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Autumn Meeting in Birmingham : September 21st – 23rdThis autumn weekend will be based on The Thistle Hotel in the centre of Birmingham and will start on the afternoon of Friday 21st with a visit (by bus) to the village of King’s Norton to see some of the traditional West Midlands timber buildings and to briefly look at Bourneville. In the evening we will have a lecture on the great hoard of Saxon treasure from Staffordshire and the following morning we will see it in the Birmingham City Museum, before going to the Jewellery Quarter to see the preserved jewellery factory and the newly-saved Evans Silverworks. This visit will be entirely on foot and by train, as will the following Sunday morning when we will be guided around the central Civic buildings and the Canal Basin (all of which is a pedestrian area). In the afternoon we will go by bus to Soho House Museum, the home of Matthew Boulton, the 18th century business pioneer, builder of steam engines, maker of ormolu and founder of the Lunar Society (see Jenny Uglow The Lunar Men) after which we will visit Handsworth Parish Church to see their memorials and return to the hotel at c.5.00pm. Members must make their own bookings with the hotel Thistle (Birmingham City) St Chad’s Queensway B4 6HY Tel: 0871 977 2323 identifying themselves as part of Historian Weekend HIST 21 09 12 or e-mailing reservations.birminghamcity@thistle.co.uk . The hotel is situated on the inner ring road just opposite St Chad’s Catholic Cathedral, about 15 minutes walk from New Street Station, 5 mins from Snow Hill Station and 10 mins from the Civic centre. There is an NCP car park immediately behind the hotel (25% discount on £20 a day charge). Friday Saturday Sunday |