North Worcestershire Research Articles

The contribution of Freemasons to social and economic development in North Worcestershire c.1760-1824

ABSTRACTThis article is a reassessment of a topic neglected by academic historians- freemasonry as a social institution. It examines what attracted 364 men to freemasonry in north Worcestershire between 1760 and1824 and evaluates their contribution to the social and economic development of the area . The research is based on extensive use of both masonic and non-masonic primary sources. Data extracted from locally and centrally held masonic records have been incorporated within a database and integrated with non-masonic data to create a historic record of the activities of those freemasons. Based on the information gathered, it is argued that freemasonry, through its values and structure, enabled its members to contribute to the social and economic development of north Worcestershire. As an organisation it straddled the roles traditionally attributed to business networks and benevolent institutions so that, not only were freemasons actively involved in the industrial development of the area, they were also promotors of the well-being of local communities facing the social challenges of industrialisation.

British Waterways: a study in the search for sustaihnability

This paper applies the Hicks model of sustainable income to that part of the UK waterways system administered by British Waterways. The model stresses the need to maintain intact the overall capital stock and examines the implications of this principle for the funding of the system and for its administration. A case study of a critical component in the system, the Bittell Reservoirs in North Worcestershire, demonstrates the implications of lack of funding for future sustainability, both in terms of ‘keeping the boats moving’ and in terms of the ecological, recreational and heritage value of the site. The Hicksian model is particularly apposite to the application of an admittedly loose concept (sustainability) to a situation where there is a reasonably clearly defined capital stock. Where such a stock is under threat, the focus placed on to translating ‘income’ into ‘revenue’ highlights key issues of policy in preventing further deterioration of an important national asset. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Assessing the risk from environmental cadmium exposure.

Previous soil surveys by Environmental Health Officers had found high soil cadmium (Cd) concentrations in gardens next to a battery factory in Worcestershire. This study was set up to determine whether this had resulted in high Cd levels in the blood and urine of local residents. A sample of residents (n = 39) living next to the factory were matched by age and sex to employees of North Worcestershire Health Authority. A questionnaire was used to determine potential Cd exposure. The levels of Cd in blood, urine and garden soil were measured. None of the members of the study group had a blood or urine Cd concentration above the levels estimated to cause harm. Only one member of the comparison group, but all members of the study group, had soil in their gardens with a Cd concentration above the recommended level. Adjusting for smoking status and other confounders by using logistic regressional analysis showed that being in the study group did not confer a greater risk of having an elevated blood or urine Cd concentration. The greatest influence on Cd concentrations was a current smoking habit. No evidence was found to show that the high soil cadmium concentrations had adversely affected the health of local residents. Specific issues raised during the implementation of this study were the resource implications of assessing environmental exposure and the difficulties in recruiting the study group. Health Authorities and local government need to be fully aware of similar problems they might encounter before investigating a potential environmental health hazard.

Fundholders to take over all purchasing

Four general practices in Bromsgrove in the midlands in Britain have been given an annual budget of pounds sterling 13.2m to buy all the health services for 40 000 people. The budget, which was handed over by North Worcestershire Health Authority, will have to fund all of the health needs of Bromsgrove's residents, including accident and emergency care, ambulance services, emergency admissions to hospitals, and maternity services. Jim Bartlett, the health authority's chief executive, said that the project was the first of its kind in Britain. “It was set up to …

The Role of the Headteacher in Staff Development

How do heads see their role in managing staff development? Interviews explore the dilemmas of meeting needs of individual teachers or of the school. The author, formerly Director of North Worcestershire Teachers' Centre, concludes that heads find their lives 'reactive, fragmented and unstructured' and lacking in strategy for professional development.

THE MIDLAND COUNTIES TRADES FEDERATION 1886–1914

AbstractThe 30 years preceding the Great War saw many important developments in trade unionism. Trade union activity in one of the most important industrial areas of Britain, the Black Country of South Staffordshire and North Worcestershire, has, however, been neglected by historians of unionism. The Webbs never mention the area and the definitive work of Clegg, Fox and Thompson contains only passing references. Similarly, articles in the professional journals are few.

Discussion

Professor F. W. S hotton said there were many points, of varying significance, that he would like to discuss with Dr Audley-Charles but he would have to confine himself to a few. The Arden Sandstone in Warwickshire and its near environs is a useful divider of the Keuper Marl into a small upper part and a lower part about five times as thick, but he did not feel confident that this unit had been recognized with certainty in the thicker basin sequences. If he had heard Dr Audley-Charles aright, reference had been made to occasional conglomerates in the Keuper Marl taken to be equivalent to the Arden Sandstone and he seriously doubted the accuracy of such records which might be the driller's interpretation of desiccation breccias or dolomitic concretions; but details apart, he still doubted whether this horizon could be recognized over a large area. The Waterstones of E. Hull have been recognized by Professor Wills in north Worcestershire as three cyclothems, two in the Keuper Sandstone and an upper one, usually known as the 'Passage Beds', at the base of the Keuper Marl. Certainly Waterstones and Passage Beds are not synonymous terms. It has long been known that between the pre-dominantly arenaceous Keuper Sandstone and the argillaceous Keuper Marl there was a zone of oscillatory transition but it seemed most unlikely that the author had been able to recognize either a constant top or base; yet unless he had done so, the construction of isopachytes and the drawing of conclusions

Book Review: Tramways of the Black Country: Company-Operated Lines of South Staffordshire and North Worcestershire.

Book Review: Tramways of the Black Country: Company-Operated Lines of South Staffordshire and North Worcestershire.

The Lower Bunter Sandstones of North Worcestershire and East Shropshire

The Composition of the Sand.The Lower Bunter consists of sand whose average grain size is about ·2 mm. Particles below 0·05 mm. or above 1 mm. are virtually absent.The fineness of the sand and restricted limits of size variation in the whole thickness of the deposit, and the high perfection of sorting in individual samples indicate an aeolian origin.The False Bedding.No true bedding exists in the Lower Bunter examined.The false-bedding is only explicable on an aeolian origin. It is argued that it must represent cross-sections of barchan dunes advancing in a sand sea that was steadily increasing in thickness.The frequency distribution of the values of the false-bedding dips confirms this interpretation.The directions of different types of false-bedding indicate that transport and deposition was effected almost entirely by a prevailing east wind.Relation of the Lower Bunter to the Mercian Highlands.The establishment of an easterly origin for the sand indicates that the “ Mercian Highlands ” of the Birmingham district were the source of sand supply.Arguments are adduced towards the correlation of the Barr Beacon Beds and the Lower Bunter Sandstone, the former being regarded as the thin piedmont spread of scree material fringing the desert.

The actual tuberculous morbidity and mortality among house contacts of sputum-positive cases in north worcestershire

The actual tuberculous morbidity and mortality among house contacts of sputum-positive cases in north worcestershire

The South Staffordshire and North Worcester-shire Mining District and its Relics of Mining Appliances

The South Staffordshire and North Worcester-shire Mining District and its Relics of Mining Appliances

The August Heleoplankton of Some North Worcestershire Pools.

The August Heleoplankton of Some North Worcestershire Pools.

The August Heleoplankton of some North Worcestershire Pools.

Journal Article The August Heleoplankton of some North Worcestershire Pools Get access B. Millard Griffiths, M.Sc. B. Millard Griffiths, M.Sc. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 43, Issue 293, December 1916, Pages 423–432, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8339.1916.tb00612.x Published: 23 December 2008

VIII—On a Recently Discovered Keuper Outlier near Kidderminster

About two and a half miles east of Kidderminster, in North Worcestershire, is a wooded hill, marked and named Bissell Gorse on the original one-inch Ordnance Map [1831], Sheet 54, N.W. It is now on the six-inch Map [1882], Sheets Worcestershire VIII, S.E. and IX, S.W., named Bissell Wood. The hill lies just half-way between the villages of Stone and Churchill.