A rose and a billycock

Carmen Hanson presenting a rose to Counci l lor John Silk to mark a bygone custom of Balsall Heath. Festival organisers J an Brookes is wearing one of the "Fred"

T-shirts that Councillor Silk handed over in return.

I'm A

BALSALL.

HeATHAn

ANCIENT CEREMONY OF GOODWILL RE-ENACTED

by JANE HOLDEN

A N age-old ceremony, last seen in Balsall Heath more than .100 years ago, was re-enacted to cement a "goodwill bond"

between the Balsall Heath Festival and Birmingham Corporation's own two-week festival called Fred.

To m a r k t h e occasion, eight-year-old Balsal l H e a t h a n Carmen H a n ­son presented a single rose to Councillor John Silk, cha i rman of t h e c i ty 's P a r k s Commit tee , outs ide fest ival head­q u a r t e r s a t 8, Upper Cox S t r ee t .

In return, Coun. Silk presented two "Fred" tee-shirts to festival organiser Jan Brookes—each shirt emblazoned with the sym-bol of a flower growing from an, upturned bowler hat.

Coun. Silk said: this Is the symbolic re-enactment of

particularly fine bloom which seemed to be suffering from the. heat, Coun. Silk said: "I only hope that Fred will be the success that the Balsall Heath Festival so obviously is."

Fred starts on September 8, and will, we are assured, be a fortnight of riotous and eccentric delight.

LAST PARTY This evening, residents of

Upper Cox Street were Join­ing in the last street party of the festival, complete with cakes and beer and lots of bunting loaned by the Parks Department — much it looking suspicious Aston Villa's

Folk t h o r p e c o

group Flower, Folk and Fa will appear} in the park ii three until six p.m, there be a children's procession the streets and, later

Lrish Rovers ceilidh ba make a guest appear the park.

Evening Mail, Thursday,

Kirsty Shekle ton h a n d i n g round the l e m o n a d e while Frode S to raas provides mus ic for t h e picnic in Mary Street .

Even the smallest member of the " broom and shovel" brigade lent a hand in the

clean-up.

Clean sweep by 'broom brigade'

by JANE HOLDEN "BALSALL H e a t h 's

"broom - a n d - shovel b r igade" of m o t h e r s and ch i ld ren m a r c h e d out in Mary S t r e e t on a s u m m e r ­t ime sp r ing-c lean ing spree.

And, after an hour or so of sweeping and singing in the sunshine, they held a picnic and decided tha t "Mary Street has never been cleaner."

Childrn started the street-cleaning party by going along the road, knocking on doors and inviting everyone to come out and help.

Balsall Heath Festival helpers handed out brooms, strummed guitars to help the work, and fetched festival lorryq Zebedee to cart away dustbins filled with collected rubbish.

Even bystanders studying form outside the local 'betting shop were persuaded to put away the racing page and sing a few choruses of the Balsall Heath song.

SAT BACK • Then, the Balsall Heathans

sat back to admire their 1 handiwork.

Said one woman, whose children had been sweeping away with the best of the "I've, never seen Mary St

look cleaner " Pots of tea, sandwiches and

other goodies ware fetched from indoors, and Mary Street

- residents settled down to a -picnic party on their own doorsteps.

Festival helpers will be run-ning other street-cleaning-cum-tea-parties all over Bal-sall Heath during the coming weeks.

B Mail 2/7/69

Balsall

Heathan

T h e Festival lapel badge. Six thousand have been

pr in ted .

BRIAN PRIESTLEY looks at the serious

thinking behind the Balsall Heath Festival,

which is inviting the people of a twilight

area to have four weeks of fun.

If you want to be Archduke of Balsall Heath.

Children's story-tellers, pop concerts, picnics, folk dancing, s p o r t s , town criers, and film shows. They have printed 6,000

yellow lapel badges bearing the title: " I ' m a Balsall Heathan."

Titles . . . With a bit of luck, painted

s h i e l d s on the lamp standards will tell the traveller he is entering the proud suburb of Balsall Heath.

And anyone with £50 will be able to purchase the glorious and unique title of Archduke of Balsall Heath. People with rather less will be able to buy more modest titles in the Balsall Heath peerage.

The w h o l e fantastic

scheme began with Anne Harwig, a 23-year-old Dutch student who r e c e n t l y undertook a survey in the area. The work made her deeply sad.

She said: " I t was so depressing. I met so many women who worked all day and spent all .the evening bringing up children or doing housework, and they had no energy for anything else.

" I thought what the area needed was cheering up."

Booster Miss Harwig was staying

with Jan Brookes, whom you may think of as a television personality more than a woman much concerned with social work.

They discussed the problem all through an evening,

drinking countless cups of coffee on a green rug in front of the fire.

" We began with the fact that everybody seemed so depressed — and we thought that what Balsall Heath needed w a s a morale booster," says Miss Brookes.

" The trouble is that Balsall Heath has a certain sort of image and many of the people who live there have come to believe in it.

" So we thought 'Let's have a Festival, let's have some fun'.

" The first reaction of most

local people is cynical. But when you explain it they usually start beaming and say 'Good luck to you, let's hope it works'."

Help

Anne Ha rw ig ( l e f t ) and

|an Brookes outside the

house in Upper Cox

Street, Balsall Heath , in

which they are to set

up their Festival H.Q.

The festival now has solid roots in Balsall Heath. Local

churches, tradesmen, pub­licans, teachers, and social workers are busily helping .to organise .their share of the fun month.

What can go wrong? Off-hand, the organisers can imagine that hundreds of minor hitches could happen. One major danger they worry about is that not enough of the ideas, or the action, may come from Balsall Heath people.

" We want ideas and help from as many local people as possible — we want every­body to join in," says Miss Brookes.

" If there is anybody we have not contacted they can find me at 101, Salisbury Road, Moseley, or phone me at 449 5481. We want ail the local help we can get — and we are short of money, too."

The other major snag is tha t the festival could draw large crowds of sightseers from outside the area —and become an occasion for everybody.

Others? Miss Harwig said: "The

point is that this is ' for Balsall Heath people — if other districts want a festival why don't they organise It for themselves ? "

Perhaps she raises some large questions.

Is it right for Balsall

Heath to try to cheer itself up? Is it sensible to bring pavement cafes and music into one of the drabber areas of Birmingham?

And if you agree the idea is good — .then why on earth don't the rest of us get busy with the job of brightening up S m a l l Heath, or Duddeston, or Handsworth?

The Balsall Heath festival is really an appeal to the imagination and sense of fun , of local people. But for those of us who live in other parts of Birmingham, it may be a challenge as well

Happiness

The hopeful thing is that so far it seems to be working.

Jane S p a e t h is an American student who is busy raising support for the festival.

At home she has worked o n s e r i o u s , e a r n e s t community projects aimed at tackling the problem of areas very like Balsall Heath.

" I always felt useless," she :-' said. "Bu t this thing is fine — I really believe it is going to work.

" I t is about time people realised that living, that being happy, is j u s t a s important as having your sewage taken care of.

"If people can just be happy then the other things 1 will be so much easier to put 1 up with."

ONE pavement cafe will be outside a

Methodist c h u r c h . There, folk will lounge on sunny afternoons, watching the world go by in Balsall Heath.

For children, a nearby demolition site is about to become a Wild West town complete with saloon, bar­ber's shop, and sheriff's office.

And almost every evening in Balsall Heath soon there will be music or parties in the streets.

On July 19, the amazing Balsall Heath Festival will be launched with support from more than 25 local organ­isations, the police, and the City Council.

Reputation

I t as a project you can either greet with a grin or discuss with earnestness. The whole thing is hilariously serious, significantly funny.

No one yet knows whether it will succeed or fail. But the question must be: Isn't this just one of the best ideas anyone has thought of for years?

Consider the old reputation of the area, the rubbish in the

.streets, the local complaints over housing, and sewage, And lack of amenities.

Well, from July 19, Balsall heath will have a month of: Wandering folk singers, arts, children's plays and

e n t e r t a i n m e n t s , public competitions',

cessions, car rides for b a l l o o n s and

s, street parties;

Norwegian volunteer Frode Stores strumming a guitar as "music-while-you-paint" for children and neig

Setting up H.Q.- a

paint and tea party

I 'm A

BALSALL

HeAThAn

Evening Mail Reporter IT was " all bands to the paint brushes" at 8, Upper

Cox Street, Balsall Heath, as children, neighbours and an international group of volunteers joined forces to get ready for Saturday.

Rented for a month from Birmingham Corporation, the house is to be "Operational H.Q." for the Balsall Heath Festival, which starts on July 19.

Miss Jan Brookes, one of the Festival organisers, said: " Seven young people will be living here throughout the festival, helping to run the street parties, dancing, games in the parks, children's com­petitions and the hundred-and-one other things that will go to make up our summer fun in Balsall Heath."

Young volunteers were painting the house inside and out in rainbow colours, putting up posters, sawing, nailing and brewing endless cups of tea for helpers.

Miss Brookes, added: "The children pop in on their way from school, and lend a hand

1 with everything. " Some of the painting is

quite remarkable." Among the helpers living .

the house during the Festi-

val are Miss Jazmyn Chelliah, from Ceylon, Mr. Frode Storas from Norway, Miss Anne Harwig from ' Holland, and Mr. John Oliver from America.

With "a bit of breathing space" still to go before the fun starts, helpers and chil­dren took time out to sing along with Mr. Storas, who improvises with a guitar and a kazoo.

" We want everyone to enjoy themselves as much as we do," said Miss Harwig, as she went to make yet more tea.

Facelift for Balsall Heath

Plans to redevelop part of the condemned area of Balsall Heath which is bounded by Balsall Heath Road, Moseley Road and Court Road and include some of the worst slum houses remaining in Birmingham will be put before the Hous­ing Committee on Thursday.

The committee will • be asked to approve plans for 446 houses. 110 low rise flats and ten bungalows. Most of the condemned houses are already owned by the Cor­poration.

Chi ldren playing in Ca l thorpe P a r k nea r one of t he s t r u c t u r e s provided as p a r t of the Balsall Hea th

CRICKET, POP

AND PICNICS HeATHAn

It's festival fun everywhere

by JANE HOLDEN

"BALSALL Heathans, from the oldest inhabitant down to the' smiling five-year-old who tried to

take the hub caps off my car, are taking a delighted "Whatever next?" view of their home-grown fun festival.

Festival organisers this week released a printed pro­gramme of events for the next couple of weeks, with 'he printed proviso: "When things go wrong, we just laugh . . ."

Most events listed take place in the festival centre a t Calthorpe Park, where chil­dren play daily and pop groups play almost every night.

From 5 o'clock today, War-wickshire cricketer Billy Ibadulla, with a hand-picked star XI, was to play a match against a Balsall Heath team in the park.

Later, it has to be a great night for the Irish, who were staging a grand entertain¬

ment centred around the Birmingham Irish pipe Band, the Irish Rovers Ceilih Band, and various singers

! and dancers. TREE KNITTERS

, But though the park is the pulse-beat of events, the festival is happening all over.

On Saturday, Balsall Heathans who know the difference between purl and plain will be taking part in a tree-knitting marathon, which calls upon knit ters to

settle in the lower branches of trees and go on knitting until their wool touches the ground.

Those with an eye for art will be going along to the corner of Edward Road and Court Road, where Balsall Heathans are preparing a communal festival painting to be presented to the City Council.

Besides each day's special events, there are all sorts of things going on all the time.

PICNICS Every Sunday is picnic day

in Balsall Heath. when families are invited to take sandwiches along to the park and share the fun — and food — with their neighbours.

Public houses arc joining in with darts and dominoes contests. competitions for drinking yards of ale, and wrist-wrestling bouts.

A photographic contest is being run and there is a Parisian - flavoured pavement cafe outside Moseley Road Methodist Church.

From the local days champions to the young clambering over and Edwar Erving's sculp s in Calth the all Heath