About The Black Country
BLACK COUNTRY NOSTALGIA | AWARD WINNING PHOTOGRAPHS AND POEMS
PETER DONNELLY
Black Country
Graphic Designer, Artist
1932 - 2005
FORWARD BY PASSIONATE BRUMMIE & HISTORY
PROFESSOR DR CARL CHINN M.B.E.
PETER WAS BORN IN BIRMINGHAM 1932, EDUCATED AT CORPUS CHRISTI JUNIOR SCHOOL, STETCHFORD AND LATER AT THE HOLY ROSARY, SALTLEY. WHILE AT THE HOLY ROSARY HE TOOK AND PASSED A DRAWING EXAMINATION FOR MOSELEY SCHOOL OF ART AT WHICH HE SPENT SEVERAL YEARS TUNING HIS ARTISTIC TALENT.
ON LEAVING THE ART SCHOOL HE JOINED BIRMINGHAM PRINTERS, SAM CURRIER & SON IN BROOK STREET, ST PAULS SQUARE, AS AN APPRENTICE COMMERCIAL ARTIST. AFTER COMPLETING HIS APPRENTICESHIP HE LEFT SAM CURRIER AND WORKED AT VARIOUS PRINTERS AND ADVERTISING AGENCIES GAINING VALUABLE EXPERIENCE BEFORE STARTING HIS OWN BUSINESS DONNELLY BURNS DAVIS WITH HIS WORKING ASSOCIATE BOB BURNS (TYPOGRAPHER)
DONNELLY BURNS GRAPHIC DESIGN STUDIO WAS IN CHAPEL STREET LYE BEFORE MOVING TO LARGER PREMISES IN CRADLEY HEATH AND HARBORNE, BIRMINGHAM AS DBN. BEFORE STARTING THE BUSINESS PETER ENTERED AND WON THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION. HE SUBMITTED AN ESSAY OF PHOTOGRAPHS ILLUSTRATING THE DEMISE OF THE BIRMINGHAM AND BLACK COUNTRY CANALS.
WHAT POWERFUL EXITING SUBJECTS FOR THE CAMERA; NEGLECTED CANALS, WEED AND WEB WOVEN TOW-PATHS, OLD WORN OUT NARROW BOATS – REDUNDANT AND HALF SUBMERGED IN SILTED MURKY BROWN WATERS; HE WAS AT THIS TIME A MEMBER OF THE SMALL HEATH PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY BASED AT HOBMOOR ROAD, SOUTH YARDLEY. THE IDEA OF PHOTOGRAPHING THE CANALS WAS DEVELOPED BY PETER AND HIS FRIEND, FELLOW PHOTOGRAPHER NORMAN FLETCHER. TO PETER AND NORMAN, MIDLANDS PHOTOGRAPHERS AND PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETIES SEEMINGLY HAD IGNORED THE ONCE GREAT INDUSTRIAL ARENA THAT SURROUNDED THEIR EVERYDAY LIVES. STEAM TRAINS RATTLING, HISSING AND BUMPING THEIR WAGONS INTO LINE AND THE RAIL-MEN WHO WORKED THE LINE AT THAT TIME. OLD FOUNDRIES, RUN DOWN FACTORIES AND SCRAPYARDS – THE INDUSTRIAL FLOTSAM OF A ONCE GREAT MANUFACTURING REGION. MANY SIX O'CLOCK EARLY MORNING STARTS WERE WALKED AND MANY MILES COVERED BY PETER AND HIS CAMERA. NOW OVER 40 YEARS LATER PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN DURING THOSE EARLY MORNING EXCURSIONS ARE NOW AVAILABLE ON-LINE STORE.
Black Country Nostalgia
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Acknowledgements: Grateful Thanks to The Weekend Telegraph Magazine for their kind permission to reproduce pages from their November 26th 1965 issue.