Birmingham Blipmeet

A fascinating and interesting day with some very good Blip Friends.  

I started the day with a real sprint for the train - traffic through Aylesbury was simply awful - catching it by the skin of my teeth (rush on, collapse into a seat, doors close and off we go!)

Once in Birmingham I was met by Rose and Rob who don't trust me to find my way anywhere!  After a catch up and coffee we headed off to look at the Coffin Works; this plan was almost scuppered when Rose and I were seriously distracted in Paperchase and almost spent the day there!

The Coffin Works is an old Victorian factory that made everything to do with coffins except the coffins themselves.  This factory was renowned for its high quality items so no paupers graves would have contained anything from here.  All the things you didn't know you needed to know! What is especially wonderful is that almost all the items in the museum were left when the factory closed so as authentic as it gets.  There was also an amusing section of examples of Crazy Coffins -one as extra-( www.crazycoffins.co.uk ) including a ballet shoe and a skip!

A spot of lunch was then deemed essential before moving on to the Back to Backs. This is a group of houses which were very small and cramped grouped around a courtyard.  Large families lived in these very tight conditions where a bedroom could contain as many as 7 people, minimal cooking facilities, washroom and three toilets out in the yard shared by 90 people!!  What was really scary here though was that we remembered items on display - albeit from our grandparents houses - the copper, the flat iron, the range, scullery sink etc etc.  These houses have survived as there were shops in the bottom areas otherwise they would have been demolished.  It is a National Trust property and our guide was lovely but had the habit of saying 'as such' sometimes several times in the one sentence.  I had to tell Rose not to look at me or I would seriously collapse with laughter!

We finished off the day with coffee and cake plus a look at the newly opened New Street Station.  VERY IMPRESSIVE! Worth a trip to Birmingham just to see that. the huge John Lewis opens tomorrow and probably just as well it wasn't today or I hate to think what time train I would then have caught home!

A fantastic day with Rose and Rob joined by Lozarithm for the afternoon.