A quick chat about our meetings....
Our Midlands Branch meet regularly from 7 – 9 pm at Cofton Hackett Village Hall, Barnt Green Road, Birmingham, B45 8BN. It is an excellent venue with easy access to many motorways
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A look into our archives.....
Midlands Branch first appears in the July-August 1956 edition of “The Cartophilic World” (Vol. 11, No.124), where it says that an inaugural meeting of the Cameric Club`s "New Birmingham Branch" was convened by Dr. J.H. Millen and Mr. J.J. Powell on Thursday 14th June, at the Cambridge Inn, Cambridge Street, Birmingham, with the intention of forming a Midlands Branch of the club.
For a while I was stymied by this, as I easily found Mr. J.J. Powell in the Cartophilic Society membership roll for 1949-1950 as living in Sutton Coldfield. However Dr. Millen does not appear. It takes until “The Cartophilic World” : Vol.11, No.1677 to sort this out, for under “New Members”. on the inside front cover, there suddenly appears “MILLEN, Dr. James Hastings, Birmingham” ,This means he must have only a member of the Cameric Club before this date, and joined the Cartophilic Society later.
From reports we know that this inaugural meeting saw seventeen members present, including two from London, one from Blackpool, one from Sale and one from Stoke on Trent. I believed the Blackpool member was Cyril Marsden, but it was not as the piece goes on to say:
- Apologies for absence and good wishes to the new Branch were received from Mr. Gore, Mrs. Button and Mr. Stevenson, and Cyril Marsden the Honorary Secretary of the Lancashire Branch, and Miss Dorothy Bagnall of the London Cigarette Card Company also write and expressed their best wishes for the future prosperity of the Branch”. Mr Powell was elected Chairman, Dr Millen as Secretary and Treasurer and Mr. A. Willis as Auction Secretary, because the immediate intention was to hold a monthly auction, and in fact at the end of that inaugural meeting a small auction of cards took place, selling cards donated by members. This was in order to raise funds for promoting the Branch by way of an intensive recruiting campaign, plus advertising in the local press and at information centres like libraries throughout the City, The next meeting was also announced to take place at the same address on Thursday the 12th July at 7.30 pm.
July/August 1959`s “Cartophilic World” details the Cameric Club`s Annual Rally, which had taken place on the 30th of May. Over 90 members and friends sat down to luncheon for about half an hour. The most important thing for us is that it is noted that “The Birmingham Branch of the Cameric Club put on a very good display of cards entitled Pageant of Cartophily. The arrangements were in the capable hands of Dr. J. H. Millen.”
In July 1964 Dr. Millen had retired as Secretary, not due to ill health, at least not his own, but due to the increasing pressure of his medical work. At that time Monthly meetings were held at Arden Hotel, Birmingham. His successor was Mr. Leslie Higgs of Castle Bromwich, and we know quite a bit about him, thanks to a "Pen Portrait" which appeared in the first ever "Cartophilic Notes and News" magazine, dated January/February 1965.
That tells us he was "born in July, 1914 and was infected with the collecting bug from birth", though actually between the ages of twenty and forty his collecting passion was postage stamps; however, one day, out of the blue, he felt it was a never ending pursuit, and so looked about to find something else to collect. What he found was "a quantity of Kensitas Flowers", at a junk shop, which brought back lots of memories, and so he bought them. For quite some time after this he specialised in silks, but slowly incorporated cards as well, and that found him a new friend, Mr. Fred Willetts, who took him to a Cameric Club meeting in August 1956, of the Midlands Branch. In fact it was only the third meeting of the Midlands Branch, but the meeting, and the accumulated, assorted cards on display were very encouraging, and soon Mr. Higgs was a collector of all manner of things, to quote his own words "anything issued with a commodity to promote sales. including chocolate wrappers, "rock" pictures, and gum cards. His maxim is if it is in Mr, Burdick`s catalogue and he fancies it he will collect it. Amongst his favourites, his first love is "silks", of which he has about 2,000, the artistic cards, usually without borders (Player`s "Military Headdress") Liebigs, and similar cards. He dislikes the photo types of the Senior Service kind as when mounted they look too much like snapshots. For quantity, Leslie Higgs has about 20,000 cards (over 15,000 in complete sets) but he could not care less what they are worth on the market - to him they are priceless. Housed generally in cigarette cartons and tin boxes his collection is in process of being mounted on black sheets (loose) for insertion in his own made file type of portfolio. As to the hobby generally, Mr. Higgs does not think, as most do, that it would necessarily be improved by the reissue of cards as tobacco inserts. He says "I think we should through the medium of the Club and exhibitions make the general public more card conscious, this might in turn result in manufacturers taking notice. I also think there is a little too much `politics` in the Club and not enough attention paid to the real job of collecting. Meetings always seem to me to contain too much on the Agenda. But perhaps I am an impatient collector, but I consider myself an ardent member and hope to continue so for many years to come. As a tail-piece, I also collect post-cards and match labels."
In that same first ever edition, on page 19, you will find the following announcement :
- BRANCHES. Members who were not previously members of the Cameric Club are, of course, now entitled to attend any Branch Meeting of the Cameric and are assured a very hearty welcome. If you live anywhere near London, Leeds, Manchester or Birmingham, do go along and introduce yourself. You will find them a friendly crowd. Spend an enjoyable evening and acquire a few cards for your collection."
The branches given here were slightly confusing, for it referred to their meeting places not their proper names, so what they called "Birmingham" was actually the Midlands Branch.
Then, at the back of the book, just inside the back cover, is published a list of dates for each of those four branches, which reads, in our case :
- MIDLANDS BRANCH.
Secretary : Mr. L. Higgs, Castle Bromwich, Birmingham
MEETING DATES.
Thursday, 18th Feb.
Thursday,18th Mar.
Thursday, 15th April
Thursday, 20th May.
Thursday, 17th June.
Thursday, 15th July.
Thursday, 19th Aug..
Thursday, 16th Sept.
Thursday, 21st Oct..
Thursday, 18th Nov.
Thursday, 16th Dec.
All at 7 p.m. at Arden Hotel, Birmingham.
This line of dates tells us that they met monthly, and on the third Thursday of the month. However, there is a slight problem with the location as the Arden Hotel seems not to have been in existence in 1965, it only started in 1968. Before that it had simply been a cafe, called The Arden Grill, though it did have a few bedrooms on site, which were seldom used as, at that time, it was still part of the outskirts of Birmingham, or, more correctly, in the countryside. However, shortly after this, especially with the coming of international flights at Birmingham Airport, the building of the M1 Motorway, and of the National Exhibition Centre, the city began to expand.
In The Cartophilic Notes and News (Vol.1 No.2 March/April 1965 p.34) a lot more is told of that Birmingham Rally. In fact it did not visit Birmingham every year, it toured. In 1965 it was on Saturday May 29, they sat down to lunch at 1.30, (costing 12/6 a head) then the hosts, Birmingham Branch, put on a short presentation and a display of cards. Many Branch Secretaries arranged coach parties up there, including London Branch, which left from Croydon at 8.30 am (Fred Piper, the organiser of the rally, who had just rejoined the Council, being based in Croydon) and called in at Victoria at 9, then took the M1 to Birmingham, arriving about 1.15. They left Birmingham at 6pm for home.
Not so long after this there was sad news, with the death of Mr. Alan Willis, the Branch auctioneer, on the 22nd of April 1965, not so long after the death of his wife
By May 1966 meetings were still being held on the third Thursday of every month, but they had relocated to the Crown Hotel, in Corporation Street, and now started half an hour earlier, at 6.30 pm. It appears that the move, in January, had been due to a rent rise at the former premises, and that the Crown was actually cheaper than the Arden had been before the rise.
In July 1966, at the AGM, all officers were re-elected, which is how we know that they were Mr N.J. Allcock as Chairman, Mr Leslie Higgs as Secretary, Mr F G Baker as Treasurer and Mr J.J. Powell as Auctioneer. Mr. W.A. Wilson dealt with new issues. Average monthly attendance was fifteen per meeting, and at that meeting two new members were recorded, with two coming shortly after.
In 1967 the 129th meeting took place; 16 members attended plus a Mr. Walton from Aldershot who happened to be in Birmingham (and would go on to become Cartophilic Society President) and a Master Laker, a junior member (who would go on to work for the London Cigarette Card Company). Master Laker had brought along a school friend who also hoped to join the Society (but sadly I do not know who that was). There was an auction, with material contributed by the chairman Mr. Allcock, and he also gave one or two items to all the junior members.
The first Midlands Branch Rally was in 1968, at the Crown Hotel. However the Birmingham Rally of Saturday 11 April 1970 was at the Oliver Bird Hall, Church Hill Road, Solihull, about 4-5 miles from the Birmingham City Centre, with lunch being arranged at a local hostelry. There was an exhibition of silks and fabric issues. Sadly this was not very well attended, maybe because they had been forced to change the date at short notice because of alterations to the FA Cup Final; it was now the 2nd of May. There was a buffet at the Rally, 15/- a person and it would be arranged by a firm of caterers. I have the menu! As a postcript to this the date of 2nd May was then found to be the same as the North West Branch, who had also moved their date because of the Cup Final, but they agreed to switch theirs to the 9th.
Dr. J.H. Millen died in 1970. At his first ever meeting, all those years ago, he had met Cyril Marsden and the two had become good friends; strangely the passing of Cyril Marsden was reported in the very same issue of the Society magazine.
The 1970 Midlands Branch AGM was held on 16 July, seventeen members attended including two visitors, E.C. Prior and T.F. Halford. The Chairman hoped the rally in Solihull would be repeated in 1971. The treasurer F.G. Baker said the Branch was in a healthy state, though the Rally had eaten into its finances. A decision had been made, perhaps because of this, to introduce the club book round and W.Preece again agreed to organise it. The meeting concluded with a small auction of material contributed by Ted Prior.
The 1972 Rally was still at the Oliver Bird Hall in Solihull, on 20 May, but advertising of the time stresses that there was to be no buffet, owing to the difficulty of estimating the correct number of prospective visitors, the two preceding luncheons having made a loss for this reason.
Between 1973 and 1976 the Branch was meeting on the third Friday of every month, from 6.30 pm, at Crown Hotel in Corporation Street, Birmingham; the secretary was listed as Mr Follard of West Bromwich.
In 1980, the Rally was held at Womborne Youth and Community Centre, near Wolverhampton, and the branch AGM was also held there on 28 June.
At the Branch Rally on the 29th of March 1987 a set of twelve cards were issued, showing “Branch Personalities”. Some sets can be found with a hand stamp to that effect, but other sets are not stamped and these were presumably sold off after the event.
Then, in 1991, a second set was issued. This is larger in size and in the fact thay there are twenty four cards. It is entitled “Silhouettes of Veteran and Vintage Cars”. Nobody seems to know why this subject was chosen, I thought it might perhaps mark the opening of the Birmingham Motor Museum, but that was not until 1993.
Some time after that the Branch moved to Selly Oak Methodist Church Hall, and meetings lessened to the third Friday of alternate months, though they kept to the 6.30 pm start time.
In the year 2000, they then moved a short distance away to Cofton Hackett Village Hall, where Midlands Branch still meet.