THE CHAIR of St John’s Preservation Group, Deb Brownlee, is a busy woman of late, getting through a mountain of paperwork in relation to her passion and determination to reopen the church to the local community in Kates Hill, Dudley, later this year. And as we receive more news on this matter, the Bugle will publish the relevant details.
Meanwhile Deb still finds a few moments in her busy schedule to read through her favourite weekly publication, the Black Country Bugle, and in issue 1012 she was drawn to page 27 and the article ‘From Blind Asylum to hospital — the origins of Dudley Guest’, because the Victorian architect who designed the original asylum buildings also designed her beloved St John’s. As she remarked in a recent e-mail to us, “We always remain hopeful of finding more about William Bourne.” Bourne was an important individual in the development of the Black Country’s character during the Victorian era, and his work has always been a fascination for Deb, as she explains: “It is such a shame that William Bourne put so much effort into his work and yet died before many of his designs were translated into bricks and mortar, and a comparison could be drawn to the architects of the Middle Ages who designed and drew the plans to the great cathedrals, but who never lived to see their works of art tower towards the heavens and become the finished buildings they only ever saw in their mind’s eye.
“In Bourne’s case he neither saw the conversion of the asylum to a hospital, nor the completion of the then new Dudley Town Hall.
When I discovered he was working on both of these projects at pretty much the same time, it made his collapse and sudden death make more sense to me as he must have been working round the clock.
“The last remaining piece of the original Blind Asylum jig-saw of buildings from 1860 is the Lodge House, situated almost opposite the gates to the Black Country Museum, a Grade II listed building that sadly is much neglected and falling to bits.
“I have been trying hard to get people interested in saving this invaluable piece of Dudley history, but as yet I have had no luck but will keep trying; perhaps my next project after St John’s reopens its doors? “William Bourne is of great interest and his role as an architect of significant stature locally tends to be forgotten these days. Unfortunately many of his creations in Dudley have long since bitten the dust; The Mechanics Institute; the second Town Hall; the second St Giles Church at Rowley Regis and the vicarage at St John’s. But the best kept secret and a building that still operates as it was originally intended is St John’s Church at Swindon, near Himley.
“Other William Bournes include St.James Church, Eve Hill, Dudley; St James School from the same location which now resides at the Black Country Living Museum; our very own St John’s and the adjacent school house; St Luke’s Church in Cradley Heath, plus St Michael’s at Handsworth and the old St Edmund’s School, which is now the Dudley Central Mosque.
“I can’t spend as much time on William Bourne as I would like, but the work going on at St John’s will hopefully promote his name more in the near future. The house where he lived is situated in Wall Heath and still survives, albeit as flats, but the exterior looks very unaltered. He is buried at St Edmund’s, Bottom Church, in Dudley, where he was a churchwarden for a time, but sadly his grave has seen better days. It would be terrific to track down some descendants, wherever they may be in the world, and find out if there are any family memories of him.” If you can help in Deb Brownlee’s search for descendants of the Dudley architect, please get in touch with us here at the Bugle.
