Top tourist guide Ian Jelf is helping Birmingham Civic Society to celebrate its centenary
13:42, 01 Jun 2018Updated 16:57, 01 Jun 2018
The Birmingham Civic Society is celebrating its centenary with a year-long programme of special events called The City Beautiful.
If you enjoy the city’s older buildings, including its many Victorian treasures, the chances are the society has played a key role in preserving them.
Now that Birmingham is Europe’s youngest city, many young professionals are joining its activities as the city continues to evolve at a rapid pace.
The society was founded on June 10, 1918 to try to help to create a better society after the horrors of the First World War.
Its primary focus was to influence the city’s post-war regeneration – something it then had to do all over again and all too soon.
Spring view across the grounds of Birmingham Cathedral towards Waterloo Street (left), Caffe Nero, Damscena and The Old Joint Stock on Temple Row West(Image: Graham Young)
During the Second World War, for example, it organised the removal of the famous Sir Edward Burne-Jones stained glass windows from St Philip’s Cathedral to make sure they would survive intact for future generations to enjoy.
In the 1950s, the society erected the first of its Blue Plaques to honour significant people who have lived or worked in the city.
Four new plaques are set to be created in 2018.
One of the Burne-Jones windows in St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham(Image: Darren Quinton)
Registered tourist guide Ian Jelf says: “It’s an irony that today I sometimes get people from far across the world who’ve heard of the Burne-Jones' windows – and people from across Birmingham who haven’t.”
His colourful tours offer a whirlwind of knowledge about all of the industrialists, scientists, entrepreneurs, politicians and medics who changed the world from the city.
Giants like Lunar Society members including Matthew Boulton, Josiah Wedgwood, Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestley and James Watt.
READ MORE: The Brummies who invented the futureSecrets of Birmingham
Colmore Row at dawn on May 1, 2018 from inside the Birmingham Cathedral's grounds(Image: Graham Young)
But, out of all of the information he keeps stored in his head, there’s one thing he would like you to know free of charge....
“Birmingham isn’t the oldest or most beautiful cities in the world, but it is one of the greenest," says Ian.
“And it is the most surprising city I’ve ever worked in.
View of Central Hall from inside Corporation Street's new Cafe Artum(Image: Graham Young)
"Believe believe you me, I’ve shown people round all sorts of towns and cities all over the world over the years.
“This is somewhere that is still really special and not just because I’m a native.
“Whenever we are going on ny of these Civic Society walks you are very, very welcome to come and found out just what sort of thing I mean by that.
Ian Jelf talking about the plaque for Blue Coats School off Colmore Row - it is said to be the first one in the city(Image: Graham Young)
“There is no higher place going east of here until you get to the Urals (mountains in Russia).
“And it’s said there are six times more trees here than people.
"And Barbara Cartland was a Brummie! Who would have thought?"
Novelist Barbara Cartland eating honey in 1978(Image: Mirror Syndication International)
Watch our special blue plaque video to get a measure of Ian’s entertaining style – and to understand how many more amazing things you could learn about Birmingham by joining one of his tours.
To learn even more, visit the Civic Society's website here - you can also look out for more information on social media using @BirminghamCivic or #thecitybeautiful100
READ MORE: Four easy tricks to beat school holiday price hikes - according to MoneySavingExpertWhat is The City Beautiful – Centenary Programme?
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Partly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, The City Beautiful is The Birmingham Civic Society’s programme of events to celebrate its own centenary.
It will feature talks, walks, tours, family activities and more.
Here’s our guide to some of the key events.
City Centre Walking Tour
These will be held on Saturdays from 10am on June 2, July 28 and September 22
Meet registered tourist guide Ian Jelf outside St Martin in the Bull Ring , Edgbaston Street, Birmingham B5 5BB to join on a tour that will end up at the Library of Birmingham
Tickets are £4. To book visit the website here
The Library of Birmingham in 2015(Image: Grarham Young / BirminghamLive)
Ian likes to vary his routes.
“I don’t have ‘notes’ as such and I don’t like to tie myself down to a published route as all sorts of things can and do affect that ‘on the day’,” he says.
In general, the route will cover:
Bull Ring – for the birth of Birmingham and the plaque commemorating the old market Cross
An office worker enjoys a sunny view of Birmingham Cathedral in 2018(Image: Graham Young)
High Street – for the plaque to William Hutton, an interesting character who penned the first history of Birmingham
‘The Back of Rackhams’ – a fun name for an area with plaques to Nelson, William Sands Cox and John Ash
Saint Philip’s Cathedral – for the Birmingham Civic Society’s role in saving the Burne-Jones windows in WWII.
A Birmingham Civic Society Trafalgar Bi-Centenary 2005 plaque for Admiral Lord Nelson on Temple Row(Image: Graham Young)
Temple Row West – for the plaque to Samuel Lines, a noted Birmingham artist.
Council House – for the founding of Birmingham Civic Society
Centenary Square – for the Edward VII statue, re-sited through the efforts of Birmingham Civic Society as the plaques to Samson Gamgee and Barry Jackson.
READ MORE: Cannon Hill Park introduces car park charges from today - this is how much it will cost youLickeys at War
The Visitor Centre Cafe, Lickey Hills Country Park(Image: Graham Young)
Saturday, June 2 at 1pm
Meet at Lickey Hills Visitor Centre, Warren Lane, Rednal, Lickey, Birmingham B45 8ER
As well as exploring both World Wars, this free walk will include a bit of Napoleonic gunnery, too.
READ MORE: What's the weather forecast for the next May Bank Holiday at the end of this month?Walking ‘Between the Oaks’
Kings Heath Park in August, 2009(Image: Graham Young)
Sunday, June 10 at 11am
Meet at Park House, Kings Heath Park
A free. guided three-mile, one-way walk from Kings Heath Park to Cannon Hill via five significant oak trees.
Water Way To Go
Brookvale Park lake(Image: Graham Young)
Saturday, July 7 at 11am
Meet at Brookvale car park off Park Road, Birmingham B23 7AG
A look at the past and future of the pools and surrounds of Brookvale Park and Witton Lakes. Free.
READ MORE: Parks with the best cafes in Birmingham and beyondAn Autumn Woodland History Revealed at Sutton Park
A spectacular sky over Sutton Park(Image: Graham Young)
Saturday, September 8 at 2pm
Meet at Sutton Park Visitor Centre, Park Road, Sutton Coldfield B74 2YT
Another seasonal study of land management in Holly Hurst. A free event as part of Birmingham Heritage Week.
Aston Park and Birmingham Civic Society
Purple reign... the magnificent garden at Aston Hall(Image: Graham Young)
Saturday or Sunday, September 15 or 16 at noon (depending on Aston Villa fixtures tbc in June)
Meet at Aston Hall Stables Range, Aston Hall, Trinity Road, Aston, Birmingham B6 6JD
Join Ranger Jim Harrison for a brief look at the history of Aston Park and the involvement of Birmingham Civic Society. A free event as part of Birmingham Heritage Week.
Edward Burne-Jones Walk
Looking up at a Burne-Jones window(Image: Darren Quinton)
Sunday, September 16 at 2pm
Birmingham Cathedral’s Heritage Manager tells the story of one of the city’s best known artists through the sights and sounds of the city centre.
Tickets £4 via the Cathedral’s website here www.birminghamcathedral.com and part of Birmingham Heritage Week.
Cannon Hill Park
Irene de Boo when she was masterminding the restoration of Sarehole Mill(Image: Graham Young)
Sunday, September 23 at 2pm
Meet at mac reception, Cannon Hill Park, Queen’s Ride, Birmingham B12 9QH
Learn more about the park from the perspective of curator, historian and Cannon Hill Park regular Irene de Boo.
Tickets are £4 from the Civic Society’s website
Roots, Rights and Resistance
Soho House, former home of industrialist Matthew Boulton(Image: Graham Young)
Sunday, October 21 at 2pm
Meet at Soho House, Soho Avenue, Birmingham B18 5LB
Join Rachel West from Legacy WM for a lively tour of Handsworth and find out more about the people, movements and struggles that shaped this area and wider Birmingham.
Discover some fascinating stories of this ever evolving, dynamic part of the city.
Tickets are £4 from the Civic Society’s website
And there’s so much more
For all of the many other events, from talks and family activities to ‘people, places and pride’, visit the Civic Society’s website here
Bringing Birmingham Civic Society to life
Wider view of the Burne-Jones windows in St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham(Image: Darren Quinton)
For Birmingham Civic Society to continue to be relevant, it needs great personalities to enthuse about how wonderful the city is.
Step forward Ian Jelf, who jokes that he is the walking, talking face of capitalism.
And, as if to prove the point, he’s coming back to the heart of the city of 1,000 trades several times this year to help to lead the society's centenary celebrations.
Ian Jelf in Victoria Square(Image: Graham Young)
For the best part of three decades, Ian has made a living from being a properly-paid tourist guide, working everywhere from close to home to around the world.
His repertoire now runs to more than 100 different town and city walks – not to mention coach tours, too.
A registered tourist guide for London, the Heart of England and the South West, Ian chuckles again when he says he has spent most of his life living on Page XX of the A-Z.
St Martin in the Bull Ring seen in this dawn view of Birmingham city centre on April 26, 2018(Image: Graham Young)
If humour comes naturally to him, it’s because he’s a Brummie, of course.
But he also has an uncanny ability to remember facts and figures about people and places and his route will wind its way through the city to end up at the Library of Birmingham on Broad Street via some of the blue plaques dotted around the city centre.
Ian says: “I was born in Birmingham in 1964, I studied personnel management and came into tourism almost by mistake when I found a training job with a museum in the 1980s.
“I started to do it temporarily until a proper job came along - now I’m the acceptable face of capitalism because I charge real money for what I do.
“As a full-time professional tourist guide, I provide informative and interesting walking tours, coach tours or even trips on a canal boat!
Shakespeare’s Birthplace(Image: )
“My area of qualification covers a vast swathe of English culture and history: London with all its history and contemporary life; Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon, beautiful Shrewsbury, learned Oxford and Georgian Bath; and vibrant cities busily reinventing themselves like Birmingham and Bristol.
“And there’s lots more, believe me!
“From industrial history to beautiful countryside, from large city to remote village, I can provide a personalised tour tailored to your group’s own interests and needs.”
For more information, visit Ian’s website here