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WEst Bromwich Union Pauper Memorial
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WEst Bromwich Union Pauper Memorial
Location: Birmingham
The Pauper Memorial Group came into being when a grandson of a woman who died in the workhouse and was buried in the pauper Burial Ground in Heath Lane Cemetery, West Bromwich enquired whether there could be some kind of a memorial for all who have relatives buried in the same way.
Having received favourable comments from the Sandwell Bereavement Services, a group of people emerged primarily from the congregations of Anglican Parishes in the West Bromwich Deanery, and this rapidly widened to include representations from a variety of other organisations and people of diverse attitudes to religious faith.
As members of the Local History Group Brian and I found ourselves members of the Committee and the rest is as theysay history.
The principle aim of the group is to commission a memorial that commemorates all those buried in the pauper/public graves, who, by law, cannot have a headstone of their own, especially those who died in stigmatised poverty. Also to help make people think about how the poor are treated today.
John, the clerk to the committee, wrote round to various places for sponsors. Brian found himself elected as Treasurer and applied to the Town Team for set up funding. This was granted and we must say a sincere thank you for that initial funding for without it the project would have gone nowhere. When John approached Strong's, the Monumental Masons, they offered to fund a monument, an offer of stone and their masons to cut it. This could have been the end of the project as the monument was the focus but Brian and I have been educationist all our careers and felt, with other members of the group, that we needed to educate and raise awareness of the poor and poverty both in the past and now. To make this a reality we realised we needed to considerable amount of money and finally settled on the Local Heritage initiative administered by the Countrywide Agency as a suitable funder to apply to. To cut a long story (very long) short we applied, crossing the t's and dotting the i's and answering innumerable questions and providing a very detailed budget. After about 9 months we heard that we had been successful and granted just over £20,000.
Without realising it our application had made us think of the wider possibilities of the project and plan for them. So, now we have begun our education programme with the enthusiasm of Stan Martin, head of All Saints Primary school, but this will be extended into a programme of presentations and recording of memories and stories of the school or the workhouse for the whole community.
Phil Gay, a Church Army Captain, who was a very valuable and enthusiastic member of the original committee helped evolve the idea of the Pauper Trail which with the help of the Ramblers had developed.
The project has become like Topsy and has "just growed" and keeps on growing.
Moreen Wilkes (Chairman)
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