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I know the heritage
tourist season has barely started, but I have just returned from my
4th visit to Blakesley Hall this year. To be honest I am
just a little obsessed with the place. Why is this? Because I really
do believe that this site in it's quiet understated way, is the jewel in Birmingham Museums Trust's crown. Staff there are always
only too pleased to guide or assist visitors; there are no flash-bang 'gee-wow!' approaches to the story of the site; nobody has to suffer the living hell a 'heritage experience';
and you can make your own way around the place without being treated
like you have the intelligence and / or attention span of the average
intoxicated newt.
The café also serves
carrot cake* that you would kill your granny for (*from my forthcoming book 'Great Carrot Cakes I have scoffed')!
The hall itself is
maintained to an excellent standard, and the gardens are always
well cared for. In the garden areas you will always find something interesting
going on in the wildlife department – today's entertainment was
provided by loads of Bumble Bees (It's good to see that the place is such a haven
for our endangered friends).
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| Like 'buzzzzz', man... |
There are also humans doing good things too. Here is a slide-show that I created from an earlier visit.
I haven't wrote up a potted history of the hall here. This is provided very
adequately by Wikipedia - wonders will never cease eh?
The reason for my visit
was to check out the 'Tom Frank and May – One Family's Story' exhibition which is
currently running until November, and is all about the effect of the
First World War on the the Merry family; the last residents of the
hall. The exhibition is in itself an understated affair but no less
potent for that. After taking a flight of stairs to the second floor, storyboards lead the way to covered cases that in
turn reveal various artefacts:
Some items were informative:
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| Soldier's Pay Book |
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| Hand - embroidered greetings postcard |
Some were evocative and
poignant:
and some were inadvertently
funny:
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| Just say no, boys and girls... |
The caption that went with the cigarettes had
words to the effect that they were recreationally consumed by
soldiers, but people were unaware of the health hazards at the time. Hmm. Even tobacco - horrible substance as it is - probably couldn't really compete
against German bullets and artillery regarding 'threat to
health' risks! A more revealing point to have made would have been to explain wartime's part in stimulating a huge and sustained demand
for the tobacco industry's products.
A collection of war poetry, facsimiles of the satirical trent magazine 'The Wiper's Times', and stereoscopic images of the conflict were also available to peruse; together with a
video film giving a synopsis of Tom, Frank and May Merry's war. This was a very tight and informative production, and I hope that it will eventually be made available to the public after the exhibition closes: It is far too good to be junked or ignored. Here is an extract from the film:
It is always very
strange how exhibitions such as this can affect the mind. Personally the exhibition evoked memories of my Grandfather (William
Zachariah High) who was a First World War veteran. I would have
loved to have talked to him about his experiences, but he died in the
1970s before I was old enough to care about them. He probably
wouldn't have talked about it anyway... an awful lot of people
didn't back then. But I digress.
An optional purchase from the Hall gift-shop is
a homespun but very informative guidebook written by
Rev. Tom Merry. At £4 it is well worth the investment.
So there's nothing much to add except to say please consider getting your butts down to Blakesley Hall in time for this excellent exhibition. It is a low-key evocative reminder of the sacrifices made during that grim period. Congratulations and thanks to all involved.
For anyone not interested in the First World War, get your butts down to Blakesley Hall anyway. It's one of the most wonderful historical sites in the Midlands, and you won't regret visiting for a second.
Photographs and taken by Graham High, © 2014. YouTube Videos rights belong to their respective owners.
