Mr Kenneth Hughes, with long connections with the Heart of England Tourist Board, spoke about a number of splendid properties going back many centuries, some linked with words and catchphrases still in use today, such as 'up the wooden hill', 'the bread line', 'chairman of the board', 'dogsbody' and 'burning the candle at both ends'.
He wove these into the historical life and fabric of such places as Selly Manor from the 1480s to the 1720s, with its ornate chests, external staircase, and home-made rushlights, Weoley Castle, in reality a fortified manor house, its foundations still visible among a 1930's housing estate, Sarehole Mill, recently restored and so closely associated with Matthew Boulton and JRRTolkien, Aston Hall, magnificent in the scale of its architecture, panelling and plasterwork, owned once by Thomas Holt as a royalist stronghold, later by James Watt, and now by Birmingham Corporation and finally Blakesley Hall, built in 1590 by Richard Smallbrook, full of interesting furniture, and happily now the venue for Wythall History Society's summer outing on June 20.
The next meeting of the Society will be on Friday May 30th when Mr Peter Woodbridge will tell us 'The Bull Ring Story'.
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