Birmingham – Page 9 – Friends of Moseley Road Baths

Heritage Lottery Funding success!!

We are extremely excited to announce that The Friends of Moseley Road Baths has been awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund Your Heritage grant of almost £48,000 to undertake a three-year project researching the history of the Edwardian Grade II* Listed Moseley Road swimming baths in Balsall Heath, Birmingham.

Pool of Memories is an Oral History project incorporating several interlinked elements, including production of a book, DVD and accompanying teaching resource pack, website, exhibition and a ‘Theatre in Education’ scheme. The project will involve extensive input from local schools and community groups.

Commentating on the award, Pool of Memories Project Co-ordinator Jen Austin said: “We are delighted to have secured this substantial Heritage Lottery Fund grant which will enable us to document the history of Moseley Road Baths and record the stories and reminiscences of those who have swum, socialised, washed or worked there.

“For more than a century, Moseley Road Baths has been a hub of the community, providing swimming and bathing facilities for generations of local people. The Pool of Memories project will collate and preserve this history, providing a detailed picture and valuable archive of this nationally important building and its role in Birmingham’s history.”

Explaining the importance of the award, Anne Jenkins, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund for the West Midlands said: “We are delighted to be able to support this project which will involve over 2,000 young people and bring them a multitude of educational benefits and skills whilst they explore the past of these well-loved local baths.”

An event to officially launch the Pool of Memories project will be held in February, from which point members of the public will be invited to contribute to the project.

For further information about the Pool of Memories project contact Jen Austin on 0777 609 5885 or e-mail us on the usual address.

Rescheduled meeting with Cllr Mullaney

REMINDER:

The postponed meeting with Cllr Mullaney, Cabinet Member for Sports, Leisure and Culture will be going ahead this Thursday, 21st January at 7:30pm at Anderton Park School Children’s Centre.

For background on why we’re anxious to speak with him at this point in our campaign please see our previous blogpost: Constituency Financial Woes?

Remember to contact the group if there are any specific issues that you would like us to raise. Thanks to John and Mark for your comments so far – we’ll be taking them forward to the meeting.

Moseley Voles

For several years Friends of Moseley Road Baths have been trying to highlight to local decision makers that providing high quality swimming facilities is crucial to meet the needs of local residents. This goes beyond basic health and fitness; swimming is a fantastic activity for forming new friendships, building confidence and decreasing stress and anxiety.

This has been recognised by Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, who have funded a weekly swim session exclusively for service users, carers or staff. Organised by User Voice and the Positive Mental Health Group the main aim of the sessions is to offer a pleasant and stress free atmosphere for mental health users (and carers / staff) to swim to relax and get some exercise. It is ideal for people who are nervous or body conscious.

The sessions are funded until 31st March. Fingers crossed that the funding can be extended! Full details of the sessions are below. Please contact Robin directly with questions and queries.

‘Moseley Voles’, a free weekly swimming group for mental health service users, carers and friends, has been meeting on Sundays for over three years. Organised by User Voice and the Positive Mental Health Group, it provides opportunities for social inclusion and exercise at the small historic Moseley Road Baths in Balsall Heath.

“Splashing around in the pool is good fun even if you can’t swim, and is a great way to exercise and relax” explains Robin Shepherd, one of the group’s organisers; “We’re a small, friendly bunch and have our own exclusive use of the pool from 1.30 to 2.30. Some people even stay on afterwards for free samosas and coffee.”

Trying something new can be challenging but with the Moseley Voles it’s easy – you don’t have to be a member, just turn up, and there will always be some familiar faces. Newcomers are greeted by Robin or a colleague and friends and carers are just as welcome. Some people don’t even swim, preferring to relax and chat with friends.

Help us make an even bigger splash!

“We know that many more people would enjoy Moseley Voles and it’s a shame they don’t know about it”. Robin can supply posters and leaflets for GP surgeries, libraries, community centres – and what about your work notice board? Better still, if you’re a carer or friend you can help by bringing someone along. As Robin explains “everyone needs encouragement at times and accompanying a user can make all the difference.”

So whether you want to train for the London Olympics or just dip your toe in the water, take the first step by calling Robin on 0121 685 7127 for all the information you need – and see you there soon!

Played in Birmingham lecture

We’re very lucky as a group to be able to draw on the expertise of one of our group members, Steve Beauchampé. He and Simon Inglis, who many of you will remember from his excellent presentation at our ‘Memories and Memorabilia Day‘ have written extensively about our local sporting heritage. Moseley Road Baths features in two of the wonderfully detailed and illustrated publications from the ‘Played in Britain’ series. ‘Played in Birmingham‘ explores Birmingham’s sporting heritage, whilst ‘Great Lengths‘ focuses on the development of swimming baths in Britain.

We are very excited to announce that they have both been invited to deliver a lecture at the prestigious Barber Institute this March. Full details are below – please contact the Barber Institute directly for all enquiries.

Birmingham is a city founded upon hard work, enterprise and civic pride, characteristics that have also helped to shape its sporting map. This richly illustrated lecture focuses on Birmingham’s historic sporting landscapes – from stadiums to swimming baths, parks to pavilions, golf clubs to billiard halls – and reveals little known aspects of a heritage that has touched the lives of millions of Brummies, whether inclined towards sport or not.

Simon Inglis is an architectural historian and editor of the English Heritage series Played in Britain. He is the co-author with Steve Beauchampé of Played in Birmingham, the fifth book in the series, and has also written a history of Villa Park. Steve Beauchampé is an expert on Birmingham’s sporting architecture and heritage and is currently writing a history of the Grade II* listed Moseley Road Baths in Balsall Heath.

All lectures are held at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts and begin at 7.30pm. Lectures are preceded at 6pm by a finger buffet, including a choice of wine, soft drink or coffee, and a private view of the Barber Institute galleries. Admission is by ticket only.

Lecture and buffet: £15 per ticket or £55 for the series. Lecture only: £7.50 or £27.50 for the series.

To book, please contact the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TS. 0121 414 7333 www.barber.org.uk
Payment by credit or debit card; cheques are payable to the University of Birmingham.

New meeting date

As a result of the inclement weather we have been unable to go ahead with tonight’s planned Committee meeting which Cllr Mullaney, Cabinet member for Sports, Leisure and Culture was going to attend.

We have now put the meeting back by two weeks to Thursday 21st January, 7:30-9:00pm at Anderton Park School Children’s Centre. Cllr Mullaney will be in attendance from 8pm onwards to answer questions relating to the future of the building, maintenance work and the new timetable. We are particularly anxious to find out more about some of the proposal to re-open the Gala Pool for swimming announced at last month’s Hall Green Constituency Committee meeting.

If you have questions or points to raise but are not able to attend then please use the comments box below to post up your thoughts.

Hope to see you there!

Tonight’s meeting is CANCELLED

Tonight’s meeting with Cllr Mullaney has been CANCELLED. Please let others know that that this is the case. We will be re-arranging it at the earliest opportunity, please keep checking back for updates.

Constituency financial woes?

Shortly before Christmas the Hall Green Constituency meeting took place, with its main aim being to find a way to cut the constituency’s budget by £1m in order to help balance the books. As part of this several points were raised which will affect Moseley Road Baths. We should know more about these when we meet with Cllr Martin Mullaney, the Cabinet member for Sport, Leisure and Culture this coming Thursday.

The first point relates to maintenance work which has taken place over the Christmas period. It is hoped that the short-term closure of the holidays will stop water leakages from Pool 2, resulting in £30,000 savings per year in water and heating costs. Additional changing facilities will also be installed, thanks to the fundraising efforts of Philip Morris who hit the news a few weeks back!

Secondly, opening hours for public swimming will be reduced and replaced with extra time for club and group swimming (overall opening times will remain the same). The changes will mainly affect the latter part of the day. Brett Willers, the Constituency Director, claimed that there is significant unmet demand for group swimming, but acknowledged that the reason for the change was because groups and clubs pay to swim whereas most individuals currently swim for free. We have expressed concern at this decrease in public swimming and will be speaking to Cllr Mullaney about this on Thursday. In the meantime, we urge everyone to ring ahead of their visit (0121 464 0150) to check for timetable changes.

Finally, we are still awaiting the official announcement on a consultant’s report into re-opening the Gala Pool. However, we have learnt that it recommends that there should be an initial expenditure of £300,000 to make the building ‘watertight’ with an investment of £9m in 2011 or 2012 to reopen the pool, with the work only commencing once Sparkhill has been reopened. This is much less than some of the claims made in the press and is comparable with the cost of building a new facility. We’ll hopefully have more information in the next week or so. Watch this space…

Meeting with Councillor Mullaney

Please note that this meeting has now been CANCELLED and has been re-arranged for 21st January.

Happy New Year to you all. We hope you have had a good break.

On Thursday 7th January at Anderton Park School Children’s Centre Cllr Mullaney will be attending a FoMRB campaign meeting to give us an update on the situation with the baths and answer any questions you have for him.

All Friends are welcome. The meeting starts at 7:30 and Councillor Mullaney will be attending from 8:00 to 9:00pm.

We hope to see you there.

Russ Spring
Chair

A sponsorship star!

Every so often Friends of Moseley Road Baths get someone who comes along and blows our minds. It may be someone who tells us about bits of the history of the Baths that we knew nothing about. It may be someone who gives us pages of petitions out of the blue. Or, like Philip, it may be someone who lends their talents and charisma to raising money for the building.

On 4th December Philip Morris swam half a mile in Moseley Road Baths, in under half an hour, wearing Edwardian swimming costume. What’s even more amazing is that the 82 year old athlete has now raised over £350 towards improving changing facilities at the Baths. We anticipate that the money will be used to provide communal changing space for schools. We’ll be keeping you posted on our progress with that.

Well done Philip, thanks so much for your energy, enthusiasm and hard work!

Ill settle for a cuppa soup — I'll settle for a cuppa soup

The Works Winter Salon

The Friends of Moseley Road Baths Committee members are a talented bunch – when we’re not busy planning events, running stalls and talking to the press our members always seem to be doing interesting and creative things.

One such person is Viv Harrison, who has exhibited her art work across the city at events including ArtPride, and now at ‘The Works Winter Salon’ which showcases fine art from the holders of The Works Artist Studios. Have a look at Viv’s website to see a selection of her drawing, illustration, prints and photography. The exhibition runs at The Works from 8th December until 13th December, and many of the artworks will be available to purchase.