History group enjoys year of food and looks ahead to motoring into 2024

The Tipton Town Libraries Local History Group has spent 2023 looking at the history of food and drink in the town, taking in talks from local historians and opportunities to try traditional Black Country food.

The project by the group culminated with the purchase and presentation to Mad O'Rourkes Pie Factory of a blue plaque marking 100 years of the building being present in the town.

The group have been led through the year by chairman Robert Hazel, who said the focus of the group had been to raise awareness to the local community about what the region has to offer.

He said: "What we like to do is celebrate the local community and show people what the Black Country has and while a lot of our projects don't end in blue plaques, it's nice to be able to have things like that at the end.

"Our aims and objectives have always been to collect new stuff, which can happen through people contacting us and asking if we know something or giving us a photograph or artefact.

"There's a lot of hidden history and heritage in Tipton and when I was library manager, I used to go into schools with the Tipton box, which was full of bits and pieces."

Mr Hazel said there was a lot of history that people didn't know about in the town, such as a car which was built in the town and broke the land speed record.

He said there were around 18 to 20 members of the group and said that there were certainly specialities which came in handy.

He said: "We all have different specialisms, such as one who was a war re-enactor and another who is a brilliant researcher, so we've got lots of pockets of knowledge, which is a great combination.

"We have some new, younger members as well, which will hopefully help the group going forward, and our age range goes from 18 to 92."

Mr Hazel said the big project plan for 2024 was called "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" and said the idea was to celebrate the automotive industry in the town.

He said: "We'd like this to end in a blue plaque as well as we've seen the 100th anniversary of a Bean Car, which was made in Tipton, being driven across Australia from Darwin to Melbourne.

"It was the first time a car had done that and it was built in Tipton, so we're working with local schools and, hopefully, by the end of the year, we'll have a board game and a computer game and resource packs for all the schools.

"That will be the theme of local history day in September next year and fits what I think makes this club special as we have a community spirit and we'll always look to see what history is out there and what we can do to coax it out."