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St Barnabas Church Erdington

Hi Bikeral72: Thanks very much for posting the photos of the choir boys at St. Barnabas Church and to Fentham for bringing them to your attention. Amazing to see these and the beautiful Altar. This photo must have been early 1950's as some of the boys that I remember were very young on these photographs. I remember Eddie Bracher, Alan Goldingay, Alec Bragington, David Luty, Barry Atkins, Michael Newman and Ernie Boyd from these photos. The order of names in the group photo, second row, doesn't quite fit for me. Michael Newman is today a very good friend of mine and he is at the right hand end of the second row. Michael went on to be a major opera singer spending time with the Welsh National Opera and the Carl Rosa Opera Company. He is retired and lives in Wales. He was a good friend of my brother Peter and our family. Alec Bragington's sister Diane was a schoolmate of mine at Fentham Girls. I met up with her a few years ago in Sutton Coldfield. There was a men's section to the choir also at that time and I remember a few of those people also.
 
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Hello Jennann
Glad you liked the photos. Alec gave them to me and we copied them. It is good to remember the choir and see what the Parish Church was like again in the good old days. Miss Stephenson was our form teacher and my last year at school it was Miss Harper.
 
Hi Fentham: I have sent the photos by e-mail to Michael Newman and another close friend of ours who visited Michael in Wales recently. I bet Michael will be surprised.
Have you visited the Friends Reunited site for Fentham Road girls. I have posted a lot of photographs on that site of classes of girls from the 1950's. Miss Stevenson(I think that's how she spelled her name) is on one of the photos and also Miss Harper plus a newspaper cutting about Miss Harper's retirement. In 2004 the school would have been 100 years old. Myself, Margaret Rowe and some other volunteers organized a reunion at Sutton Town Hall in April of that year. 375 ex-pupils turned up. It was
such a great day and many of the photographs I have posted came from people who attended the Centennial celebration. The Reunion notes are under Memories on the site.
 
Thanks for posting the photo of St. Barnabas Mrs. T. Looks as though the reconstruction is progressing well. There are things I
am uncertain about in the overall look of the rebuild. For instance, I think the roof could have been covered in a more subtle colour to help the very contemporary design of the building match in colourwise at least. I am basically grateful that the church has been rebuilt and not left a ruin or even worse demolished.
Frothy was right about the church being a bit of a tea room in recent years. I believe that they were pressed for rooms and office space within the church itself as well. I visited it myself and thought the internal renovations carried out several years ago did not compliment the entrance into the church at all and spoiled the interior. i.e. it was not as welcoming as it should have been. Hopefully, the community will now come together and fully support the church in the High Street
 
Hello Ray,
Were you in the choir? Alec says that Alan had a sister but did not know if there was a brother. My husband went to Bishop Vesey and he knew Alan but is not sure about a brother.
They are lovely photos aren't they.
 
Hello Jennyann,
The photos you have put on are great. I am amongst the girls showing off their needleworth plus the photo of Miss Stevenson and her class. I have several of the 'ballet' performances.
 
It was on the Midlands news tonight too, having had its re-dedication service this morning, looked impressive from what they showed.
Sue
 
As I was in Birmingham today I went to the Church assuming it was now open to the public having seen the Mail's pictures of Sunday's service. It's not! Still, I could see from standing in the High Street that my Nan and Grandad's grave was still untouched so I went around to the Church Rd entrance (the way in from the High Street was barred.) The gates opened OK so I walked in. There were a number of builders walking around doing things but no-one challenged me so I went up to the grave and was pleased to see that they've started to turf a lot of the ground at the front and the side.
I could also see 3 or 4 people in the Cafe area so I went in. When I asked the guy behind the counter if I could get a coffee he said that the Church wasn't open but as I'd travelled up from Oxfordshire I could have a walk around.
I have to say I'm totally in favour now of the refurb. Earlier I was a bit concerned about the "spaceship" look but once you get inside the work looks really great. I bumped into Freda, the vicar, and we chatted for quite a few minutes and I learned a lot more about the trials and tribulations of how the work progressed, including the fact that 6 months in the main contractor went bust! Now they've been having great problems with the Council regarding Church land which they (the Church) want back but the Council are playing silly buggers. I think it's now resolved.

Here are some pics I took.

St Barnabus inside.jpgSt Barnabus inside_2.jpgSt Barnabus inside_3.jpgSt Barnabus inside_4.jpg
 
Thanks David.
Great photos. I think they have done wondrous work with this place, makes me want to go back to church.
 
Hello David,

Your photos are impressive, for the inside that is. But the outside looks horrendous. Thank goodnes we have photos of what it was like when we were part of the congregation.
 
Thanks for the post David. I think the first public service will be on December 23rd. Nice that you were able to get into the
churchyard and to be able to visit your family graves. Hopefully, the wrangle over the Churchyard can be resolved to everyone's satisfaction. There is a lot of work to be done and safety is definitely an issue. I am sure with the renovations and publicity more people will be visiting and looking for family graves, etc. It has to be a safe place to walk around. I did notice that there is only individual seating in the church. Wonder if this is permanent or whether they will install pews? Perhaps they want to keep a
more flexible type of seating for special events in the church.
 
Although I'm an atheist I'm a sucker for Church architecture. I put it down to reading too many John Betjeman books.

I was visiting Erdington for a bit of shopping earlier today when I noticed that the rebuild / restoration of St. Barnabas Church had now been completed (sorry but local news media drives me mad, so I don't bother with it). I wasn't intending to visit on a formal basis so I didn't have any decent camera equipment with me except my cheesy little low-res VGA phone cam. All the same it was good to have a chance to take a closer look and see what the rebuild has accomplished, and how the tension between old and new building techniques has been resolved. I reckon a good job has been done, but I also expect that the new look will annoy a few parishioners. I fully understand why feelings run high, but unfortunately you can't glue ashes back together. The restoration has some exciting new shapes incorporated, and when it gets a chance to 'weather in' a bit may even get itself a few fans. Time alone will tell I suppose.

The restoration certainly looks more like a focal point for the community than the old incarnation, which frankly looked a bit neglected. Having said that, it is never right that an historic building's ultimate destiny be decided by the actions of criminals. The church politics of it all I won't comment on, as it is not my place to do so.

I'll be visiting again next week with a high-res camera in order to get some better pictures (hopefully with some interior shots). Meanwhile here's some of the cheap 'n cheerful low-res exterior pics.

All good wishes,

Graham.

Photo-0052_1.jpgPhoto-0055_2.jpgPhoto-0062_2.jpgPhoto-0071_1.jpgPhoto-0073_2.jpg
 
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Graham, they are great pics, much better than I would have done with my phone camera - looking forward to the real ones!!
Sue
 
Thanks for those Frothblower. The new stained-glass window looks very impressive indeed.

You've also shown the function of the glass enclosure nicely, the purpose of which is to preserve the original fabric of the building under the legal obligations encompassed in a grade II listing. This is defined as 'Buildings that are of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve them'.

Leaving the ruins open to nature and the weather was never an option, potential deaths due to site accidents and falling masonry notwithstanding.
 
Well I've been won over. Didn't think I would, but close up it looks good to me. I worked and played in Erdington for many years as a teen and didn't take a blind bit of notice of the church. But now I could be drawn in to go and have a closer look. Almost like it's been opened up and is more accessible. Thanks all for posting the photos. Viv.
 
Hi Viv: Overall, I am pleased with how the church looks and hope to see it in person one of these days. My friend who lives close by
visited the High Street yesterday and she said she likes the openness of the church now with the glass frontage. There will be a lounge
area in that space as well as space for meetings. It will be much more open than it was. Hopefully, the church will once again become part of the
community.
 
Thanks geehigh and Frothy fo the latest pics. I'm going to talk to Freda, the vicar, to see about the possibility of opening my grandparents' grave as my uncle died just before Christmas and he always wanted to be with his Mom and Dad. I think a burial's not on but I could place his ashes in there I hope.
 
Hi David: So sorry to hear about your Uncle passing away. Hopefully your Uncle's ashes will be able to be interred in the family grave. I know that there is a cost attached to this as my brother and I wanted to have our brother's ashes interred in the family grave at Witton Cemetery several years ago. I believe the cost was 200 pounds. We ended up paying for a plague at Perry Barr Crematorium in their beautiful garden. Many people act on advice from some funeral directors and go ahead and scatter the ashes themselves. Sadly, this practice loses the fees for cemetery and on researching this subject I was amazed to find how many people carry out the scattering in a cemetery without permission. Hope everything works out well at Erdington Parish in this regard.
 
Thanks Jennyann for your good wishes. We've been in touch with both the Co-Op and Freda (left message) so waiting for the outcome. Yes I'd rather pay to have the grave opened and place his ashes inside if poss. Just heard from the coroner that we have to formally identify my uncle as the Police had to break in after neighbours reported that they hadn't seen him for quite a few days so we've no idea how long he'd been lying there - probably more than 10 days. We're going up to Stoke tomorrow, not looking forward to it!
 
jennyann said:
Hi David: So sorry to hear about your Uncle passing away. Hopefully your Uncle's ashes will be able to be interred in the family grave. I know that there is a cost attached to this as my brother and I wanted to have our brother's ashes interred in the family grave at Witton Cemetery several years ago. I believe the cost was 200 pounds. We ended up paying for a plague at Perry Barr Crematorium in their beautiful garden. Many people act on advice from some funeral directors and go ahead and scatter the ashes themselves. Sadly, this practice loses the fees for cemetery and on researching this subject I was amazed to find how many people carry out the scattering in a cemetery without permission. Hope everything works out well at Erdington Parish in this regard.
Click to expand...
Solihull have an area set aside for the scattering of ashes - through the funeral directors. Can't recall the charge but sure there was one.
 
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