14/03/2013
Today I visited the old dressing room for Wolverhampton Football Club, this was situated in the Molineux Hotel. The building is now home of the Archives material dating back to 15th Century. The Building itself is over 300 years old. Therefore it has been through both Georgian and Victorian Periods this evident in the current garden designs and the plants that live there. The building was first used by the Molineux family and later became a hotel in 1870s. This operated until 1979 and was derelict for 25 years afterwards, during which time there was a fire that almost completely destroyed the building in 2003. The council then took over the building to restore it.
The building was restored due to funds from Heritage Lottery and from English Heritage. This also gave the council an opportunity to expend the building whilst retaining and restoring its history through the architecture.
The building is a grade two* star listed building, due to the Rococo room. This is the most stunning room in the building with a high ceiling, ornate plaster work and fireplace. You really get a sense of wealth within the room. The room would of originally looked onto a huge garden at the back of the building. When the building was turned into a hotel the entrance was move to face the road. Therefore reversing the building. Sadly the garden is now a car park.
The rest of the building has a map room for user to search through ordnance survey maps as well viewing them and the records through microfilm and microficle facilities. Allowing users to look at old press cuttings and records. The old ballroom is now the main room for the archives and where you can find book on the local history. They have over 30,000 records on film, you can also find death and birth certificates here.
The building also has four storage rooms, all of which are completely modern. The stores also have room for the next 40 years. All the archives have been computerised and filed in waterproof boxes with brass paper clips and staples. I was so amazing by the storage area that I filmed the movable shelves.
I was guided and shown around the building by Heidi and later I decided to register myself so I can come back to use and look at the archives free of charge.
After my visit to the archives I found my self stumbling into the makers dozen studios and was greeted by Loz and Lloyd who were kind enough to spare some time to show me around the 13 studios there. The studios were set up by the council and range in size and cost. Costing £80 -£120 per month. All the rooms are modern with good facilities and very spacious. They show me around there studios and tell me more about the art scene in Wolverhampton, I can’t help see and feel the similarities with Stoke on Trent. Loz and Lloyd with really friendly and help fill in my knowledge of the area and I am sure I ll see them again.
After my impromptu visit to makers dozen, I had time to eat cake from the gallery before heading off to a talk by the famous Dr Fossil.
Dr fossil talked more about the big bang theory and how the earth was formed through the gravitation of the sun. He later went on to state that we are essentially made from star dust. This was also a chance for me to look over my notes for my early meeting with Dr fossil and also a chance to look at more visual material that he provided through a power point presentation.
He also talked about Dudley being home to the largest underground canal system, and mentioned that the first Geological map was made in 1665 by Dud Dudley. He also gave me more insight into the science behind iron and coal production in Dudley and Wolverhampton.
I still find it hard to believe that he as found a new species right here in the midlands. That species is called Scolecodonts, which is a vampire worm around 0.5mm in length dating back to 428 million years ago!!!
