At a meeting at the Ward Arms Inn, which is in Dudley, in the West Midlands. An old friend of mine, Fred Phillips, had invited along, the leader and deputy leader of our local council, (Sandwell MBC) to talk about the possibility, of having a museum for Staffordshire Bull Terriers and, many enthusiasts of the breed attended the meeting, including myself.
That was in 1985 and, when we left the Ward Arms Inn, (after a couple of pints of our favourite tipple, Bank’s mild ale) it was with the belief that we were about to record the heritage of the dog and of the families who had owned and loved the breed in a museum by itself. However, the idea never got of the ground and, at that time I had no idea that one day I would be a member of the council myself and that I would find myself in the same position as the other members who had tried, but failed to get Fred’s idea of the ground.
In 1996 I was elected to council and along with another councillor Bill Melia who was also, the Mayor of Sandwell MBC at that time, we did put on a display of our memorabilia on the back of a exhibition called Our Wednesbury, the exhibition was to be a dry run to see if it proved popular, it was.
In May 2000 we called a public meeting at the Wednesbury Museum & Art Gallery and informed those who turned up about our proposals and elected a committee, we have our own constitution and bank account and many people have joined the group since then.
We have displayed four exhibitions so far and, they have all created great interest. Our aims are to have a permanent exhibition somewhere in the Black Country. We also want a road show that can put on exhibitions around the country. Although we do not have a lot of funds in our bank account we do have a lot of memorabilia that people have donated or loaned to us. If you donate or loan any memorabilia you have to fill in a loans form to make it legal, we have a store room in which to keep all our memorabilia.
From time to time, we also produce our own newsletters, our committee are all unpaid volunteers who give up their free time in helping to raise funds or collect our memorabilia.
The more that joins our group the stronger we become and if you wish to pass on this information about our group, please do so.
Councillor Robert Evans
Secretary
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