Talk on Wolverhampton ring road wins award
Thousands of drivers use Wolverhampton's ring road each week, but not many will know the history and the communities which were lost to the development.
The ring road was the topic of a talk which won a competition held by Wolverhampton City Archives.
The Local History Symposium, the 13th of its kind held by the archives, saw a number of entrants have 20 minutes to discuss historic topics in the Black Country in front of a panel of judges.
Birmingham artist Jayne Murray was chosen as this year's winner, after spending months researching the history of the ring road.
Ms Murray said she hopes she can further her research and find ways of releasing it to the public with her £400 prize, handed over by Express & Star editor Martin Wright and the chairman of The Wolverhampton Society - which runs the civic and history society and the scientific and literary society.
The 45-year-old said: "I found researching it fascinating, it's a frequent encounter in Wolverhampton and it defines the city really.
"I spent about two months researching it and I've only scratched the surface as there's a lot of ring road and a lot was demolished to make way for it, so there were a lot of buildings that were demolished and communities moved.
"There was a lot to research about the thinking and plans behind it as it was a massive endeavour, it took them 26 years to build.
"Many of the other ring roads aren't complete, Wolverhampton's is really unique as it's actually a ring.
"With the funds I will do a lot more research, I want to work my way around it.
"Lots of churches were lost, streets were lost, the first art school building in Wolverhampton was lost."
Ms Murray said she did not find out how much it cost or where the money came from and said she will "dig deeper".
She added: "I thought the speech went relatively well but when I found out I had won I was delighted.
"After my speech people said they won't look at the ring road the same way again."
Mr Rana said: "Jayne's speech was a fantastic subject because it's affected so many people. Some people say the road is good and some people say it's bad."
One of the judges, Jefny Ashcroft, said the talk was "impressive".
She said: "It was impressive - a clever mix of an artist's visual response to a subject and a real historian's grasp of how to use archives."
