. The building had been designed by Tom Grazebrook of Hagley and was opened formally on May 4th 1910 as All Saints’ Girls Home. The patron was the Viscountess Cobham in its early years. The name was changed several times and in 1974 became Holy Cross Lodge Family Home until it closed in the 1980s.
“http://www.hiddenlives.org.uk/homes/CLENT01.html”
1954 Fête at Hagley Hall
The Halesowen and Oldbury Conservative Association held a fête in Hagley Hall garden on July 10th 1954. Admission to the event for adults was 2/- (two shillings) which is directly equivalent to 10p. Children’s admission was 6d. (sixpence) which is equivalent to 2.5p. A resident of Hagley who has lived in Hagley all of her life has said that in the 1950s fêtes were usually held once a year in the garden of Hagley Hall.
1955 Boxing Day Hunt Meeting
The Albrighton Woodland Hunt held regular Boxing Day meetings which started near to Hagley Hall. This video shows the gathering on 26th December 1955. This tradition still persists to the present day.
1955 Memorial Parade November 6th
On Sunday November 6th 1955 the remembrance service in St. John the Baptist, Hagley was preceded by a parade which started at the Hagley War Memorial in Park Road. At that time the War Memorial was in its original place; it was moved in the 1960s when the dual carriageway Holy Cross bypass (known locally as “the feeder road”) was constructed. Thus the procession is seen to start along leafy lanes which have since been replaced with a large traffic island at the junction of the A491 and A456.
Early 1950’s Road Views
Road traffic was light in the 1950s and this video reminds us of what arriving in Hagley would have been like at that time. There is a view down Middlefield Lane which is now a quiet residential thoroughfare but at that time would have been seen as a way into (Top) Hagley village as there were few houses in West (or Lower, prior to 1911) Hagley. The distinction between the names of the two parts of the village that is still maintained by older residents officially disappeared some years ago.
1955 Christmas Day Activity at Both Churches
This video captures Hagley parishioners and the rector leaving St. John the Baptist and arriving at St.Saviour’s churches. We get a good view of the happiness in the faces of the parishioners, the styles of outer garments worn in the 1950s and of the vehicles that were used.
2000 Top Hagley
The Hagley 2000 video was made by Hagley parishioner Betty Hill (1931 – 2006) as part of Hagley’s celebrations of the arrival of the Millennium. “The Millenium” was the name given to the year 2000. Betty came to Hagley in 1961 and lived here for 45 years. She attended a video techniques training course to develop her skills and then went on to produce a video about Hagley’s history that could be shown on any home VHS video tape player. The final result was popular and she sold hundreds of copies to local residents. The passage of time has made VHS tape players nearly obsolete and as you view this video from the HHFS website you will see that it is already a valuable historical document, showing many of the changes that have taken place in Hagley since 2000.
Betty made her video as a single tape which covered both Top and West Hagley. For the convenience of website users we have split it into two parts, one covering Top Hagley (which runs for about 10 minutes) and the other covering West Hagley (which runs for about 9 minutes). The first covers Top Hagley which is the area around the junction of Birmingham Road and Bromsgrove Road.
2000 West Hagley
This is the second part of the Hagley 2000 video covering West Hagley. This is the area around the station, main shops and roads out towards Kidderminster.
Celebrations for the 1977 Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II
The actual anniversary of The Queen’s accession to the throne on 6 February 1952 was commemorated in church services throughout February 1977. The Queen spent the anniversary weekend at Windsor with her family and the full jubilee celebrations began in the summer of 1977.
The climax of the national celebrations came in early June. On the evening of Monday 6 June, The Queen lit a bonfire beacon at Windsor which started a chain of beacons across the country. On Tuesday 7 June, vast crowds saw The Queen drive in the Gold State Coach to St Paul’s Cathedral for a Service of Thanksgiving attended by heads of state from around the world and former prime ministers of the UK.
Street parties and village parties started up all over the country: in London alone 4000 were reported to have been held. The public celebrations in Hagley were held on Saturday 25th June 1977 and were filmed by Martin Lister. His cine film was later digitised and in May 2013 made suitable for viewing from this website.
Celebrations for the 2002 Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II – Saturday
Hagley’s public celebrations took place over three days, Saturday June 1st to Monday June 3rd 2002. The events on those days were videoed by Wyre Forest Camcorder Club and were later digitised and made suitable for viewing on this website in May 2013. Copyright restrictions on the music performed and used as a background have resulted in this version of the recording having a silent sound track in some places. The whole event is presented here on three videos, one for each of Saturday June 1st, Sunday June 2nd and Monday June 3rd. The duration of each one is about 6 minutes.
Celebrations for the 2002 Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II – Sunday
Celebrations for the 2002 Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II – Monday