Posting

Agree about the idea of using a blog. It is a nice simple way to share files if nothing else, but also its chronological structure will show how the picture we create builds over time.

The question about the 1st Base Post Office was more to do with the site limitations. Why, given the need to keep expanding the accommodation, did they select such a confined site. Surely there was somewhere equally well connected but with much space. Could be that BPO was never meant to expand to such an incredible extent. Having said this, given the problems encountered by the Americans, why did the British then use the site for the same purpose? Is it just proximity to railway and location near centre of country?

Birmingham Z

I put Birmingham Z at the top in the end as I felt that this is why we are here. Birmingham Z came before the mail sorting as I seem to recall it was a railway spur that gave its name to the site.

Military Sutton

Why did the US come to Sutton Coldfield? Not sure, but it is centrally located and far enough away from significant industrial cities to avoid bombing raids.

Also military activities have been associated with SC/Sutton Park since at least the 19th century...

Ryknield Street, built as part of the Roman conquest of the West Midlands, just after AD 43, was a military road joining forts at Wall (near Lichfield) and Metchley, on Vincent Drive in Edgbaston. The road comes through north Birmingham by way of Handsworth, Perry Barr and Kingstanding entering Sutton Park near Banners Gate. It crosses the bog, heathland and golf course on the west side, leaving on the north side of the park.

The Park was used for military training in the 19th century. There was a volunteer camp near Streetly and a firing range was established near Westwood Coppice.

In the First World War, huts were built, first for the Birmingham City Battalion and then as convalescent camps for the Australian and New Zealand wounded. There was also a prisoner of war camp near Longmoor Pool.

22/04/1918 Pup B5943, of 28 Training Squadron, dived into the ground while attacking a target in Sutton Park killing the pilot, Sgt Henry Joseph Birtles.

In the Second World War, the Park was used as a training ground for the regular troops and the Home Guard, for testing tanks and as an internee camp for Italians and Germans.

"This tablet is erected to commemorate the occupation of this park from 1914 to 1920 by His Majesty's troops. The park was placed at the disposal of H.M. government entirely free.
Over 50,000 of H.M. troops occupied the various camps constructed. The Birmingham city battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment received their training here and were followed
by other units. For a considerable period the camps were used for convalescent officers and men -- and New Zealand troops also were in occupation prior to their return home. The council of the royal town received the thanks of the War Office for their patriotic action."

See also:

http://www.lhi.org.uk/docs/Walking_in_their_Footsteps.pdf
http://www.mikekemble.com/sutton/park1.html
http://www.fospa.org.uk/47ad.html
http://www.prismbrands.com/giventake.pdf

Sorting Office Plan

The 'plan' jpeg is the layout of processes as mentioned earlier using the website as a repository and sorting office. This then leads to the various potential outputs, milestones.


At the top of 'plan' I've used 'outward' and 'inward' this is/was the rough sorting into mail that would go onto lorries and go far afield (outward) and items for the 'walks' i.e. local would be 'inward'. Seems a nice way to separate the two sections but keep them in our depot. By the way is the site a Sorting Office or a Delivery Office?

Postal rounds are/were apparently referred to as 'walks'.

The document below is an attempt to rationalise themes so far and find some key ones to help identify our etiquettes. Please add further subjects. Going with matters postal I wonder if: Address - refers to matters of place; Sender - people; Item - machines and objects; etc. Any thoughts? I definitely agree that our sorting office should contain all manner of things and if at the end of the day it isn't used we just bag it up and pile it outside the shed (obviously others can have a quick rummage first).


One thing that has been nagging at me. Why on earth did the US army choose this site as their main postal centre? And the British army seemed to follow (how long was this for?).

Sorting Office

Website as chanced upon sorting office "filling up with all manner of information and then we direct it to where that knowledge is required". This is a great metaphor. And from that, everything becomes possible.

Need to agree on the sorting categories...landscape, history, social history, etc., but find better and more imaginative terms to work with. Like the phrase 'air mail etiquettes' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airmail_etiquette], and maybe we agree a set of new etiquettes. It would be great to work on one of these projects via the notion of etiquettes! It would also be good to have a sorting office that was big enough and random enough to include, for example, a history of Francis J. Field. Such off-site but related 'etiquettes' would help broaden the context.

And yes, what the work is also about the wider Sutton Coldfield context and beyond (otherwise it will all become claustrophobic and over precious!).

Much better for us to work on content development which (as you say) "we direct it to where that knowledge is required." This does mean that we will have to have an opinion on everything, but why change the habit of a lifetime!

Yes about the ecology etc. and the link to the Park. We have to make this connection even if the development can't.

Repository

Agree with the website as a repository for findings but should it remain something that could be chanced upon or do we advertise it through various fora, local media, etc.? Like the idea that the website becomes a sorting office in itself, filling up with all manner of information and then we direct it to where that knowledge is required.

From reading LfV the main thing to glean is the thorough integration of the Americans into the life and landscape of Sutton Coldfield (not always welcome but the book on the whole does make it sound quite rosy at times). This firmly supports the need for the work to spread out from the site. What about a treasure trail of things that could be visited / collected with the idea of letterboxing in mind, see: http://www.dartmoorletterboxing.org. Participants could collect the 'stamps' to get a reward. The stamp designs being artworks in themselves.

Keen (as always!) to bring in the natural history side of things and feel that there are a few options at the wooded end of the site. Maybe as simple as putting allotments back there for rental by people who live on the development. But this area could also act as a bridge to the theme of the Park.

Land Ownership

Tudor Hill first appears as a named road in the 1871 census when it contained seven properties. I suspect that the land was originally part of the 185 acres being farmed by John Wiggan of Park House in 1861. Park House could be the building your map shows as being in The Barn Close. It still exists as the 'Toby Carvery' (!) at Town Gate, Sutton Park.

By 1871, Wiggan was farming only 150 acres. After his death in 1875, his wife Harriet continued to live at Park House although it no longer seems to be a farm, and she died in 1891.

In 1880, a Matthew Overton commissioned the architect H. E. Lavender to build him a house on Tudor Hill. Lavender is one of those really interesting architects. This house for Overton could well be Lavender's first professional commission.

By 1881, Tudor Hill is mainly middle class occupation: solicitors, gunmaker (the nephew of the Wiggans), teachers, chemist/druggist, doctor (medical), jewellery, etc..

There's a history of brewing in the area, and possibly either a water mill or a windmill.