Wednesfield Magazine - Oct / Nov 22

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Crowds Turnout for Canal Festival

The Wednesfield Canal Festival returned after a three year break due to COVID.

The event saw hundreds of people from across the area come to the Wyrley and Essington Canal near the Bentley Bridge Leisure Park to enjoy a weekend of entertainment, shopping, food and drink.

Organised by Hands on Wednesfield and held in the car park of the Nickelodeon Pub, the festival featured a mix of live bands and musicians, as well as fun fair and range of activities for youngsters.

Store holders from the ARC – Ashmore Rescue for Cats, Staffordshire Regiment, Scouts, and other local groups were on hand to meet visitors, while narrowboats moored on the canalside were selling fudge, jams, crafts and other items.

Co-organiser James Clarke said that the event had grown from a pop-up trading market to a full blown festival and credited Wednesfield North Councillor Phil Bateman with helping it grow.

He said: "We started it in 2014 as a way of getting trading boats together and as the popularity grew, so did the festival and Phil was really instrumental in that, greeting touring parties when they arrived and helping grow this area into a destination.

"At our peak, we've had around 4,000 people over the weekend and we have real hopes for this weekend, particularly as the weather is so nice, because it was gale force winds in 2019 and torrential rain in 2018.

"It's absolutely fantastic to be back after three years and we've got a bigger event than ever before, with traders selling everything from jam to clothing and jewellery and we're just looking forward to everyone coming to enjoy them selves."

Councillor Bateman said the festival was a way of showcasing the history and heritage of the canal and spoke about the nature reserve it had become. He said: "It's potentially the longest local linear nature reserve in the country, spanning 23 miles from Wolverhamp ton city centre to Brownhills and Chasewater and we're trying to preserve the bond and benefits of the canal.

Mark Welsby, Centre Manager for Bentley Bridge Leisure Park, said hosting the event was a way of giving back to the community.

He said: "When Lonsec first purchased the property, it was quite rundown and a notorious crime hotspot, so we concentrated on making it a visitor attraction because we knew the canal was used quite heavily.

"When I first met Hands on Wednesfield, we came up with a plan for regeneration of the area and it's grown from there, so it's nice to be able to give back to the area and do it for free."

For more information on future events, follow Hands on Wednesfield on Facebook.

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Aerial photos courtesy of ptaerialphotography

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Wolverhampton Society of Artists

Once again, the Wolverhampton Society of Artists will be holding an exhibition at Wolver hampton Art Gallery, which will open on October 29th 2022.

The Felix Award

Created by Peter Burt in March 2020 to acknowledge the joy art can bring to all our lives. Peter is a long standing member of the Society. He won the Elsie Holland Award in 2019. The name ‘Felix’ means ‘happy’ or ‘lucky’. It was the pseudonym Peter adopted in his work for the Samaritans. Two Prizes are awarded in the sums of £100 and £50.

The Exhibition will run from October 29th to December 18th and will be officially opened by the Mayor of Wolverhampton Councillor Sandra Samuels OBE, who will also present two awards;

The Elsie Holland Prize

A prize of £100 is awarded anonymously every year to commemorate the work of a remark able woman who devoted herself to adult education in Wolverhampton in the early 20th century. She was a stalwart member of the Worker’s Educational Association (WEA) which organised dozens of courses and educational trips and was especially keen on the ways in which Art can enrich people’s lives. The prize will be awarded for outstanding work in any medium.

This year’s selection panel is: Brendan Flynn, Professor of Art History and freelance curator associated with the RBSA, Carol Thompson Senior Curator of Wolver hampton Art Gallery and Keith Oram President of the WSA.

‘Meet the Artist’

Saturday 11.00 – 2.00pm

Every Saturday throughout the exhibition members of the public will be able to meet the artists in the Gallery and talk to them about their work.

Saturday 29th October 12.30pm

Official Opening Event

‘Yesterday’ Graham Everitt

‘Life Goes On’ Sarah Stokes

‘Oceans IV’ Ed Isaacs

Saturday 5th November 11.00 - 2.00pm

Jacky Fellows - PRINT

Lisa Williams - INTUITIVE ART

Saturday 12th November 11.00 - 2.00pm

Chris Manley - DIGITAL ART

John Maule Finch - WATER COLOURS.

Saturday 19th November 11.00 - 2.00pm

Keith Oram - CRITIQUE.

Nataliya Hodson and the Wolverhampton Sketchers

Saturday 26th November 11.00 - 2.00pm

Ralph Aldhous - ACRYLIC

Annette Hughes - TEXTILES

Saturday 3rd December 11.00 - 2.00pm

Johnathon George - DIGITAL ART

Neil Davies - ACRYLIC

Saturday 10th December 11.00 - 2.00pm

Keith Oram - CHINESE BRUSH TECHNIQUES

Anne Hastings – DRAWING TECHNIQUES

Wolverhampton Open Studios 2022

Over the weekend of 8 – 9 October 2022, Wolverhampton artists and makers will be

welcoming the public into their studios for a unique glimpse into these creative spaces. Visitors will be able to chat directly with the artist, browse and buy original artwork.

They will also have the opportunity to see a wide range of art work including glass, drawings, paintings, ceramics, textiles, jewellery, printmaking, 3D work, photography, digital work and the moving image.

https://wolverhamptonopenstudios.co.uk

Wolverhampton Art Gallery is open Monday to Saturday 10.30 –to 4.30. Sunday: 11.00 am to 3.30 pm. All visitors are welcome.

Find out more about the society and how you can become a member by visiting their website at: www.wsa-artists.com

The society also has a Facebookpage: https://www.facebook.com/WtonSA

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‘Portrait of Faded Tulip’ Pauline Faulkner

‘Captured’ Sarah Stokes

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It’s Our 50th Issue

The October/November Wednesfield Magazine is our 50th issue, which we think is quite an achievement.

This was brought to my attention by a reader from March End Road, who said she needed a copy of the last issue – which I obligingly dropped off the next day – and had kept every single magazine since we started. That got me thinking. As we do 6 per year, but missed two in COVID, we were on issue 49, so the next would be number 50.

I started the magazine in February 2014, having been made redundant from Stafford shire Newspapers, where I was head of Newspaper Sales & Promotions, looking after two daily newspapers, six weeklies, one free paper and two magazines.

Living round the corner from Olympic gymnast, Kristian Thomas, I cheekily popped round and asked him if he’d mind being on the first front cover. Thankfully, he agreed.

Since then, I think we’ve achieved quite a lot. Personally, I’ve got involved with the local community volunteer group, Hands on Wednesfield, I launched Wednesfield in Bloom, which got Wednesfield on BBC2 and now has a large number of helpers, who have achieved great things.

Aside from the things I’ve been involved in closely, the magazine has also helped to promote groups like the History Society, The British Legion, all of the primary and secondary schools and the three community hubs, in Wednesfield, Long Knowle and Ashmore Park.

This exercise has been really useful in remind ing me that we were involved in the campaign to save the Ashmore Inn, as well as making people aware of the plans to build houses on the green belt land off Linthouse Lane. We’ve welcomed the Saragarhi statue, been involved in and promoted the Christmas Lights Switch on, started a Christmas Toy project, helped to launch a foodbank and much more. Oh and helped to organise a Canal Festival…

I’ve made some great friends along the way, who have helped me, and I hope, I’ve helped them a little – James, Lindsey, Paul, Ken, Maureen, Phil, Mary, Angie, Les, Alf, Simon, Ray, Jay, Tom, Helen, Beth and Niel, plus the members of Wednesfield Rotary to name but a few. Of course, there have also been a few people I’ve become very fond of, but who have sadly passed, like Steph, Anne, Jean and Lynn.

I even managed to keep the magazine going despite having bowel cancer in 2016, which meant major surgery and six months of chemo (that was fun!), but thanks to those I’ve mentioned and other friends and family, we got through it. Not sure how, when I look back, but we did.

Obviously, the main reason we do this, is to earn a living and it’s local businesses who have believed in the magazine, and invested their monies to pay for the printing, production and distribution and a little bit on top for me to pay the gas and electric – although I had to ask for a bit more earlier in the year.

Yes, it’s been a real journey. One I wouldn’t swap for all the tea in China (whatever that looks like). No two days have been the same and it’s been hard work to try and put a magazine together every two months, but I’ve loved every minute of it.

At this point, I should probably pay tribute to my family; Wife, Carol and daughters, Abbi and Charl, who have put up with me getting up at 4am to work on a feature, going out to meet ings most evenings in the week, missing family celebrations and asking them to help me unload the van when the magazine comes back from the printers.

Oh, and I’d better mention my amazing graphic designers, Pete and Nic, from pulse freelance, who have worked tirelessly to make the

magazine look presentable.

Since starting the Wednesfield Magazine, we went on to launch publications in Bilston, Willenhall, Wolverhampton, Darlaston and Wednesbury, but being a Wednesfield resident, this one will always be very special to me.

So, if you’ve appeared in the magazine once, twice or several times, if you’ve been one of the hard-working distributors, or if you’ve placed an advert five years ago, or in every issue since we started; I would like say a huge thank you!

Hopefully, we can make it to 100, so I’ll keep this page and update it in about another 8 years.

Phil B’s 70th Rotary collections Lockdown VE day fun

Getting Blooms first gold

Mayors party

Greenbelt campaign

Caught pink handed

Canal festival

Promoting our history

Foodbank Jen and Leanne

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