Antique timber lost after suspicious blaze

Apr 9 2007 By Steve Johnson, Birmingham Mail

VALUABLE antique timber was destroyed in a "suspicious" fire at the Black Country Living Museum.

The wood was to have been used in the £1.5m restoration of the historic Cradley Heath Workers Institute.

Workers at the famous Tipton Road site had spent painstaking months preparing each piece of timber from the landmark building, ready for it to be rebuilt at the museum in a flagship restoration project.

The blaze broke out just after 1.30am on Saturday and firefighters said it could have been started deliberately. Pat York, site manager at the museum, said it was not yet clear whether any of the century-old timbers could be salvaged.

"We may have to recreate the pieces of wood so that the project can progress. It is not particularly the value of the wood, but the fact that so much work has been put into the project so far.

"We are not sure at this stage how much damage has been caused, but we are very disappointed about what has happened."

Work began last year on the recreation of the Cradley Heath Workers Institute, which had been set to open at the museum in the Autumn.

The historic building, known locally as The Stute, was used in the past for political meetings, theatrical productions and also as a cinema. The building was also the scene of the historic women chainmakers' uprising.

Museum officials stepped in to rescue the building, transplanting it to the Tipton Road site, when the institute had to make way for the multi-million pound Cradley Heath bypass.