Welcome to Chance Encounters, the website of the Taking Chances project. Taking Chances is a celebration of the Chance Brothers Glassworks in Smethwick. Supported by Heritage Lottery Fund’s Your Heritage scheme, a team of artists based in West Bromwich have worked with former employees of Chance Brothers to capture stories and memories about their working lives.
Your Heritage provides grants of between £5,000 and £50,000 to support community-focused heritage projects. To qualify for a grant, projects should conserve and enhance our diverse heritage or encourage communities to identify, look after and celebrate their heritage or both. Projects should also ensure that everyone can learn about, have access to, and enjoy their heritage.
Commenting on the Taking Chances project, HLF’s regional manager Anne Jenkins said, “The Chance Brothers Glassworks was a large employer in the 1800s and had a huge impact on the social history of Smethwick. This project aims to capture, preserve and share this history to ensure local people can learn about the history on their doorstep.”
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) enables communities to celebrate, look after and learn more about our diverse heritage. From museums and historic buildings to parks and nature reserves to celebrating traditions, customs and history, the HLF has awarded over £3 billion to projects that open up our nation’s heritage for everyone to enjoy.
This project would not have been possible without the kind contributions of Arthur East, Ray Drury, Dennis Arnold, Ted and Cyril Caine, Edna Carr, Anne Hardy, Gary Watton, Mac Prinn, Marion Sutton, Mary Taylor, Robert Cooper, John Caroll, Alan and Joyce Taylor and members of Chance Pensioners Club.
Thank you to Paul Lacey (Web Developer), Angela Hind (Project Manager), Gavin Ingram (Designer), Richard Franks (Artist), Catherine Tarbuck (Artist), Keith Bloomfield (Web Editor) and Jodie Francis (Project Administrator). Associate artists Graham Peet, Geoff Broadway and Mike Higgs (Illustrator).
Further thanks to David Bryant and Delia Garratt (Smethwick Heritage Centre), Toby Chance, Vanessa Harbar and Mile Freeman (Heritage Lottery Fund), Michael Joseph, Mike Horton and Carol Priest (Pilkington Family Trusts), Gavin Owen (Black Country Bugle) and Thomas Tag.
Click here to visit the Heritage Lottery Fund website.
Latest news
Chance to tune into the Carl Chinn radio show.
Posted on September 5, 2007 in news
Listen to Ray Drury and Cyril Caine on the Carl Chinn radio show this coming Sunday 9th September 2007 from 1.00pm.
Talking Chances - Unique Audio Recording Now Available
Posted on February 19, 2007 in news
Talking Chances now available to listen to on-line or download.
Chance Encounters In Black Country Bugle
Posted on October 23, 2006 in news
The latest edition of the Black Country Bugle features a small piece on the recent Chance Encounters event at the Black Country Living Museum.
