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 a ..read more

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 cigaret ..read more

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 ..read more

In this second of two podcasts on the voyage to America made in 1874 by Birmingham’s lost philosopher, Professor Ewan Fernie, Director of the ‘Everything to Everybody’ Project, and the project’s American Lead, Professor Katherine Scheil, continue their discussion with the Publisher of History West Midlands, Mike Gibbs.  In this episode,  they discuss how Dawson and Shakespeare reached the American frontier.  They bring out the wider impact of Birmingham’s nineteenth-century culture on the developing cultural identity of the United States.  They unfold a range of intimate re ..read more

In 1874, Birmingham’s most famous politician, Joseph Chamberlain sent George Dawson across the Atlantic as ‘Birmingham’s Ambassador to America’ – almost as if Birmingham were a cultural power in its own right.  Dawson went down a storm in America, and his trip was enthusiastically reported back home.  But Dawson’s  embassy to America has since been almost entirely forgotten in Birmingham and in the United States. Now the ‘Everything to Everybody’ Project has started to uncover the traces.  In this the first of two History West Midlands podcasts, the Director of the ‘Everyth ..read more

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 p ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

Women's lives were transformed in the Black Country between 1945-1968. During these years of prosperity and full employment new appliances relieved some of the domestic drudgery that had dominated life in earlier years. For the first time many working class families had the income to buy new cookers and other appliances - many of which were made in Black Country factories. At the same time the landscape was changing for the better.  Derelict land was being reclaimed and most importantly the region's notoriously poor housing was being systematically replaced. And for young people there wer ..read more

The Black Country (1945-1966) The post-war years transformed the Black Country of the English Midlands. The region was a driving force in the country's industrial recovery and this was a golden era of working class prosperity with full employment and high wages. But it was also a time of social tension.  The region's industry desperately needed labour to satisfy continuing demand. Attracted by the promise of high wages, an increasing number of men came to the Black Country towns like Smethwick and Wolverhampton from the Caribbean and the Indian Sub-Continent to fill these jobs. Racial ten ..read more