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| 10
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| Season:
Autumn 2001 |
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| Vol:
34 |
| No.
4 |
| Year:
2001 |
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| Editorial: |
FIVE new contributors' articles are included in this issue which together with items from our regular writers covers a wide range of topics including a ground breaking one, the first of a series.
Black Country Personality No. 53, Charles Leonard York, a Smethwick-born man who became a mountaineer, fell off the Matterhorn and lived, has told me his story of Black Country spirit and the will to live and have a useful life despite being paralysed from the neck down. I hope that sometime during the coming season one branch of the Society at least will have the opportunity of hearing his slide illustrated lecture.
The Society's advantageous association with Sutton Publishing Limited continues in several ways. There is a continuing programme of books about the Black Country to be published, see page 77, and we are again receiving help from that Publisher in the preparation of the Society's 2002 Calendar. The first of the programme's new books is Dr. Paul Collins's superb Black Country Canals. The Society provides a postal service for members who may order Sutton Black Country books from the Society at cover price with the Society meeting the postage and packing charge. A reprint of our Black Country Nurse at Large by the late Edith Cotterill is imminent and we have two more books in an advanced stage of preparation.
The Black Country Society Living Museum - "Living Museum of the Year - 2001" in The Good Britain Guide Awards, continues to develop with exciting additions. There are new schemes afoot, brief details of which are given on pages 68-9 together with a programme of special events in the remainder of 2001. The Society's representative of the Museum Board, Ron Julian, has negotiated with the Museum Administration a "Two for the Price of One" offer. Look for the voucher enclosed with this magazine.
This is the 53rd issue of The Blackcountryman which I have edited since I succeeded my distinguished predecessor and founder of the magazine, Harold Parsons (he edited 83 issues), on my retirement from Dudley's Education Service exactly 13 years ago. Thus two people have taken "The Premier Magazine of the Black Country" (A Black Country mon doe cry stinkin' fish!) from 1968 into the new millennium.
I notified the Committee that I would like to retire as soon as possible after my 50th magazine and a search was begun to find a successor. Eventually David Cox, who joined the Committee a couple of years ago emerged and he will take responsibility for the magazine from the December 2001 issue (Vol. 35 No. 1). Aged 38, David is a graduate of Birmingham University (Ancient History and Archaeology), has obtained an MA (0.U.) in History, and is now well into Ph.D. research. He has contributed several fine articles to the magazine on locations and events near his birthplace: Wordsley Brewery, Wordsley Hospital, Amblecote Hall, The Murder at Dunsley Hall and the Roman Camp at Greensforge.
I would like to place on record my sincere thanks to all who have contributed to my retirement hobby being such a satisfying and happy time. So many people have come forward to help in some way or other that pages would be needed to record them all, but they include Officers and members of the Society's Committee, past Presidents and members of the Society, already established and well over 200 new contributors, advertisers and members of the branches, staff at Sutton Publishing and staff of local newspapers.
I must however, mention two people: Jean my wife who has been a constant support and Martyn Round our printer. Like the Church of England with the appointment of a married priest, who gets "two for the 'price' of one" so has the Society with me. Over 13 years, Jean has absorbed the Society's ethos by a process similar to passive smoking. Martyn Round, after more than 50 years at Reliance Printing Works recently retired from business. He was involved with the production of every one of the 136 issues of The Blackcountryman, and most of the other Society's publications since the founding, and during my tenure has become a good friend and unofficial assistant editor. His quiet contribution to the Society's progress is inestimable. This was recognised at the 1999 AGM when he was made an Honorary Life Member.
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| 10
things you can read about in this month's issue: |
| Aspects of Victorian Pensnett - Lionel Gregory |
| Cradley and the Diamond Jubilee - Peter Barnsley |
| How Green is my Black Country? - Peter R. Shirley |
| Star Gathering at the BC Museum - David Evans |
| Bombelles in Britain - Joseph Hunt |
| The Secret Waters of Bilston Road - Terry Langford |
| Mary Stevens Hospice - Stan Hill |
| The Pitman's Dissent - poem |
| The Mystery of the Novelty Glassworks - Peter Skidmore |
| The Abberley Experience - Old West Bromwich 'Un |
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