Women Dancing in the Dell at Muntz Park

Description:From about 1914 organised dancing in some of Birmingham’s public parks became a popular activity. The Parks Committee made arrangements for dances to be held on public holidays and during the summer season at a number of the city’s parks.^{<small>1</small>} Dances continued to be held at some parks during the First World War period, but attendance at others was too low to cover costs. Although dances at Cannon Hill Park were successful, they were transferred to Calthorpe Park, where there was a better enclosure for dancing. During the summer season of 1920, 1,500 people were regularly paying for admission to dances on Wednesday nights.^{<small>2</small>}

Dancing seems to have been most popular at Muntz Park, where a voluntary organisation, the Bournbrook Entertainments Committee, organised entertainments during the summer season. Through the work of the chairman, Councillor J. Hart, the committee secured funding from the Birmingham Civic Society for the layout of a disused clay pit, known as the Dell, in Muntz Park, for dancing and open-air theatre events, and gained the support of the Parks Committee for the changes to be carried out.^{<small>3</small>} Swings were removed, and were replaced by an asphalt floor, with a stage and bandstand, and provision for erecting a 40 foot maypole. The Dell was opened by the Mayor of Birmingham in June 1923.^{<small>4</small>} During the 1920s dances were held twice a week in summer. It cost 4d to dance, and 2d for onlookers to enter the enclosure. Photographs of dancers show a large number of women dancing with each other, as well as smaller numbers of mixed couples, suggesting that dancing was a popular leisure activity for women, whether or not they met men at the dances.

Parks Committee minutes show that dances were still held at other parks during the 1930s, including folk and country dancing at the bandstand and surrounding ground at Kings Heath Park,^{<small>5</small>} but applications from the Bournbrook Entertainments Committee to use Muntz Park for their summer dance programme feature heavily throughout the period to the 1950s. By 1933, the asphalt floor had been overlaid with a smooth surface that could be treated with wax and French chalk, and 400 to 500 people were regularly attending the dances, including those who listened to the band and watched the dancers from the top of the Dell.^{<small>6</small>}

Dances at Muntz Park formed part of the Brighter Birmingham programme of entertainments in parks organised by Birmingham City Council during the Second World War, although it was reported in 1945 that dances at other city parks were not successful, due to the poor facilities for dancing, and the proximity of indoor dances at halls and schools.^{<small>7</small>} During the 1950s attendance declined even at Muntz Park, possibly in part due to the growth in the number of youth clubs and events for young people.^{<small>8</small>} There are sporadic references in the Parks Committee minutes of the 1950s to the possible use of the Dell for roller-skating, which was allowed as an experiment from 1954.^{<small>9</small>}


<font color="#666633"><small>¹ BCC Parks Committee Minutes, 13 July 1914 [BA&H: BCC 1 BO/1/1/2]
² Birmingham Gazette (13 July 1920)
³ Councillor Hart was also a director of the Ten Acres & Stirchley Co-operative Society Ltd.
⁴ Birmingham Post (27 June 1923); Birmingham Mail (27 June 1923)
⁵ BCC Parks Committee Minutes, 13 April 1931 [BA&H: BCC 1 BO/1/1/13]
⁶ Fred Toothill, 'Dancing in our Parks: Providing Entertainment for Young People’, Millgate Monthly (1933), vol.29, pp.84-5 [BA&H: LP 27.3]
⁷ BCC Parks Committee Minutes, 3 December 1945 [BA&H: BCC 1 BO/1/1/23]
⁸ BCC Parks Committee Minutes, 5 March 1956 [BA&H: BCC 1 BO/1/1/32]
⁹ BCC Parks Committee Minutes, 6 November 1950; 6 December 1954 [BA&H: BCC 1 BO/1/1/31]</small></font>