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 in appalling filth. As a result, people of great humanity and conscience led a cultural revolution to bring ordinary working people out of their degraded, untutored, existence.

That "place" was the UK's town-cum-city of Birmingham - thought of by many today still as just a most uninteresting place with a background in heavy industry. People have a vague notion of the existence of Joseph Chamberlain.

Having been brought up in that place (for my first 21 years) and then having lived away from it for over 40 years, my return 13 years ago caused me to revaluate my thoughts about this place. And what I perceive now in its history is something quite different to what I remember as a boy when I travelled across the town from relatively green fields. 

Although I enjoyed the old market hall and the cobbled streets of the ancient Bull Ring in its centre, I also have vivid memories of the "gasworks and on its air I would sip" as I once wrote in a poem. Plus all the rather untidily strewn and grim workshops and factories and poor housing that populated large areas.

When I had a summer job working at a dairy, while at school in 1959, I recall the shock I had when taken to the home of the driver I was helping, for a spot of lunch. That was my first experience of a slum. I also remember cycling from the city centre in smog in 1963 and arriving home so blackened that my mother could scarcely recognise me!

Much of the poor housing and the smogs may have long gone, but parts of Birmingham have not changed much, and the many "improvements" (in terms of quality) have mostly not done much more than increase the amount of daylight that can be seen - in my view at least. Visibly, Birmingham is certainly not a place for the aesthete, apart from the odd spot.

Sadly, precious little of the very old parts and structures remain. The history lies mainly underground. St. Martin's stands alone as a witness to ages past - and even that was re-built 150 years ago. The River Rea - around which the place first grew - was long ago removed from view in the central area. How can water be submerged?

But what we fail to see about the long-gone leaders of old Birmingham is their tremendous - amazing even - influence on the culture of this country in the centuries immediately preceding the 20th century. That influence is hidden from the physical view in the main, yet that influence affected so much of who and what we are today. And we have forgotten that: we fail to give homage to those that effectively created our (until recently at least) happier state of material and intellectual existence.

It was this place that yielded some of the most amazing personages that this country has known. Attwood, Sturge, Dawson, Dixon and Chamberlain, to name the cream. Plus the members of the preceding Lunar Society. True characters of worth and nothing to do with the concept of 'establishment' which has formed its history largely on the back of medieval Normans. 

However, rather than study the real story of human development, it's most often been the history in London and the south and medieval remnants of the UK that people prefer to look at - probably because of its glamour. Or, where Birmingham's history does have popular value, it is the somewhat excessive note put on its story as a place of manufacture. 

Well, after all my years of reflections on the place of Birmingham - and admiring the work of people of the ilk of historians Carl Chinn and the late Chris Upton - I have written a 4-part electronic magazine (PDF) series - available here - that I believe provides a good primer on the importance of Birmingham's heritage to the rest of the country - and, indeed, the English-speaking world - in respect of social change.

Amongst other names included in the pages of that 'primer' will be found the name of George Dawson, who just happened to arrive in Birmingham at the very time when a voice was badly needed to stimulate action by civic leaders. What noise he made! And what action did he provoke! Thanks largely to him and his helpers, a Civic Gospel was propounded in such a way that important business people heard the call and enthusiastically went into action to carry out Dawson's ethos. 

What Dawson proved is that there is a principle of life that can move mountains by itself. Science is not needed to prove essential truth.

Just lately there have been some notable people around Birmingham (academic and political) who have tried to bring attention to the voice of George Dawson, and of how his multi-purpose call is still vital in civic affairs.

I am sure that a George Dawson of today should be speaking out on many modern versions of his old themes. The likes of him - and the spirit that was evoked within him to preach his message - are not simply phenomena of long ago. They are still here - waiting to be reawoken.

Thank you for reading this and, if you have not done so already, I hope you will consider purchasing this great story, the above-mentioned and inexpensive 4-part series.