Birmingham, West Midlands Branch - IPA Friendship Weekend 10-12th May 2019
IPA Members from across the UK and Europe descended on Birmingham in May 2019 to attend the Birmingham, West Midlands IPA Branch friendship weekend.
The weekend was organised by the branch committee as part of the run up to the 2020 IPA 70th anniversary celebrations. The weekend was split into several events that allowed participants the option to choose to attend specific activities or book the whole weekend.
Several of the UK IPA branches were represented with members travelling from Nottingham (5 Region), Thames Valley (7 Region), London North (9 Region), New Scotland Yard (6 Region) and Northern Ireland (2 Region), with other members and guests travelling from Southern Ireland, France and Germany.
Welcome Evening
The weekend kicked off with a welcome buffet held at Tally Ho Sports and Social club. Guests were greeted at the venue by a bagpiper and drummer (kindly provided by ex-DC Don Campbell and Rob Lawrie). Tally Ho, the West Midlands Police Sports & Conference Centre is the usual venue for branch meetings and was an excellent location for some outside activity during the evening. Guests were treated to a Police dog display by PC Paul Hopley and Police dog Stark, ably assisted by Dog trainer Dave Hibbert who suited-up and allowed himself to be chased, mauled and bitten for our amusement. Dave also brought Police dog Puppy Arthur, who proved a real treat for many of the older members. Dave and Paul were fantastic ambassadors for the force and went out of their way to speak to the members, showcase their work and their brilliant dogs.
We were then joined by PC Davey, PC Knox, PC Bradley and PC Brabham from the West Midlands Police Firearms Operations Unit (FOU) who gave the guests an insight into the work undertaken by unit. The team allowed guests to handle training weapons and demonstrated the huge amount of specialist equipment carried by officers and within the Armed Response Vehicles. This input proved particularly interesting to an officer from France, who explained that French ARVs have three officers on board at all times. Given the amount of equipment that was unpacked from the ARV we struggled to see how a third officer would fit into the vehicle! All the firearms officers were excellent and gave a positive, friendly and professional image of West Midlands Police; their attendance was really appreciated by everyone at the event.
Following the inputs by the dog section and FOU there was opportunity for some presentations to be made to branch members that had reached their 20, 30, 40 and 50 years’ IPA membership. Branch Chair Tom Chisholm and Vice-Chair Simon Hensley presented the certificates and ‘20-year pin badges’, while Branch Secretary Andy Gregory took photographs of the presentations. Following this, Simon Hensley surprised a number of guests with a genuine ‘Acme Police Whistle’. Acme are a Birmingham based company (J. Hudson & Co.) who have made the Metropolitan Police Whistle since 1870. Simon had contacted the company a few months ago and explained about the Friendship Weekend. Acme made a really kind gesture and donated a limited-edition whistle to the first twenty people that booked to attend the weekend. Each whistle is adorned with the IPA logo on the front and there were some really excited guests who were delighted with their surprise gift. Additionally, all the attendees over the weekend received a goody-bag for attending. Following the presentations, a raffle took place and there was ample opportunity to view all the IPA memorabilia and photographs on display. The evening was a real success and guests had plenty of time to get to know each other before the minibus dropped them back to their city centre hotels.
Saturday
Saturday morning started with a guided tour of some of the hidden delights of Birmingham.
Lifelong Birmingham resident, history enthusiast, narrow-boater and serving West Midlands Police PCSO Richard Hodson led the group around some of Birmingham’s hidden highlights.
The guests met at 9.45am outside St. Paul’s Church in Birmingham’s famous Jewellery Quarter and the tour started at the grave of Moses Barber who was the first Birmingham City Police Officer to die whilst in service in 1853. We then proceeded through St. Paul’s Square, taking in St. Paul’s Church before heading to Birmingham’s Assay Office, which is one of only four in the country. Assay offices are institutions set up to assay (test the purity of) precious metals. This is often done to protect consumers from buying fake items. The hallmark of the Birmingham Assay Office is the Anchor, and that of the Sheffield Assay Office was the Crown. A story about the origins of this hallmark goes that meetings prior to the inauguration of both Birmingham and Sheffield Assay Offices in 1773 were held at a public house called the Crown and Anchor Tavern on the Strand, London. It is rumoured that the choice of symbol was made on the toss of a coin which resulted in Birmingham winning the Anchor and Sheffield with the Crown (which was changed in 1977 to the White Rose of York).
From there we headed onto the largest rise of locks – Farmer’s Bridge Locks, amongst Birmingham’s 100-mile long network – we really do have more Canals than Venice! This took us up through Brindley Place, which is home to some of Birmingham’s best restaurants, bars and attractions such as the National Indoor Arena, Sea Life Centre, Legoland Discovery Centre and much more. We then passed the Malt House pub where Former USA President Bill Clinton famously had a pint whilst visiting and up through the impressive International Convention Centre (ICC) and Symphony Hall before emerging in Centenary Square. There is a lot of building work currently going on in and around Centenary Square but this doesn’t detract from the impressive architecture of buildings such as Birmingham Library and the Hall of Memory. From there we again headed onto the Canal network onto Gas Street Basin, this is a beautiful area which is again surrounded by bars and restaurants. Richard, whose commentary was captivating, told the group that Cliff Richard once made a film in Gas Street Basin!
The tour continued past a family of ducks and ducklings up through the Mailbox, which is a high end shopping facility with more bars and restaurants and back onto the streets. We passed the recently opened Grand Central Station which glistened in the midday sun before reaching the impressive Chamberlain Square, which houses the Council House, the Town Hall and some excellent statues and monuments. Chamberlain Square was especially busy over the weekend as they were hosting a Velo event, a 100-mile cycling route around Birmingham and the Midlands finishing in the Square. It was also great timing as the Square was also hosting the incredible ‘Knife Angel’ sculpture which is visiting the city for a few weeks on its UK tour. Sculpture Alfie Bradley spent two years creating this impressive National Monument against Violence and Aggression. It is eight metres tall and is made from 100,000 blades seized by Police forces from across the UK. Bereaved knife-crime families have been able to inscribe their loved-ones’ names on some of the blades to remember the victims.
We then proceeded to St. Philip’s Cathedral, in what is affectionately called ‘Pigeon Park’ where our walking tour ended; it was a fantastic insight into some of Birmingham’s lesser known areas. Each guest received a handout of the route and the places we visited in case they wanted to retrace their steps or return in future with family and friends. The guided tour finished at 12 noon at St. Philip’s Cathedral and gave guests time to visit a local eatery for some lunch before meeting a short distance away at the ‘Lock-up’ in Steelhouse Lane.
The ‘Lock-up’ is a unique venue where some of the original ‘Peaky Blinders’ and other famous prisoners, such as Fred West, would have been housed before being transferred to the adjacent courtrooms for their hearing. The lock-up was decommissioned in 2016 when West Midlands Police transferred their central custody facility to a new purpose-built location in the suburb of Perry Barr a few miles away. The exhibits at the old police museum at Sparkhill Police Station are now gradually being transferred across to the lock-up and guests had opportunity to view displays that told stories of prisoners and staff, including the real 'Peaky Blinders' who were incarcerated in the building and how the original 'Lock-Up matrons' from 1895 formed some of the very first 'women in policing'.
Inspector Steve Rice now leads the West Midlands Police project to turn the Victorian Lock-Up into a permanent museum and funding has been sought from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to assist with this. Steve gave guests an informative presentation about the lock-up and some amusing tales before local historian Kay Hunter delivered a more sombre talk about some of the ‘lock-up’ inmates that were executed in Birmingham in times gone by.
The highlight of the afternoon session was a wonderful concert delivered in the basement of the ‘Lock-up’ by the brilliant Solihull Pop Chorus. The ‘Chorus’ started a few years ago in Solihull with twenty members and now has over 300 singers who meet weekly at various venues across the county. Former West Midlands Police employee Anya Small is the brainchild behind the Pop Chorus; this was their fourth concert performance for our IPA branch in recent years and their second in this unique venue. They have recently performed at the Royal Albert Hall, a concert hall in New York and even recorded a CD at the world-famous Abbey Road studios in London, yet many of the singers that performed in the Lock-up commented this was one of their favourite venues! Their motto is ‘Big Heart, Big Sound’ and the 35-strong Pop Chorus members that sang for the event really did raise the roof! The branch members that had previously performed police duties in the Lock-up all commented that the acoustics were brilliant, and the performance was a massive improvement on the drunken ‘sing-songs’ performed on Friday and Saturday nights by incarcerated prisoners in years gone by. After the concert finished the branch held another raffle and gifts were given to PCSO Richard Hodson and Kay Hunter to thank them for their support of the event. Additionally, Tom Chisholm presented IPA pennants to the Friendship Weekend guests that had flown into Birmingham from France, Germany, Ireland and Northern Ireland. Guests then had a short period of time available to revisit some of the displays, dress up in some old police uniform and take the obligatory selfie of themselves peering through the cell-door hatch!
Most of the weekend guests then adjourned to the Barajee Restaurant on Broad Street for an Indian meal and a relaxed social evening, while a few guests availed themselves of a meal at a nearby Italian restaurant.
Canal boat trip and Sunday Lunch
On Sunday, an IPA party of over thirty members took to waters on a canal boat from Brindley Place that led them on an hour-long journey around some stunning and lesser-known parts of the canal network, where several heron and other local wildlife were spotted. The canal trip was enhanced further by wonderful weather that allowed for a gentle rivalry between the keen photographers on board to capture the ultimate photograph, leading to some concern by the boat crew that some of the guests may over-extend to get a shot and fall in! The boat trip was followed by an excellent Sunday Lunch at the Piano and Pitcher, Brindley Place. After which, the various weekend-guests and day-visitors said their fond farewells to each other. Many new friendships were forged over the weekend and older friendships were rekindled.
Branch Chair Tom Chisholm said “It was an honour to welcome IPA friends to Birmingham. The city centre has developed considerably in recent years and is now a really world-class location to visit. We were able to show our visitors interesting and picturesque views of the city and many of our guests said they would return soon. We hope to run another friendship weekend in the future and look forward to meeting old and new friends in the second city.”
Vice-Chair Simon Hensley said “I’m a relative newcomer to the IPA and as such this was my first ever friendship weekend, in hindsight I probably should have attended a few before trying to help organise one! However, I really enjoyed the experience and am delighted that so many chose to join us, I would especially like to thank those who visited from overseas. I am also extremely grateful of the support of Birmingham based ACME Whistles who donated three boxes of IPA engraved Metropolitan whistles with presentation boxes and certificate of authenticity. These were the first ever IPA whistles produced, and had ‘Birmingham IPA; written on them. Twenty of these were given out to the first twenty people who booked tickets for the weekend, and a number were put to good use in the raffle. IPA Section UK HQ are in discussions with ACME to produce a run of Section UK whistles should you wish to purchase one yourself. Here’s to the next one!”
Branch Secretary Andy Gregory said “When I retired from the police two years ago, I announced my intention to stand down as branch Chair after ten years in post. I was genuinely worried that we wouldn’t have anyone to take the branch forward after Martin Sewell and I retired within a few months of each other. When Tom took over as the new Branch Chair in 2018, the first thing he did was to suggest a Friendship Weekend for 2019. With the addition of Simon on the committee, it is great to have two keen IPA members who are actively promoting the branch while still very busy as serving officers. I am delighted to say the Friendship Weekend was a massive success and the branch is in really good hands for the future!”
This was the first Birmingham, West Midlands Branch Friendship weekend for many years and proved to be very popular with those attending. The benefit of splitting the event into a variety of activities, all bookable via the Ticket Tailor website meant several guests were able to book for individual events, even if they couldn’t attend for the entire weekend. Simon is now putting together a ‘How To’ guide that will be shared amongst branches and regions, giving hints and tips for developing future ‘Friendship Weekends’.
The branch committee would like to thank all of those who assisted in planning the activities (especially Helen Preece and Christine Spriggs), all the guests that attended the weekend and we look forward to inviting you to our next event in the near future.
Feedback
Matt Conlon (Section Ireland) said “There is only so much you can do in a weekend and you just nailed it. It would be hard to pass the pop chorus doing jail house rock in the lock up! It was exceptional value and I would have no problem recommending Birmingham for a visit”.
Brian Adamson (9 Region, London North Branch) said “Yet again I would like to thank you, and the rest of the crew for a wonderful weekend”.
Tony Berrington (5 Region, Nottinghamshire Branch) said ”It was Annie's first ever visit to Brum …… she can't wait to revisit and already has shopping trips imagined! Overall an excellent weekend, very enjoyable - well done!”
Stephane La Roch (Section France) “I spent a very nice time in Birmingham. I really enjoyed the speech of the historian and the choir in the jail museum, the demonstration of the dogs unit, the pipe band and the cruise. Thank you for your hospitality during this week-end”
Sam Olphert (2 Region) said “Having served for Birmingham City Police for many years before transferring across the water, it was great to revisit places where I made many happy memories. Thanks to Tom, Simon, Andy and team as I really enjoyed the weekend and had a special time. My best wishes to everyone, Sam C218”.
Mirjam Muir (IBZ Gimborn Interpreter) said “Although not an IPA member it was wonderful to have been allowed to join the Friendship Weekend. I have made many IPA friends over the years while working at Castle Gimborn and to be able to join your activities in the UK was a special treat for me. The weekend break in Birmingham was just what I needed. Thank you to all involved!”
