Samuel McIlhagga

Brighton

Freelance Journalist and Editor at Freelance

Staff Writer @brumdispatch, @millmediauk & occasional contributor elsewhere.

Articles

Woon Wing Yip built an empire. Is it in decline?

2 weeks ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

On a rainy June morning, a gaggle of Birmingham luminaries gathered under the masses of grey Brutalist concrete that makes up the intersection between Smallbrook Queensway and Bristol Street. The date was 1998, a year into New Labour’s bright-eyed new vision for Britain. It was a time when the country generally felt confident about its multicultural and postcolonial future.
Small Heath is drowning in rubbish. So why doesn’t the council’s data say so?

3 weeks ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

The first thing I spot is a massive, torn, ‘Vote Labour, Yardley’ sign covered in rubbish and fly-tipped chairs as I walk down Coventry Road in Small Heath. To many residents, this scene is fairly representative of a set of problems that have emerged recently. Many local activists and community leaders have told The Dispatch that despite the presence of agency workers, and the ‘’ of the strike so that refuse workers can’t block trucks leaving depots, their rubbish hasn’t been picked up for months.
The curious case of the missing Northfield councillor

4 weeks ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

Plus: who are the movers and shakers shaping Brum — and Britain — in years to come? Welcome to The Dispatch. We're Birmingham's new quality newspaper, delivered via email. Join our free mailing list to get two full editions a week: a Monday briefing, full of things to do and bitesize news, straight from Brum's streets, and a weekend feature, taking you deep inside your city and the West Midlands. To get total access to all four of our weekly editions, you can join up as a paying member.
No water, dead horses and a legal battle to save Bewdley's plotlands

1 month ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

The tip dropped into my inbox on a cold February evening. “If you give me an address to drop the package of details I am often in Brum. I trust in your discretion though, I have relatives at the farm. Yours, TerryP.” This nugget of information had been prompted by a feature I wrote for The Dispatch, exploring the work of filmmaker Jonathan Meades. The piece touches on the set of DIY cabins known as plotlands, clustered in the Severn Valley, near the picturesque Worcestershire town of Bewdley.
Did Birmingham have to go bankrupt?

1 month ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

A few weeks ago I was standing in front of my window with a cup of coffee, watching the world go by. A tiny woman walked past, hauling around five massive black bin bags behind her. As she reached the gate of the adjoining property, she quickly glanced around, making sure there were no witnesses and, one-by-one, threw each bin bag over the fence. My fence. As she turned around, I caught her eye and she sprinted off.
Lost Tamworth cottages and why Birmingham should twin with L.A

2 months ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

A quick reminder that right now, we're running a special 50% Spring discount. If you're yet to sign up to a full Dispatch membership — that's access to all our editions, events and exclusives in your inbox and online — now you can, for just £1 a week. Back local journalism now, for less than the price of a morning coffee. Where I’m from: As some of you might have gauged, horrifyingly — I’m not from Birmingham. However, my life is full of distant Birmingham and West Midlands connections.
Fireworks, fraud accusations and fallouts at the Westside BID

2 months ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

In the heady summer of 2022, while Birmingham was hosting the Commonwealth Games, two leaders of the Westside Business Improvement District (BID) were compering a comedic parallel, the ‘Commonman Games,’ in the Walkabout Bar.
Samuel McIlhagga

2 months ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

Gerald Manton and Mike Olley were firm friends until they weren’t. What happened?
With Rembrandt, a bid for relevance?

2 months ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

A selection of magnifying glasses are fanned out across a tiny table placed at the entrance. A gallery attendant kindly explains, in excruciating detail, that the prints I’m about to see are very small. I notice few visitors employing these props. Instead, almost everybody uses their eyes, crouching next to the prints we’re all here to see.
At Reform's Birmingham bonanza, set design is the real winner

2 months ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

At the press entrance to Birmingham’s Utilita Arena, I am greeted by a large blonde American. “What’s ya name, buddy?” he asks earnestly. This should have been an early warning sign that I was leaving England’s Midlands and entering another realm: somewhere equidistant between the fever dream of Donald Trump’s White House and a stagnant Westminster.