Birmingham scores

Richard Morrison makes admirable points in his article about the proposed removal of the Elgar Archive from the attractive focus of the Elgar Birthplace to the sprawling anonymity of the British Library (August). If the material really does need to be moved from The Firs, the obvious solution would be to house it at the University of Birmingham (virtually in Worcestershire), which would perhaps never have had a music department had Elgar not succumbed to Richard Peyton’s emotional blackmail that he would not endow the Professorial Chair unless Elgar accepted it.

Christopher Morley, Halesowen