Local Historian Ray Fellows will be giving one of his local history talks  at The Vine Inn on Lichfield Road on Saturday 26th February at 7pm.
Ray and several other locals are interested in setting up a local history /heritage society in Wednesfield where residents could take part in regular local history events – if you’d be interested in joining, or would like to find out more about Wednesfield’s rich history, why not pop along?
It’s sure to be busy so arrive in plenty of time and enjoy one of Wednesfield’s hidden gems – The Vine Inn.
3 replies on “Wednesfield History / Heritage Society?”
I think forming a Wednesfield Local History and Heritage Society would be a great idea. Wednesfield needs its heritage preserved – all too often people think of Wednesfield as “part of Wolverhampton” when it is a distinct area that once had its own council, history and heritage.
The so-called Wolverhampton Civic and Historical Society don’t help either, because they cover Wednesfield and Bilston as well as Wolverhampton, so clearly they don’t consider separate identities or heritage.
I agree with Matt’s fist paragraph. His second, on Wolverhampton Civic and Historical Society, is the more disappointing. As Treasurer of WCHS, and a former chairman of one of its predecessor societies, Wolverhampton History and Heritage Society, I find his “so-called” churlish, and the whole paragraph totally wrong and unfair. Consider: –
1. As soon as I learned of the plans to form a Wednesfield local history society, I contacted Ray Fellows on behalf of WCHS to express our interest, encouragement and support. Ray’s response, I might add, was agreeable – unlike Matt’s.
2. Already in its second season, 2001-02, Wolverhampton History & Heritage Society had a talk about Wednesfield – Roger Poole on “Wednesfield and its Church”.
3. The highly regarded local history website originally promoted by WHHS (but now independent) contains a mass of material relating to Wednesfield; see http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/.
4. Matt appears to think that, because a society has “Wolverhampton” in its name, it is incapable of treating other places independently on their own merits. That is just false. As he himself notes, our “Wolverhampton” society also deals with Bilston as a separate entity; and the same applies for Tettenhall, Penn, Codsall, Sedgley…I could go on. Why should we not be equally capable of recognising the distinctive identity of Wednesfield?
No, if there is something amiss here, it is not the willingness of a “Wolverhampton” local history society to extend its interest to neighbouring communities, but the apparent UNwillingness of Matt, and anyone who shares his view, to recognise that the history of his particular community can be enriched by placing it in a wider context.
For the breadth – and depth – of the interests of Wolverhampton Civic and Historical Society, see its website, http://www.cityofwolverhampton.com/.
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