Crooked House fire anniversary event at Himley Hall.

Express & Star

To mark a year since the Crooked House fire there was a special event at Himley Hall.

Transcript

00:00Just briefly, like I never thought I'd before

00:09Back in the place in which I belong

00:30This is the place in which I roam

00:41These are the people that I can't shoot down anymore

00:46But it's when you showed me the door

00:51This is the place in which I roam

00:56Like on this road I left before

01:01Back in the place in which I roam

01:25Thank you for coming today, we're looking forward to a great event

01:29and we've already had part of it, I was supposed to do this earlier

01:32and an opportunity to meet and chat with other people

01:36who feel as strongly as we do about the Crooked House

01:40It was slightly over a year ago when I found out that Marston's had sold the Crooked House

01:46as they described it to a private buyer for an alternative use

01:51The Crooked House had been there all my life

01:54and more than 200 years before I was born

01:57I never imagined that it wouldn't be there

02:00This idea of an alternative use worried me

02:03It was being talked about on Facebook and I joined in that conversation

02:08Between the ages of 16 and 19 I was on a youth opportunity programme

02:13working at a place called Wombourne Building Supplies

02:17and a lad called Andy Trotman was also doing the same thing

02:21I hadn't seen Andy for decades

02:24but we'd made contact again on Facebook and he asked me

02:27Why don't you set up a petition?

02:29and that was where all this started

02:32I did what he suggested and the numbers that signed it

02:35demonstrated how the world felt about the importance

02:39of us keeping the Crooked House as a club

02:42Stu Hall, another local, saw my petition and set up a Facebook group

02:47calling it the same as the petition, Save the Crooked House

02:51We couldn't have known how much more difficult it was going to get

02:55One week after I started the petition, around 5 or 6 days after the Facebook was started

03:01on the Saturday night the news came through that the Crooked House was on fire

03:06The next morning news stories showed us the burnt out shell of the building

03:11Just the walls were standing, absolutely devastating

03:16But this wasn't the first fire at the Crooked House and it had come back before

03:21However, on the Monday we heard that the Crooked House had been demolished

03:26and a video appeared showing that this was true

03:30Now the pub we loved so much was a pile of bricks

03:34The world was angry, not just the local people but people across the world

03:39I found myself talking to international TV and radio news programmes and newspapers

03:45My whole life changed, not because Andy Trotman said

03:50why don't you start a petition

03:53I'm sure that a campaign would have started anyway

03:56but it wouldn't have been this one

03:58Soon after that conversation on Facebook between Andy and me

04:02he had a nasty motorcycle accident for which he is still recovering

04:07I'm very happy that he's been able to come and make it here today

04:12and I'm sure you'll all join me in wishing him a speedy recovery

04:16Please would you all give Andy a round of applause for those few words

04:21which started some journey to where we are now

04:24This is Andy

04:27Thank you

04:32Stu Hall decided for various reasons that he needed to step aside

04:37and he trusted me enough to take over the admin of the Facebook group

04:41which has now grown to 38,000 members

04:44and which has appealed to the world's media who've watched what's been going on

04:48and approached us frequently to speak to us

04:51and keep everybody updated on what's happening

04:54Ian Sandal and Dave Shotton were already involved with the Facebook group

04:59I can see Dave. Dave Shotton, put your hand in the air, up by the gate there

05:05and where's Ian?

05:07Ian Sandal?

05:09He's outside I think

05:14They were with me at the start of the campaign

05:17and we worked hard together to build a team of people to manage this campaign

05:22Over the next few weeks we carefully selected new members of the team

05:26meticulously going through what they'd said on Facebook

05:29so that we knew that we'd got people who understood what was required

05:33to protect the reputation of the campaign

05:36Put your hands up as I say your names, they're all by the gate there

05:39Liz Shanley

05:41Linda Redmond

05:45Jackie Marsh isn't here today unfortunately

05:48John Hutchinson

05:51James Raybone who's the drone man who isn't able to be here

05:55His partner Laura Hawkins who's around somewhere there

06:00She's gone somewhere else

06:02Tony Chen who can't make it because unfortunately he's got Covid

06:06and Jennifer Allen all became involved

06:09and my wife Jacqueline Ariola in the red coat there with the phone

06:14who's also involved and accepted allies being taken over by this campaign

06:21as well as getting involved herself

06:23Others have also been involved and for different reasons stepped back

06:27including Stu Hall

06:29I want to thank every one of them for their fantastic contributions

06:33to what's been a massive undertaking

06:35Please give them all a big round of applause for their hard work so far

06:43As well as ordinary people we've been fortunate to have the support of some key people

06:48Marco Longhi who you've already heard from today

06:52was the MP for Dudley North and was involved from the start

06:55calling a public meeting to discuss what we could do

06:58and showing his willingness to get his hands dirty

07:02when contractors arrived on site and misunderstood where the public right of way was

07:07Marco's involvement led to me being able to build a good relationship with Putnam

07:11the contracting company

07:13and they were able to reassure us that they were only there to clear the site

07:17clean the bricks and store them

07:20It was agreed that those bricks would be locked in shipping containers

07:23and 25,000 of them remain there

07:26awaiting the time when they're needed for a rebuild

07:29Marco has continued to support us

07:32and started the process of getting a new heritage pubs law through Parliament

07:36before that came to a halt when a general election was called suddenly

07:40we truly hope to find a way for that to be resurrected

07:43Marco, as you've seen, is still with us despite the change in his political circumstances

07:49Andy Street, the West Midlands Mayor

07:52immediately stated that the crooked house should be rebuilt brick by brick

07:56as soon as he heard of the demolition

07:58he's also maintained his support since

08:00and we were very sad that he lost the mayoral election

08:03Sir Gavin Williamson was MP for South Staffs

08:06and he also offered his support

08:08to provide for the site to be recognised as an asset of community value or ACV

08:13and Mike Wood, who's here today standing next to Marco

08:17took on the newly established constituency of Kingsford and South Staffs

08:22winning that seat as Sir Gavin moved to a seat a little further north

08:27and as you can see, he's supporting us as well

08:30Sonia Kumar, the new MP for Dudley

08:33has expressed her support

08:35and said she'll attempt to find time to call here today

08:38between other commitments that she has

08:41on our visit to Parliament as guests of Marco

08:44a couple of months ago we were amazed by the number of MPs

08:47who pointed to our Save the Crooked House hoodies

08:50and put their thumbs up

08:52no matter what their political affiliation is

08:54politicians are in full support of this campaign

08:57even on the streets of London

08:59we had members of the public

09:01who saw our hoodies

09:03approaching us to ask how the campaign was going

09:06please give a round of applause

09:08for all the politicians and their support staff

09:10who've continued to support us with the campaign

09:16ExpressTheStar.com, we're here at Himley Hall today

09:20for the Save the Crooked House event

09:22one year on from, well, we all know what happened to it

09:27and Marco Longhi, you were the Dudley North MP at the time

09:31you were at the forefront of the campaign

09:33and you spoke passionately here today as well

09:36Yes, that's right Paul, thank you very much

09:38for coming along yourselves here today

09:41today is about marking a presence

09:43it's about making sure that everybody

09:46everybody understands that we're going nowhere

09:49there's a legal process that's been started

09:51nothing has changed

09:53when people can see very little happening

09:55they become a bit cynical sometimes

09:57they might feel, oh well, it's going nowhere

09:59oh, it'll never get rebuilt and all that

10:01nothing has changed

10:03the council have done some formidable work

10:05they've served the notice

10:06and the notice is legally enforceable

10:09so now that Mike has picked up the area

10:12Mike has picked up the area where the Crooked House stands

10:15and he's always had a very, very strong position

10:18for the whole of the pub industry

10:20and we've even spoken today about

10:22following up on some of the work I've done on heritage pubs

10:25making sure that this kind of thing never happens again

10:28he's reduced the risk of it happening

10:30and he said he's going to try and do his best in Parliament for that

10:34so I'm handing over to Mike from the Parliamentary side of things

10:37but I'm going nowhere as well

10:39I'm going to stick with these guys here

10:41with the team

10:42and make sure that we are keeping on top of things

10:45and holding everybody to account

10:46including Mike

10:47including Mike

10:48to make sure that everybody's shouting as loud as possible

10:51for the Crooked House

10:52for the community that it represents

10:54I'm Mike Brightwood, King's Whip for the South Staffordshire MP

10:58good to see people out here enjoying the afternoon as well

11:01some familiar faces from the campaign

11:03and some new ones as well

11:05yeah it's fantastic

11:06and obviously today is about

11:08firstly remembering everything that was lost

11:11when the Crooked House first closed

11:13and then caught fire this time last year

11:16it's about celebrating everything that's been achieved

11:19in the last year

11:20and then as Marco said

11:21it's about reminding the world

11:23why it's so important that the Crooked House

11:25is rebuilt on its original site

11:28and why we must all do everything we can to make that happen

11:31because it's more than just bricks and mortar

11:33as I said in my speech

11:34it's about people's dreams

11:36past and future dreams

11:38and we owe it to the community that comes forward

11:40our children and grandchildren

11:41that they have the same opportunity

11:43to forge their memories

11:45to forge their dreams of the future

11:47at the Crooked House

11:49like we all have that opportunity to do as well

11:51because it's about the community

11:53we are the black country

11:54and we're going nowhere

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