Stirchley Swimming Baths Ceremonial Key

Description:Stirchley's Communal Buildings

The inscription on this key records the official opening of Stirchley Swimming Baths by George Cadbury Junior on 25 July 1911, to whom the key was presented by the architect John Osborn. This illustrates the close relationship between the Cadbury family and Stirchley. Over a period of 30 years, they were involved in the provision of buildings with a communal purpose, whether as social amenities, public services or places of worship. Yet the Cadburys did not have a monopoly over communal buildings and the services they supported.

Large-scale industry began in Stirchley, not with the Cadburys, but with the arrival of James and Son in 1861 - a factory producing screws. This developed into an industrial complex (later part of the GKN combine) and facilities for workers included a recreation ground with tennis courts.^{<small>1</small>} The co-operative movement emerged in Stirchley in 1875 and, as well as providing a range of retail facilities in the area, the <a href="http://www.search.suburbanbirmingham.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=1926">Ten Acres and Stirchley Co-operative Society</a> (TASCoS) invested in educational and <a href="http://www.search.suburbanbirmingham.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=1824">social facilities</a>. Rooms were provided at many TASCoS premises for lectures and meetings and its Choral Society became a significant cultural asset to Stirchley.^{<small>2</small>} The Church of the Ascension was built in 1900, replacing the original 'school church' established by the Church of England in 1863 to serve the growing area.^{<small>3</small>} As this growth accelerated, public bodies gradually provided services, commencing with Stirchley Road Board School, which superseded the church school in 1879.^{<small>4</small>} A <a href="http://www.search.suburbanbirmingham.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=1825">library</a> and swimming pool followed in the Edwardian period.

Despite these initial disparate providers of communal buildings in Stirchley, the Cadbury influence on the area was both strong and long-lasting. The family's public service ethos led them to provide land for the library and swimming pool, as well as for a welfare clinic. Stirchley Institute and Stirchley Meeting House were directly funded and supported as part of the family's commitment to the Society of Friends.^{<small>5</small>} However, the Cadburys were not partisanally philanthropic. For example, George Cadbury Senior provided support for the foundation of a Methodist mission in Stirchley.^{<small>6</small>}

Participation in such communal initiatives reflected a view that social and moral improvements were linked. However, as the twentieth century progressed, entrepreneurial developments gradually orientated the focus of communal provision towards entertainment and relaxation. The Empire Cinema was established in Stirchley in 1912, and the much larger Pavilion Cinema opened in 1931. Stirchley also contributed to Birmingham's prominent role in the national 'public house reform' movement, with the Three Horseshoes and the British Oak both being built in 1924 to replace previous pubs. These offered facilties to meet <a href="http://www.search.suburbanbirmingham.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=1820">Bishop Gore</a>'s exhortation for premises that would cast 'not reflection on a man or his wife and children if they were seen going in going out'.^{<small>7</small>}


<font color="#666633"><small>¹ GKN King's Norton Works [BA&H: MS 1407]
² The Co-operative Society, The Wheatsheaf Magazine (1920s-1930s)
³ Catalogue for the records of the Church of the Ascension, Stirchley [BA&H: EP 107]
⁴ Catalogue of Stirchley County Primary School [BA&H: S 192]
⁵ L. Chew, Images of Stirchley (1995)
⁶ Stirchley (Methodist) New Connexion 'Leaders' Minutes' (9 November 1893) [BA&H: MC 74/3]
⁷ Quoted in A. Foster, Pevsner's Architectural Guide to Birmingham (2005), p.25. See also, <a href="http://www.search.suburbanbirmingham.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=1820">'Bishop Gore'</a> for details of Charles Gore's time as Bishop of Birmingham.