A great-granddad from the UK has spent half a century drawing his village on a 100-foot scroll, and the result is incredible.
In 1969, Maurice Ivor Birch, 82, purchased a massive length of paper from a car boot sale in Cannock for 10 shillings ($0.0076) intending to use it to entertain his then-4-year-old son.
“I used to do little cartoon sketches of animals and creepie-crawlies for my son to color in,” Mr. Birch said. “I thought I would tear them off, but as I began to draw on it, I couldn’t bring myself to rip it up. After doing about 80 sketches, I thought ‘What else can I do now?’”
The 30-meter (98-foot) scroll features pencil and ink drawings of historic buildings around the town such as Aldridge’s former railway station and the old Avion Cinema—now a Wetherspoons franchise pub. It also includes images of lost pubs, churches, hotels, shops, and cottages.
“I have managed to sketch the whole of the old high street, which is unrecognizable today,” Mr. Birch, who has two children, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren, said. “I did the old Elms Hotel, the Cook Cottages which dated back to the 1200s, pubs like the Old Swan Inn and Anchor Inn, which are all no longer there.
“I’ve pretty much sketched all the buildings of note in Aldridge now. I now have around 320 sketches of pretty much the whole of the village - how it looked then and how it looks now.”
Despite many buildings disappearing from the landscape over the years, Mr. Birch was able to draw from memory and from old photographs and history books. He’s been fortunate to see the village transform into a town.
The project took around 2,560 hours of work to complete, with 8 hours spent on each individual sketch.
The retired quality engineer has finally completed this labor of love, after filling up almost the whole roll from his conservatory at home. He finished it with images of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth II, and King Charles III, the three monarchs who ruled during his lifetime.
“I think it’s time to call it a day,” said Mr. Birch, who has been married for 59 years. “I have managed to fill most of it up now, but I’ve lost feeling in my right arm due to suffering strokes.”
He believes this is a nice piece of history to pass on to future generations.
Reflecting on the journey, he said: “This is a nice way to chart and mark its entire history. But that was never the plan really, it’s just something that happened. Hopefully, it will be a legacy showing the way Aldridge used to be.
“It was the most beautiful village when I was a boy. It’s still a lovely place to live, and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, but many of the buildings have gone.
“I’ve always wished my children could see Aldridge as it was, and this way they sort of can.”
