Restoring Birmingham’s Long Lost Heritage
29 April 2008
A grant from two local trusts will help to restore a piece of Birmingham’s long lost heritage in Bournville.
The Bournville Almshouse Trust is renovating the stonework, iron railings and ornamental gates around the Almshouse Trust in Mary Vale Road which were removed in the 1940s as part of the war effort to recycle iron.
The new railings will be hand crafted using traditional blacksmith skills, reviving the dying industries of stonemasonry and wrought iron work. One panel of railings will be left out as a reminder of the part played by ordinary people in the Second World War.
The Almshouse Trust which is a Grade II listed building, was established by Richard Cadbury in 1898 and its bungalows are managed and let by Bournville Almshouse Trust to provide a home for people in need.
The project will be complete by the end of May and will cost over £50,000, all of which has been provided by the CH and HH Taylor Trust and the WA Cadbury Trust.
The restoration of the railings will help with tourism as it is the final stage of an improvement programme which fully restores a significant group of listed buildings, within the Bournville Conservation area. Some 500,000 tourists per year already visit Cadbury World, which is only half a mile from the Almshouse Trust. Bournville Village Trust also hosts visits from around the world for specialist groups who come to learn about sustainable communities and the garden city movement.
Bob Stanton Head of Housing at Bournville Village Trust said: "As well as improving a site of significant heritage importance we are helping to improve the lives of the people who live in the Almshouse bungalows. HRH the Duke of Gloucester who visited the Almshouses two years ago, commented on the benefits that the work will make to the area."
