The Cradley Heath Workers' Institute (Known locally as the 'Stute') was built between 1911 and 1912 in Lomey Town, Cradley Heath, West Midlands, England. It was built as a social centre for the people of Cradley Heath and surrounding areas within the Black Country, intended to become a venue for educational meetings and lectures. It also housed Union offices, where members could come to seek guidance, and from which the Contributory Unemployment Fund would be distributed. In 2006 the building was threatened by a bypass and so was moved to the
Black Country Living Museum
The Black Country Living Museum (formerly the Black Country Museum) is an open-air museum of rebuilt historic buildings in Dudley, West Midlands, England.Sandwell MBC, Midlands TUC and funded by the community and the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Design and construction
The Institute's architect was local man
A. T. Butler
Albert Thomas Butler (18 January 1872 – 6 March 1952) was a prolific Black Country architect who worked from Cradley Heath and, later, from Dudley. Born in Cradley, Worcestershire, his work included the extension to Cradley Heath Church of Engla ...
. With its projected gables, leaded windows, exposed brickwork and signage in green tiles, the building is a demonstration of Arts and Crafts style.
History
Construction of the Institute was funded using money left over from the strike fund of the 1910 Women Chainmakers' Strike, led by the charismatic union organiser and leader
Mary Macarthur
Mary Reid Anderson (née Macarthur; 13 August 1880 – 1 January 1921) was a Scottish suffragist (although at odds with the national groups who were willing to let a minority of women gain the franchise) and was a leading trades unionist. She ...
. The dispute ended on the 22 October 1910 when the last of the employers agreed to pay the minimum wage.
Between 1915 and 1933 it largely functioned as a cinema. It was then used as a
billiards
Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as .
There are three major subdivisions ...
hall until 1950, after which it became a postal sorting office until 1995. In 2004, the building was threatened by demolition due to the construction of a new road bypass. Sandwell MBC approached the BCLM and with members of the community including the Midlands TUC and members of trade unions, a campaign was launched to save it. Supporters were invited to sponsor a brick and in 2006 the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded the museum a £1.5M grant to take the building apart brick by brick and rebuild it at the Museum in Dudley.
Until the campaign to save the Workers' Institute, the story of the Women Chainmakers' Strike of 1910 had largely been forgotten. 2005 saw the first Women Chainmakers' Festival in association with the Midlands TUC and many unions, hosted at the museum. Now, the annual Women Chainmakers' Festival, which is still organised by Midlands TUC, is held in Cradley Heath, most recently at the Mary Macarthur Memorial Gardens on the site of the original strike meeting ground (next to the former site of the Workers' Institute). The building contains period offices, which are demonstrated by Museum staff, and an exhibition about
Mary Macarthur
Mary Reid Anderson (née Macarthur; 13 August 1880 – 1 January 1921) was a Scottish suffragist (although at odds with the national groups who were willing to let a minority of women gain the franchise) and was a leading trades unionist. She ...
. The original auditorium now houses a café for the museum and the stage is sometimes used for special events.BCLM /ref>