Birmingham, which was often called the Workshop of the World, was one of the engines of the Industrial Revolution. In an era known as the Midlands Englightenment, entrepreneurial risk takers and engineering know-how made Birmingham the manufacturing center of Britain through the 19th century and most of the 20th.
While steam engine wasn't invented in Birmingham, this is where James Watt first commercially manufactured his engine here. Birmingham's Victorians grew rich on major industry, manufacturing the transatlantic cable and the Orient Express. It was the heartland of the British motor industry, the country's main manufacturer of buttons and small metal items, the place where George Cadbury made chocolates and created an early planned community for his workforce.
The Legacy
The legacy of Birmingham's 19th century magnates and millionares is the Birmingham Museum and Art gallery, housed in a Grade II listed, city center building and first opened in 1885. The Lonely Planet Guide may have snubbed Birmingham this year, but believe me, this museum is definitely worth fitting in on your schedule. The museum houses more than 500,000 objects from 200,000 years ago to the present. Exhibits display and explain fine and applied art, archaeology, ethnography and social history. The museum's art collection has a good selection of English and European paintings.
But it is two specific collections that make this museum, known locally as BMAG, worth a special trip.
The Pre-Raphaelites
The Victorians loved a good sentimental painting. Luckily for Birmingham, it's 19th century millionaires had pretty good taste. A few Pre-Raphaelite paintings donated when the museum first opened in 1885 (when the movement was contemporary art) has developed into the finest collection - and the largest public collection - of Pre-Raphaelite paintings in the world.
The museum's art works by the founder members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood - John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt, along with Ford Madox Brown and Edward Burne-Jones - is so extensive that Birmingham is now an internatioan resource for the study of this movement. The collection includes oil paintings, tapestries, drawings, sketchbooks, stained glass and related cartoons, prints, illustrated books, watercolours and ceramics, and archive material.
Among the many paintings, my favorite work is the Ophelia - Head Study, a small pencil drawing by Millais that was one of the preliminary studies for his famous painting "Ophelia" now in the Tate Britain.
A Golden Hoard
Now visitors have yet another reason to visit this museum in the Midlands, The Staffordshire Hoard. Perhaps you recall the find, in 2009, in a Staffordshire farmer's field. A man with a metal detector discovered a hoard of Anglo Saxon gold with 1,500 objects, representing the largest Anglo Saxon treasure ever found in Britain.
At the time, it sparked renewed interest in metal detecting in Britain. I learned the word "detectorist" and a lot about the British law on Treasure Trove.
Once the furore died down, the gold was sent off to the British Museum to be catalogued, identified and (some of it) briefly put on display while its value was assessed.
Eventually, once it was declared "treasure trove" the finder and the landowner would split the proceeds of any sale. So how much did they get? Well, the The Treasure Valuation Committee recommended a value of £3.285 million - a figure agreed upon by Birmingham and Stoke City Councils, the finder and the landowner.
The millions of pounds were eventually raised by public donations, various grants and an 11th hour pledge from the National Heritage Memorial Fund. The Staffordshire Hoard was saved for the nation and returned to Birmingham, in the Midlands, not far from where it was found. A temporary gallery to display some of the star finds has been set up at BMAG. Another £1.7 million will have to be raised to create a permanent gallery for the largest hoard of Anglo Saxon gold ever found, anywhere, but what is on display is most definitely worth a detour to Birmingham.
Birmingham Museum Essentials
- Address:Birmingham Museum and Art Galleries,Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, B3 3DH
- Contact:+44 (0)121 303 1966
- Admission: Free entrance.
- Open: Every day; Monday - Thursday and Saturday 10am - 5pm, Friday 10:30am - 5pm, Sunday 12:.30pm - 5pm
- Visit their website
- Read more about the Staffordshire Hoard
