History West Midlands On Air History West Midlands

No character in Worcester’s long history is so immediately and so intimately linked with the city as is Edward Elgar. Music lovers all over the world associate him with the Malvern Hills and his beloved Worcestershire. He was a complex figure in whom a craving for social success and recognition vied with a resentment that he would always be considered a provincial outsider. But however famous he became, however many honours were bestowed on him, and however much he was lauded as a society darling, he nevertheless always returned to the well-spring of his creativity, Worcestershire, Worcester and its splendid cathedral.
The bronze statue opposite the Cathedral, and the stained-glass window in the Cathedral itself, memorialise one of Worcester’s favourite and most famous sons, the local man who led the renaissance of English music in the twentieth century and whose compositions to this day, more than those of any other musician, popularly embody the emotions of patriotic pride and fervour. 

In the mud and blood of the Western Front, military chaplains fought to bring solace and hope, amongst the most famous of them was Worcester vicar the Reverend Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy - known as Woodbine Willie. 
Volunteering in 1914 as a zealous fighting man, he told his congregation 'there can be no shirking'. But he soon saw the futility of the conflict writing: ' Waste of blood, waste of tears: waste on youths most precious years".
As the conflict progressed, he focussed all his energy on bringing help and comfort and his trademark became his 'box of fags', as he distributed cigarettes with reckless bravery which won him a military cross.
Surviving the war, Woodbine Willy returned to Worcester to become a popular vicar crusading for social justice.
Historian and author of 'Worcester Moments', Andrew Reekes tell his story.

The burial of Prince Arthur in Worcester Cathedral in 1502 changed British history forever.
The eldest son of Henry VII, educated as a renaissance Prince and married to Catherine of Aragon, he seemed destined to lead England into a new era. But soon after his marriage he died of fever and historians are left to ponder what if...?
What is Arthur had lived and his younger brother Henry had not become Henry VIII?
Historian and author of Worcester moments explored this story.

Birmingham was transformed between 1850 and 1900. Though in 1850 a fast-growing, prosperous manufacturing centre, it was an unplanned, insanitary muddle of a town; by the end of the nineteenth century however it was renowned both as ‘the best governed town in the country’ and as ‘the most artistic town in England.’ An environmental revolution enacted by Mayor Joseph Chamberlain in the early 1870s ensured Birmingham was ‘parked, paved, assized, marketed, gas and watered and improved.’ He and his supporters on the town council were inspired to act to improve the living conditions of Birmingham people by George Dawson, influential minister at the Church of the Saviour, who preached the mission of the ‘civic gospel’. But Dawson also taught that it was the duty of the wealthy, talented businessmen to civilise citizens, to educate, to promote intellectual opportunities, and to cultivate aesthetic appreciation.
This talk by Andrew Reekes is concerned with those Dawson disciples – men largely ignored in standard accounts of the civic gospel in Birmingham - who set about providing schools, adult learning opportunities, libraries, a unique Shakespeare Memorial Library, a museum and art gallery, as well as the foremost art and design schools in the land. More than in any other British city, this cultural and intellectual efflorescence was administered by the town council and its councillors; many of them were the same men who had campaigned for new educational and aesthetic initiatives and who generously gave to the cause. It is a story that deserves to be recorded.
Keywords: George Dawson, civic gospel, Andrew Reekes, Birmingham

Wyre Piddle, Dag Tail End, Cofton Hackett, Finstall and Inkberrow.
Just a few of the strangely intriguing names found on the signposts pointing along the lanes leading to the hamlets, villages and towns of Worcestershire in the rural heart of England.  Each name is special. Every one of them hints at stories of people and events which shaped this quintessentially English county centuries ago. But what do they all mean? What mysteries lie here? Who named these hills and rivers?
These voices form the past have been painstakingly unlocked in a new book by retired medical doctor, Mike Jenkins, in his new book The History of Place Names in England and Worcestershire which is now available from bookshops and Amazon.
Keywords: Worcestershire; Mike Jenkins; places

As Britain emerged into the mid-twentieth century, change is everywhere. Cities were shifting from smog-filled industrial hubs to more efficient centres of commerce and, despite the country once again being blighted by war, society was shifting towards a more modern, forward-thinking era. But change was not limited to these ordinary men and women; under the surface, the criminal underbelly, too, was evolving, anxious to exploit new opportunities.
And so, in the third instalment of his best-selling series, historian Carl Chinn examines this new era in the landscape of Britain's gangs. After the violent reign of the Peaky Blinders, the intimidation of the Birmingham gang and frequent gang wars up and down the country, from the wreckage new groups are emerging with new ways of making money and causing trouble, and, like those who came before them, they left havoc and destruction in their wake.
In our new podcast Birmingham social historian and author Carl Chinn reveals this violent and murky world and its social consequences.
Keywords: Peaky Blinders, Carl Chinn