Author: suzannecarter

You did?   Well here is your chance to see it again. 

You can now watch the entire Dudley Performing Arts dance and drama production online (it’s in 3 parts, so you can even have an interval and make yourself a cuppa!).

Featuring real life stories of local residents, this charming and entertaining production looks back on Brierley Hill’s past and celebrates its modern changes.

This is a recording of the live performance at the Brierley Hill Civic Hall in February 2011 – part of the Brierley Hillness project.

The production features Buzz Youth Theatre and children from Quarry Bank, Blanford Mere, Belle Vue and Withymoor Primary Schools.

http://brierleyhillnesstoolkit.wordpress.com/creative-community-responses/live-performance/one-boy-one-town-one-big-idea/

Well done again to all the young people and children involved.

“All the big firms they all had a social club. I mean Round Oak social club we used to go dancing there as a teenager, I used to have dances every Friday night… and then Marsh’s one, that’s still standing… and they all had their football teams, and the cricket teams and they used to have outings and children’s parties… I can remember going to children’s parties at the brickyard where dad worked. So it was very much involved, there was all this involvement… There was this sort of sense of pride…and competition.”

 Jeanette Grazier, Stourbridge (from audio recording)

 “It was a farm of grassed-over pit banks… Ken Thomas (the farmer) used to keep Devon Red cattle… so in those fields on a nice sunny evening you could have the light reflecting off these Devon Red cattle… it was lovely. When they moved out… saw Cis once, that’s his wife, and, you know… apparently the story was she never came back to Merry Hill when they left… she never saw it. “Hello Cis, how you doing?” “Oh, alright”, she says “Not come back have yer? “No”, she says “they’ve put some shops there haven’t they?”

Dave Galley, Brierley Hill (from audio recording)

For more memories gathered during the Brierley Hillness project visit

http://brierleyhillnesstoolkit.wordpress.com/creative-community-responses/memories/audio-extracts/

Visit this site for live performance, artwork, memories and photos about the town – and add your own!

A poem about Round Oak Steel Works.

 

 

The Silk Scarf

A poem by Jan Yorke

Our dad used to work there
Once when burning ingots rolled along the factory floor
Slowly moving onward without rush

Our dad used to work there
When tapped out furnace fires
Gave the sky a glory glow
And filled the clouds with dust

Our dad used to work there
When heat and sulphur filled
His lungs with every breath
And clinker clung like sweat

Our dad used to work there
When men of steel spilled through the gates
And filled the pub to quench their heavy thirst

Our dad used to work there
A flash of white silk scarf around his neck
At his dirty filthy worst

Our dad used to work there
Upon the fiery hill of Brierley town

Our dad used to work there
And then they closed it down.

For more poetry inspired by Brierley Hill visit http://brierleyhillnesstoolkit.wordpress.com/creative-community-responses/poetry/

Visit this site for live performance, artwork, memories and photos about the town – and add your own!

Easter Holiday fun: Get creative with the Brierley Hillness project

Free Hand art workshop and face painting
Date: Tuesday 19 April

Time: 10-12 & 1-3
Location: Artspace, Mill Street, Brierley Hill

Come and put your hand print on the Brierley Hill tree. Children will get the chance to put their decorated hand prints on the Brierley Hill tree and also tell us what they like and dislike about where they live!

A great chance to find out what kids really want from Brierley Hill in the future.  

Have your face painted during the workshop.

Adults can take part in a Mural painting workshop with artist in resident DJ while they wait. No experience required!

To avoid disappointment; reserve a place on the workshop by dropping in to Artspace and signing up, or calling 07866 404885. Or just turn up on day.

Brierley Hillness is a community arts and heritage project where the people of Brierley Hill can reflect on the past and help shape the future.

Since January, Artspace in Mill Street has been opening on a Tuesday for people to come and work with resident mural artist DJ on a wall mural all about Brierley Hill. Local residents and budding artists from across the Borough have been having a go at painting some of the iconic buildings of the town and memories associated with it – from the five stacks of Round Oaks to the Chapel Street Estate- the community in Brierley Hill have been telling us what should be in the mural – to capture the ‘spirit’ of the town. The mural is just one way we hope to be able to help developers of the future understand what Brierley Hill is all about and what is important about the town’s buildings, places and spaces for the people who live there.

With only a couple of weeks left to go before the mural is finished, we want to give people who haven’t been able to make the Tuesday workshops the opportunity to make their mark on this exciting piece of community-led art.

Artspace, 8 Mill Street, Brierley Hill (off the High Street) will be opening on Saturday 16 April from 1pm-4pm. Just turn up and have a go – no experience necessary.

Final two days to get involved  in painting the mural are: Tuesday 19 and Tuesday 26 April.