Special Events

The Society takes part in various special events including Balsall Heath Carnival in July each year.

Carnival 2009: the Balsall Heath Archaeological Society

We paraded as the above Society from circa 1902. We were so convincing that several asked where we met and what archaeology there is in Balsall Heath! We also ran a stall with our books on and some bric-a-brac. More importantly we met many old friends and made many new ones too. Another successful community carnival.
Chief Digger for the Society

Carnival 2008: Sweet Freedom.

This year we entered a walking group in the Carnival procession, with characters from our innovative play about the Abolition of Slavery. We were gratified to win third prize. Our stall also attracted a lot of attention on the Carnival Fair site.

Carnival 2006:The Seventies

In 2006 the theme was “The Seventies” so for our float we looked back to the 1870s and put the Victorian Schoolroom on the back of a lorry together with some local volunteer pupils. We also ran a stall selling plants and bric-a-brac at the Carnival fair.

Carnival 2002: 50 years in Balsall Heath

In 2002 the theme was 50 years in Balsall Heath, to link with the Golden Jubilee and our carnival float depicted a Coronation street party. In 2003, we created the early days of the Balsall Heath Fire Brigade with great success. In 2004 our float had an astonomical theme with members dressed up as gentlemen from the old Birmingham Lunar Society!

In 2005 we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the end of World War 2 on our float with patriotic bunting and flags and members dressed in 1940s clothes . The ‘make do and mend’ Home Front wartime ethos fitted in well with the ‘Think Local: Act Global’ theme of the carnival.

Victorian Christmas 2007

A Family event was the innovative “Victorian Christmas” which we held in the old Clifton Junior School. In addition to schoolroom sessions we offered Christmas crafts, Dressing the tree, Photographs in costume, and suitable refreshments in the form of mulled wine and mince pies.

Photographic Project

This was the highlight of 2002. Thanks to a grant from the Millennium Lottery Fund we were able to launch an ambitious project focusing on Balsall Heath past and present.

We appealed to the public for photographs of old Balsall Heath and received an enthusiastic response. With the help of Richard Albutt from the Central Library, and the History Van, we copied many photos belonging to other people. Carl Chinn also contributed some photographs from his collection, as did the Balsall Heathan and various local schools and businesses.

The project culminated in a brilliant exhibition held at St. Paul’s School (ex-Clifton Infant School) in Hertford Street for a weekend in September. Literally hundreds of people came and many of them stayed all day or came back more than once.

We gained many new friends, a lot of new members and more photographs! The task of sorting and collating our new photographic archive is now in progress.

Many of the photos we collected are now available in our latest book published by Sutton in 2003. It is called “Balsall Heath and Highgate Past and Present” and is available in all good bookshops as well as directly from us.

The Moseley Road Trail 2006

This amazing dramatic history experience was brought alive by Balsall Heath Local History Society. It provided participants with a chance to witness astonishing scenes and meet some notable figures from the past of Balsall Heath.

In spite of pouring rain it was much enjoyed by all.