May-Jun 2026

There are films which make a deep impression when we are young. One of those, for me, was 'The Time Machine' (1960) starring Rod Taylor as the Victorian inventor whose contraption carries him improbably far forward in time to a post-apocalyptic world where he falls in love, of course, with a beautiful girl who, even more improbably, speaks impeccable English.

Imagine placing such a machine in the centre of Kings Norton Green and travelling backwards in time. What might you see? A small jump might take you to 2015 and to the last-but-one Kings Norton Festival. In July of that year, the Green, the church & churchyard, St Nicolas' Place, the playing fields and the canal itself were thronged with crowds as the most ambitious festival yet attempted got under way. It will be a while before we can match that achievement, but we are making a start. There are details on p.27.  

Travel further back to the world of Alf Rogers' childhood, and you enter the smaller, more peaceful place he describes on p.6, one which had changed little for centuries, the village of our front cover. Life was slower, people knew each other by name; it was a time before housing estates, cars and foodbanks (p.35) when local industry was thriving and the canal still busy. 

Fast-forward now to the 1980s and you enter a time when Kings Norton could boast a country house hotel, now vanished, with a helipad for its richer and more famous guests (p.16). And what would you find if, like Rod Taylor, you travelled a year or two into our future? A church with an efficient heating system, working bells, a thriving community and sound finances? We hope so (p.4). But that depends on all of us.