The moon, unusually bright and distinct

In her "Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" entry for February the 9th, Edith Holden makes one of her few mentions of the night sky.

There was a partial eclipse of the moon visible this morning at 5.57 a.m. At 8 oclock in the evening there was a beautiful rainbow-coloured halo round the moon, unusually bright and distinct.

The last time I visited Birmingham, there was a bright moon in the morning.

The morning moon, seen from the Hampton by Hilton.

The moon gave its name to the Lunar Society of Birmingham. Wikipedia says:

The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 in Birmingham, England. At first called the Lunar Circle, "Lunar Society" became the formal name by 1775. The name arose because the society would meet during the full moon, as the extra light made the journey home easier and safer in the absence of street lighting.

Prominent members of the Lunar Society included  Matthew Boulton, who led the change to a more organised body. James Watt was also a member.  These two men, along with William Murdoch, are portrayed on the statue of Boulton, Watt and Murdoch.  The statue shows them  discussing engine plans.

Boulton, Watt and Murdoch.

The Birmingham City Council website says:

It is the work of William Bloye, formerly head of sculpture at Birmingham School of Art and was unveiled in 1956, although preliminary designs were drawn up in 1938. ...

The three men pioneered the industrial revolution in late 18th century England. James Watt's improvements to the steam engine and William Murdoch's invention of gas lighting have made them famous throughout the world. Matthew Boulton, entrepreneur and industrialist, harnessed their talents in a company that made everything from tableware and copper coinage to steam engines.

Cartwheel penny produced at Boulton's Soho (Birmingham) mint

By coincidence we have a coin, a cartwheel penny, produced at Boulton's Soho (Birmingham) mint at home. It's too tattered to be worth anything but with a good magnifying glass, it is just possible to make out the word SOHO below Britannia's shield.

In 1906, when Edith was writing her diary, the Lunar Society was long gone. However the industrial revolution was causing the rapid expansion of Birmingham and had made her father's business possible.

Birmingham Canals and the Edwardian Country Lady's Time

This week I'm staying in central Birmingham close to the Gas Street Basin, which is part of the city's extensive canal system. The basin is associated with the New Main Line, which the Canal and River Trust describes as the 19th-century equivalent of a motorway. In 2016, canal-side cafes and pubs and other entertainments give a lively, buzzy atmosphere.

Gas Street Basin, 26 January 2016

Edith Holden made few references to the canals in the Diary of an Edwardian Country Lady. Her entry for the 8th of January mentions visiting a small wood, presumably near her home in Olton, on the canal bank. She mentions this wood a couple more times in her diary.

Perhaps its not surprising that Edith makes little mention of canals. Competition from the railways had sent them into sharp decline and it would be another half-century before we started to see them as a place of leisure and haven for nature. I didn't see any wildlife this time but, when visiting last year, I'I saw Canada Geese near the Worcester Bar Bridge.

Worcester Bar Bridge - no geese this time.

I find myself wondering what the canals would have been like in Edith's time.

The Birmingham post has a gallery of intriguing photos.  Images of a hard working but crumbling transport system from the early 20th Century are mixed with cheerful shots of 1980s volunteers and leisure-seekers restoring and enjoying the waterways.  There are a couple of early photos of places are familiar from my previous visits to the area.  In one, Bystanders look on after the canal wall collapses in Gas Street in 1901. The walls are now in good condition and the top end of the street full of smart places to eat and drink. One of my favourites is the Pickled Piglet, which has a great-value set price menu, ideal after a day at the office.

The Pickled Piglet, Gas Street.

In another of the pictures you can see boats carrying heavy loads of  coal.   These old photos speak of a harsh life, in which our energy needs were supplied by heavy coals rather than the flick of a switch.  I wonder who carried the coals in Edith's home?  Her biography, by Ina Taylor, tells us that in 1906 that their house in Olton was "ideal for the diminishing family and less affluent times." and that "at Olton they only their maid Florence living in and relied more on daily help." including a laundress that came in once a week, a daily cleaner and twice-a-week gardener.  Maybe it was the daily cleaner was the one who lugged the coal into the house, laid and cleaned the fires?

The Mild Winter has brought out the Hazel Catkins

The Edwardian Country Lady Diary entry for the 23rd tells us that Edith "Went for a country walk." She described the countryside on that frosty day so vividly, I felt I was walking with her.

110 years later, I too enjoyed frosty fields - from a fast train.

She went on to say "The mild winter has brought out the Hazel catkins, wonderfully early, the small green flowers are fully expanded on some of the catkins, and the pretty little red stars of the female flowers are appearing. The green leaves are out on the Woodbine too make little spots of green among the undergrowth." This is beautifully illustrated with a detailed watercolour of catkins, honeysuckle and ivy. So this week's mission is to find hazel catkins.

Hazel catkins at the edge of the Arden Hotel's car park.

The December of 2015 has been one of the warmest on record and, just as in Edith's time, the mild weather has caused the tight green hazel catkins to lengthen and turn gold. I also found alder trees, with reddish catkins, round the pond I visited last week.

Alder catkins.

While I was photographing the alder catkins a family of long-tailed tits bustled through the trees with much merry chatter.

The hazels, alders and other trees are like shadows of the ancient woods, the Forest of Arden, that once extended over miles of country near what is now Birmingham. In his blog, Robert Moore explains that "The Arden area is effectively bounded by Roman roads ... the Fosse Way on the East side, and the Salt Road along the Southern boundary." His map also shows Watling Street on the North and Icknield Way, some of which has been covered by Birmingham and its suburbs,  on the East

Another shadow of the forest is its name, which appears in all sorts of places such as Hampton-in-Arden, just one stop down the line from Birmingham International station, pubs, street names and hotels such as the Arden where I stayed this week and in whose car park I found the hazel catkins.     

Not far from a Pond

I made it to Birmingham for the first time this year on the 12th of January. Looking at the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, Edith’s entry for January 12 was “Saw several Moorhens feeding on a newly ploughed field not far from a pond.” It is a accompanied by a water colour of a moorhen beside a pond. So my mission is to find a moorhen or other water bird.

Before I do that I’d better tell you about where I am.  I’m working at Trinity Park, which is on the eastern edge of Birmingham. This business park is tucked into a corner between the Euston to Birmingham railway line and the A45, which is the Coventry Road.  Maps from the early 20th Century show that these trunk routes followed the same lines that they do today. Instead of Virgin Pendelinos and traffic roaring past office blocks and a hotel,  steam trains and horse-drawn vehicles would have been passing fields. Maybe there were motor vehicles too. Austin had just started manufacturing cars at Longbridge to the south-west of the city.

The early maps don’t show the  pond, which is in a shady corner between two office blocks and the now monstrous Bickenhill Lane.

The Trinity Park pond, just before dawn.

When I first visited the pond at 7:30 am, it was too dark to see any birds but the scene was pretty with the dark velvety heads (actually catkins) of bulrush and the lights of offices reflected in the black waters.  I packed in about an hour's work before coming back. I'm in luck. Before I even get to the pond I can see a coot dipping for its breakfast. As I watch it, a pair of ducks appear from the bulrushes.

Mallards (ducks) emerging from the bullrushes.

As I prowl round the edge of the pond to get a better view of the coot, I notice its mate, still clinging to its bed in the dried stems of water plants at the edge of the pond. It slowly clambers out just like someone dragging themselves out of their sleep after being woken after an early alarm.

Coots. Sorry - My watercolour skills are a bit rusty!

A moorhen explodes from its hiding place, flies clumsily across the pond and crashes into the bullrushes. It is time for me to get back to work, so I pack up my camera and go.

Acock Green - The Edwardian Lady's Childhood Home

The Edwardian Lady is Edith Holden, who wrote the famous "Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady". This book contains natural history observations that she made while exploring the Solihull/Birmingham area. My intention is to create a 21st Century equivalent.

I didn't make it to Birmingham this week but S, a colleague, circulated an article via Facebook that mentioned Acocks Green, a place that Edith lived in as a child.

Ina Taylor's biography of Edith Holden says that as her family grew bigger, in about 1876, they ...

... moved to a larger house called the Elms in another village, Acocks Green, a few miles south of Birmingham. Edith was then five and able to remember the house later.

... Another pursuit which the children shared with their parents was walking in the country around Acocks Green. Arthur Holden loved the countryside and had a good knowledge of the birds and wild plants of the area. Mrs Holden was not always strong enough to accompany them, so the children made a special point of picking a colourful bunch of flowers to cheer her.

The Holdens' bunches of flowers probably included violets.

The Acocks Green History Society web site explains that, after the railway arrived in 1852, Acock Green grew rapidly and, in 1911 was absorbed into Birmingham. They have also gathered a selection of  postcards, which show what the village looked like in the early 1900s.

William Dargue's site's Acocks Green page has modern photos, which show that there are still green places to explore. Also, there are plenty of flowers to see thanks to the 'Bloom Team' whose efforts are described in the Village in Bloom section of the Acocks Green Neighbourhood Forum.

The article that sparked off this post was a Birmingham Mail piece about a different type of green-fingered activity altogether. It describes a Police raid on a house in Florence Road, just the other side of the railway line from where Edith lived, in which 411 cannabis plants were being grown.

Stumbling across Edwardian Lady Country

Depending upon how old you are, you might remember the late 1970s publishing sensation, The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.  Edith Holden wrote the diary, illustrated with charming watercolours, over the course of 1906. When it was published 70 years later the tremendously popular book inspired designs for household furnishings, a TV programme and so much more.  In fact, we still have the book and one of these covers in our Sussex home.

The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.

Since March 2015, I have been working and staying in hotels near Birmingham International Airport and the NEC. The last thing I expected was that this would reunite me with a favourite book from my teenage years.

Holiday Inn, Birmingham Airport

In the summer, while I was staying at the Birmingham Airport Holiday Inn, I discovered Elmdon Park, which is just the other side of the duel carriageway. The park is next to the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust Elmdon Manor nature reserve. This contains a lovely old walled garden, which reminded me strongly of the one in the Secret Garden novel.

An intriguing walled garden in the Elmdon Manor nature reserve.

Intrigued, I did a little Googling and found a reference to Edith Holden walking in Elmdon Park and the surroundings. I could hardly wait to get home and dust off our old copy and find out more. Sure enough, she mentions Elmdon Park a handful of times. In her entry for the 18th of January 1906 she says "Today I saw a curious Oak tree, growing in a field near Elmdon Park. From a distance it looked if half of the tree were dead and the other half covered with glossy green leaves." It feels strange to read these words almost 110 years to the day after she wrote them especially as I have looked over those fields. They may have aircraft flying over them but they still grow crops, just as they did in Edith's time.

When writing her 1906 diary, Edith was a school teacher who lived in Olton. She would often walk or cycle from her home, recording what she saw. Over the course of 2016 I hope make some posts inspired by what I read in her diary and what I find while exploring Birmingham and its outskirts.