Bournville Village

In 1879 George and Richard Cadbury moved their family chocolate making business out of the centre of Birmingham to 4 miles outside the city. They began to build homes for their workers, moving them out of the city slums, known as 'back to backs', into well designed homes with pleasant gardens. This became the Bournville Village Trust, which still exists to maintain the original ethos of the Cadbury brothers. Last Saturday I visited Bournville to take some photographs and collect research.

 The school buildings are on an impressive scale which reflects the Cadburys' strong belief in a good education for all.

 The attention to detail, on even the smaller houses is very noticeable. Short cuts such as cheap mass produced doors and windows have not been used to save money. There are many different styles and shapes. Even where common elements are used, they are presented in different ways, to ensure each house appears to have an individual style.

The larger homes have even more individual features such as overhanging eaves and dutch style gables.

MA Art & Design Introduction

BA Graphic Design in the 1970's - The 'Olden Days'.....

Working in Information Graphics in the 1980's......

  

 Teaching for 21 years - little time for own work.....

 

Great Art Room  - wonderful colleagues - lovely students....

Upping sticks back to Birmingham, Moseley to be precise.....

Digging deeper into the past......

Library of Birmingham

 The new Library of Birmingham is the biggest in Europe and opened on Tuesday 3rd September. The interior is impressive and the roof terraces are stunning.

Moseley Folk Festival 2013

Moseley Park hosted the annual folk festival from August 30th to September 1st.

J R R Tolkien's Childhood Birmingham

J R R Tolkien spent his formative years in Birmingham. Between the ages of 4 and 8 he lived next to the 18th Century Sarehole Mill. It was the inspiration for Hobbiton. Tolkien was one of the contributors to the public appeal which saved Sarehole in the 1960s. It has now been restored to a fully working mill.

Moseley Bog was situated only a few minutes walk from Tolkien's home and it represented an untamed wild place. It inspired 'The Forest' in 'The Lord of the Rings'. In it's centre is a 3,000 year old site, the 'Burnt Mounds'.

17th Century Dovecote, Moseley, Birmingham

Yinka Shonibare at Yorkshire Sculpture Park