CATALOGUING SOLIHULL'S OLD BUILDING PLANS

SMBC’s Planning Department has passed many of the original plans of buildings which sought planning permission frm 1880 to 1936 to the Library. Peter & Edna Handley volunteered to list them and since March 2007 have spent a morning each week doing so. They and two other volunteers have now completed  this work. There are over 5,000 plans in the index and this will be a valuable source for researchers.

        NOTABLE BUILDINGS PROJECT

This project was launched in December 2005 when History Circle members were asked to nominate buildings in Solihull and Olton (not Knowle, as the Knowle Society already does invaluable work there) which justified retention if developers threatened them with demolition or major alteration. Members nominated 62 buildings of which 13 were already Statutorily Listed (on two of which we have done a little extra work), 2 Locally listed and 5 were in Conservation Areas. Two, the original Methodist Chapel at Blossomfield/Streetsbrook Roads and Tudor Grange, had already been researched by Edna Handley and Allan Evans respectively. 

This left 40 buildings which appeared to justify research. So far, up to January 2009, we have completed research on 15 of these. Betty & Bob Smith did a wonderful job on Ulleries Farm including maps and photographs; Edna Handley researched Sandall's Cottage and The Cottage, both on Warwick Road; and Allan Evans investigated Alderbrook Lodge (now demolished). Adam & Helen Pearce have examined buildings in Olton outside the Conservation Area, Ros Rafnson has researched The Barley Mow, and Nigel Cameron an Arts & Crafts house in Broad Oaks Road.
Examination of a further 13 buildings continues, but there are still 12 to be allocated to a researcher. We would welcome your help

 This project continues - with the photography now undertaken by Adam Pearce -  and some of the results are shown on another page of this website.

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ORAL HISTORY        

When Edna Handley finished editing her book “Memories of Solihull Village”, using recorded reminiscences of people who had lived here in the past, names were still being forwarded to her of those who would be willing to give an oral history. I offered to help out with the recordings, although I had never done anything like it before.

I read a book on the subject, bought a small tape recorder and started in November 2000 with a Mr Oliver.  The people I have interviewed were so thrilled that we were taking an interest in their former life style and welcomed me into their homes.

One of the discoveries I made in this work was that it is better to meet the interviewee and get to know them before producing the equipment at a later date.  I was able to give an idea of what was required and they had the interim period to reflect and order their thoughts. 

Some of the subjects had less to say about Solihull than others, but usually there was other interesting information to be had, such as Mrs Pitkeathly’s experiences of the WAAF in the area during World War 2.  Some memories were personal, like the christening of two babies Elizabeth and Philip at the time of the Queen’s marriage, but others had wider repercussions like the demolition of central Solihull for the building of Mell Square. 

Over a period of six years I have gradually got together a collection of fifteen recollections of Solihull and the surrounding area from some older people with memories of former times. When Edna Handley finished editing her book “Memories of Solihull Village”, using recorded reminiscences of people who had lived here in the past, names were still being forwarded to her of those who would be willing to give an oral history. I offered to help out with the recordings, although I had never done anything like it before.

All these were taped and then transcribed on to computer and printed out. Since then, Adam, our Treasurer, has put the recordings and transcripts on to CDs so that they can all be handed over to Solihull Library and the Warwick Record Office for preservation.

The transcribing of the tape on to the computer is a painstaking business and at first I was doing this in an exact manner from the speech.  One can also adjust slightly the conversation to make it more readable, which I have done of late.  Now I am working on my last tape, and having done a dozen I hope shortly to deposit the discs, and hard copies of the histories, at the Central Library and Warwick Record Office, for the possible enlightenment of future generations.  It has been very rewarding to meet such interesting and lively people.  
Copies of the oral histories will be available to borrow during the next season of the Solihull Local History Circle.

  Helen Pearce

       Roads photographed so far: 

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Updated 18/02/2010