The Victorian Society: Birmingham and West Midlands Group

08/07/2026

Members of the Victorian Society visited Wightwick Manor, for the presentation of the Society's West Midlands 2025 Conservation Award to the National Trust, in recognition of the outstanding restoration and conservation work carried out at Wightwick Manor through the MEND project.

The visit offered a fascinating insight into the care, scholarship and technical skill required to preserve one of the Midlands’ great Arts and Crafts houses. We were privileged to hear from Rachael Parry (Project Manager) and Tim Ratcliffe (architect) and Jim Budd (stained glass conservator), who explained the processes behind the project, the challenges encountered, and the painstaking methods used to conserve the fabric of the building. Their account brought vividly to life the quiet complexity of conservation: the research, the craftsmanship, the judgement and the patience required to ensure that historic buildings are not merely repaired, but understood, respected and handed on.

Our Chairman, Stephen Hartland, gave a speech celebrating the importance of Wightwick Manor, the quality of the National Trust’s work, and the significance of the MEND project as an exemplary piece of conservation practice. He then formally presented the 2025 Conservation Award, acknowledging all those whose dedication, expertise and care had brought the project to such a successful conclusion.

Afterwards, members enjoyed tea and cakes in the Manders Tea Room, a most fitting end to an afternoon spent in one of the region’s most remarkable houses. The visit was not only a celebration of a completed conservation project, but also a reminder of why such work matters: because places like Wightwick Manor are vessels of memory, artistry and public inheritance, and their careful preservation ensures that future generations may continue to learn from them, admire them and be inspired by them.

07/07/2026

WIGHTWICK MANOR – 7th July 2026

Speech given by our Chairman at the presentation of the 11th Conservation Award.

"Ladies and gentlemen, friends and colleagues,

"It is my first duty, my pleasant duty, and my slightly melancholy duty, to bring apologies from Sir David Cannadine, our Vice President, who had very much hoped to be with us today. He cannot now be here as planned, but he sends his warmest good wishes, his strongest support, and his sincere regret that he is unable to join us on this important occasion.

"We meet today to celebrate three things: the work of the Victorian Society in the West Midlands, the importance of conservation in our towns and cities, and the achievement of those who understand that buildings are not merely bricks, mortar, and timber, but memory, identity, and inheritance.

"The Victorian Society in the West Midlands, founded on 19th January 1967, has always had a clear purpose: to defend what is threatened, to celebrate what is excellent, and to educate those who have not yet realised that the nineteenth century gave us some of the richest, boldest, and most imaginative buildings in the country. We are, if you like, sentries at the gate, trumpeters on the tower, and occasionally terriers at the trouser-leg of official indifference.

"Our region is especially rich in Victorian inheritance. It has great civic buildings, great industrial buildings, and great domestic buildings. It has town halls, churches, and schools; factories, warehouses, and railway stations; villas, terraces, and great houses. The West Midlands is not a footnote to the Victorian age. It is one of its engines, one of its workshops, and one of its grandest stage-sets.

"That is why our Conservation Award matters. It is not merely a prize, not merely a certificate, not merely a polite round of applause. It is a public act of recognition. It says that careful work matters, skilled craftsmanship matters, and intelligent stewardship matters. It honours those who repair rather than replace, understand rather than obliterate, and hand on rather than throw away.

"Our award exists to recognise conservation at its best: work that is thoughtful, work that is scholarly, and work that is beautiful. It celebrates projects that respect the past, serve the present, and enrich the future. In an age when too much is demolished in haste, altered in ignorance, or neglected into decay, it stands as a banner, a bell, and a beacon.

"This year, or rather for 2025, that recognition goes to the National Trust’s MEND project at Wightwick Manor. And what a worthy winner it is. Wightwick is not merely a house. It is a poem in brick, a sermon in timber, and a love-letter to the Arts and Crafts movement. It is one of those rare places where architecture, decoration, and atmosphere combine so completely that one feels not so much that one has entered a building, but that one has stepped into a whole civilisation.

"The MEND project has been exemplary in three essential ways: in its care, in its ambition, and in its ex*****on. It has shown technical seriousness, historical understanding, and aesthetic sensitivity. It has respected the building’s fabric, honoured its spirit, and secured its future. That is conservation not as cosmetic improvement, not as heritage theatre, not as sentimental nostalgia, but as disciplined, intelligent, and loving guardianship.

"So, we offer our warmest congratulations to the National Trust and to Wightwick: to those who conceived the project, to those who managed the project, and to those who brought the project to fruition. We congratulate the experts, the craftspeople, and the volunteers; the planners, the funders, and the guardians; the hands that repaired, the eyes that understood, and the hearts that cared.

"For such work does not happen by accident, by wishful thinking, or by waving a heritage wand over a leaking roof. It happens through patience, persistence, and professionalism. It happens because people care enough to investigate, to conserve, and to finish the job properly. It happens because committees deliberate, specialists advise, and craftspeople climb the scaffolding in all weathers while the rest of us merely admire the result in comfort.

"Wightwick Manor thoroughly deserves to be the winner. It deserves it for the quality of the work, for the importance of the place, and for the example it sets. It reminds us that conservation is not about freezing buildings in time, but about allowing them to breathe, to endure, and to speak. It reminds us that the best historic buildings are not museum pieces, stage props, or architectural fossils, but living presences in our national story.

"So today we congratulate the National Trust, we applaud the MEND project team, and we salute everyone whose labour, knowledge, and devotion have made this achievement possible. There will have been surveyors with sharp eyes, craftspeople with skilled hands, and guardians with stout hearts. There will have been problems to solve, budgets to stretch, and weather to curse. But out of all that has come something splendid, something lasting, and something worthy of celebration.

"Let this award say three things loudly and clearly. First, that Victorian buildings matter. Secondly, that good conservation matters. Thirdly, that when care, courage, and craftsmanship come together, the result can be magnificent.

"I’d like to finish with this thought. The Victorian Society in the West Midlands may not command armies, possess treasure-houses, or control the thunderbolts of Olympus, but we do have our voices, our vigilance, and our conviction and I think that all of us here today share those virtues. With those three things we can challenge neglect, encourage excellence, and champion beauty.

"So may Wightwick Manor continue to stand: firm in its foundations, rich in its ornament, and radiant in its survival. May the Conservation Award continue to inspire: owners, architects, and communities. And may we, as a Society, continue our work with eyes open, sleeves rolled up, and trumpets blazing.

Thank you."

Stephen Hartland
Chairman
The Victorian Society
Birmingham & West Midlands

18/05/2026

We're finalising the date to present our 2025 Conservation Award.

04/04/2026

04/04/2026

While the precious old red brick and terracotta building around them falls to pieces, the community heart at the Friends Institute is beating until the bitter end.

18/03/2026

An application has been made to convert the Office for the Board of Guardians of Walsall Poor Law Union building into 14 flats. The Grade II Walsall building was placed on our Top Ten Endangered Buildings list in 2023.

Read more: https://bit.ly/4cPDGFt

See our Endangered Buildings archive on our website for more information about this attractive Jacobethan building:
https://www.victoriansociety.org.uk/endangered-buildings/

Photos of the building from a visit in 2024: Stephen Hartland

13/03/2026

𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗕𝗿𝗼𝗺𝘄𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗱: 𝗔 𝗩𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘁𝘆 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗸
led by Dr David Low in place of Andy Foster

The Birmingham & West Midlands Group of the The Victorian Society gathered on the morning of 11th March 2026 for what proved to be an engaging exploration of West Bromwich’s Victorian civic architecture. The walk had originally been scheduled to be led by the architectural historian Andy Foster, but owing to his illness the group was very ably guided by Dr David Low, whose long involvement with the Society and deep knowledge of the region ensured that the tour was both informative and entertaining.

The walk began near Lodge Road Metro station and proceeded along West Bromwich High Street, reputed to be the longest high street in the Black Country.

From the outset, the tour demonstrated that the town retains a surprisingly rich legacy of nineteenth-century public architecture.

Our first stop was to St Michael and the Holy Angels Catholic Church, a Grade II-listed building constructed between 1876 and 1877 to the designs of Dunn and Hanson. Inside, the richness of the ecclesiastical interior offered a welcome contrast to the brisk early-spring weather outside.

From there we viewef the exterior of the former West Bromwich Institute (1884) and the Memorial School of Art, both designed by the local architectural partnership Wood & Kendrick. These buildings speak eloquently of the Victorian belief in self-improvement and civic education. Even in altered form they remain important markers of the town’s cultural ambitions in the later nineteenth century.

The walk continued to the civic heart of the town: the Carnegie Library (1907) and the adjacent West Bromwich Town Hall, built in 1874–75 to the designs of Alexander and Henman. The Town Hall complex, recently restored, was awarded the regional group’s 2024 Conservation Award, a fact that lent particular resonance to the visit.

A highlight of the day was the opportunity to enter the Town Hall itself, including the former Council Chamber where a buffet lunch was served—an agreeable Victorian tradition revived for the modern heritage enthusiast. Dr Low’s commentary brought the building vividly to life, explaining both its architectural significance and its role in the civic identity of the town.

After lunch, the walk continued to the Old Vicarage of the former Christ Church (1891), again associated with Wood & Kendrick, along with neighbouring church buildings that illustrated the expansion of ecclesiastical and community provision in the late Victorian period.

The tour concluded with a short Metro journey to view the Kenrick Factory, a reminder that West Bromwich’s architectural heritage cannot be separated from the industrial prosperity that created it.

Although Andy Foster’s absence was felt, Dr David Low proved an excellent substitute—combining scholarly insight with an accessible style that encouraged discussion throughout the walk. The event also demonstrated something important about West Bromwich itself: beneath its reputation as a purely industrial town lies a coherent and surprisingly ambitious Victorian civic landscape.

For members of the Society, the walk was a reminder that architectural interest in the Black Country often lies not only in individual monuments but in the broader urban fabric—libraries, institutes, schools and town halls that together embody the civic optimism of the nineteenth century.

06/03/2026

Our Chairman, Stephen Hartland, and Honorary Treasurer, James Fletcher, were invited to a private viewing of a new exhibition in Wolverhampton.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝘀: 𝗦𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀 at Wightwick Manor and Gardens is one of the most compelling and beautifully conceived exhibitions devoted to the Pre-Raphaelite circle in recent years.

Opening on 7th March 2026 and running until 8th November 2026, this major exhibition transforms the historic house into a richly layered exploration of one of Britain’s most remarkable artistic families.

At its heart lies the extraordinary creative energy of the Rossetti siblings: Maria, William, Christina and the visionary painter-poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, whose influence shaped Victorian art, literature and cultural life. Rarely displayed drawings from Rossetti’s youth, early lithographic experiments and a newly acquired portrait of Christina Rossetti provide fascinating insights into the formative years of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.

Equally impressive is the exhibition’s celebration of the women of the circle. Works by Elizabeth Siddal and Lucy Madox Brown are shown together in a rare and illuminating display, restoring their rightful place within this creative dynasty.

Set amid Wightwick’s world-renowned Pre-Raphaelite interiors, the exhibition feels uniquely authentic. The result is both scholarly and deeply atmospheric and is a captivating encounter with the art, poetry and personal relationships that helped define Victorian aesthetic culture. For admirers of the Pre-Raphaelites, it is quite simply unmissable.

Stephen Hartland

05/03/2026

22/02/2026

We are saddened to report the death, at the age of 93, of Professor Richard Tomlinson FSA, Chairman of the Birmingham group 1975-78.

Here he is in a photo from 1974 with Dame Rachel Waterhouse (Chair 1967-71).

He was professor of ancient history and archeology at the University of Birmingham and served as Head of the School of Antiquity.