I began the day by stopping into St. Phillip's Church, completed in 1715, to view the Pre-Raphaelite-inspired stained glass windows designed by Birmingham-born artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones.
I then took the 50 Bus to St. Anne's Church in Digbeth, a neighborhood which is currently undergoing redevelopment. For much of its history, Digbeth has been Irish and poor. If my information is correct, St. Anne's Church is where my parents first met, at a dance. The church was built in 1884 on the site of an old distillery. The writer J.R.R Tolkien attended service at St. Anne's, when he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1900. I stopped into the Birmingham Irish Association, next door to the church, and spoke with a woman who explained that the Irish dances in the 1950s took place in the building adjoining the Birmingham Irish Association. She could not show me the hall just then because it was being used for a meeting, but I snuck a peek.
I then walked to Mosely Road, only a few minutes away. Before my parents moved to the neighbourhood of Aston, they rented a room on Mosely Road presumably in Digbeth. Today, I discovered, traversing it via the 50 Bus, that Mosely Road is a very long road. Close to St. Anne's Church, Mosely Road is a neighbourhood with a lot of Irish. Then, for a very long stretch, Mosely Road morphs into a north African neighbourhood, occupied mostly, it seems, by Moroccans. Finally Mosely Road ends up in a gentrified area, where I stopped for a salad and an Americano at Maison Mayci, manged by two brothers from France.
This evening I am going out for a pint at the Shakespeare Inn, which a taxi driver recommended, telling me to put away my camera and meet some people. Tomorrow I return to London. What a wonderful few days it has been in this amazing city, home of, among other things, Bird's Custard, HP Sauce, Cadbury Chocolate, and Black Sabbath. I hope to return again before long.
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| Entrance to St. Anne's Church |
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The Building on Far Left was the Dance Hall
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| Entrance to the Dance Hall |
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Building with a Cross was the Dance Hall
Where my Parents Reportedly First Met |
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| Black Sabbath, Four Lads from Aston |
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| Back in the City Centre |
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| Entrance to Primark Store |
What history you have shared for me and your siblings. To actually walk the places where our parents met and lived melts the years away for me and must of been very emotional for you as just seeing the pictures did it for me. You have the gift of story telling but then, again, it is the Irish way.
ReplyDeleteIf I can't be there then these posts are the next best thing. I see it is raining so right before the heat wave. The churches are just amazing to look at.
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