05/02/26 - On the Trail of..... George Dawson

The Civic Gospel

During my ramblings around Birmingham, you often stumble on magnificent Victorian buildings. Usually they are running to rack and ruin, and I am not just talking about Aston pubs. As I trip over dead rats and pick my way through the mountains of rubbish, I often consider "what went wrong?". The city used to have pride and purpose, with an obvious sense of "betterment".

The latest History West Midlands podcast gave me the background on this. George Dawson, a Nonconformist preacher who proclaimed "Everything for Everybody". The more famous Joseph Chamberlain took his words and vision to build a Birmingham that was once the envy of the civilised world.

A young George Dawson

George Dawson (1821–1876) was a Nonconformist preacher and radical thinker whose ideas helped shape Victorian Birmingham’s sense of civic purpose. Minister of the Church of the Saviour from 1847, he moved away from orthodox theology towards a broad, humane Christianity rooted in everyday life rather than doctrine. His sermons, rich in literature and moral urgency, argued that religion should be lived and enacted, not merely believed.

Dawson’s central idea, later known as the Civic Gospel, held that the city is a moral organism and that local government has a duty to improve human life. Clean streets, public libraries, parks, and education were seen as expressions of ethical and spiritual values, not luxuries. These ideas strongly influenced Joseph Chamberlain, who absorbed Dawson’s thinking and translated it into active municipal reform as Birmingham’s mayor in the 1870s, turning moral vision into practical governance.

"A city must have its parks as well as its prisons, its art gallery as well as its asylum, its books and its libraries as well as its baths and washhouses, its schools as well as its sewers; it must think of beauty and of dignity no less than of order and of health."

As if I couldn't admire the man more, it transpires that when he was invited by the Temperance Movement to provide a speech, he extolled the virtues of drinking.

But is it possible to put a walk together to find key locations of the man's life?  

A statue would have been nice. There was one - in the middle of Chamberlain square. Not universally liked and removed in 1951 for the Festival of Britain. The bust lives in a museum dungeon somewhere.

We won't let this stop me.

The Library of Birmingham

Our man played a key role in the 300th year celebrations of Shakespeare's Death. On the 9th floor of the new Library of Birmingham is both a plaque to the man and the current home of the Shakespeare memorial room.

The library is perhaps a symbol of Birmingham's decline. Built in 2013 to much fanfare and cost (£188 Million), it cannot afford to be staffed properly and keeps poor opening hours. Thus wrote a man forced to wait in the foyer for the 11am opening. The cafe is closed. Books? Despite having 10 floors, Kidderminster library has more on its shelves. 

Everything to Everybody

Moved from Old to New

The Shakespeare Room - Top Floor

A Bust

Chamberlain Square and the Arts Museum

These buildings provide the best architectural representation of the principles of the Civil Gospel. Classically designed and open to all to encourage learning. 

A first visit to the Arts Museum, which was rather packed. The Ozzy Osbourne exhibition is still running and bringing in the punters. Imagine what they could do with The Crown pub, if they showed a bit of imagination.

The Art Museum

The Ozzy Exhibition

Chamberlain Square

His Final Resting Place

Key Hill Cemetery, Section O, to the left hand side of the Icknield Street entrance. Internet research tells me to look for the tallest obelisk. I needn't have relied on the Internet. There is a handy map of key final resting places. I have a feeling the West Midlands History Podcast will be bringing me back here for other sons and daughters of the second city.

Easy Find

Died young - well remembered

02/02/26 - St Brides Day - Halesowen to Hagley

The Imbolc Pilgrimage

A wonderful article in the December 2025 Idler magazine promoted walking pilgrimages based on ancient festivals throughout the year.

February 1st sees St Bride's Day and Imbolc;

Imbolc, celebrated around 1 February, marks the quiet turning point between winter and spring. Rooted in early Irish tradition and later associated with St Brigid (or St Bride), it is a festival of renewal, light, and potential rather than arrival or abundance. Traditionally linked to lambing, fresh milk, and the lengthening days, Imbolc focuses on what is beginning to stir beneath the surface: the cleaning of hearths, the lighting of fires, and visits to sacred wells. It is a threshold moment in the year, attentive to small signs of change, when survival gives way—cautiously—to hope.

The suggested itinerary for an Imbolc inspired walk: to find a holy well.

I'd already thought of St Kenelm's Well in Clent when the monthly Walk West Midlands newsletter arrived in my inbox. Everything is connected - their feature walk is a linear route from Halesowen to Hagley. The only decision to be made is which direction to travel. Roberto's Bar for interesting world beers or the King Arthur for Bathams. Start-of-the-week opening hours make the choice for me. 

I alight the 192 bus in West Halesowen, practically on the Clent foothills. A muddy climb leads up to St Kenelm's Church and well.

St Kenelm's Well

According to legend, St Kenelm, a 9th-century Mercian prince, was murdered as a child on the Clent Hills, and when his hidden body was discovered a spring burst from the ground, now known as St Kenelm’s Well. This well is traditionally regarded as one of the sources of the River Stour, which rises from several springs on the Clent Hills before flowing south-west through the Black Country and into Worcestershire. The story of Kenelm’s death and translation is commemorated today by St Kenelm’s Way, a long-distance walking route that traces the legendary journey of his body from the hills near Romsley to his shrine at Winchcombe Abbey, linking landscape, water, and story into a single, enduring sacred geography.

 The well is met first.... a trickle of water falling into a bricked conduit. I am not the only one "celebrating" Imbolc. The nearby bushes are decorated with hung fabrics and at the source of the water, a St Bride's cross fashioned out of reed.

Located to the north east of the church - downhill

St Bride's Cross at the Well

The small church is "doors open" and demands exploration. An ancient semi-circular tympanum above the door representing "Christ in Majesty". Inside, a more modern wooden carved screen denoting the last supper.

Two raised fingers - Christ divine and mortal

Judas carrying the purse - John resting on Jesus' shoulder. Peter, unusually for the Last Supper with keys

The Walk Midlands route creator likes road walking. At least I am out of the mud. A drop down St Kenelm's Pass and then across to the main Clent village. The decision on whether to turn this into a pub crawl is taken out of my hands. Too early for the Vine. The newly reopened Fountain doesn't open on a Monday. And the Lyttelton Arms is only for first dates.

As planned - it's a quick Bathams at the King Arthur - timed to perfection with 40 minutes until the return 192 bus. Busy with pensioners and eaters of cobs and pork pies.

Hagley High Street

Happy Mondays - it's Bathams

Walk Details

Diatance - 6 Miles

Geocaches - 3

Walk Inspiration