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After gaining his BA (Hons) from The University of Birmingham
in 1978, Carl married his wife, Kay, who is from Dublin and
whom he met in Benidorm whilst on holiday. Carl then began
work towards his Ph.D., a social history of the Ladypool Road
area of Sparkbrook, but after two years he went to work full-time
in the family's bookmaking business. Encouraged to go back
to finish his Ph.D., he did so - gaining his award in 1986.
Two years later, Carl's first book was published, They Worked
All Their Lives. Women of the Urban Poor in England 1880-1914
(Manchester University Press). This received widespread praise,
as did his second major work, Better Betting With A Decent
Feller: Bookmakers, Betting and the British Working Class
1750-1990 (Harvester Wheatsheaf: 1991). Both these books saw
Carl develop his approach to social history, whereby working-class
people tell their own stories. Beginning to use the techniques
of oral history, through his Ph.D. and They Worked All Their
Lives, for Better Betting Carl gained working-class experiences
not only through the spoken word but also through making an
appeal in evening newspapers across the country. He received
hundreds of letters in response. This Carl Chinn Bookmaking
Archive is in the Special Collections in the Main Library
at The University of Birmingham.
Carl's belief in the importance of the testimony of working-class
people was strengthened by his experiences as an adult education
tutor. After almost two years unemployment from late 1984,
Carl took on part-time work with the Workers Educational Association
and the Extramurals Department of The University of Birmingham.
Then in 1998 he also gained part-time employment with Fircroft
Adult Education College in Selly Oak. This adult education
work emphasised to Carl that teachers not only taught but
also learned from their students.
In 1999, Carl gained a half-time job at Fircroft and began
part-time teaching in the School of History at The University
of Birmingham. The next year, he started a two-year temporary
job as lecturer in modern history and Community Historian
at the University and in 1992 this post became permanent.
Since 1991, Carl has had published a number of other books
and articles on working-class life. They are: 'Was separate
schooling a means of class segregation in late Victorian and
Edwardian Birmingham?' in Midland History, (Vol. XIII: 1988);
and Poverty Amidst Prosperity: the Urban Poor in England 1834-1914
(Manchester University Press: 1995). Other contributions to
this field of research include: 'History from the Bottom Up',
in Local History Magazine (July 1991: no. 31).
He also has a number of books publications on Birmingham.
These include: Homes For People: Council Housing and Urban
Renewal in Birmingham 1840-1999 (first published Birmingham
Books: 1989, expanded and revised edition Brewin Books: 1999),
a book that has been influential on research into housing
elsewhere in the country; Keeping the City Alive. Twenty-one
years of Urban Renewal in Birmingham (Birmingham City Council:
1993); Birmingham: The Great Working City (Birmingham City
Council: 1994; reprinted 2001); a ground-breaking work that
analyses Birmingham's history through its trades and its peoples;
Brum Undaunted: Birmingham During the Blitz (Birmingham Library
Services: 1996), the first academic study on the second most
heavily-bombed city in Britain during the Second World War;
Our Brum (Birmingham Evening Mail: 1997); The Cadbury Story.
A Short History (Brewin Books: 1998); Our Brum. Volume 2 (Birmingham
Evening Mail: 1998); 1,000 Years of Brum (Birmingham Evening
Mail: 1999), a pioneering work that looks at Birmingham's
history through its place names and extends from Anglo-Saxon
times to the present day; Our Brum. Volume 3 (Birmingham Evening
Mail: 1999); Brum and Brummies (Brewin Books: 2000); Proper
Brummie: A Dictionary of Birmingham Words and Sayings, co-authored
with Steve Thorne and the first academic book that addresses
the speech of Birmingham and places it in its historical and
linguistic contexts (Brewin Books: 2001); and Brum and Brummies.
Volume 2 (Brewin Books: 2001).
Through growing up in a multi-cultural city and his marriage
to an Irish woman, Carl's research has led him into uncovering
the lives of the city's ethnic minorities. Emerging from a
chapter on the peoples of the city in Birmingham: The Great
Working City he has researched a major article on Italian
Brummies entitled: 'We All Come From Round Sora: Italians
in Birmingham', in Owen Ashton, Robert Fyson and Stephen Roberts
(eds), The Duty of Discontent. Essays in Honour of Dorothy
Thompson (Mansell: 1995). Since then he has been deeply engaged
in examining the Irish of Birmingham. This has led to the
first significant article on this ethnic minority entitled
'"Sturdy Catholic emigrants": the Irish in early
Victorian Birmingham', in Roger Swift and Sheridan Gilley
(eds), The Irish in Victorian Britain. The Local Dimension
(Four Courts Press: 1999). At present Carl is researching
a major study of the Irish in Birmingham from the 1820s to
the present and is also working on a significant project looking
at the origins of Birmingham's street names.
Recently he finished editing Birmingham: Bibliography of
A City (The University of Birmingham Press: March 2002). This
is a major work that includes essays and bibliographies on
various themes written by experts in their fields, and also
appendices on the major library and archival holdings relating
to Birmingham's history. There is one such work on London,
but none on any other British city.
In addition to these works Carl has also written a number
of other well-regarded works. These are From Little Acorns
Grow. 150 Years of the West Bromwich Building Society (Brewin
Books: 1999), a book that examines not only the society but
also the town of West Bromwich; an introduction to The Life
of William Hutton. Birmingham's Historian (Brewin Books: 1998),
important for the fact that it is examination of the neglected
eighteenth-century Birmingham; and the article 'Urban Villages
and Neighbourhoods', in Dick Atkinson (ed), Cities of Pride.
Rebuilding Community. Refocusing Government, which has been
influential on various contemporary analysts of modern society.
Since March 1994 Carl has written a highly-popular weekly
feature on local history in the Birmingham Evening Mail and
has presented and produced a Sunday afternoon radio show on
BBC WM. This also focuses on local history and the success
of this show led the BBC to give Carl a two-hour daily afternoon
show in 1999.
For several years, the Evening Mail also brought out a monthly
publication called Carl Chinn's Old Brum Magazine. Each issue
included articles by Carl and was filled with the memories
of readers, who sent in letters and photos. Now Carl is editor
of a similar monthly history magazine called Carl Chinn's
Brummagem, whilst he also edits a monthly community paper
for the Irish of the West Midlands called The Harp.
Carl has made several videos and talking books about Birmingham's
history, he has acted as link man on a CD of songs about Birmingham
and also he been involved in a Channel 4 history series called
'The History Hunters'. Since 2000 has have presented a series
called 'Passing Time With Carl' on BBC Midland's Today. In
addition, Carl makes regular appearances on Radio 4 and Carlton
TV.
In connection with his column in the Mail, his community
work at the university and his broadcasting, Carl receives
over 300 letters, 200 e-mails and scores of phone calls each
week. The letters are usually about people's lives and often
are accompanied by valuable historical photos. Consequently,
Carl now has what is probably the biggest archive of working-class
life stories in the world, consisting of thousands of letters
and photos, hundreds of oral history interviews and a variety
of memorabilia and ephemera. This archive is a major element
in the BirminghamLives Project that Carl is developing with
South Birmingham College in Digbeth and Birmingham Central
Library.
In 1989, when Birmingham was celebrating its centenary as
a city, he gained the most votes when Evening Mail readers
took part in a poll for the 100 Famous Brummies to celebrate
Birmingham's centenary as a city; and at Christmas 2001 he
was voted West Midland Man of the year by listeners to the
award-winning Ed Doolan Show on BBC WM and BBC Coventry and
Warwickshire. Of the hundreds of votes cast, he gained 25%.
His nearest rival gained 18% and the next closest person gained
7%.
In 1998 Carl was one of only 200 citizens of Birmingham who
were invited to meet President Clinton during the G8 summit
in the city and during this time he gave a talk on Birmingham
to the G8 ambassadors. He has also been presented to Mary
McAleese, the President of the Republic of Ireland. A Fellow
of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Birmingham
Society he is a member of the Lunar Society, a vice president
of the Council of the Birmingham and District Local History
Association, and patron of numerous societies and charities
in Birmingham and the West Midlands.
Carl's wide involvement with the community has encouraged
a number of people to write their own books and he has written
the foreword to over 20 local history books; whilst his meaningful
involvement in the campaign to save the Longbridge car factory
from closure led him to write with Stephen Dyson, We Ain't
Going Away: the Battle for Longbridge (Brewin Books: 2000).
Awarded a personal chair in Community History in the autumn
of 2002, Carl is now seconded to South Birmingham College.
He continues to do limited teaching in the Department of Modern
History at the University, but his main role now is developing
his work in the community, visiting schools, libraries, homes
for the elderly and community groups with the support of South
Birmingham College. Based at South Birmingham College's Digbeth
site, Carl is also working on progressing the Birmingham People's
History Project. Again this is supported strongly and enthusiastically
by South Birmingham College and also by City College.
The BirminghamLives Archive is an ongoing project and the
aims are to continue to expand it through multi-media, to
make it accessible, and to have it as a key feature in the
Birmingham People's History.
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