Summer Holiday Art Activity

It's 'back to school' time, but during the last week of the summer holiday tamed and lots of Witton residents came together for an afternoon of print making. There were three different kinds of printing, all with the idea to make a picture of the river or the wildlife of the river; there was potato printing, mono printing and poly-printing, and plenty of wet-wipes for multi-coloured fingers afterwards. It was a great afternoon, and the children who came were wonderful and produced some lovely pictures; here are just a few.

We chatted about the River Tame too, and found out about what activities are in the area for children- which are very few. Parents were really pleased to have an activity as there are no local play areas. There will be another activity in the second week of October, and we will keep you posted about exactly when and what that will be.

This was a free activity funded by the tamed project. The artists attending were Jenni Coles-Harris, Rob Colbourne and Nita Newman.

All That's Left of Kynoch's and IMI

Whilst walking down Wellhead Lane on Tuesday I came across this tumble-down building and wondered what it could have been, but on a tour of Witton and Aston by an Aston resident (Dave, who has been a really great help with sharing his memories) I found out that this was the rear entrance of Kynoch's. Everyone who remembers Kynoch's tells me that the site was like a town in itself; there was a power station, dentists, doctors, vehicles that never left the site, and each building had bikes to get around because it was so vast. I will put some maps up to show how massive the site was, but for now I will just say that it was big- really, really big.

It seems so strange then that it has all gone, and until I found this building I thought that it had completely disappeared; so this ragged, peeling building is all that is left of what was a company that was world renowned, and supplied the world with its multitude of goods. It seems a shame then, that it is just being left for nature to slowly creep up and help it to finally be unsaveable. So I thought I would take some photographs of the state it can be found in today, with many of the traces of its industrial use, which have a charm of their own. There are more photographs to come.

Photographs of Witton

Looking towards Witton in about the 1950s.
The Aston Villa ground is behind and Serpentine Road is that nearest. During the late Victorian period a funfair was held near this site.