Carols, Choirs and Christmas

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We are getting to know our carols very well! We’ve now reached double figures in terms of carol services and concerts with a few more to go. And what a joy they have been and what variety! In the last posting I mentioned the Lucia service at Birmingham Cathedral now one of the highlights of the seasonal calendar with its roots in ancient history but with a timeless message of light and featuring Birmingham’s Ex Cathedra Choir.
Last night we had the pleasure of attending the Ex Cathedra concert at St Paul’s Church. Forgive the use of an overworked word, but what a stunning performance this was, mixing the familiar with the much less known, including the medieval and the modern - good modern - and with distinctive arrangements for favourite words.
How lucky we are to have such an outstanding choir in the city, now celebrating forty years of the highest quality music. ‘Congratulate’ is not a sufficient word for such a deeply impressive performance by the choir under their artistic director and conductor Jeffrey Skidmore, but hopefully it conveys some sense of our appreciation.
There are a couple more concerts to go in this season of good will - including one at Birmingham Prison tomorrow to which I’m looking forward very much. More anon.

Variety is the Spice of Life

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The absence of a posting for quite some time reflects the hectic nature of the Lord Mayor’s schedule on the approach to Christmas. It’s a seven day a week job and 12-14 hour days are not uncommon - and this does not include preparation for upcoming events early in the morning or late at night!
We’ve recently been getting to learn our carols very well, having been to several concerts and services. A particularly interesting one was the Lucia service at St Philip’s Cathedral celebrated with Birmingham’s Swedish community. Not often you get to hear a biblical reading in a Nordic tongue!
Amongst many important and interesting functions just one or two other items that were just that bit different.
We visited Firmin’s - Birmingham’s oldest company - who make all manner of insignia. Of course, they have much modern equipment and some that is just that bit older.

One piece is shown in our first photograph. It’s the wooden (elm) base of an anvil that is still used today and was first used in Firmin’s London office. If you look closely you can make out scorch marks. These were from the great fire of London in 1666!
We unveiled a blue plaque erected by the Civic Society to Birmingham’s 19th Century Philosopher, Poet and Scientist Constance Naden at the house in Edgbaston where she spent most of her short (31 years) but immensely productive life. Just down the road was another blue plaque commemorating Birmingham artist Joseph Southall and just up the road was a third commemorating the origins of the game of Lawn Tennis!
As anyone who knows me will confirm, when it comes to food I’m not much of a gourmet. But simple food I do like. We completed an early morning visit to Birmingham’s wholesale markets by calling in at the legendary market ‘caff’, Happy Dan’s on the recommendation of entrepreneur and impressario Martin Hone.

We can vouch for the superb bacon and sausage sandwiches and we intend to make a return visit to tackle one of Happy Dan’s legendary ‘Full Englishes’. Happy eating!

The Staffordshire Hoard

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Also known as the Anglo-Saxon Hoard or the Mercian Hoard - the best name in my view - was recently valued at some £3.285m.
Conservators tell me that there are some 1,800 pieces rather than the 1,600 previously mentioned. The extra pieces were in clods of earth not previously opened.
The even better news is that there almost certainly is an Anglo-Saxon helmet that it is hoped to re-assemble from the pieces. As well as the already identified cheek plate, this can be deduced from the patterns on the pieces (making up a line of marching men amongst other designs). When reconstructed, the helmet should be in better condition than the famous Sutton Hoo helmet (which had been degraded by being deposited alongside iron).
Now the money must be raised to keep the find in Mercia. By the letter of the regulations there could be only four months in which to do this but it is likely that some latitude will be given. A similar sum will be needed to provide for further conservation work, analysis and proper display, so fund raising will go on for some time.
Birmingham will take the fund raising lead in partnership with Stoke. While nothing is determined as yet, one school of thought is that five museums will be involved in the display which will also include museums in Lichfield, Tamworth and Stafford. The five display elements could be themed - for example with Birmingham concentrating on the European dimension of Anglo-Saxon culture, Stoke concentrating on a Mercian focus, Stafford on the excavation, Tamworth on the royal aspect and Lichfield on the religious dimension. This seems very reasonable.
The Hoard itself could be back in the Midlands quite early in the New Year and elements will be on display at locations including Birmingham as focal points for fundraising. There is likely to be a fundraising launch in the near future although the main big push is likely to be early in the New Year.
It is likely that Birmingham’s close connection with JRR Tolkien will be most advantageous. Tolkien described himself as a Birmingham man and was Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford for many years. In The Lord of the Rings, the land of Rohan is an Anglo-Saxon culture with horses (Rohan itself may be based on the plain between the Malvern Hills and Bredon Hill). The Hoard is just what the Riders of Rohan would have been kitted out with. References in Beowulf to buried treasure are also significant.
As Lord Mayor of Birmingham I hope to be fully involved in the fund raising endeavours and hopefully the enormous two handed sword kept in the Lord Mayor’s Parlour will come in handy in this connection - for promotional rather than warlike purposes I hasten to add! Watch this space!

Panto Horse Grand National!

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The fiercely contested Pantomime Horse Grand National, one of Birmingham’s most entertaining free events, took place on Sunday.

There were separate races for fillies (ladies) and colts (men), each racing along a gruelling twelve jump course on Broad Street. Thousands of excited spectators lined the route to cheer the competitors along.

The winner of the hotly contested colts race was James Bamber, a very fit 36 year-old from Devon, on his horse ‘Hoof Hearted’.

The fillies’ race was won by several lengths by 28 year-old Nicki Mills from Wolverhampton on her horse ‘Spank The Donkey’.

Our first picture shows Nicki with myself and the Lady Mayoress.

Our second picture shows two of the competitors in the colts race and the third shows the competitors in the fillies' race lining up - much m

ore orderly than the argy bargy at the start of the colts race!

The event raises money for the Lord Mayor’s charities and we estimate that the total raised this year is a heart-warming £3,000.

I would like to thank all those who took part in the race and the council officers, Thomas Vale employees and volunteers who made it a reality.

I would also like to thank our generous sponsors. Tony Hyde, the Managing Director of Thomas Vale, commented: “As a Birmingham based construction business, we are delighted to be working with the council for the fourth year to put on this great event. It brings people together and helps to support good causes.”

This event is one of many organised by the City Council over the Christmas season, including the Frankfurt Christmas Market and Aston Hall by Candlelight.

For more information visit: http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/christmas

My Charities for the Year

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These are my charities for my mayoral year year 2009/2010. If you would like to support them you can do this in various ways: By cheque made out to ‘The Lord Mayor’s Charity Appeal’ and sent to The Lord Mayor’s Parlour, The Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham B1 1BB or online at
http://www.justgiving.com/lordmayorbirmingham
Further information can be obtained from the Lord Mayor’s Parlour on 0121-303-2040 or by email to lordmayor@birmingham.gov.uk
The Birmingham Fund for Pancreatic Cancer Research: The objective is to establish a new charity that outlasts the current Mayoralty - and indeed runs until that dread affliction is mastered. While there’s been steady progress with several forms of cancer, for pancreatic cancer the five-year survival rate following diagnosis forty years ago stood at just 3%. Today that rate is - well, just 3%. Yet the disease is treatable on those occasions where the cancer is detected early enough, and the primary focus of the fund will be on research, conducted in Birmingham, into improved diagnostic methods.
The Lord Mayor’s Engineering Scholarships: A fund to support the study and practice of Engineering in Birmingham - at various levels and in a range of forms. As a Council we recognise the unmatched contribution that engineering has made to the City, and I am sure we would all agree that it is vital that Birmingham remains prominent in this important field in the future. So, alongside other initiatives, we will encourage and enable young people from Birmingham to take up engineering both as a course of study and as a fulfilling future career. Encouragement will also be offered to progress developments in vital newer areas such as Clinical Engineering.
St. Basil’s: The inestimable work of this charity with young people providing them with support services, advice, mediation and guidance and tackling and preventing homelessness and its consequences has helped to transform very many young lives here in Birmingham. However, in today’s society there is no let-up in the need for the very wide range of services so ably provided by St. Basil’s, and we will be making a big effort during the year to support this most worthy cause.
WAITS - Women Acting In Today’s Society - is a very important charity in a diverse city such as Birmingham, and WAITS is doing outstanding work enabling women to address issues and overcome barriers, combating isolation and providing help to increase the involvement of women in the public life and business of communities throughout the city - from which all of us will benefit. Here again, we know that there is a continuing need for the extensive range of activities carried out by WAITS, and that there are many who are yet to benefit, and a great deal more work still to be done.

Pantomime Horse Grand National!

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Riders are invited to take up the reins and participate in Birmingham’s seventh Pantomime Horse Grand National, to help raise money for the Lord Mayor’s Charity Appeal. Organised by Birmingham City Council, the event is sponsored by Thomas Vale.
The cavalry will charge along a challenging 12 jump course. All colts and fillies will be provided with a single person costume for their respective races.
This is a serious business. Just look at the determined expressions on those horses’ faces!
An entry fee of £50.00 is payable, with all money donated to the Lord Mayor’s Charity Appeal. The winner of each race will receive a bottle of Champagne.
All entries and cheques should be received by Monday the 9th of November and sent to: Lisa Kennedy, Pantomime Horse Race, Events Section, Birmingham City Council, House of Sport, 300 Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2DE. For further information please call 0121 303 3008.
Good Luck and see you there!

The Alternative Tour

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There is a ‘regulation’ tour of Birmingham’s Magnificent Council House on which visitors are taken. This includes the Lord Mayor’s Parlour, the Council Chamber and the Banqueting Suite. Our Victorian forebears certainly new how to build aesthetically pleasing buildings that would last more than the thirty years of modern sheds and carbuncles and do so with remarkable speed and economy - the Council House cost well under £200k at the time.
But as Lord Mayor I was able to undertake an alternative tour of unusual areas and forgotten corners. Guided by the Curator, we started at the bottom with the former City mortuary. Some parts of this now form offices for Scrutiny and the Resilience Team (averting or dealing with civil emergencies). A former use is suggested by the white tiles, but there are also near derelict areas where bodies were laid out.
Next to the intriguingly named upper and lower Muniments Rooms where old records gather dust and where a key on a dusty shelf reminded us of a former time when security guards patrolled and used the key to indicate that they’d reached this point.
Thence to the roof and the base of the flagpole. This is much larger than it appears from Victoria Square. The flag normally flown represents the city’s coat of arms. Incidentally, ‘half mast’ means two thirds of the way to the top of the pole.
Then to the large space above the council chamber beneath the roof. At this point we clarified a legend that there used to be a workman whose job was to keep the roof in good order and clear it of dead birds etc. and that he had a shed on the top of the municipal world. There is indeed such a shed, but it is inside, beneath the rafters in the roof above the council chamber.
Finally to the clock tower. This is accessed by a side door near the entrance to the Museum and Art Gallery. One ascends in a series of stages beginning with a spiral staircase taking you past the old mechanical winding area (the mechanism of which would still work if needed but would take about five hours to wind the clock).
Thence up another flight to the level where the beautiful Victorian engineered mechanism resides. Up again to the bell tower - a very interesting experience as we were there when the chimes operated! Then on to the very top.
From Chamberlain Square you can just see what looks like a small box at the top of the clock tower. The view from the lookout point gave an impressive and rarely seen impression of our magnificent city centre.
This was one of the former lookout points used during the bombing raids that Birmingham suffered during the War. These were the most intense outside London save for Merseyside and over 2,200 people lost their lives and who are commemorated by the Birmingham Air Raids Remembrance Association whose sterling work includes the memorial just opposite the Bull Ring open markets.