A New Jerusalem In Birmingham
Dear Reader, Many know of the hymn "Jerusalem", formed from the poem by William Blake: "And did those feet in ancient time". Essentially, I take it to be a metaphysical concept of the creation of the perfect society in contrast to the world of "dark Satanic Mills" that existed in Blake's time: the Industrial Revolution. Did anyone actually try to create such an idyl? Well, perhaps not quite - certainly not in recent centuries, although some might say that America was intended as such. But - astonishingly some might think - the existence of those "dark Satanic Mills" did cause one specific place in Britain to attempt to grow out of it a semblance of humanity and civilisation. The efforts by certain individuals of that place (and supported by others from the country around) developed out of real need: the Industrial Revolution had created such a dark world in which many and an ever-increasing number of people eked out a living whilst living