00:00I'm at the Smedic Heritage Centre, the museum in the park.
00:04This is a hidden gem of history in the region.
00:09It's a small museum that contains some of the greatest memories of Smedic.
00:14The companies, the people, the schools, items that were manufactured in the region, personal items.
00:22This is a wonderful place to visit.
00:24With me is the centre manager, Chris Sutton.
00:27Hello, Chris.
00:28Hello, Andrew.
00:29Tell me, when did the Smedic Heritage Centre begin?
00:32Well, this particular site started in 2004, so we've been here just over 22 years, I suppose, now it's been
00:39here.
00:39Before that, it used to be in Brass House Lane, as you probably remember.
00:43It was a room in a former pub.
00:45And who started the museum?
00:47It started by David Brines, who was a local architect, and he was coming home from a History Society meeting,
00:53and he saw something being thrown in a skip.
00:55Now, it's one of the items in the courtyard that you've been in.
00:59And he wanted to do something about it, and he decided to rally everyone in his phone book, notebook, to
01:05try and start a centre, a Smedic Heritage Centre.
01:08You have a fantastic collection here.
01:10Where do you get your items from?
01:11All of it has been donated by Smithwickians.
01:14Maybe one or two items we've bought over the years, but I don't think there's many that we've bought.
01:19So it's all been donated by people or societies or clubs.
01:23Do you get many people coming to the museum?
01:25Yeah, we do.
01:28We get people who live locally who pop in and see us quite often now.
01:31We get former Smithwickians who've moved further afield.
01:35So we get people from overseas.
01:36We'll always drop in when they come here.
01:38We have people from America, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, all of whom are carrying the flag for Smedic in other
01:45parts.
01:46What's your favourite item in the museum?
01:48Favourite item is just over there in the corner.
01:50It's the Roland Emmett machine.
01:52That's my favourite.
01:53I guess that might be the most valuable item here as well.
01:56So it used to be not operating because it was very old electrics in it and started not working properly.
02:02And it had been in Everett's company originally.
02:06And Roland Emmett did the car for Chit Chit Chit Bang Bang and he did all the things that Caractacus
02:11Potts uses for his breakfast and so on.
02:14And it wasn't working.
02:15So we tried to get someone to fix it, couldn't find anyone.
02:18So I went online and there was a Roland Emmett society.
02:21They didn't know about us.
02:22We didn't know about them.
02:23They came out and they were stood where we are now, looking at the machine just over there.
02:27And they had tears running down their faces because they never thought they'd see it.
02:31They'd been looking for it for a couple of decades and here it was all this time.
02:36Well, that's fantastic.
02:37That just shows the importance of a museum like this.
02:39Not only to preserve items but to actually resurrect them, give them a whole new life.
02:44So if you fancy a piece of Smethwick history, it's well worth coming down to the Smethwick Heritage Centre.
02:49I've learned a great deal here and I'm into history and yet there's things here I never knew about.
02:53It's fantastic.
02:54So come down, enjoy and support local history.
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