You could be just the person we need. If you have skills and experience in industry or business, you can help us. We need volunteer trustee directors who are really enthusiastic about saving significant historic buildings from decay.

Who you are

You are probably already busy but willing to commit at least a day a month to the work of the Trust. You don’t need specific formal qualifications but you’ll be keen to promote the Trust’s work. You have some experience of or specific skills in one or more of the following

• Human Resources – you’ll be good at dealing with all sorts of people
• Strategic planning development and implementation
• Entrepreneurial and business development
• Fundraising
• Legal knowledge
• Marketing and promotion, including social media

You are whoever you are – Birmingham Conservation Trust is committed to equal opportunities.

Who we are

• Birmingham Conservation Trust was set up ‘to preserve and enhance Birmingham’s threatened architectural heritage and to promote an enjoyment and understanding of the City’s historic buildings’.
• We combine imaginative new uses for buildings at risk with sensitive repairs to secure their long-term future.
• We work for the benefit of the people of Birmingham and its visitors and with local people to find sustainable solutions that address local needs.
• Our culture – innovation, quality, community

Your commitment

• If you join us, you will be part of the board of 10 – 14 trustee directors
• Your term of office is 3 years for a maximum of two terms
• Board meetings are held once every two months on a Monday morning in central Birmingham
• You might join a sub-committee or work with one of the employees to produce information as needed
• In return, we’ll welcome and support you, work with you and provide guidance and training where necessary

Want to know more?

Call Elizabeth Perkins on 0121 303 2664 for an informal chat or

send us an email telling us a bit more about you

elizabeth.perkins@birmingham.gov.uk

Join this happy band - some of our Trustee Directors

The Friends’ main objective is to raise money for the refurbishment of the cemeteries and lobbying for better management of the sites. Since 2004 the Friends group have made great progress, with over 100 headstones now restored and with the recent grant received this year from Service Birmingham, the group have commissioned for 3 large memorials in Key Hill to be restored, with a further large obelisk in Warstone Lane to follow later in the year (which will involve putting a 10ft obelisk back on top of an existing 7ft base……).

Key Hill Cemetery will host a floral bed as part of the Jewellery Quarter Flower Trail and Brum in Bloom. Last month the Friends group along with volunteers have been working extremely hard on this project and the results can be seen on the groups Facebook group. Take a look here, their page has before and after photographs of the restoration of headstones, the hard work undertaken clearing the cemeteries, the new floral bed and much more!

Image courtesy of FKWC

Time moves on at the Coffin Fittings Works - Stop the Clocks!

As the products from the Coffin Fittings Works have been used in the celebration of lives for over 100 years, so the cast of Tin Box Company celebrate a particular life in their thought-provoking performance of Stop the Clocks. The audience takes a literal and metaphorical journey through the factory and through a life.

The directors, Jo Gleave and Jo Newman have worked with the cast and crew to devise and present a special evening in the Coffin Fittings Works. At times funny and at times serious, this bitter-sweet play is performed with dash and verve by the young company.  Inventive use of space, props and sets mark this out as a must-see if you want to experience something different in one of Birmingham’s Grade II* listed historic buildings.

Birmingham Conservation Trust volunteers act as ushers and look pretty good in boiler suits! All performances have sold out – returns only.

Bells Farm in 1969 - photo by Phyllis Nicklin from the Birmingham University Archive

Dave Thomas, one of our volunteers has sent us this update which I thought we would share with you:

I’m really interested in old buildings and the work that Birmingham Conservation Trust does. I am a chartered building surveyor and I volunteered at Birmingham Conservation Trust (BCT). I was lucky enough to attend a recent meeting at Bells Farm with BCT, The Spearhead Trust (who use the existing part of the building for their valuable community activities) and Nick Joyce Architects LLP for initial discussions on the future restoration plans for the property.

The rear wing of this very special Grade II* listed, 17^th century, timber framed farmhouse was seriously damaged by fire over 20 years ago and BCT have been asked to carry out an Options Appraisal to identify costs to restore it and a sustainable use to ensure its future. This is being done over the next few months and should lead to a bright new future for Bells Farm.

Which sort of sums up where we are at the moment.

Rosie with the book scanning machine

First up is Rosie Phenix-Walker who is scanning catalogues and ledgers for us.  Rosie works full time elsewhere and gives a couple of hours a week to this project – we are very grateful to her. Her work will mean we can reproduce exact facsimiles of the catalogues we have and some of the pages from the ledgers and account books. As she does this, she is discovering snippets of information about the operation of Newman Brothers that will greatly add to our understanding of the place and the way it operated.

Jennifer Lockie is volunteering for BCT

We are also lucky to have another volunteer, Jennifer Lockie, who is busy researching in the City Archive for us. Jennifer hails from Canada and has a BA degree in Art History and Religion from the University of Toronto. (She is getting married in June so is volunteering for us in the meantime.) She is going through 19th and 20th century business directories finding out more about Newman Brothers and other coffin fittings makers and allied trades in Birmingham.

If you are interested in volunteering, please email lucie.thacker@birmingham.gov.uk with your details or leave a comment below.

Volunteers, staff and contractors worked together on the huge and detailed job of cataloguing the contents of Newman Bros

Every year Engish Heritage publishes a regional and national survey of the state of our heritage and today Heritage Counts 2008 (link to a pdf) tells us something very encouraging:   it seems more and more of you are volunteering for heritage organisations in the West Midlands.

Over the last year we have had fantastic volunteers helping us with everything from the arduous work of cataloguing and moving the contents of Newman Bros through to recording and transcribing interviews with the people who worked there.  Every time we ask for help it seems to just arrive.  This website is kept going partly through voluntary effort, including the generous people who share their photos of old buildings with us.

What else is going on? If you do any voluntary work to support West midlands heritage why not let us know in the comments section, it would be great to compare notes.

English heritage reports that:

Tim Johnston, Chairman of the West Midlands Historic Environment Forum and English Heritage’s Regional Director for the West Midlands, said:

“The nation’s historic environment is a finite and precious resource which needs to be cared for. Public interest in our unique heritage is certainly growing – this is demonstrated by the number of people in the West Midlands volunteering for the National Trust, which has gone up by two thirds in the last six years. Heritage Counts enables us to raise awareness of the issues and challenges faced by the historic environment in the West Midlands, as well as highlight some of the opportunities we have in the region.”

Highlights from the West Midlands report include:

* The number of people volunteering for the National Trust has increased from 1,990 in 2002 to more than 3,300 volunteers in 2008.

* 50% of the assets included on the Heritage at Risk Register, since its inception in 2001, have been removed as their future has been secured.

* There are six registered Historic battlefields: 14% of the total number of battlefields in England.

* Astley Castle, Warwickshire, has been one of the most seriously at risk buildings in the West Midlands for the past 30 years. But now a strategy for its rescue is in place. The Landmark Trust has acquired a long lease on the building and has put forward a scheme which involves consolidation of the remaining structure and the construction within the shell a modern “landmark” property including a holiday let for eight people. The scheme has the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage.

* The 19th century terraces at Knutton Village, North Staffordshire, were built for workers at a nearby brickworks and were characterised by the liberal use of decorative brickwork. The repair and refurbishment of the historic houses means the identity of the area has been enhanced demonstrating how townscape integrity can be restored and local distinctiveness built into the renewal process.

Foot note:

Heritage Counts 2008 can be found at http://www.heritagecounts.org.uk It is published by English Heritage on behalf of the Historic Environment Review Executive Committee and the Regional Historic Environment Forums.

The West Midlands Historic Environment Forum comprises:
Advantage West Midlands
Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
British Waterways
Country Land and Business Association
English Heritage
Government Office for the West Midlands
Heritage Lottery Fund
Historic Houses Association
Institute of Field Archaeologists
Institute of Historic Building Conservation
Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site
National Trust
Natural England
Museums Libraries and Archives West Midlands
West Midlands Amenity Societies Association
West Midlands Regional Assembly

Work will soon begin on cataloguing and storing the contents of Newman Brothers, a critical part of recording the story of the building and the business and preparing for building work.

Hundreds of you have already had a chance to visit the building and for some you may be keen to get involved in this part of the project. So we are looking for:

Volunteer Cataloguers for the Coffin Works

At least one half day per fortnight over four months, starting in June 2007

The contribution of the volunteer cataloguer will be invaluable to the development of the Coffin Works project and to helping us understand the significance of the contents of the factory. Cataloguers will be given an initial induction and training for the role, and on completion of the task there will be the opportunity to comment on the proposals for the factory and its interpretation, as well as discussing possible future involvement in other roles, such as demonstrators or guides.

The role will involve some physical work, including lifting. It should be noted that the Coffin Works was a working factory using some fairly unpleasant chemicals. The risks from these have been minimised but cataloguers will be working in quite dirty and dusty conditions. The building has been unoccupied for a number of years so it is does leak when it rains and it is not especially warm. Volunteers will be expected to conform to the health and safety requirements of the site so protective clothing will be supplied. For more detail of the work please download this pdf briefing.

Oral History Volunteers

We will be able to give you more details of this soon, but the work breaks down into two main areas:

Recording oral histories related to Newman Brothers
Transcribing existing interviews from DVD into word documents.

The latter work can be done at home for those with a computer which plays DVD and has Microsoft Word or compatible software.

If you’re interested in helping with any of these please use the contact details above.

Thank you.