Interests

Particular areas of interest so far are the pre-rail and natural history stories, including the allotments and 'wild' area at the approach end.

The 1950s plan doesn't give much clue to that banking (the 1897 and 1914 OS maps do indicate it, though) but it does have marked 'GH Dykes Coal Office' on the opposite side of the road and 'Pratts Depot' and 'Shell Mex Depot' in the now wooded area.

The growth and decline of the railway and the associated languages (visual and written) also interests me.

Arrangements

Yes, 'posting / sorting / delivering' is brilliant! Let's go with that.

FUNCTIONALITY

A. the blog is the key. It is a research conversation between the two of us which is also open to BPN and other project partners (who are free to 'sort' as and when is useful to their needs, and outside of the design team workshop sessions).

B. the take-away publication for the July consultation is a highlights summary taken from the blog.

C. our original material for the blog (visuals and texts) resources future museum display.

Bricks and Dags

The goods shed bricks I think are in English Bond and those wooden valences are called dags apparently.

Fault Line, Field names & Holte

Birmingham Archives have a few maps of use. Quick and very crude overlay attached puts the site mainly on land owned by Sir John Lister Holte of Aston Hall in the mid 1700s. Also attached is an excerpt from the 1977 map of 1760 fields that they have at Birmingham and the site is mainly in 'Spring Close' and 'Eight Acres'. The name Tudor Hill doesn't seem to appear on maps until after about 1860.

On matters geological, the BGS map of the area shows a fault line running across the site north south roughly along the line of the underground sewer. The fault seperates Kidderminster formation sandstone from Bromsgrove formation sandstone.

Archives & 'Posting / Sorting / Delivering'

The library local history section had quite a lot of interesting stuff which I won't go into detail with now but just to whet your appetite includes: King George VI and Queen Mary sleeping on the Royal Train in the Sutton Park sidings; a fairly detailed drawing of the station yard buildings owners/uses; documents about the proposal for the railway including a map with the line overlaying the fields, 'Opened by Censors'.

One other thing I noticed was in the gardens to the right as you leave the site (where we looked at the level change) there is a stream/ditch (with running water) that heads for the site. I guess this might be the underground sewer as there is no other waterway marked. I also can't see anything in the way of gravel pits marked on maps in the low areas although some odd embankments are marked at the end of the site.

In terms of approach how about Posting / Sorting / Delivering? Posting is the research phase when we literally post information to the blog. Sorting the information is for useable material, and then Delivering is about the deliverables. In terms of the work, things hinge a bit on what others want us to put forward for the July consultation.

Site Visit #1

Site Visit #1