Category: Local History

This May, Balsall Common Library will be once again inviting patrons and the local community to take a trip down memory lane remembering life in Balsall Common and the surrounding areas. 

A Postcard from Balsall Common is a project first run in 2020, and this Local and Community History Month the library will be encouraging the sharing of memories by filling in a postcard in the library to be pegged on a special ‘reminiscence washing line’.

On Thursday 23rd May there will be a Reminiscence Cafe as part of this event.

The library is especially keen to hear from anyone who has any old photographs, newspaper articles, and other items of interest concerning the area and its history. Any information about shops and businesses that are no longer with us or local individuals of note would also be gratefully received.

As well as sharing newly collected memories and local history with the community, the library will also be preserving them for posterity by adding copies to the Solihull Heritage & Local Studies Service.

To talk to the library about sharing photographs, objects, or memories, or for further information please contact us on 01676 532590 or by email at balsallcommonlibrary@solihull.gov.uk or pop into the library when we are open.

To mark the occasion exactly 70 years ago - 12 noon on 24th May 1954 - when the Municipal Borough of Solihull came into existence, join the Council's Archivist & Local Studies Librarian, Tracey Williams, on this short guided walk around the historic heart of Solihull town centre.

Starting from The Core, the walk will proceed via Touchwood and Manor Walk onto Church Hill and then to The Square, the High Street, and back to the Core through the Mill Lane Arcade, Touchwood. It should take around an hour.

The route is less than 1km and is paved and flat throughout, so is suitable for wheelchair users. Regrettably, dogs (apart from assistance dogs) are not permitted on the walk.

If possible, attendees are asked to bring along their own wired headphones (3.5mm headphone jack) as the commentary from the walk leader will be transmitted via audio guide receivers.