Summer up at Castlefort. Notice the bike leaning centre-left - but which doctor lived here? Picture from 'Memories of Old Walsall Wood' by Bill Mayo & John Sale.
Here’s a local quiz, based mainly on Walsall Wood, set by reader David Evans. Many of the answers can be found in previous posts here on the Brownhills Blog, and please comment any answers below. I’ve added this as a page so it’s always easy to find. Let’s see what you know…
Who, what, where… one names, places and features:
The Cape
The Hotspot
The Brook
The Batters – two answers, please
Co-op Corner
The Cutting
The Blood tub
Love Lane
Bates ‘ butchers
Jones’ butchers
Charlie and Nellie’s
Cock Robin
Goodings garage
The Prims
Which doctor had a princess?
Which doctor lived up Castlefort?
Where was the Wood’s surgery?
Smiths the Chemists… where?
Smith the Bakers… where?
Smith’s the grocers… where?
The WMC along Salters… where?
The WMC along Friezland… where?
Where was Polly Dixon’s?
Where were three fish and chips shops in Walsall Wood?
Where and who were two gents’ barbers?
Where and what was Baileys?
What and where were Gunn and Sivorn’s?
Where was New Street?
What was Southgate’s?
What colour were the Harper’s buses?
What was Sunnyside?
What was Utopia?
What and where was the Watersplash?
Where was the Police station in Walsall Wood?
How many banks were in the High Street?
What used to be where the all-weather football pitch is?
Two ice-cream sellers in the streets. One had a pony and cart. Name both sellers, and the pony.
One coal merchant used a horse and cart. Who?
Where was the air-raid siren on its pole?
Where and what was The Boot
Who lived the Streets Corner bungalow. What was his occupation?
I bet this wee fella could answer all these with ease - lovely image from 'Memories of Old Walsall Wood' by Bill Mayo & John Sale.
RSS - Posts
Pingback: Who fancies a challenge? « BrownhillsBob's Brownhills Blog
Great idea, this quiz. I left Walsall Wood nearly 60 years but can still answer most of the questions relevant to the ’30’s and ’40’s. Time has had a bearing on some of the answers, for instance, “Charlie and Nellies”. In my time. Nellie Clawley. together with her husband, ran a busy cafe in High Street, yet I am informed from a younger brother that they went on to keep Brookland Road Club, which in my time was known as Benny Yates’s, Benny being the founder, owner and steward.of this popular social club. Another question with an alternative answer could be “Where was Polly Dixon’s”? Could this be the tiny lady who kept the sweet shop in Brownhills Road? I remember this lady as Suranne (Polly) Price, so romance must have arrived rather late in Polly’s life. Neverthess, the quiz is excellent fun and transports me from North Yorkshire to old-time Walsall; Wood at the click of a mouse. Thank you, David Evans.
i think it was polly Wadey if thats how you spell it, I remember my Dad taking me in the garden of the shop when it was pig killing day,( I could’nt watch it now) Polly was either Mr Wadies wife or she lived with him, she was a lovely kind lady. Best wishes.
Jimmie
Hi David
Polly Wadey / Price kept the licorice sticks well out of reach in her little shop in Brownhills Road in my time! Do you remember the mechanical shop -door bell and the worn-out floor bricks?
The fun of the quiz..I hope..is that there will be different and equally correct answers to some of the questions. There are another 60 or so
questions still to be “posted” I believe. Polly Dixon . Clue; she wore a famous hairnet…
cheers
David Evans
Hi David,
Thanks for the clue! Famous hairnet, eh? Nothing jumps out of the old memory yet, but who knows? Looking forward very much to the next batch of questions. Regarding Polly Price and the sweetshop, I well remember the bell and the old floor, there was a similar floor in Mrs Higg’s sweetshop opposite the
Church School, but the shopfloor was abour a foot below street level in that
instance. What your comments did, however, was to bring back the distinctive smell of the little shop, licorice, aniseed. minty, peardroppy, chocolately, all rolled into one. Certainly rolled back the years for me, David. Thanks. By the way, do you remember the “Penny Bodge”? Bit of a gamble, that was!!
Cheers,
David Oakley.
Hi David
Do you remember Mrs HIggs first name..or her husband’s? They sold newspapers….the Pink and the Green on Saturdays. He is in one of the Ebenezer photos..have a look! Might help with one of the questions!
cheers
David Evans
Hi David,
Thanks for the tip regarding the Higgs’s. I think everyone knew Charlie Higgs in Walsall Wood. Regarding the Ebenezer Photos, I am not sufficiently skilled at present to be able to extract them from the blog, other than the concert party, but will persevere. I shall be quite interested to see them as I knew quite a number of Methodists, indeed, my own extended family were traditionally Methodists and I myself attended many Christian Endeavour meetings held midweek in the schoolroom.
Loved the hymns, for one thing, although my regular place of worship was the
“House of Prayer” in Coppice Road, probably no longer there!
Cheers,
David Oakley
the chapel is about all that remains of coppice roads history friend…sorry…twas not me, for it was that evil of all, ‘develpoment’ as it is now know….
How memories differ. I remember a Frank Higgs who delivered papers in Clayhanger. Of Course he was Mr Higgs to us.
Hi Brian,
Frank Higgs was Charlie Higgs’s brother. Both delivered by push bike. Didn’t know his paper round was that large.
Thanks for ‘Clayhanger Kid Two’. Great read !
Charlie Higgs was my granddad. I never knew him because he died over 20 years before I was born. His wife was Nellie (Sarah Ellen) Higgs. It’s fascinating to read about people’s memories of the Higgs newsagent shop. It’d be great to hear any other memories of their newsagent shop or of Ebenezer /Walsall Wood Methodist Church from those days.
Hi David
if you have GoogleEarth on your laptop you can see the Wood..or ask someone who has it to show you how it works. It is fascinating. There are “Streetview” images which I think you will love. Have a look at Coppice Road if you can. You are in for a pleasant surprise, I am sure. Perhaps someone can help you to “open” the other photos on this blog! You will need a big hankie!
with kind regards
David Evans
Having only moved in to the area in late 1980’s, I only know a few answers but I am looking forward to finding out the rest!
Hi David,
Managed to penetrate the mysteries of “Google Earth” and see something of the modern-day Coppice Road. Where has my 1930’s pit village gone!! I looked for the Co-op on the corner, complete with outer iron staircase to the hall above. Wasn’t there. Looked for the adjacent “Conveniences” No longer there. Sid Maxfield’s shop? Cottage to the rear where Mr. Bates, the postman lives with his son Bill Bates, who was Scoutmaster of 2nd Brownhills Scouts when I was a member in the early ’40’s ? All gone. Railway station drive into which the blue buses could reverse, with the wooden gates to prevent any further access. Large advertisment hoardings on the corner with the black iron fence which enclosed that ground. Long wooden fence by the chapel on which was inscribed a biblical text something along the lines of “Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart” Gone! all gone! A large tree blocked any further view from the corner and I was not very adept at moving the little orange man on Google Earth, so I shut my eyes to prevent any pollution of my precious memories – and switched off!.
Cheers,
David Oakley.
hi dave,can anyone remember blakemores yard in the high street oppositethe hawthorn pub,it had a big arch with a clock on it,also the pet shop just down from bridge opposite colmans chipshop.,further up,cookes the hardware shop,rhoda,s cafe,horrace the cobbler,caters electric shop,and the barbers i think his name was wolverson/wolaston,not sure.have a think
dr lillywhite lived on the cornerof castlefort rd and blakemore in a big house round the corner from poxon rd where i used to live,there where 4 doctors in beechtree road ,lillywhite roberts dingley, do you know who the other one was.thanks
it was not Williams he lived in bridge rd shelfield
Do you remember The Banks family in Poxon rd
Dr Williams
hi brian yes i remember the blakemores i lived opposite next to the hawthorn tree pub in the old cottage went to school with anne & joan blakemore and remember there being an old rolls or bently in the yard hope this helps c j
HI David
the Wood has changed a lot! Try to work the orange man if you can..Mr Beniston’s house is in fine nick..the House of Prayer is a fine building. The library on the corner does a fine job. The shops in the High Street have not changed much, though they have changed hands! Memories of good friendly people don’t change..they don’t have to!
Enjoy the next part of the quiz when it appears! Do you remember the Bible sayings on the house in Holly Lane? The Anniversaries at the chapels?
kind regards
David Evans
Moses Horton was married to Harriet Ruth Southall, daughter of Joesph Southall the landlord of the Shire Oak Inn. They did indeed live in the house with the Biblical texts in Holly Lane. Harriet Ruth sadly died in the 1918 flu epidemic. I am in touch with her grandson on family history matters.
Hi David.
Yes, I well remember the biblical texts on the house in Holly Lane. It was one of the little sights in the village that us kids would sometimes make a trip to see, stand there, read the texts, gaze at the house for a few minutes before making our way back home. I understood that the house was occupied by a Mr. Horton a member of the Jehovah Witness movement. The Anniversaries at the Prims and the Wesleyan chapels were special occasions for the little girls of the village who were lucky enough to get “on the platform” in their new white dresses, my elder sister among them.
I am getting to grips with Google earth and was delighted to see that the “House of Prayer” is still there, although now with houses on either side, but just as I remember it except for the substantial iron gates, The Prims chapel is no more although I recognised the distinctive but familiar facade of the schoolroom. At the rear there was a series of smaller rooms, one in which was held once a week, probably the first “Mother and baby” clinic in Walsall Wood under the auspices of Nurse Moore who was also “nit nurse” for the local schools. This was in the 1930’s. Miss Kidner, long-time headmistress of the Infants School lived next door to the Chapel, but I noticed those houses are also no more. I managed to get around quite a few streets, using “street view” as you advised but there is much more still to see, but I must say that after my initial shock at all the changes, my rather grimy pit village of all those years ago has been transformed, yes, for the better, All those trees and grassed areas and the houses ! Ironically, many of the lovely modern detached houses on view were built on sites which in the ’30’s held the worst dwellings, so the balance is in a way, redressed.
Hi David
in the search box at the top of this page, please put;
WalsallWood:an old pictures special edition”.an article that appeared on August 17th. You will see many faces you knew and may remember..and the comments section will link you to the other pages connected to this. Lots of faces from the anniversaries! Do you remember Abe Walker? Bill Bampton?
There are other members of your family in the photos, I think!
Who was in charge of the local Home Guard during the war?
Good hunting and best wishes
David Evans
new street was pauls coppice as i believe, i am only 38 but my moms brother lives there and has done since it was new street.
there was a surgery down walsall wood, where dr dingley was a dr, beechtree road, now moved to st michaels health centre and only a few old staff there, edwards, green, +peters, if i remember correctly. haywoods had a shop on coppice road, connie haywoods. friezland lane wmc was where the new houses are built adjacent to simmonds way, the whole grounds for the new houses (around 20 years old now) was the grounds for the club.co-op corner, had a cricket ground at the back, and the shop was closed just before the cricket grounds got built on too. it now has the local library instead of the nieghbourhood office that was built then rebuilt. bear in mind, im only a baby of ’73…
Hi Ant, Was ever a street so mis-named as New street, Paul’s Coppice? When I first visited it, more than 70 years ago it was completely unmade, consisted of earth and pebbles with large ruts where surface water had drained down over the years. My uncle Bill and Aunt Emma Corfield lived there all their married life, so would no doubt be known to your own relatives. Nice to see another response to the quiz. Regards.
I David
I lived at number 4 ( With the Big front window on the right hand side) I went to school with Trevor Corfield and Knew the family well Brothers Trevor,Jeff,Malcolm,Brian and sisters Doreen and Brenda
hi david, yes my dad used to look after emma and someone called george heap opposite. if you would like you could have my number and we could chat and catch up about the people who lived and live there. my mum was bestests with “doreen” she knows the cottage emily lived in before she was rehomed to a new bungalow in a newer road called bradbury close, and she lived there until she was moved to an old folks home in@ 1993-4 close to 100 years old.
regards antony.
07714582830.
Hi Antony, Nice to hear that my Aunt Emma was looked after so well in her old age by your Dad. I had heard that she lived to a big age and could still make her way down to the “Wheel” for a drink in her late eighties. Uncle Bill was a stalwart of Friezland Lane WMC and was very proud when he was made a Life Member for services rendered over many years. I used to slip over and have a pint with him occasionally, before I left the West Midlands for North Yorkshire. Didn’t know anyone else in New Street but would welcome a chance for a chat about Walsall Wood in general, as I have no contact there, now, other than through BrownhillsBobs Blog which has really set the old memory cells working again. If you would like my email address, its davidoakley06@aol.com
Regards, David.
Hi,
My name is John Beresford and I was born in New Street AKA Paul’s Coppice in 1946. I lived there until I was 7 in a row of terraced houses near to the Wheel Inn. My gran Mrs Simpson lived opposite. I remember the Corfields well. I was brought up on pork pies and faggots from Jack Mansells the butcher on the corner by the Wheel Inn. The Wheel Inn had a dumb waiter lift driven by hand with ropes and pulleys to get the beer up from the cellar. It was the first pub I ever went in. We used to fetch beer from the outdoor in jugs for dad. I remember the dirt road with rainwater ruts we used to play in it as kids. The name Paul’s Coppice comes from a wood that got covered by the colliery slag heaps. You can still see it on old maps. I know the district well since I have never moved off the slopes of Shire Oak Hill in my life, I am now 65. It’s good to hear people still have an interest in this district.
Hi John,
Good to know we share these old memories and that you remember the original New Street. I knew a Ray Beresford at the Brownhills
Road Senior School. Think he was also active in the 2nd Brownhills Scouts,
later.Any relation?
Hello John; did you know a Thomas Beresford not only was he the licensee but owned the Wheel Inn back in 1871 and maybe earlier. I`m doing some research on this pub for my next book.
Hi john I used to live live next door to you at number 4 what a bugger you was remember climbing through you bedroom window
HI David and Ant
was there a chap called Nelson who lived in New Street/Paul’s Coppice?
cheers
David
Hi David,
The only family that I knew in New Street was my Uncle and Aunt and cousins. Ant may hopefully provide more information about Mr. Nelson, for as you know in those days one would know virtually everyone who lived in one’s street, so good luck with the enquiry!
One spin off from this enquiry, David, which may interest you as an avid local historian is the fact that one of my cousins from New Street, Malcolm Corfield was for a time operator at the Palace in Brookland Road, around about 1949/50 when Jeff Collins was manager. I assisted Malcolm for a while and also worked with other operators a little later on the old Kaylee projectors which I think must have been the original machines when the cinema was erected. Once I started to recall those old days, I was surprised at how much I did remember and can go back to 1936 when the cinema was owned by a Mr. Simpson who used to sit in the tiny paybox and issue tickets and take the money himself. This was at the time leading up to the event of
the Abdication of Edward V111 and the name of Mrs, Simpson was on everyone’s lips. My childish five-year- old mind linked our Mr. Simpson with
the Duke’s Mrs. Simpson and he became the deserted husband who my eyes would follow wonderingly whenever I saw him.
I remember so much, both as a young patron paying twopence to sit on the wooden benches at the front, known to us as the “pig benches”,through to my time in the “box” plus a six-month stint at the “Avion” at Aldridge when The Palace was closed for essential reconstruction following a fire. The Avion had introduced live variety shows at irregular intervals with top of the bill acts such as Semprini and Dr. Crock and his Crackpots under the auspices of Harry Russell, the Manager.
One of your questions in the first quiz concerns the “Blood Tub” and I can remember so much of the cinema in the late 30’s through the 40’s into the early 50”s that I am tempted to put it all down, submit it to the blog in the hope that it may be of some general interest and who knows, may even unite me with old friends, that reall;y would be the “icing on the cake”!
Best Wishes, David.
Mr and Mrs Simpson who lived in New Street Paul’s Coppice in the 1940s were my maternal grandparents. We lived opposite in number 6 New street on the same yard as a group of relatives and neighbours, the Simpsons, the Walkers (Paddy Walker was the man who got rescued from the Walsall Wood pit collapse) and the Pentons.. We , the Beresfords were a family of 4.
Hi there When we moved to number 4 (approx 1953} I can rember you always climbing out off your bedroom window !!! You were one of the fisst people in the street to have a tv I also remeber the puppets shows you put on in your back room My name is Trevor Wood I lived at no 4 with my mother and father Joan and charlie.
When you moved out of no 6 my aunty and uncle moved in Dorren and Ron Wood.
Where are you now how can you be contacted
Trevor I live in yorkshire my email is john.beresford1@icloud.com I would love to talk old times with you we lived together in new street Paul’s coppice best regards john beresford
I was born there, I do remember the name Nelson vaguely.
Yes, Nelson Selvey.His oldest son Roy married my cousin.
Thats excellent to hear good man, I have recorded your email address and I will be in touch shortly after today’s madness is over. I’m really pleased to hear back from you. Regards Antony
Hi David
the Blood Tub. The film I remember most was the Dam Busters. Who was the man who was the “usherette”.. Mr Stokes? Made sure we sat in the seats we had paid for! In heavy rainfall the cinemagoers had to lip read what the flimstars were saying. Do you remember why this was so! And one seat was left empty!
Then there was the chippy nearby. Real chips, real vinegar, real grease on your fingers! The Avion was a wonderful place to visit..Superman for ever…and a ride on Harpers platform afterwards!
cheers .
David
I think New Street had a Mr Nelson Selvey at one time. A kind man.
I went to the blood tub in Walsall Wood, aged about 4 with my sister, I fell over and burned myself on those big heating pipes running down the sides of the seats in the aisles.
HI David
the Blood Tub ! Do you remember the first colour film they showed in this wonderful cinema? I imagine the Pathe Newsreels were so important during the wartime years, too. The postwar golden era of films, J Arthur Rank, Elstree and Ealing comedies, which gave young actors their breaks into the movie business, ..would love you to write down what you remember, and send them to Bob. , at some time, please
cheers
David
Hi David,
I do remember the blood tub in Walsall Wood I went there as a kid. The film that sticks in my mind though was an early 3d movie called the house of wax shown in the Regent Cinema in Brownhills, does anyone remember the wax being poured out from the screen and the smoke rings you had to put your finger through in 3d?
Hi David,
Thanks for the suggestion, will see what I can do. However, at the moment am experiencing computer problems and cannot get online much of the time. Know very little about computers, which doesn’t help. My server AOL seems to have gone haywire. Will get back to you ASAP.
Cheers,
David,
HI David
over the course of history the devil has worn many disguises; his latest is as a computer.
cheers
David
HI Bob
I wonder if any of your readers know what the hotspot was and where it was…there is a clue of sorts ..in my last article , “This is the modern world”…
kind regards
David
Hi David,
Regarding the “Hotspot” and your “clue of sorts” in your last article, I may be totally wrong but you mention “swimming in the cut” This brought to mind my boyhood in the late 30’s when we used to swim in the “warm hole”. This was a canal basin adjacent to the brickyards in either Boatman’s Lane or Brickyard Road. Water heated and used in the brickmaking process, possibly to cool the kilns was then pumped into the canal basin to the delight of the young, skinny dipping fraternity, Can the Hotspot and the Warm Hole be one and the same ?
Cheers,
Hi David
lovely to hear from you again. No..this was not that., as far as I know…but you’re on the right track. I didn’t know about the Brickyard basin..the Vigo Pool was only for the brave souls who were very good swimmers ,in my own well-spent youth.
The Hotspot., so I am told….(are you leaning forward in your chair yet.?).was near the Coppy Pit, a part of the canal..between the Thackers Barrows bridge and the pit..where the water was much warmer. Like the “warm hole” near the brickworks..”hot”(warmer) water from the colliery was pumped into the canal. Sources were two “lads” from 20s and 30s who swam in the canal there..lived in Coppice Road /Camden Street part of the village. The canal bridge by Thackers barrows was a popular “challenge” and diving board in the 50s
I hope you are in good health, David, and send my best wishes
David
We swam in that same canal by Clayhanger bridge as kids in the 1950s and it was so cold I remember breaking the thin ice with our chests. We had a fire by the side of the cut to keep warm.
After receiving my cert for swimming,i loved challange,i used to bunk of from school,with a mate and swim in the Vigo,there was a raft the kid had made,It was a good challange.
Hi David,
Thanks for the good wishes.I am happy to say my computer problems have been sorted by a change of server so we’re “cooking with gas”again ! Two “hot spa’s” in the village, eh ? No wonder we never saw kids from that end in the “warm hole”. Your mention of Thacker Barrows is interesting. So far as I remember, this was the first purpose-built factory in the village and marked the transition between the old and the new. Hawkins, the organ builders had taken over the old Wesleyan Chapel over the bridge.and employed a few craftsmen. Walsall Conduits had taken over the Old Boot pub and employed a few ladies, but the choice for men had been limited, broadly speaking, to the pit and the brickyards or Collins Parcel Express. Now you could be a factory worker without leaving the village. Times had changed !
But back to quiz number one:- Utopia was a brickyard with “Utopia Works” painted down its tall chimney stack. Mr Allen of Lichfield Road used to deliver “allowance coal” in a high sided cart, the air-raid siren was on a pole in the yard of the NFS in Beechtree Road. Goodings Garage was at Shire Oak crossroads and there were six fish and chip shops in Walsall wood when I was a lad. Taylors (later Copes) on Vigo corner. Mycock’s (later Clayton’s ) in Brookland Road. Beamands in Lichfield Road, Corne’s in Lindon Road, Boden’s in Coppice.Road. All top class, to be joined later by the Why Not in the high street.
All the very best to you,
David
Hi Dave,my name is Brian Jones,born next door to the postoffice in the high street 1949.can you remember spurrells factory opposite the primrose cafe/watersplash/baronscourt.nice to read your comments.
Iwas born next to the old boot inn and later yrs worked at walsall condoits i remember spurrels nicro not forgetting the cosy cafe those was good days
Hi David
many thanks for your notes..again! The WhyNot fish bar later sold bits and pieces for cycles, as did Mr Yeoman’s accumulator shop ( with the large advert with its wonderful Wizard image..I wonder what was being advertised) near Streets Corner. Please look at Bob maps on line article..there is a super map of 1832 Walsall Wood. Streets Corner had a house or farm there long ago, by the look of things….Salters Road was a track. Well worth closer study! And the Shire Oak at Holly Lane is clearly visible! The Utopia is now a land(over) fill site which looks to be complete and returning to nature.There is a methane capture system there, too.. The field opposite the Boot has been a clay hole and is now being filled. Hall Lane has a few small factories which seem to be doing well
Did the Vigo stack also have a name on it? One of the stacks was demolished during the war, I believe.
with kind regards, and, looking forward to reading your memories from the Bloodtub, in due course,
David
hi david,
i know you will remember me as you and my brother keith were good friends and went to school together , my mother who is now 92 was born in coppice rd she`s the daughter of frank and ethel craddock, her uncle started A.H Craddocks in coppice lane after the 1st war with £76. he was given on demob from the flying core [ now the RAF] he opened a shop opposite the one most remember on the corner of coppice rd and camden st he used to make his own custard powder [ the first one in exsistence mum thinks ] it was called lily`s pride he also produced baking flour plain and self raising , if buyers saved the labels he would give them a small gift for three . mum moved from coppice rd to lindon rd when she was six to live with her grandma next door to mrs Corns`s fish & chip shop the shop next to that on the corner of Lindon rd and clayhanger rd was run by Mrs eccleshawl later it bought by Mrs cuningham across the rd at bottom of the Black pad was Friers butchers the family worshiped at the Gospel Hall in clayhanger rd , most all of the family worked at uncle Charlies shop in Brownhills C.T. Craddocks it was a family credit store started early 20th century originally just household items but Ford/Gallows the furniture people supplied table`s chairs , piano`s ect because people could pay weekly the buisness flourished he started selling clothes of all kinds and at its height had 50 agents but all went down hill when catalouges began circulating. mum remembers the muffin man who used to come round on a friday with his basket on his head ,Websters bought the coal and Mr Tudor used to get it in .mum moved again as a teenager to Brook ln number 69 then but changed to 89 when they put new houses at the Collins`s end of the lane , she remembers Claytons fish & chip shop in Coppice rd & Wilds sweet shop there was also Reeves cake shop which sold wine cakes amongst others but the shop smelt of lamp oil because she sold that as well. On the high st was Clawley`s transport cafe booths newsagent the cobblers, Heddley`s grocery/corn& grain shop, Smiths cake shop , Hudsons general stores a large shop later devided into 2 mumrecalls they had a pulley to pass the money from one side of the shop to the other save having to keep running across mum always wanted to pull the string but they wouldn`t let her. there wasCherry`s butchers ,Felton`s the pork butchers, King`s toy shop later Eccobs ran a chemist shop , during the war she remembers a bomb hitting the princess[the watersplash/ Barrens court ] it shook the foundations of all the houses for miles their target was the brick works , mum has a wonderful memory and can recall most of the children at school and the teachers i will ask her for those another day kind regards Lynne.x
Your mum certainly has a wonderful memory and although a little younger myself there is many things in your contribution that are still clearly fixed in my own memory. I remember Howard Craddock’s flour and the little coupons just inslde the bag. I remember Reeve’s shop in Coppice Road, my aunt Lizzie Fullelove lived next door and my Grandma Corfield next door but one.
The Craddock family were well-known in the Walsall Wood/Pauls Coppice area and were leading lights at the Gospel Hall in Clayhanger Road which an elderly Mr. Craddock attended, together with sons Stan, Sid and Ira, they lived on Commonside. The House of Prayer in Coppice Road was founded by Ira Craddock, Senior, who sadly died in early middle age. My family were
customers of C.T. Craddock for many years and as your mom recollects, many of the Craddock family were agents. Three who were not, were
Albert Jones from Coppice Road, Bernard Preedy from Pelsall and Jack Duckett from Brownhills. Mr Duckett founded a Gospel Hall in School Avenue, Brownhills. The three chapels were closely linked under the
Christian Brethren denomination. I remember Corn’s fish and chip shop
and was at school with son Aden, likewise Cunningham’s and son John.
Wonder whether the Black Pad is still there? Yes, Hudson’s system of
sending purchase money and change to and from the cashier was quite
fascinating, The Co-op on the corner of Coppice Road had a similar system in the early days.Your mum has a good recollection of the High Street shops. A Frank Craddock lived in Brook Lane when I was a youngster,
First house past the Church Hall. Any relation? There was also a Miss Griffiths in Coppice Road who worked in the Post Office.
Please let your Mum know how much I enjoyed her recollections of the
1930’s and I am sure she will be pleased to know that there are still a few of us left who remember the “good old days” of our beloved village.
dear david,
mum remembers [she thinks ] you , you used to come and play with mrs cunninghams son also winston oakley who married mary holland from salters rd they lived in a double fronted house near streets corner , my grandfather was frank craddock and he did indeed live next to the church hall in brook lane , i spent many happy hours as a child in that house and mum and dad bought it when i was 10 they looked after my grandma and grandad until they passed away,gran would make sure every child in the sunday school at the gospel hall had a christmas present so would knit gloves scarves and slipovers also dressed dolls and made pram blankets , grandad worked as an agent for c.t.craddocks right until his death you could see him riding his bike down the main rd he wore a trilby hat and would always lift it to say goodday to all he met . mum remembers a mr bolton a vicar with a long beard he used to wear gaiters and knicker bockers he walked all over the place and would visit clayhanger every week he also used to wear a round hat .my aunt grace hall is also stiil alive and doing well at 94 she still has many good memories of living in walsall wood she was married to sid hall ,they lived in salters rd until the middle 60`s .
Hi Lynne,
So many pleasant memories of the old days. Yes, I remember John Cunningham, your neighbour. Winston was my cousin and, as you say, lived in the first house in Brownhills Road. Your grandad Frank was a fine man, one of nature’s gentlemen, always immaculately dressed, with a smile and a courteous greeting for everyone. The bike matched the man, a solid, upright model, often with a customers parcel strapped to the carrier. Mr Boulton the vicar of St. John’s was replaced by the Rev. Stackhouse a very different character. Nice to know that your Aunt Grace is doing well, Not too much news about of the more elderly residents of the village which makes your mum’s recollections all the more valued. Best wishes.
I remember the chp shop in Lindon Road and Cunninghams shop also Mr Pye the barber.
Pingback: What’s in a name? « BrownhillsBob's Brownhills Blog
Hi David
Batters.. two answers../ .two locations…a clue to one is in my article “Faggits! Faggits”….sort of…..the other location has been lost. Have fun!
cheers
David
Hi David,
Batters ? One of a few in quiz one that I was unable to answer, although the term was certainly around when I was a youngster. Playing “on the batters” I think it was. I always imagined the location to be on the railway embankment somewhere between the railway station and the Coppy bridge, you know, that area of railway behind the football ground. I have re-read “faggits, faggits” and apart from the waves of nostalgia your wonderful pieces always inspire, nothing clicked.
I am leaning forward, ears cupped in hands to compensate for my slight deafness, to hear the answer, so, go on then,,,,,,,,,,
All the best,
David
The batters were in Clayhanger and formed the sides of the railway embankment where the earth was battered up to form a bank they stretched on either side of Clayhanger bridge and they were a playground for us kids at the time.
We called the railway embankment at the back of Birch Coppice on the Hussey estate the “batters” too. We used to have a huge rope swing attached to a tree and run up the batters and jump on the swing – gosh such good memories from childhood. Sorry late reply – only just seen this post..lol
Hi David
are you sitting uncomfortably?
From a dear old lady friend who was born 90 years ago in Barnetts building, by the Traveller’s rest pub..on the Lichfield Road, Walsall side. The batters for her were the side of the canal opposite the towpath side..you can see a young lad standing by the rails where she used to play,in the photo. On the batters..the other side, there were regular fishing contests on Sundays..and she remembers being told to be quiet..not to disturb the fishermen. I knew the batters to be the same ( non towpath) side of the canal, but near the cricket ground..again, where the ( real) anglers spent their time..and also in line with the men playing cricket. Confusing ..batters on the canal, and batters whacking a ball. This stretch of canal and its side was also called the batters by this lady’s husband,Arthur, who grew up, was a lodger with his father, in one of the canal houses, by the Black Cock bridge, next door to the Moles!
I called the stretch of the railway bank, by the football field, a slope down to a water-filled ditch the batters, as did the children of my time!
So,as far as I know, there have been two places for the batters..and I think the word was also used to mean the grey sticky clay used to line the canal ( sometimes called puddling clay I think) This side of the canal , near the Black Cock bridge, was know to leak..perhaps as subsidence affected the canal, and my father’s house, in Camden Street and immediately adjacent to the canal, was so severely affected by damp that it was eventually demolished in the early 30s I think.
And the height of the canal? My father was able to watch the barges go by even though he had to look up the bank to see them, as did my friend’s husband…Both used the Hotspot as their swimming pool!
It was Arthur, my old friend, who first mentioned Pepper Alley , Goblins Pit and Molesley’s dole to me a few years ago.
with best wishes and my kind regards
David……now, put the kettle on!
Hi chaps.
David Oakley – so good to have you back. Thought we’d lost you for a bit… reading the exchanges between you and David is a delight. It’s like eavesdropping a great conversation in the pub. Not that I’d ever do such a thing…
The Batters is mention in the Clayhanger Kid as the railway embankment by Bridge Street, Clayhanger, and the term has also been used for the railway embankments in Brownhills by the old station and Daisy’s Field. I think it was a general slang term for such features. It would be interesting to research the etymology of such terms.
The canal, it’s height and the sump where the cottages were by the Black Cock has been covered before. Hope to have some more on that in a month or so.
Goblins Pit has been speculated over hereabouts before; every so often the subject pops up, like Pepper Alley (stay tuned), mainly due to Sue Lote and the Derry piece. It’s a shame Sue doesn’t seem to be updating her site these days. Hope she’s OK. I first became aware of both names through [Howmuch?] and the Cassini reprint of the 1884 OS map at 1:50k. He’s a stickler for the old names and he has a point.
Cheers lads
Bob
Aha. Google is my friend.
Looks like Batters is a navvy term. Top link is a lovely Navvy glossary.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=batters+embankment&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=YmpTT96BJsKV8gO_pOnwBQ
Cheers
Bob
Hi Bob
many thanks for the glossary..very interesting! and super to hear from the Scarborough correspondent again!
kind regards
David…( .two sugars, please.)
HI Bob
and, of course,nearby was Bullings Heath. Now,… Bullings……can anyone help solve this little gem, please?
kind regards
David
Hi Bob & David,
Thanks for the welcome back. after being offline for a few weeks. makes one feel like part of a family. Much appreciated.
In accordance with your instructions, David, the kettle is nestling on the blazing coals in the blackleaded grate, while on the hob, warming, is the brown earthernware teapot with three spoonsful of Barringtons Liverpool tea. Flo, with flushed face is holding a slice of thickish bread on a wire toasting fork against the glowing firebars, while on the table is a dish of Empire butter, so come on in, there’ll be plenty for all of us………..
So, looks as if the batters is a generic term which is quite widespread for locations with a similar characteristic, but it would be interesting to trace the source of the name. I have been quite taken with words and their meanings since learning that our youthful derogatory description of a “face” as a “fizzog” came from the scientific term “physiog” which was as near as dammit to our own vulgar jargon.
David, I well remember the Mole family you mention. I think the lad’s names were Alfie and Arthur. Very pleasant lads. I think they both worked at a local brickyard, the younger one did, I recall, where he rejoiced in the unusual nickname of “Moley-One -Hair”. Don’t ask me why ! we were nothing if not inventive in those days.
Pepper Alley keeps popping up on the blog. I remember my mother mentioning it to me. She was born in Coppice Road in 1902 and from what I remember, it was not the nicest place to live, being located off Camden Street, near the canal.
Bob, I love your pieces and photographs of Pleck, Darlaston Road and the canal. Before retiring to Scarborough I lived for 36 years on Darlaston Road, with the IMI copper works directly behind me. The very tall Leylandi behind number 254 which can clearly be seen from the road were planted by me to screen the factory buildings They were 6″ plugs when planted.
The M6 hadn’t been built, then, and there was a capped mineshaft in my neighbours garden, a legacy of the mining activity which had taken place on what was then, a part of Bentley Common.
Best wishes to you both,
David.
HI David
I sent Bob a long list of local slang terms some while ago and perhaps it can be usefully posted for the younger generations to enjoy. One of the inescapable changes here in more recent years has been the change in slang usage…language is ,after all , an evolving entity. Tayarf!
One twinkle to enjoy;-
pupil to classmate” He day”
teacher; “It aint’ day , its dain’t”
pupil; “oh are.”
got to be worth two slices of toast, or anarfender.
best wishes
David
Hi David,
Two rounds of hot buttered toast (Made with Harrington’s (Pelsall) unsliced bread, on its way to you for that gem. They delivered by horse and cart, you know, Sid Clenton was the roundsman for years.
I, and my wife still speak with broad West Midland accents, which is so very wrongly categorized as “brummie” up here, yet they can readily distinguish between a North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire accent, the speaker of which is labelled a “Wessie”.
The Walsall Wood dialect seemed rather unique to me, having more in common with the true Black Country dialect than say, Walsall, while Darlaston was different again with a sort of “whining” undertone, as well as calling fags, “fakes”.
I often wondered if the influx of labour from the Black country towns when mining began in the village did anything to create subtle changes in the local dialect or am I imagining things ?
Any road up, must goo, toasts gerrin code, tarrar,
David.
HI David
Tek cair ah Kid.Cunner wert nu lunger.Gorra goo n see a mon abart an oss.
David
Hi David,
Oops ! On re-reading my above comments I realise that the term “whining” which I used in connection with the Darlaston dialect could be misconstrued. I meant to imply a smooth, continuous sound, not the derogatory “whine” The intonation and the rise and fall of the speech pattern when past James Bridge became completely different but attractive in its own right. I know that Bob works in Darlaston and would hate him to face a lynch mob because of my inadvertant slip-up, so sorry, Darlo, won’t happen again !
HI David
do you remember Southgate’s..if it was called that when you were here..may be after your time, though..And have you followed the Goblins Pit story? I should have put that in the quiz..Next time, perhaps.
How many wells do you remember in the Wood, apart from the Cot, that is?
If we can place these we might be able to have a fuller picture of the original Walsall Wood pre-coal mining era
with my kind regards and best wishes to you,
David.
David,
I was born in Number 6 new street Paul’s coppice by the wheel inn in 1946. We had a well in our back garden shared by the row of terraced houses. By the time I sat by it the well had been sealed with a thick metal plate topped by a concrete block as a safety precaution to stop the kids falling in.
Hi David,
Sorry to say that Southgate’s doesn’t ring any bells in my memory. I left the Wood about 1951 and although only moving to Walsall my visits back were not very frequent and consisted mainly of visits to an R.A.O.B. Lodge held at the Brickmakers Arms, so I gradually lost touch with the life of the village. I may have known it under another name so if you have one of your famous clues up your sleeve, lets give it a go.
Yes, I’m following the Goblins Pit saga and its connection with the Mormons.
Curiously enough, one of my brothers, born and bred in Walsall Wood, met a young female Mormon missionary, followed her to America, joined the Mormon church married the girl and lived in Utah, raising two daughters. The family remained there for close on 20 years before returning to the U.K, to live in South Wales where they had originally met
Can’t be much help regarding wells, i’m afraid, David, there were probably quite a few around, unused in the 30’s, but thanks to the good old SSWW, piped water had been available for a considerable time. The only ones I can recall was Mr. and Mrs. Nuttings house which stood alone in Holly Lane, equidistant between the Shire Oak end and the Castle Road end. Mr Davenhills cottage, a smallholding at Castle gate who was still using oil lamps in the 30’s.and Charlie and George Teece’s cottage which stood alone in Aldridge Road. nr Vigo corner. Charlie and George were unmarried and also relied on oil lamps and candles. There was probably piped water to these properties, but it must be remembered that people aged 65/75 in the 1930’s were born in the 1860’s and still retained the prejudices of that age, so that a sneaky drink of ice-cold well water would be considered far superior to anything that came out of a tap !
If any more come to mind, David, I’ll certainly let you know.
kind regards,
David.
At the end of the 1930’s, I lived at the small-holding mentioned. It was known as Castle Gate Farm. My Mum and Dad, Mary (usually called Dollie) and Charlie rented it. I remember Bren gun Carrier tanks whizzing round the neighbouring fields prior to going into proper action.
The first film I ever saw was not long after the Avion cinema opened – it was ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’.
For a short time I went to Walsall Wood Infants school – I believe the Head Teacher’s name was Miss Watson.
On the day war broke out, I was helping my Dad deliver vegetables, and remember people standing in groups at the Vigo talking about it.
I have lots more memories of living there, but eventually we had to leave, as the factory fumes affected my father’s kidneys – one being removed – so we moved to the cleaner air of Shropshire not far from the Clee Hills.
We live in Pelsall nowadays, but visit the Bridgnorth area at times.
They called the 1930’s ‘ the good old days’ – ricketts, measles, mumps prevalent ! – I think they got it wrong.
Harry Davenhill 2nd September 2013
Hi Harry,
Nice to hear from you and your memories of old Walsall Wood. I remember your father and the hat he usually wore. I remember your move to Shropshire. I think my father was quite friendly with your father in the 30’s. Tell me, Harry, were you related to the Mr Davenhill who farmed in Birch Lane, Aldridge, he had a very old Ford lorry with high sides. I worked for him in the war, as a schoolboy. We were given leave of absence from school to assist farmers, One year I was with him until mid-November, before returning to school. Great man, with a great sense of humour. He farmed next to Ikin, the mushroom grower in Birch Lane.
So good to have a comment from you, in response to this posting.
Best Wishes,
David Oakley.
Hi David
the Mormon connection and the Goblins Pit cottages are an amazing find, aren’t they! There is a modern active church in Purcell Avenue in Lichfield and most summers young missionaries from USA are to be seen riding their bikes around Lichfield. I hope that the good people realise what an important part of their history comes from Green Lane! I think Charles Derry was an important preacher in USA.
Southgates were based at the old railway station in the Wood..I hired a caterpiller digger and driver to mark out and scrape the adventure playground on Barr Beacon in the 60s..one of my enjoyable projects.. I would love to have much more information about the station and the passenger and freight traffic through there, especially given the failed attempt to put a line to the Wood in 1845.
Castle Gate up the Castles…so little is known about it…even the name is at risk of being lost. Was there a gate on the road at one time, I wonder…and the wonderful RAOB was only a name to me…what was, or is it, especially given the link to the Brickies..were there other such societies in the Wood..perhaps ?
I wonder what is known about the Horse and Jockey and its small meeting room, used by some religious groups , before the churches were built.
kind regards
David
.
HI Bob
please thank Lynne for her wonderful contribution…and Lynne..super to hear from you and I hope you are enjoying the quiz and all the other things in the blog. Please give my kind regards to your Mom.
cheers
David
hi david,
will do she remembers you ,your parents and your brother fondly so do i iremember keiths old car with a running board on the side also he was an excelent choir master,sorry its been a long time in replying some toe rag pinched the main telephone cable to our village so weve had no internet
HI David
yes the Black Pad, the footpath between Lindon Road and Commonside, is still there and still known as such, though the cottage at Commonside has gone as has the Laundry in Commonside. The Gospel Hall you mention is stil there in Brownhills, I believe. The tin tabernacle in Clayhanger Road has closed down, but the building is still standing. Stan Craddock is well-remembered as is Mr Duckett.
The local name, Craddocks Corner, at Coppice Road and Camden Street junction, may not be used so much nowadays, though, since their shop and warehouse closed and moved to Brownhills.
kind regards
David
I lived in Commonside fron the age of 7 and played on the land that was the Lichfield Laundry. Yes the black pad is still there. I also remember the original wooden porches bungalow at the top occupied at the time by the Lindon Family.
HI Lynne
It was your mom who told me that your grandfather well remembered when “Love Apples” first arrived in Walsall Wood . He bought some and put cream on them. They had come from Jersey, I think.
cheers
David
hi david, here are some more memories from mums early days at the wood. the cape was at the top of friezland lane and occupation rd there was also another rd ther called the fold a man who they called Jotto lived down there he was known as a miser , he used to put wire netting at the windows and on his chimney so no one could get in , when they closed the copy pit there was an uproar because they filled it in with atomic waste and everyone thought it would blow up after a few years’ the old library was opposite The slang common { oak park } . the fire station , police station and the doctors were all in beechtree rd the doctors were Dr Roberts and Dr stewart. the ice cream seller with a horse and cart was Selwyn smith from brownhills ,i remember his ice cream it was delicious ,The Boot inn was on the corner of walsall rd and boatmans ln The primrose was on the other corner and the Horse and Jockey opposite this was owned by Nellie fenn she was aunty to Sue nichols who plays Audrey Roberts in coronation st. The Shire Oak used to brew its own ale gran used to send mum and her sister Lily with jugs for : The balm : { the lather off the top of the brew }so she could make pop , she would boil dandelions and burdock to put in it she also made lemonade and orangeade and sold it for 2d or 3d a bottle she never made a lot of money but it was very popular. mum remembers a Mr Buckley who used to go to the weslian chapel he would always lie across the pew so he could have it to himself Dr stewart also went there one day Mr Buckley went to the doctor with aches and pains so the doctor told him to change chapels as the weslian was too cold for him so he went to the gospel hall ever after, he would sing very loud and spit over everyone at the same time , as well as the smiths in the high st there was a smiths taxi`s up brookland rd by the cemetary mr smith bought a car that he said belonged to the king it was magnificent , The windpump was on the corner of lichfield rd and brooklands rd , the railway used to flood when it rained hard because the brook ran underneath it they used the windpump to pump it out many more memories to come from mum i might even put some of mine down , here`s one though do you remember the showbiz 11 playing football in oak park in the mid 60`s x Lynne
I remember the showbiz 11,Tommy Steel,played in it when i was in the seniors
HI David
Polly Dixon;-.a kindly,well – proportioned lady, pinafore, hairnet ( thinking of the cafe owner in Summer Wine yet?)..owned the shop by the gates down to the playing fields. Yes, a round card with hairnets hung on the wall by the counter;and there were the famous “five-packs”..Park Drive or Woodbines……and Wrigleys.and the other brand of chewing gum whose name escapes me- and Gobstoppers…..The playing fields between the football pitch and the school were a paradise of adventure, bruises and thrills for children. Can you remember the names of the equipment….my favourite was the GIants Stride
cheers
David
Hi David,
Yes, those hairnets, ha, ha, I remember them well! and the cigarettes. the “fives” were known as “single woodbines” having only a single row in the packet, as against the “double woodbine” with two rows. Another brand of chewing gum was “Beechnut”. This was cheaper than Wrigley’s and only cost a ha’penny. Gobstoppers would change colour during the sucking process and would be taken out of the mouth, at intervals, to observe the change.
We would spend hours on the playing fields in the school holidays. In my time the equipment consisted of the Giant Stride, the Boat, the Helter-Skelter, the Frying Pan, two Joywheels (large and small), Big Swings, Baby Swings and six Leapfrogs. There were two or three tarmaced areas where it looked as if prepared for equipment but nothing on them. My own personal grievance was the lack of a “Monkey Puzzle” which I had enjoyed once on a visit to Chase Terrace playing fields. I always knew I’d had enough for the day when I began to feel just a little bilious. Still, great days, David.
Cheers.
HI David
Do you remember the little shop by Ebenezer..I bought paraffin from there…was it a hardware shop? It was right on the road, opposite Collins Express Parcel depot and was demolished many years ago. Do you remember who made the fire-lighters, too? Somehing else that has gone..many years ago.
cheers
David
yes i do,Mr Powell,Vigo rd made them,he had a second hand timber yard next to the clay pit
Powells firelighters next to king steet walsall wood
cheers Jimmy
I think this turned out to be the most difficult question.. I think the yard was just across the road from the club..there was a strong paraffin smell to the yard..no wonder!
best wishes and thanks for the answer, kid
David
Hi Everyone,
Whew! just finished reading all the old memories of Walsall Wood.
Happy childhood days I spent there,but like my brother,David Oakley,
I, too left the village in 1951 and moved to Dudley,but visited my
family in Salters Road.quite often. After marrying in Dudley,my
husband and I moved South due to his employment.I am in regular
contact with David via e-mail.I live in Worthing,but am NOT a Southerner.Still a Midlander and proud of it!!!
HI Marion
welcome aboard! I wonder if you would kindly like to share some of your childhood skipping memories with everyone. Did you go to the Bluebell woods in springtime?
kind regards
David
Yes I slithered down the grassy bank to the bluebell wood on Chester Road where David, and our older sister pickedthe lovely scented blooms. Mum used 3x2lb jam jars for them, which were ceremoniously
placed on the kitchen windowsill.
Re. David’s mention of Mo Horton’s housr with the texts.Does he
recall scrumping crabapples there with others who had dared us to join in? I don’t think the local “Bobby” is still looking for us!!!
All for now folks,
Marion
Hi Everyone,
Must add that one child tried a crabapple, said they were horrible,so i
think we all gave up the idea and went home.
Did anyone go fishing for “tiddlers”at Jobern’s pools,or play “Tarzan”
by swinging from a tree in the Irish cemetery? Anyone remember Mr
Hayes the school attendance officer and children truanting would run
for cover if he was around? Remember the German P.O.W’s
building the prefabs in Vigo Road.?
That’s enough to get you all thinking!
Kind Regards,
Marion
HI Marion
many thanks ! Paddy’s graveyard! There were Italian POWS in Lynn during the war..I wonder where the German POWs were accommodated. Does anyone know?
kind regards
David
HI David and Marion
vague distant memories of an old chap with a pram and wind-up “trumpet”gramophone..he would push it to places.. and play records..would dance to the record for money..sort of Charlie Chaplin figure..as kids we laughed and took pennies to him. Does anyone know who he was or why he did this?
cheers
David
Hi David,
Yes, I well remember this old chap, 1930’s or 1940’s. Elderly, wiry always wore a bowler hat and pumps and looked very serious when performing, so much so, that we didn’t know when to laugh for fear of upsetting him. Strangely, one of his songs still lingers after all these years, it was called “Once aboard the lugger and the the girl is mine”. by Billy Merson. Used to appear in Salters Road
about every six months. Don’t know where he came from, or went. Hungry thirties, eh ?
Cheers,
David.
Pingback: The Irish question « BrownhillsBob's Brownhills Blog
HI David
many thanks..the street performer’s song;-
On the Good Ship Yacki Hicki Doo La, by BIlly Merson 1917
first line;-
I’m a bold bad villain, I roam the angry sea
Mudcat.org gives the full lyrics. What was the tune?
cheers
David
Hello Lynne, I can remember my father taking me to the showbiz 11 football match, as Tommy Steele ran on to the pitch my dad ask him if he would speak to me as I had just come out of Hospital, Tommy compleatly ignored us, so my father, well lets just say my dad suggested that tom had`nt got a father!
HI David
sad news..the Avion former cinema in Aldridge is being demolished and all its glorious memories may be lost for ever. For some while it had become a Bingo Hall..but even that has closed down some while ago. Which films do you remember most from your youth? …. Harpers buses..never left anybody at the bus stop!
cheers
David
No, it’s not. Some demolition work is being undertaken prior to it becoming a Wetherspoons. Generally, their conversions are sympathetic.
Surely, a developed building in use has to be better than an abandoned, decaying one?
Cheers
Bob
Hi David,
Your note regarding the Avion soon had the memories flooding back in, with one exception. Instead of a 74 year old building, ravaged by time and alternative use, I saw the old Avion, the super cinema, rising proudly in Anchor Road, Aldridge, with the cream glazed brick, relieved by the thin green bands, neon, of course, and the black base. With up aloft. in the centre of the building The super cinema, “Avion” soared, bedecked with green neon. With the leaded -light windows of the balcony lounge, giving further delight, a truly magnificent cinema.
The Avion was opened on 2.30 p,m. on Monday September 1938 by a no less a figure than the great George Formby. I was in school at the time , but I remembered quite well the tremendous excitement for this visit. Bigwigs were also prominent, for this was a very important occasion in the life of the associated villagers and nobody meant to miss a moment.
The film of the premiere was “I see Ice”, featuring George Formby, of course, But if you want to win a bet, and you are are asked to name the first film at the grand opening, say “Wallaby Jim of the Islands”, for this was shown to patrons before the great man appeared . Speechifying was by Dr. Drabble, Mayor of Walsall, son of Phil Drabble of BBC fame
The same year, being one of “the best in the class.” or because my poverty readily proclaimed itself, I was selected to to go to the Avion for a Christmas Treat, in which children within the catchment the of the Avion be invited to a free show at the Avion plus a “goodie bag” as the phrase is now, now, banana’s was still on the menu, World War 2 was stilll a “talking distance” away.
Between the ensuing war years I was grew up between the Avion benevolent guidance, The Avion posters were posted on the chip shop gable end, on Vigo corner. Impossilble to miss. The recipient, the owner of the chip shop, received a free pass for allowing this, Miss June Cope, a cash-starved local boy still remembers a tinge of envy, echoing through the the years as he remember this.
The films I have seen are endless at the Avion. throughout the war years. The “Gainsborough Lady, nodding and smiling with Margaret Lockwood, james Mason , Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding were also first class, while the I remember the first Errol Flynn and Olivia de Haviiland in “The Bandit of Sherwood Forest and the “Black Swan” also sticks in my memory.. I remember the first Sunday opening and the restrictions hereof. and the very first Sunday that I preferred the temporal “silver screen” to things more more spiritual and felt quite wicked, until those shimmering, green curtains opened and all was forgotten.
we were helped greatly through those war years by Harper’s buses. My route lay – Aldridge to Walsall Wood – but so did hundreds more!! My sincere thanks go out to other those Harper guys who, on enrolment to the Harper philsophy, gave this undertaking, “i will never, repeat, never, leave a passenger behind who shows the slightest inclination to board my bus”
I remember conductors on those old single-deckers hanging on for dear life, on the the exit rails, more out the bus than in, in order than not one passenger shall face a lonely walk home.
So the war dragged on and I became an adult. I still have memories of the Avion, however, such as where the double seats were located, “for patrons who liked to sit closely together” I wondered, mildly why groups of Shelfield kids would find our local “Wood” girls attractive as they prowled the aisles in search of partners. Didn’t occur to me then they they were seeing them for the first time, whereas familiarity breeds contempt and and so we were guilty of getting home-grown talent go to waste. Retrospectively, they where smashers.!
By this time I had taken a part-time, after-work job as assistant projectionist at the Palace cinema in Brookland Road, under my cousin, Malcolm Corfied, the cinema being closed for modernisation. By this time, Aldridge Cinema Ltd. who owned the Avion, had acquired the Dale at Willenhall and would, in turn, acquire The Palace in Walsall Wood.
I was sent to the Avion as additional help and what a change! Instead of the Kaylee projectors of hand-fed carbons which if you turned your back would go out, Resulting in a yell of “Put a penny in the light” from the irate patrons – and wonky mirror reflectors in the vigorous, loud scenes, in which you had to screen your projector like a frightened child, you come to utter perfect peace like the BHT Supa at the Avion. pure bliss!
My time at the Avion was extremely interesting, Live variety shows were very much in vogue and the Avion was built to accommodate these as it was buit with two dressing rooms, later, three, and limited stage facilities. Semprini visited, so did a young Des O’Connor, a musical comedy team, Dr. Crock and his Crackpots, a comedian, Leon (Shakespeare) Cortez, all first rate acts of their time, there was also local talent competitions and it opened my eyes to see such gifted entertainers just waiting for a chance. The Manager, Harry Russell, who for some years had been identified with the early years of the Regent, Brownhills and the Palace at Walsall Wood, was a great guy and ran a very happy ship at the Avion. Being a showman at heart, and observing
a donkey grazing in the rough herbage at the rear of the cinema, owned, I suspect by a Mr. Lovelock, the Aldridge “donkey man” , Harry calmly led the donkey up into the foyer of the cinema for a feed of toffee. Camera’s at the ready, of course. Rumour has it that the donkey turned up every week for its feed of toffee! but it did the trick and got valuable publicity for
Harry’s beloved Avion.
The Avion will always exist in my imagination.,just as it did nearly sixty years ago, the unusual beating of the Avion wings” Avion proudly present” its forthcoming attractions. It was generally supposed that the
airport down the road was perhaps responsible for its unique name, but
then, could an Odeon or a Clifton have generated such an affection all those years ago?
The Avion closed on 30th December 1967, the final films were “Follow me boys” starring Fred Mc Murray, supported by “The Wind in the Willows” so good, luck, Avion, in new your venture. If you bring half the
pleasure to people’s lives as you did as a cinema, your reconstruction will be well, worthwhile.
Cheers,
David.
HI Bob
good news, then! The Gatehouse in Lichfield is an excellent example.
cheers ( ! )
David
HI Bob
another pram-gramohone man and his wife reported to have entertained outside the Travellers rest every Sunday..late 1920s. He wore a gaberine mac and a cap…supposedly came from Walsall…I wonder if readers know of other such entertainers, not only in Walsall Wood but elsewhere.
cheers
David
HI David (Oakley)
many, many thanks for sharing your wonderful memories of the Days of the Avion with all the readers. Now I realise why the auditorium lights ” came up” gently at half-time..those double seats upstairs !
kind regards
David
HI David
I wonder how many people remember the little builders’ yard by the Wheel?
These good craftsmen built some fine houses…Daisy Bank Close , High Heath, being one of theirs. Can readers name them?
Two other local “builder partnerships” come to mind, one originally based in Coppice Road,I believe, and the other builders’ yard was near the Middle Oak.
I wonder if readers can name them?
kind regards
David
Hi chaps.
Lovely to follow this conversation. Thanks to all for sharing your memories and knowledge.
Builders yard up by the Middle? Edge and Haines (at least in my youth). They had an office in the central, sticky-out bit of Silver Court, over Jaygor DIY and the dentists, if I recall correctly.
As you were 🙂
Bob
THE BUILDERS BY THE WHEEL INN WERE GUNN AND SIVORN MY OLD MATE DAVE JONES WAS AN APPRENTICE CARPENTER FOR THEM WHEN WE CAME OUT OF OUR TIME WE WORKED TOGETHER AS SELF EMPLOYED CARPENTERS.
Hi David,
I do remember the Coppice Road builder, but cannot remember the name. If its the one I’m thinking of he took the strip of land next to the House of Prayer and set up operations immediately after the war, or thereabouts. the only other which I can bring to mind is Stan Jilling’s who I believe started up with his brothers, all skilled tradesmen, perhaps a little later on.
Not the best job in the world for the “bricklayer’s labourer”. with those heavy “pole ladders” and wooden scaffolding poles, to say nothing of the
constant cry for “more mortar” three “lifts” up. As a lot carried the the hods on
the head for greater stabiiity when climbing a ladder, a useful gadget shaped
like a doughnut, make out of the wive’s old lisle stocking was inserted between
the head and the cloth caps many wore. With “frost time” and “wet time deductions and a “Holiday Stamp” deduction made, in which stamps were
purchased from an outside source and “cashed in” at holiday time, there was no a lot left over at the end of the week. A landlord, looking to future profit would keep finished prices very low for the small builders.Happy days !!
Cheers,
David.
Hello David, I was just in the proccess of filling in part of our family tree and found your snippet of info regarding Stan Jillings, He was my uncle and he was married to Margaret. He had three brothers, Trevor, Harry, and Freddie. and a sister who was my mother Joyce. sadly they are now all deceased exept my uncle Trev.I remember as a child staying at my grandma`s house in castle road at her general store which was opposite the what i think they called the fox covey.. i have very fond memories of these time because i played outside most of the time with my cousins . i can always recall the smell of my gtrandma`s front room which was next to the shop and only seperated by a curtain. so the smell of washing powder etc etc was brilliant.
If only time could be reversed.
regards.
Flip.
Hi Flip,
So very nice to hear from you regarding an old Walsall Wood family.
I remember Trevor quite well, a little younger than myself, say 79 or something like that, I remember the shop, yes it was opposite the Fox Covey, which has had more than one mention on this blog. I remember all the sons being good building tradesmen and I’m sure they started up in business for themselves. Do you remember? There was a large common behind your grandma’s house, but that’s a large housing estate, now.
I left Walsall Wood some years ago and retired to Scarborough, so my memories are frozen in time. Looking at Google Earth was something of a shock. Not the old mining village as I remember. Bet that unique “shop smell” takes you instantly to your girlhood in Castle Road. Happy days !
Best Wishes,
David.
This may sound strange but I have only just found your posting referring to Stan Jillings. hope you or your family pick this up.
Margaret Jilling ( nee – Woodward ) is still alive.
My brother Ian Corbett is Married to Susan Jillings their daughter and I know they visit Margaret every week.
I have a basic build of the family tree Woodward / Jillings after Susan asked me to find more about her Dad’s side if the family.
I add to the blog on various things and spend many hours searching past happenings
Pease email me or phone – can put you in touch with Susan
Colin Corbett 01889 583595
hi i think the builders yard in coppice rd was pratt & newey both drove american chev’es one blue one yellow
I WAS AN APPRENTICE CARPENTER FOR PRATT AND NEWEY THE BUILDERS IN COPPICE ROAD ,LATE 1960s, THEY WERE GREAT TO WORK FOR BOTH EX CHIPPYS THEMSELVES BUILT A LARGE SITE OF HOUSES IN BURNTWOOD AND BUNGALOWS IN LONGDON, VERY HAPPY DAYS;;;
HI David
thanks for your comments…Another unpleasant job was the chimney sweep…I
wonder how many there were in the village and roundabout?
cheers, David
p.s. Pratt and Newey in Coppice Road ?
Hi David,
Pratt and Newey ? Of course !!
Regardlng chimney sweeps. I only remember one. A Mr. Cunnington from the top of Castle Road. He rode a bike and I can still see him returning from work with a bag of soot across the crossbar (always thought it was the same soot, incidentally, looked identical). In the poorer parts of the village, not your affluent side, David, we couldn’t afford sweeps, so a child was sent out to spy out the land. If he returned (like the dove out of the Ark) not carrying a leaf but something more important ” no washing out anywhere, Dad” the stage would be set for a “chimney afire “. With newspapers and magazines pushed halfway up the chimney and set light to, the resultant roar as the soot set alight. the flames licking around the chimney pot and the thick, black, smoke
billowing out was music to any child’s heart and was a “no brainer” to the alternative of waiting in a tiny group to see the bristles of a sweeps brush finally stick out the chimney of a wealthier neighbour.
Happy days,
David.
HI David
there was also the well-known local call;-
“Our Safia”
If you can find the 1920s aerial photo of Walsall Wood, on the local authity’s phot site, you may notice all the “weshing” pegged out…suggesting that the bi-plane flew over on a Monday. I think the site is called a clickintime, or something like that. Has some other good photos of Walsall Wood, too
Blackleading the kitchen range was an unwelcome but weekly chore we had to do to “help out” and getting the “biler gewin”
cheers
David
Hi David
I wonder how many pieces of wartime shrapnel were ” liberated” by the local youngsters at the time, and how many still exist? I know of one piece that was converted into a serviceable pencil sharpener..and used for many years!
I would imagine that there are some other interesting “artefacts” in quite a few homes!
cheers
David
HI Bob
a question I should have put in the quiz…..one for Google Earth fans everywhere;-
How many streets are there in Walsall Wood?
Good luck counting them!
David
Hi David,
How many streets are there in Walsall Wood ? E-e-e r- m
let me see. Why, FOUR, of course, same as in 1930’s.
High Street,
Camden Street,
King Street,
Queen Street.
Now one for you:-
Between 1878 and 1883 there was a chapel standing
in Beechtree Road on the right-hand corner of Queen Street, looking something like a “Tin tabernacle”. This was later converted iinto a shop,
owned by the Collins family, who later “writ themselves into History “( In my
opinion, anyway) by having a son, Alan Collins who played fullback for
The “Wood” in the First Round Proper of the F.A. Amateur Cup on 15th December 1951 against Walton and Hersham. Won’t tell you the result,
still too much pain. What was the Denomination of said chapel. ?
Cheers,
David.
Hi there david The collins family ; the shop was no 62 Beechtree road and was my nan and grandad and Alan is my uncle my moms twin brother , and was known as”cogger collins”
Hi Annie,
Nice to meet a niece of “Gogger” Collins through the blog. Great footballer, in the time when the Wood had a really good team. 1940’s / early 1950’s.. I remember the family quite well from those days, my aunt lived nearby in Beechtree Road. The football match I mentioned in the blog was the first and last time the Wood reached the first round proper of the F.A. Amateur cup, a tremendous achievement for a village team. Normal admission was tuppence paid at the gate, but for this cuptie an Official Programme price 3d was produced. Over 2000 spectators witnessed the match. I have one or two copies of this one-page programme, setting out
the teams and officials. photocopied, of course, just about possible to
make the names out, the stencil on the old Gestetner machine seem rather worn, but if your sons or grandson is interested in a little bit if “Collins football history” let me know and I’ll send you one.
Best wishes,
HI David
thanks for your note..I think there’s another street to add to your list!
And, a huge thanks for mentioning the little chapel in Beech Tree Road. I had searched everywhere ( up in the celler, down in the attic) to find a map with this chapel on it…don’t know the demonation. I wonder if readers can help here? This will add further confirmation of another piece of oral tradition, please. It would be super if any photos still exist of this piece of history!
The original name for Beech Tree Road was what, by the way? Local history booklets and census records are at odds here!
kind regards
David…………..( I won’t mention that football match then )
Hi David,
Oh, well, thought I was off to a flyer on the “Street” thingy, but will have to wait until someone forestalls me, that’s if I don’t think of it at 2.30, one morning !.
This chapel lumbered into my memory while thinking of Queen Street
earlier. It is not defined as a chapel on the 1901 O.S. for Walsall Wood although the outline is there. so I moved on in my clumsy way and managed to find it on British History Online more by luck than judgement.
As I know next to nothing about O.S. maps I can only give the reference, blindly copied :- England – Staffordshire 057 (SE O.S. 1: 10, 560 – Epoch 1
(18887)
The chapel is clearly marked “Chapel” On the same page is the
old Wesleyan chapel from over the bridge also clearly marked “Chapel”.
One curious anomaly, In the 1901 O.S. Beechtree Road is given the name Occupation Road, a “posh” name for the Cape, as I remember it, yet the earlier map gives “Beechtree” House” as a major building. Did the Road take its subsequent re-naming from the Doctor’s house ?
Cheers,
David.
HI David
Yes, it came as a surprise to me, too, to see that Beech Tree Road was originally Occupation Road… two roads of the same name at the same time?
The other street? Google Earth can show the names of streets if you set it up to do it.. This street was built after you had migrated north, I think.
Cheers
David
p.s. I wonder why The Cape was called that?
Renaming streets….
The chairman brought up the difficulty that was caused by three streets in Walsall Wood, being named New Street and two called Occupation Rd….Mr Roberts the surveyor would report to the next meeting with suggestions of names.
Jan 1902
The widening of Occupation Road..brought up 17th February 1899 at Brownhills Uban Council meeting…
Mr Read said there was a pressing need for this road to be widened as several accidents had happened there, one or two which had been fatal. The people of the district were willing that the land needed for the widening should be purchased, and Mr Roberts said that the price should be ascertained…Mr Southall agreed that the place was dangerous and said that the matter had been previously brought up and dropped. Mr Roberts said that they could not widen the road that night. They must first enquire to the price….
But which Occupation Road?
I should imagine that Beech Tree Road would be the one finally selected for road widening, as miners and brickyard workers came flooding in. Apparently from 1881 to 1891 the number of dwelling increased from 24 to 46, with 200 residents. Widening would be comparatively easy as the houses on the railway side were not built until the late 1930’s. The other Occupation Road (the Cape) was still a muddy unmade road in the 1930’s with very little through traffic through to Friezland Lane.
Pingback: Primitive worship « BrownhillsBob's Brownhills Blog
HI Bob and David
that there Tin Tabernacle at the corner of Beech Tree Road and King Street, then changed into a grocer’s shop, was subsequently owned by Mr Harrison, husband of Ruby Allsop, I have been reliably told. I hope that these names may help your readers ..perhaps to find a photo of the building before its demolition…and possibly help to contribute to this part of local history
Kind regards
David
Pingback: Meet me on the corner « BrownhillsBob's Brownhills Blog
Hi David
just noticed Flips reference to Jillings shop up the Castles! The name Castle Gate has been mentioned somewhere in the blog. I wonder if this refers to a construction , or an area from long time ago, or just used as a more modern house name?
cheers
David
Hi David,
Castle Road was always referred to as “up the castle’s” years ago, linking its connection to the old” Castle Old Fort ” of Iron Age and later Roman times, excavated by Robert Plot in the seventeenth century. Castlefort Estate carries the name. I’m pleased to say.
The area was bounded by farmland on the right, which included the Fox Covey, and Holly Bank Common on the left until a small development of private houses, built for rent, was erected in the late 1930’s. Flips granddaughter, Mrs Jillings opened a shop there, as the nearer shops were at Vigo corner, quite a distance away.
A little farther on, at its junction with Holly Lane, the common terminates and Castle Road becomes a narrow country road as pictured on one of your quiz photographs. It wa on this spot that the term “Castle Gate” originated. Whether the Old Fort had extensive grounds and this was just the entrance to the fortification, I do not know, .In later times this spot marked the boundary between “Walsall Foreign” and Lichfield and was connected in some way to Lichfield Poor Law legislation. So quite an important boundary in its own right.
Cheers,
David.
Hello, regarding above, should “Flips granddaughter” read “Flips grandmother” ?
HI David
Occupation Road (then BeechTree Road) was one road that changed dramatically in the ten years 1881 to 1891..from 24 dwellings to 46 and to 200 residents..mainly men, alomse entriely coal miners or brickyard workers( census;ancestry). But, no record on the census of any of the dwellings being a chapel. I hope readers may be able to solve the mystery of the denomination of the schoolroom/chapel !
kind regards
David
Hi David,
What a rapid influx. What surprises me is the quality of the buildings in Beechtree Road, No typical working-class terraces. The houses
must be the ones the ones that I remember, less than 50 years after construction. Sound semi-detached properties. The inferior properties were situated in King Street, probably been cleared long ago, but more typical of the type of housing that such an influx would bring, at the time.
Regarding the denomination of the “chapel” until more positive proof comes along we must all content ourselves with our own pet theories.
. My own particular one at the moment is that in 1825 “The vicar of Walsall was licensed to hold services in a schoolroom”, This would be labelled “chapel” as no proper church was not yet built. This building. from the same year 1825 also served as a schoolroom due to the efforts of the same Vicar. In 1845 a teachers house was built. If you look closely at the building
you will see that it is in two styles. In the forefront is the teacher’s house
The window where the goods are displayed has been converted from the
matching window on the other side, Chimney seems to serve the teachers house, only. The first side window matches the front window and can be described as “viewing windows”. The other three windows are at a higher level from floor level and have the smaller panes to minimise inattention..
There appears to be a similar doorway at the rear.to the classrooms.
“in 1859 a larger school with a teachers house was opened in Lichfield Road. The old school and teacher’s house were sold and the money applied
to the new buildings” The area was expanding rapidly, so what what be more natural than a shop ? The Roman Catholics appeared too late on the scene
1891 for their first appearence in Shelfield and enjoyed there own accommodation by 1893, much later than events in Beechtree Road..
The Road clan claim the honour of being the womb for the embroyo St Johns Parish Church by which the village of Walsall Wood has been known for such a long time. As for me, the only chapel on the site was the one erected all those years ago by the enlightened but determined Vicar of St. Matthews. Wasall.
cheers, ,
David.
HI David
thank you for your extensive and thorough notes…I have looked through 1881 census which does not appear to show any shopkeepers in Walsall Wood!..and certainly not in Occupation/Beech Tree Road.. However, your observation about the building being both school and teacher’s..there is a reference, entry 169 has Martin Coyne, aged 63 labourer, and his wife Catherine..both from County Mayo, and entry 169a…A Henry Cooper, his wife and large family of 6 children…Perhaps this shows the building being used as two homes in 1881?
kind regards
David
Hi David,
Just flying a few kites !! Your recent research certainly tightens things up, and it would appear unlikely that the initial transaction was schoolroom to shop, with the shop purchase somewhat later, perhaps nearer 1900. Extra domestic accommodation would be at a premium with the influx previously described, and “letting rooms” was still popular even in the 1930’s. Quite a roomy old place, anyway. Your last statement also challenges the bit of research I had done regarding….”there was a chapel of unknown denomination at the west end of Beechtree Road between at least 1878 and 1883″
The map reference to it appears to point us pack to the “chapel” of earlier times, so we could be back to the original schoolroom/chapel. of 1825. The terminology “at least” seems to suggest no more than a tenuous hold, or a period of uncertainty, regarding that particular phase of Walsall Wood history.
The census of 1881 defining the building as a dwelling house seems a much
more likely alternative.
Cheers,
David.
HI David
Martin Coyne; buried in the Irish Cemetery in Walsall Wood, 30 May 1889, aged 75.
And this (front) part of the building later converted into the shop in the photo?
cheers
David
Hi David,
Your research which gives a date and year of Martin Coyne being buried in the “Irish” cemetery at Walsall Wood is extremely interesting. I had considered this plot of land to be completely barren regarding internments, i saw no evidence myself and was beginning to understand the “Irish” as being purely colloquial to Walsall Wood humour of the time, although the plot was clearly divided from the rest of the cemetery.
My reasons for this was as follows:- “Roman Catholics by Act of 1601 were obliged to be baptized by the C. of E. and buried in the parish churchyard”. Even if Martin was a native Irishmen, the same condition would apply as at that time, 1814, emancipation was still a long way off for Irish Catholics so the rites would still be the same as in England.
By the inclosure award of 1876 the cemetery was built and was assigned as ” …”a burial ground for all denominations in Walsall Wood. Martin died two years after the cemetery was opened
A possible explanation could be obtained from Queen Street Cemetery, Walsall, which opened in 1857, nearly 20 years earler, Plots were divided up alphabetically, ABCDE and so on. First eight letters for C of E. Catholics followed the Nonconformists and were allocated N and M, So there was segregation of a kind. I wonder if the same attitude was prevalent at the time of the commencement of the Brookland Road cemetery and plans were made for a similar segregation, but in the timescale between beginning and
completion these plans were abrogated. Martin Coyne could be the one
who slipped through.
Cheers
David.
HI David
another shop, another “funny ossity” to solve. Next to the Ebenezer Methodist church in Lichfield Road, and opposite Brook Lane, there was a shop owned by Mr or Mrs Cater .There was also a Caters shop in the High Street Brownhills, too. Any connection? Were both shops ironmongers?
cheers
David
Hi David,
Yes, I remember Cater’s. A clean, bright little shop. They were ironmongers, and jobbing electricians, as I remember . The Brownhills branch
had many similarities in looks and style so a connection would be likely, although I have no actual knowledge of this.
Cheers,
David.
Not particularly to do with your area, but in some way related.
I was looking into the Witton Explosions at the armaments factories in 1870, close to where I was born. Witton Cemetery at that time, and still is I believe, divided into separate area for C of E, Catholics and Jews.
I think most of the unfortunate people were buried in the Cemetery, and during the burial service someone spoke out that one was a Catholic. This was in no way to prevent the burial in the wrong part, but to afford the person’s family the right to have their loved one buried along with members of their own faith.
The relatives quickly decided that person should be buried along with her friends and colleagues with which she had worked and died.
Sometimes I think the prejudices were more to do with the clergy that the working people.
Regards Peter
HI David
another one from the past..
Deepmoor Farm…!
cheers
David
Hi David,
Deepmoor Farm, eh,? Bet this is one already staked out in your research, somewhere, but I’ll have a go ! If I was Finding the Lady, I would have my sixpence hesitantly placed on the little farm
just below the old Wesleyan Chapel, below the canal bridge on the
Walsall Road, but mind the duckpond !
In a carefree attempt to kill two birds with one stone, and as both
are in the vicinity of the Jockey Meadows, could Jockey Row be a local
apellation for one of the little terraces that were built around that time? Fortune favours the brave !!
Cheers,
David.
HI David
I think Deepmoor Farm was another farm, not too far away,Goblins’ direction. Mr and Mrs Herdman were the dairy farmers in 1901. The farm is still going strong, I think, nut now has another name. I wonder why the change of name!
Jockey Row, a name that intrigues me, was a terrace of houses in Queen Street and my first thoughts , too,were to link it with the Horse and Jockey pub and Jockey Meadows! I bet there is a super story to unearth here, one day! Brownhills Bob has put an excellent article ” a Day at the Races” about Brownhills Races, which not only informs about those races, but, may help indirectly to reveal more about the Wood’s ” Three Jockeys!” ( Per Ardua ad Astra? )
Cheers,
David
Hi David,
Oh well, that’s my sixpence up the spout ! But strangely enough, I knew that little farm from years ago. Prosaicly
named “Dairy Farm” and quite near the Black Cock, and with a farmer “Mr Herdman” (You could’nt make it up !!) Yet I was at school with a Herdman in the 1930’s, so the family could still be in posession even then,
Regarding “Jockey Row” in Queen Street, If its the row of houses I’m thinking about, they were hovels in the 30’s so must have been very old, even then. But “Jockey Row” (not too far from Jockey meadow) and a very old pub like the Horse and Jockey.
Could set one thinking! Yes, I read, and very much enjoyed Bob’s
article on Browhills Races plus an older article I read when playing “catch up” with the blog,which I do from time to time. surprising how each fresh interest adds a further mine of information to the topic under discussion.
cheers
David.
HI David
I am trying to locate a “Yew Tree Inn” or “Yew Tree House”, which appears in 1911 census returns for Walsall Wood..with the name George Powell. I wonder if readers can help say where it was and whether this was a house or another of Walsall Wood’s inns, lost in the mists of time.
cheers
David
HI David,
Cannot recall a Yew Tree house or inn in Walsall Wood at that time.
The only “Powell” I can call to mind was a few doors away from Till’s the fruiterers in the High Street. Next door to the shop was a little business by a Mr Hitchen, who was the village postman in the ’20’s and 30;s. his wife was a Powell before marriage. Mr Powell lived next door with an unmarried daughter.Both ladies were teachers at the Church School.. Mr Powell was a rather cultured gentleman, as I remember.
Cheers,
David.
I see a Yew Tree House in Streethay 27 Jne 1913.
A Yew Tree Inn at Norton Canes for sale 14th Aug !903, and a Yew Tree football team in 1907. Quite a few other mentions.
Regards Pedro
Hi David
one from the “long ago” drawer….Apart from Oak Park’s crown green there was at least one other bowling green in Walsall Wood…. I understand.
Cheers
David
hi dave ,i recall wasall wood working mens club had a bowling at the back,Brian
Hi David
many thanks for the info on Mr Powell. Yew Tree House,listed as Lichfield Road, was, in fact in the HIgh Street !. Bob’s article “you could buy anything at all there” shows it and its Yew Tree in the front garden ! Census 1911 is a one-off! I wonder when the roads’ names were officially changed..and when the word got back to Census officials!
cheers
David
Hi Bob
The Horse and Jockey pub in Walsall Wood has been mentioned in quite a few articles but I wonder what the original pub looked like..and if there are any photos of the building..which boasted its own bowling green up until at least the 1920s…a regular Saturday venue for local participants, I believe.
kind regards
David
One up to you, David ! I was a regular in the “Jockey” in the 1950’s, when it was kept by Horace Stringer. Great nights ! But I was unaware of the extra facility that a thoughtful landlord had provided all those years ago.
I remember Horace,also his daughter,never of bowling green as the field at the back was boggy
HI David
A special official open-top Land Rover, once used by the Queen when inspecting troops on parade was at that pub in 1986. I bet there’s another story behind that, too! I wonder if it is in the Rover museum at Gaydon nowadays
kind regards
David.
Hi David
found! A photo of the original Horse and Jockey public house..in Oakparkrunners blog article “Walsall Wood old and new”…. the photo shows what appear to be tethering rails outside the pub, and weighing scales by the front door…!
cheers
David
Hi David,
Got it ! Thanks. Much as I remember it from years ago. can’t remember the tethering rails, remisicient of a Wild West saloon ! the weighing scales, yes, I remember those, penny a go ! Many chemists shops had them outside, but not many pubs
Cheers,
David.
A bit of info from the old papers concerning the Horse and Jockey.
June 1900…Occasional license granted to sell at the Catholic Sports, for Thomas Allan.
July 1901….inquest held into a drowning fatality.
Feb 1902…..Dinner in the Prince Albert Lodge Room for the Oddfellows.
July 1902….9th Annual Catholic Sports held.
June 1903…water to be pumped from the cellar, complaint to the District Council.
July 1909….Bowling match recorded.
Feb 1910…..at the Annual License meeting it was said that it had several it had been reported that rabbit coursing and pigeon shooting went on in connection with this house. It was suggested that it should be minimised as much as possible. The representatives claimed that it had been greatly reduced.
Mar 1912….For Sale as part of the estate of William Jackson.
Oct 1935…. Details of a Bagatelle team.
Feb 1939….Application by Ind Coope and Allsop to re-built, differed as it had been on other occasions.
HI Pedro
many thanks… another super glimpse into local history thanks to your diligence
Oddfellows, Buffalos..I wonder what these good associations were..and where the rest of the annual sports were held!
kind regards
David
From the Tamworth Herald July 1870
Reports the Oddfellows’ Anniversay and dinner at the rear of the Old Red Lion, Tamworth.
The Chairman hoped he would see one day when all orders; Druids, Odd Fellows, Freemasons, Foresters and others would unite together and form one vast bulwark against democracy, on the one hand, and aristocracy and monarchy on the other.
(I thought they were Friendly Societies!)
HI Pedro
many thanks..again! I think the Foresters had a lodge..or even a tree house..in Cannock at one time. Your list certainly conjures up all kinds of images! Kind regards,
David
HI Bob
another pub. and another bowling green in Walsall Wood…and, yes, a well, sadly all now long gone..but where?
cheers
David
Hi Bob
the family name “Jackson” appears a few times;Horse and Jockey owned by William Jackson 1912, Royal Exchange owned by Mary Jackson in 1850. Intriguingly a Charles Jackson was a “heavy chainmaker” in 1850..I wonder where this was and if anything remains of this part of Walsall Wood’s pre-coalmine history. Can readers help, please?
cheers
David
Hi David,
Nothing in the Archives, but this may be of interest from White”s Directory 1834, where Walsall Wood and Sheffield are described as being mainly inhabited by nailers and chainmakers. They are termed as villages in the Foreign of Walsall.
Sheffield…
John Harrison nail mfr
Henry Whitehouse Blacksmith
Robert Ball Four Crosses
Henry Homer chain mfr
Joseph bates fmr
Sl Harrison fmr
Jas Keeling fmr
W Wood…
Josiah Skidmore gent
James Smart schmstr
John Stephens canal agnt
Edward Stubbs Gent (and Walsall)
John Rock The Boot
Sarah Stokes Horse and Jockey
Thomas Stokes Red Lion
John Latham Board Beer house
John Wigley Black Lion Beer House
Richard Jackson King William Beer House
Jacksons…Chas, Saml, Thos, Wm, Wm Jnr….Chainmakers
Edmund Arblaster, Ann L Harrison, William Taylor and Edward Twist all farmers.
Hope that can keep you going for a bit!
HI Pedro
many many thanks;-.The Horse and Jockey, Boot, Red Lion..much older than I thought! I wonder where the three Beer Houses were. Some super info ..much appreciated. James Smart ( good choice!)would be the chap in the School House in Beech Tree Road/Kind Street, perhaps.
cheers
david
Hi David,
Came across this while trying to find info about Norton Hall, 5 May 1899 LM
It was stated that children belonging to the Sheffield school had recently been admitted to the Walsall Wood School, while there were children living near the schools for whom there was no room. It was pointed out that it would not be fair to admit children already attending at Sheffield and refuse the others for want of accommodation. It was decided to ascertain what children had been admitted.
Walsall wood school is not mentioned, any idea what it might be called?
There are Watling, Central, Sheffield and Ogley Hay.
Regards Peter
And Brownhills infants!
At this point in time (1899) it seems that Walsall Wood and Sheffield, Ogley Hay, Brownhills, Central and Watling street Schools come under the Norton-under-Cannock (U.D.) School Board
St. Johns was the major Walsall Wood School. There was what we know as ‘Streets Corner’: Walsall Wood School. If it was called something different previously, I’m not sure.
Cheers
Bob
HI BOb and pedro
got me scratching my head..perhaps Walsall Wood Country Primary School was the name for Streets Corner School, or Walsall Wood (County) Junior School..the area was part of Cannock Chase district of Staffordshire for quite a while….thats if the Streets Corner scholl had opened in 1899
cheers
David
should read County Primary/ Junior School..just been watching Spain and Italy..haven’t calmed down yet..sorted my arthritis out though!..for a while.
David
Walsall Wood Junior and Infants School, Brownhills Road, opened in 1903 British History on Line; Walsall Wood education
David
I noted that in the problems of 1899 it was said that either an enlarging of the present school or the building of a new school, whatever it was called, should, should take place. Perhaps this was the start of the idea!
Feb 1903 LM
Central Schools Brownhills…
The B’hills and Walsall Wood Choral Class (Conductor Mr CW Fredricks) will give their first CONCERT at the above schools…
tickets 1s, 2s reserved obtained….or Mr P Nevill, Craddock House B’hills
HI Pedro
I understand that children born south of the canal in Walsall Wood still had to attend Shelfield JMI school … as late as the 1920s, 30s .
David
HI Pedro
Walsall Wood JMI schol, opened in 1903,and more classrooms were added later..I think the stone shows 1911 or 1912 date..possibly three extra classrooms. Not sure it this was to form secondary school provision at that time.
David
HI Bob
the secondary modern schol at Streets Corner was another place where you would see pre-fabs ,post WW2..They were the five(?) extra prefabricated and very cold classrooms that were added to the campus. One was the lair of a memorable Welshman.There’s lovely!
David
Localish Quiz, came across this advert from March 1831 Staffs Advertiser. Any suggestions as to where it may have been?
A powerful brick Windmill for sale, with newly erected Dwelliing House and garden attached. The aforesaid mill is in good repair and in full work, drives two pair of large French stones, and dressing machines, and is excellently situated at pleasant village between Wolverhampton and Wednesbury, one mile from each place, the Wyrley and Essington canal passing close to the mill.
HI Bob
one from the “very old ” drawer. Where was the “Snail Bank ” in Walsall Wood?
David
Hello Pedro, there is a mill listed on the link below, very same discription, as the news paper report.
http://blackcountryhistory.org/collections/getrecord/WOHER_MBL1103/
Clive
Thanks Clive,
That’s the one!
HI Bob
“Snail Bank” was one of only two houses in Halls Lane shown in the 1841 census and a William Clewes, aged 43, his wife Sarah and five others lived in this cottage. He was a collier. I think a reader had enquired about him some time ago. (Just Imagine how the house name would have been pronouced!
cheers
David
Hi first time on here, born 1948 in clayhanger, then friezland lane, does anyone remember Mr Salt who sold fruit & veg from his horse &cart or theknife grinder who pushed what looked like an upside down bike in a trolley ( wow trolleys they were good, Dave
Hi there,are you the david watts who was mates with macca miller streets corner school 1960 to 64.
YEP thats me mac & i were good mates
Here again Dave,nice to here from you ,i can recall some other class mates from days gone bye,brian gee,ken gough, john pincher,phil taylor, wendy ferguson,chris smith,rita parsons,and many more but age defers the memory.can you remember our last teacher name in the 4 year,he fancied the art teacher,and mrs bird.cheers
Hello Dave
if you search “developing an edge” you may find some interesting information on the knife grinder, and also searching “a fold on the map” will give other local information . Cheers, David….What do you remember about Mr Salt and his cart..would love to know more,….please !
HI Bob
looking at the photo at the top of the quiz…I wonder if readers can say what feature was just behind the camerman, and to his left…a feature that has been lost in recent times. There were a few of them at one time!
regards
David
HI Bob and David
Smith’s and Jones’, the grocers and the butchers in Salters Road.Which one was the “wooden hut”?
regards
David
HI David
another one from the ” long ago ” drawer…….part of the village referred to as
“PIgs Nooke”… but where?
regards
David
does anyone remember the little red shop along salters road, run by jimmy pierce, you could buy anything there, regards Dave
hi there,yes i can remember pierce,s shop on the corner by rudducks the coalman,barbara rudduck was my girlfriend when we were at school,we used to meet on the common before the houses built.good days.
I rember Barbara, she lived in commonside, her dad had an outside buildin at home with a loft, we went there once, it was a treasure trove, i remember Babs showing us a large wicker basket & we discovered som feather quil pens, first time i had ever seen them, I must know you Brian
lived nextdoor to postoffice in the high street,moved to poxon rd castlefort est 1960,went to streets corner 60 to 64.ring any bells
i can remember colin evans of beechtree road,his sister used to be friends with my sister. i saw him in the early 70s,he was carpet fitting.dont know if it helps.Brian
hi Brian Colin is still fitting carpets, i was in same class as Colin, Ken Allen, malcom miller, wendy ferguson, john pinchers, my last teacher was Graham Simms the pe teacher, do you remember Daddy Hammer the gardening teacher Jack fade headmaster fanny hill Mrs sharp (french teacher) long while ago know, but sorry can’t put a face to your name, regards Dave (nipper)
Dave,Iwas in the same class,used to go up the fox covey with john pincher and philip taylor and smoke our heads of every night, i remember the gardening hut at the back of the school and daddy hamer,,mr simms is the one i couldnt think of.i was the only one in our class who he caned,it was in one of the pre fab buildings at the back of the main school,opposite the metalwork room .I remember them all now,and taffy jones,do you remember kenny cooper,we lived nextdoor to each other,alan ward used to live opposite wernicks,does that help,.Brian
Would you remember killer who was my teacher,as i remember,your mention of teachers,bring back memories
Hi Philip,Do you mean killer Langford maths teacher
Brian,you got it,had a few wacks by Mr Langford,but admit, a good teacher,landedup on walking sticks,from what i wastold
HI Bob
1841 census shows “Pig Nook” with five homes..Edwards,56,shoemaker;Wittacker,72,labourer;William head,boatman;Bolton,collier,William Arblaster,collier and is listed after “Pepper Alley” and after “Goblins Pit” entries.Suggests it was between the Coppy Woods(Goblins Pit ) and Mob Lane area .The name is not mentioned in any subsequent census returns.
cheers
David
HI Bob
correction..should read “Pigs Nook”, 1841 census entry.
David
HI Bob
Trevor Brown, Australian correspondant and keen cyclist, kindly idenitifed the sand hole near the Shire Oak school’s Lichfield Road entrance. The top photo is very near to another sand hole, in Castle Road, a deep hole, in fact. There was another one locally..but where was it?
cheers
David
HI Bob
a phrase which may bring a few memories among locals, and may be quite baffling to others, is the wonderful “On the Box”…What did it mean?
The background and history is amazing in itself! (Cue Pedro and Tutherun?)
cheers
David
The first thing that comes to mind is being on the telly.
But the the telly may be something that someone on the box may watch!
Oddfellows!
Regards Pedro
Hi Dave.the term on the box when i was a kid meant you was off work sick,am i right.Brian.
Hi David
Love Apples from Jersey. Lynn’s grandfather bought some of the first shipment to arrive in Walsall Wood, early 1900s..Put cream on them. Still smiled at this years later when he told me. We call them tomatoes!
cheers
David
Ok, well this is a serious question! I have asked it on a few other forums, and it has caused quite a stir. I have not, as yet, been able to obtain a good enough answer to really get one over the trouble and strife, who comes up from Somerset. When posted it on a Brummie forum it seemed to depend on whether you came from North or South Brum.
Right, I used to go to a Pub called the Barley Mow, but there are hundreds with the same name, so it don’t matter which.
The wife insists that the Mow is pronounced as in “to mow the lawn”, but I have always know it to be pronounced as in “cow” or in the Staffs town called “Mow Cop”.
Now, surely, followers of a Brownhills Black Country Blog would all come up with the same answer!
Yours in anticipation Pedro.
HI Pedro
How brown was the cow in the Barley Mow? Mow Cop( an escarpment north of Stoke on Trent ) and its famous Camp Meetings from many years ago..one to look up and enjoy! For my maternal grandma, from Silverdale, rook, book and look all rhymed with boot. Grandfather’s Hedgefud vocab included cunner, wunner and shunner. They had good nairbers in the Wood. So theer.Oroite?
David
Thanks David I will be repeating the rhyme for some time.
My late mucker and I set off from Mow Cop on the Staffordshire Way in August of 1999. Over 100 miles by our walking. Marvellous views, only to be surpassed by the next climb to The Cloud.
Best wishes Pedro
HI Bob
some local roads seem to be named after people. I wonder who these people were…
Middleton, Howdle, Daws, Deakin, Sally Ward, Fullelove, Paterson…for example. There are other examples..who were these people?
cheers
David
Organist for the Mount Zion Church, G Fullelove Jne 1909 onwards…
In 1883 Thomas Fullelove of Glascote did not have a licence for the pig he bought
HI Bob
Tandems were very popular among the local youth pre-war, I have been told. I wonder if readers have any photos of these engineering marvels ..and of the cycling clubs’. outings from those days…
regards
David
Which war David?
Several correspondents who have written on the question as to whether the use of the tandem is dying out, or to point out that two singles are not only more speedy, but easier to store and handle, but cost about a third less than it is possible to get a tandem built for. Others that two singles ensure a more even distribution of work. Judging from this it would seem that the spirit of the tandem idea is defineately dying out.
Bath Chronicle April 1907
Can’t find a Walsall Wood club, but there was a Brownhills West Cycle Club who had an enjoyable run to Sutton Park on Sat last, via Stonnall, Mill Green, Little Aston and Four Oaks.
5 May 1911, Lichfield Mercury.
Walsall Wood club,has gone,was in Salters Rd
Considerable interest was manifested in a cycle race between Harry Heath of Pelsall, and Herbert Thacker of Brownhills, who met on the Birmingham Road last Saturday, to decide a 500 yard match.
A large number of spectators assembled, and betting was brisk, both sides being confident. Heath who was conceding 10 yards start to his opponent, was made favourite at the commencement, but before the men got off their marks odds of 10 to 8 were offered on Thacker.
Both men looked in the pink of condition when they mounted their machines. A perfect start was effected both getting off together. The front man maintained his lead for the first 200 yards, when Heath appeared to gain ground, but Thacker, riding strongly, increased the lead towards the finish, and won easily by about 8 yards.
7 Oct 1910, Lichfield Mercury.
(not sure by 10 to 8 is quoted instead of 5 to 4)
Hi Pedro
many thanks for your kind notes..I had in mind the 1930s ..I will try to find out more about Mr Thacker
David
HI Pedro
regarding the cycle race. At least it was not for “pumps and breeches” as another local Race of the Brownhills’ 40+ some years before this!. I think Herbet Thacker lived in Wilkin Road, Brownhills West, was 19 years old, lived with his widowed mother and his two brothers…and was a pony driver in a local coalmine. He was a local lad, born and bred. His opponent was, I think, a Harry Heath, a 23 year old Yorkshire “migrant” coal miner – hewer, from Clay Cross, who had married a local girl and they had a young child. They shared their home with Harry’s brother, a fellow Yorkshireman. Harry may have lived in HIgh Street Brownhills, in fact. I wonder if the distance was that from the Station Hotel to the Anchor pub?..the Birmingham Road?
regards
David
Great, their race not only made the local press but is talked about 100 years in the future!
Regards Pedro
Hi Bob
In the 1930s the Chester Road from Brownhills area to Birmingham’s growing industries in Aston (IMI?) saw local cyclist and motorcyclist workers on their way to and from work. I wonder if readers may have some photos of these two-wheeled wonders …and their riders….and would like to share them .
David
Hi Bob
peashooters,catapults…but what were “fire-cans”? Can any readers please help?
David
HI Brian
“On the box” did mean you were off work,..and I think that many years ago when a coalminer was not fit to work he drew money from”the Box”..a miners social fund into which each miner paid a weeky (small) amount to help those fellow miners and their families. At least, this is what I understand it to have been, originally. In the old doctor’s surgery in Beech Tree Road there was a board with numbered wooden tiles..I think this may have been connected to this “SocialBox”, but I am not sure. All of this pre-dates the NHS by many many years, but the term “on the box” is still used locally. I wonder if readers can give a fuller more detailed history of this term, please
cheers
David
I think you are right David. From recent reading I would understand the Box to be kept by the Friendly Society, or Trades Union.
Regards Pedro
Hi David,
“On the box” was a local term and literally meant “drawing money from the box, or case, of the treasurer as a paid up member of a local friendly society as sickness benefit, instead of from an employer who would normally pay no wages at such times.
Friendly societies were quite informal in those early days and could be composed of small groups or larger groups depending on the distinctive trades in certain areas, but all demanded full compliance of subscription rules in order to remain “in benefit”. Weekly meeting were generally held in a local pub, with the treasurer attending with his “box”.
A “Sick note” was required from the local physician who would charge 6d for this service. This note would then be retained by the treasurer against the sick payment received. Death benefit was also payable.
The smaller societies faded away as the Welfare state came into being, but the larger societies are even now well established such as the Oddfellows who were pub-based, initially, but now have Oddfellow Halls.
Perhaps the most interesting of the local friendly societies was the
Independent Order of Rechabites, a friendly society founded by Methodists to counteract the effect on men’s health and financial situation by the pub-based societies . Each member had to “sign the pledge” to abstain from alcohol during his membership of the Order. Walsall Wood had its own “tent” as its meeting-place was called.
The “numbered wooden tiles” at Beechtree Road Surgery evokes memories. This was a large surgery which included Shelfield in its catchment area and a 100 patients in the waiting room was about the norm. Keeping watch on “Whose turn it was” led to many arguments which would often percolate through to the consulting rooms with the result that the doctor’s decided on a more orderly arrangement, hence the numbered tiles. A patient would take the next number available on entry to the surgery and replace it on another board before seeing the doctor. This seemed to work well for a while, but patients forgetting to replace the tile and taking it home, gradually created havoc with the arrangement. New tiles with newly chalked numbers
would make up the early deficit, but it soon became remiscient of a bingo parlour with patients calling out numbers which were missing from the board !
Cheers,
David.
I think that we need to get these Friendly Societies in perspective and I am drawn to something I read in the book “The Origins of British Industrial Relations” by Keith Burgess…
“Employer-sponsored and dominated Friendly Societies, dispensing insurance benefits in case of accident, sickness and old age were also used as agents of social control. The Lancashire and Cheshire Permanent Relief Society, established in 1872, was particularly unpopular amongst rank and file. It was governed by an executive of 24 members, 23 of whom were coal owners…”
Regards Pedro
My thanks to Pedro for highlighting the other perspective of Friendly Societies as agents for social control. Employers would be deeply suspicious of a body of workmen sitting around a pub table actively discussing ways to ameliorate the suffering cause by the harsh conditions of employment. The full title of the
Tolpuddle Martyrs was “Friendly Society of Agriculture Labourers” and although the Combination Acts of 1825 took away the fear of transportation for combining, employers were determined that the fearful bonds which held the workman to his master should not be weakened only under their own
auspices, regarding terms and conditions, hence the need for “The Lancashire and Cheshire Permanent Relief Society, and although the title
sounds philanthropic, one hat would probably cover the altruistic coal owners present.
As friendly society membership was completely voluntary, applicants needing sponsors in some cases, I wonder if membership of the Lancashire and Cheshire, etc., was a condition of employment by the coal owners. With so much unpopularity among the rank and file, I should imagine it would be.
Regards David.
Thanks David,
Something for me to bear in mind during my inquires.
Best wishes Peter
Hi Dave,can you remember blakemores garage opposite the hawthorn pub,it had an arch with a clock on ,we lived by the postoffice,and watched the sunset over the arch on a summer night,magic,Brian
Hi Brian,
I can remember more than Blakemore’s garage, I remember you as a baby and knew your Mom and Dad very well. Your sister Phyllis was girl friend to one of my younger brothers and was at our house most nights.
Couldn’t get near the settee for those two young buggers!!
I am 81 now and live in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, and although I can forget where I put my glasses two minutes after taking them off. Things and people from Walsall Wood are still etched clearly in my memory even from
seventy years ago, so Harry Cooke’s hardware shop (he was a wizard at mending bikes) and Billy Wollaston the barber will never be forgotten. Billy could have a shop full of customers but when his daughter brought his tea down, he would retire to the little partition at the back of his shop and wouldn’t emerge for twenty minutes, despite the ribald comments from the waiting customers.
So pleased to have met you through the blog, Brian. With a name like Jones, you’d have no difficulty settling down in Wales.
Sincere best wishes,
David.
hi brian do you remember me colin gould lived 2 doors down next to the hawthorn pub i think you had a brother and moved to poxon rd
well hi there Colin,nice to here from you.let me get this right,Colin.Barry.Wendy,i forgot the other members of the family,did you move to the corner house in oak road.funny really i was in walsall wood in august and i stopped outside the old corner shop where the coalyard used to be and thought how much it had changed,tell use what you been doing and where are you now.Brian
HI Brian and David
Blakemores garage was remembered as the Faircliffe builders yard..had an arch with a gate,curved glass in the building windows. Jones family lived next door to Whitby family, my source has informed me. What is known about Fa(i)rcliffe builders.. a firm that seems to have been forgotten..may pre-date Blakemore’s involvement there, I wonder? The building stood where todays St Johns Medical centre is situated, on the High Street, Walsall Wood.
regards
David
Hi Dave,everything seems to be falling into place,ive got the names michael and ira floating about in my head,also salters road ,vigo corner,am i on the right track. i had 4 sisters,Phyllis Doreen Mavis and Irene, we lived nextdoor to the Males,Jack Male worked at the brickyard his wife Marg used help out in one of the shops on the high street,Where one of your brothers mates with one of mine i had 2 Tom and Trevor.You have really started my memory rolling,cant wait to hear your reply,but i know its going to be good.Brian
Hi Brian,
Yes, you’re quite right. Michael was the youngest, born 1946, he lives in Shelfield. Ira was born in 1940, married a Mormon lady missionary and emigrated to Utah, USA for about twenty years, he came back to the UK six or seven years ago with his wife and daughters and now lives in Merthyr
Tydfil. As I left the village in the early 1950’s while they were both quite young, I do not know who their mates were so I have put birth dates in so you can match them up with with Tom and Trevor’s age group. I remember
Jack Male, he had red hair in his younger days and played football for the Wood from the 1940’s, when the Wood had a really great team. A powerful and talented halfback. Those were nice well-built houses, where you lived, with little gardens at the front if I remember right, backing on to the doctor’s in Beechtree Road. Do you remember Albert Macquires orchard?, it was next door to Ecobs on the corner of Beechtree Road. His wife was a midwife. She probably brought some of your brothers and sisters into the world.
Dave.
Hi David . I read with interest of Albert Magquires orchard, I lived in the house that was Nurse Magquires from 1950 to 1971 and remember most things I have read about ” The Wood” . I also remember Beech tree roads many children, the Thomas’s, Evans, Llewelyn s, Davis s, Godfrey, Paget, Adkins , Cooper and many names that may come to me at a later date.
Dave,i knew it was going to be good,i recall the orchard with the big wall on the corner of beechtree by the bridge,and the horses pulling the coal barges along the canal towpath.the dates you gave,ira was trevors age ,michael was toms age,is the salters road vigo corner bit right,Theres so much more,but it will take for ever, like looking in all the bushes along the canal and the railway track picking up all the pop bottles and takeing them back to higgs;es paper shop to get the 4d of each one.Another entry in the diary of life.Brian.
Hi Brian,
Yes, you’ve got the locality right. Salters Road and the Vigo corner.
Quite a bit of traffic on the canal in those days. Fourpence for a pop bottle ??
We used to get a penny in my day, but at any rate, you still remember pre- decimalisation days, so if I said seven pounds thirteen and fourpence ha’penny, you’d know what I meant. Don’t know how long youve been gone, but you wouldn’t recognise the little pit village you left .There are many old photos in the blog and Oak Park Runners Blog that are well worth looking at.
Yes, I remember the top school, perhaps it was called that because it was the senior school or because it was quite an uphill walk to it for you “bottom enders” of the village.
Cheers.
HI David
a cup of tea and chat with a dear old friend..she mentioned being a member of the Rechabites..her mom paid 4d per week and could draw 10shillings per week. She walked from Walsall Wood to a building near the Council House in Brownhills to take the weekly membership fees..could not afford the busfare…
hard times, the 1920s and 30s.
regards
David
Hi David,
So pleased that you have located a former Rechabites member with memories of the old subscription of 4d per week. I was surprised at the journey to Brownhills, as in the 1930’s I remember the first bungalow past the Church School on the Lichfield Road, having a Rechabite secretary’s plate at the front of the house. I think the man’s name was Hall.
Your message set me thinking of all the benefit societies around at that time, some quite tiny and insignificant, but all of paramount importance to subscribing individuals in times of health problems, some so sparsely funded that a levy of a shilling or so was made on the death of a member and the treasurer’s tiny salary was met by an annual levy of sixpence or so on all active members.
Some made great commercial strides and became national institutions, such as the Ideal Benefit Society, once described as “England’s pioneer social security system” and the “Hearts of Oak Benefit Society”
Others such as the Royal Andedeluvian Order of Buffaloes whilst originating in 1822 at the Harp Tavern near Drury Lane Theatre, London,
to provide financial assistance for out- of work actors, had an Sick and Funeral Fund in 1870, the subscription was 3/- a quarter, benefits being
6/- a week a week for 12 weeks for sickness, £7 for a members death and
£3, 10s for a wife’s death. The Order built the Orphanage at Aldridge in 1905
for the benefit of deceased members children. The Order became more
philanthropic over the years and have raised millions of pounds for charitable causes. Walsall Wood had two Buffalo Lodges at one time.
There was also the Loyal and Ancient Order of Moose, quite popular in the Thirties, there was also a cork club in Walsall, where the members were obliged to carry a cork at all times. Any member could challenge another to produce his cork, providing he could produce his own. A corkless member would pay a small fine which would increase the revenue of the little club,
All good fun, but those pennies, cheerfully given, could provide a lifeline for a sick member trying to feed his children in those tough and often, very brutal, days.
Regards,
David
HI David
yet again, another gem from your goodself. Thanks a million! My grandfather was amember and collector, if that is the correct word, for the hearts of Oak after he retired from working down the Coppy Pit…all pre-nationalisation and pre-NHS days. The corkers especially is a lovely paragraph. I wonder if any constable was a member…imagination on overdrive, now!
cheers
David
Hearts of Oak Medical Association, Lichfield District Annual dinner at the Bridge Tavern
…Mr Boston said he was pleased to say that he belonged to two of the largest and best Friendly Societies, the Hearts of Oak and the Oddfellows. He particularly advised young men to be aware of those dividing societies which promised benefits for which the contributions paid would not allow…
LM 25 Feb 1910
Hi David,
I think that a Mr. Dunning was a collector in our part of the village in the ’30’s. Not so tall, I think he smoked a pipe and had a distinctive hair style.
I can visualise seeing his house with the “Hearts of Oak” plaque but cannot remember where it was. Apparently there is a Cork Club in Birmingham,
wonder it it sprang from such humble beginnings as the one mentioned,
Sorry to hear that the former “rechabite ” bungalow is boarded up. A prime
property at one time. Any chance of “moseying up” to see if the Rechabite
plate is still in situ ??
cheers,
David.
HI David
sounds like the same chap.”.In God we Trust “article shows him.. and I wrote about him in the article “Harpers, hairbrushes and sucky fish”…his miner’s cottage is still standing. He was my grandfather .
cheers
David
Can anyone remember streets corner school being called the top school
Hi Brian,i do remember Walsall Wood Secondry Moden,being called it as it was the only one opposite Salters rd
HI David
no plaque on the bungalow now..there may have been one (two nails) but perhaps not long enough for any staining of the brickwork. What would the plaque have looked like? There is some brass plaque on the wall of the HawthornTree Inn photo circa 1930 ..lost beer houses article..Litherland family wedding group. Would it have been like that one? I wonder why the bungalow became empty and why it still is so, after so many years?
cheers
David
Hi Dave,not been back to the wood for a long while, used to be self employed h g v driver only used the main roads.ive seen the new church entrance,and the old st johns school boarded up.going back to see friends in oldbury before christmas,so im going to have a ride through the wood on the way home and see what its like.i’ll let you know how it is,Im still trying to find out who the other doctor was ,the surgery in beechtree road had 4 doctors,Roberts,Lillywhite,Dingley,who was the other one? Brian.
Was it Dr Williams, perhaps?
Dr Williams,Thanks Hilary,you have made my day,i shall sleep like a log tonight.Was this in your era,if so,lets here more,thanks Brian.
HI Brian
I think Dr Williams was the Welsh doctor..smoked..kept his stethoscope in a freezer!
cheers
David
HI Bob
slack, raikers,lumps nutty slack. Dry bread. monthly allowance. Can readers help to identify to what these words refer, please.
cheers
David
Hi David, i remember my Dad banking up the coal fire with ‘slack’. i think it was like tiny coal bits/dust and it kept the fire burning longer……i think. i also remember the huge slack heaps [like small black mountains to a child] running along side Coppice Road, where the Maybrook site is now. We used to go and play in Coppice woods, but were warned ‘woe betide yer if ye play on them slack heaps’ lol Were raikers used to get the fire started? The only thing i know about ‘dry bread’ is my mom making the best bread pudding i ever tasted with it lol
I think the miners got a monthly allowance of coal. best wishes Caz
Remember Gerald Nabarro the conservative MP? From Hansard his question to the Minister of Fuel and Power 1953 concerning “nutty slack!”
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1953/feb/16/nutty-slack
Hi David,
The response from “young caz” took me back a few years, to the
old coal fires of distant, but still clear memory. “Slack” was the by-product of
breaking large down larger lumps. When the coal hammer was sounding too
vigorously from the coalhouse, a warning yell would proceed from the direction
of the house, ” Watch what yer doin’, yo’ll ‘ave it all slek”. Certain types of coal
would crumble to slack at first touch, which were tiny fragments of coal, only
good for “banking up” a fire or feeding the copper fire on washdays. Slack was often swept into a corner of the coalhouse and often supplemented by moist tea leaves from the tea pot to keep it nice and damp, “Tater pillings” where also used to bulk it out a bit, in the Vigo, anyway.
Raikers were large lumps of coal, the harder, the better, for a slow burn was
needed, placed on top of the dying embers in the grate at bedtime, generally by
the householder, who in reply to his spouses sleepy query, “Have you raked the fire?” from the depths of the bed, would reply meekly “Yes, dear”. The raiker would be then be surrounded by moist slack, leaving sufficient space for air. Next morning, the kitchen would be nice and warm, the partly-burned raiker would be broken up, and a cheerful fire resulting.
Lumps were often handy size coal which could be put on at any time for
a long-lasting fire. Care was often needed in positioning them as a burning lump of coal rolling across the carpet was not unknown.
Nutty slack was, I think, a by-product of new coal-cutting machinery which was coming into mining and was dimension-wise, between a cobble of coal and coarse slack,
Monthly allowance was indeed the miners free allocation of coal, and could often be seen in the roadway, after delivery, before being taken up into the house.
“Drybread” was the name given to Aldridge Colliery, symbolic of the poor wages paid. Some of my mates father’s were employed there in the thirties.
Finally, Bread pudding, made from the household stale bread. Yum, Yum !
Oh David, thank you very much……’young Caz’ lol Yes,I remember my Mom putting the peelings on the fire too and Dad doing something at night so the fire would keep going through the night. As a child/teenager i took for granted, Dad getting up early to clean out the ashes, and make sure a roaring fire was there for us to get up to. The rest of the house was absolutely freezing though…..you could see your own breath coming out. And Dad would be making toast for breakfast on the open fire too.We nearly scared the life out of him once though, because he went to get a shovel of coal from the coal store under the stairs, early one morning and the life size Guy we’d made for bonfire night was propped up in there,and it fell on top of him lol
Don’t know about the copper fire on washdays, but i do remember coming home from school one day, to find mom crying over her ‘new’ washer, [the mangle had been relegated to the garden]. She had put Dad’s trousers in the wash without checking the pockets and the agitator in the washer had turned his weeks wages into a mushy pulp. she’d only realised what it was by the silver strands floating in the water. When Dad came home from work, he sucked the water through a tube and syphoned it off through a flour seive and all the bits of what looked like paper mache and silver bits were laid out in front of the coal fire on baking trays etc to dry out. it was sent away to the Bank of England and they got back £21,which was only about £1 short. The good old days eh
best wishes Caz…….who’s wishing she was ‘young’ again lol
Hi Caz and David,
Yes, those early washers were a bit destructive with clothing, bet your mom was glad that the financial loss was kept to a minimum. Regarding the “guy”, we all made our own guys in those days, the bonfire was not complete without one. Remember those penny masks? I can still remember what they smelt like when you put one on. Yes, as David Evans states, the early Council houses were equipped with coal-fired boilers to do the washing, We lived in one. The boiler was a large cast-iron one, mounted on a concrete dais, at the side of the blackleaded grate, its flu fed into the main chimney, being a ugly thing, it was often screened by a long curtain. Most families lived in the kitchen, then. Being a large family, in the winter we had a clothes- line or two strung out from wall-to wall to dry the numerous wet garments. When these were fully employed with wet washing,shielding the glow from the 40 watt single lamp, there was barely light to read your comic, without the disconcerting movement of the line when a taller person was moving about. The boiler was great at Christmas, though, and would boil up to five Christmas puddings, all complete with pudding-cloths. at one go.
Nothing was wasted in those days. I remember that we kept a little cupboard for worn-out shoes, These were taken out, periodically, and filled with wet slack, put at the back of the flire, the slack would dry out and you would have a coal brickette surmounted by leather whicj burned wonderfully well.
“The good old days”, yes, Caz, they certainly were to us kids,
Poor?, Deprived ? Certainly, by today’s standards, But I wouldn’t change
my childhood experiences for what’s on offer today.
Kind regards, David.
HI David
I imagine that many readers won’t know what the “copper” was”.
cheers
David
Hi Pedro
as, fond memories of NAB … and that young secretary of his.
David
NAB 1, but who was driving the Daimler?
Regards Pedro
HI Caz
I have looked and found an image…Google “Victorian Wash house”..flickr 6065540454 shows a blackleaded firegate in a brew/washouse and by the side, encased in brick is the /copper/boiler with its round wooden lid. This boiler had its own fire and its own chimney.This all had to filled, the fire lit, and eventually you got hot water..Then all the washing would be done by hand with a dolly, scrubbing board, paddle, mangle. Even 1930s council houses in Walsall Wood had these features built in the kitchens! The flat-irons would be heated on the range! On wet days the washing would be hung on a rack over the grate to dry or placed over a “horse” around the grate.
kind regards
David
Hi Bob
from old Walsall Wood vocabulary..but what do they mean;-
“stint”, “round the Wrekin”,”put the Kyebosh on it”.?
kind regards
David
Hi David,Stint was when you had no money,round the Wrekin was,you was looking for someone or something and got nowhere,Put the Kyebosh on it means,things go wrong.Its a shame these saying are dissapering fast
Hi, my Dad and his sister (the Portmans) were born and bred in Walsall Wood, so I challenged them both to complete your quizzes over Christmas, (great fun) they have both done very well but we are totally baffled on a couple of questions, I’m hoping you can help them out:
Where was the winding house?
Which major river is up the Common?
Which event in the 1700’s is in a street name?
What was the Saddletank?
Thank you in anticipation!!!
Vicky
Hi Vicky
my kind regards to your Dad and his sister, please.The “Winding House” was a brick building that had the winding gear in it..it was in the Coppy Pit yard near the Pithead and the 1600 foot deep shaft.( I think this building is still there) Perhaps your father visited it when the electric engine replaced the steam engine there in 1955? Trevor in Oz gave the question about the source of which major river being up the common. The Tame. One local history site claims the Vigo got its name from the naval battle of Vigo..Perhaps! ( there’s an article about this somewhere in the blog)..but we call this part of the village “The Vigo” !
and “the Saddletank” was one of the type of the locos that pulled the coal wagons from the coalmine. I think there are photos of them in the blog
Perhaps your Dad and sister have some good quiz questions they would like to add…please!
cheers, and I hope you all enjoyed the quizes.
David
Thank you David, they have spent many hours trying to solve the puzzles but have enjoyed every minute, it’s brought back some great memories for them. Will look forward to no.3 quiz !!
Hi Vicky,
Glad you mentioned the family name. Was your aunt the Clara Portman who
lived on Lichfield Road, near the playing fields? (Little girl with a fringe?) She was at school with my younger sister, Marion (who is 80 this year), Don’t remember your father,
who was perhaps a little younger. Nice to hear from some of the pre-war Walsall Woodians.
Sincere regards to both.
as regards the Virgo,a old servay map,dating 1890 i think, on one of BrownhillsBob pages,showed,Virgo was a farm,Who owed the farm,before the brick works?
ha ha one more, what was the name of Selwyn Smith’s pony please!!!
HI Vicky
was it Strawberry? And the names of two Italian ice-cream merchants who plied the roads in the village…? P……; D………..
And the old chestnut. ..after a few brews…How much were the fourpenny wafers?
cheers
David
Pelari and Diccico
Hi, i am very interested in the conversation regarding a Mr Simpson and the cinema in walsall Wood. My Grandfather was an Enoch Simpson of Brownhills and i remember walking up the steps of the cinema as a child. The Cinema had closed then and i never went in it. But it woulld be nice to find out if it is the same Mr Simpson who also had a garage in Brownhills. Can you help. Regards Lynne
I think you you will find that it is the same Enoch Simpson. According to reports, Mr. Simpson owned a garage in Brownhills, before purchasing the Palace from Miles Jervis in the late 1920’s or thereabouts. The Jervis family owned other cinemas in the vicinity,
at one time, including The Regent at Brownhills, one at Heath Hayes and another at
Sankey’s Corner. Enoch had three sons and a daughter, Enoch, Edgar and Ernest and
daughter Edith.
For purposes of identification, ‘old Enoch’ bought the Palace, but was suceeded
by ‘young Enoch ‘ in running the Palace after his father’s death, before selling out to
the Aldridge Cinema Company, who owned the Avion.
I remember ‘old Enoch’ sitting in the cramped little paybox at the Palace, issuing
tickets, the first paybox was to the left of the entrance, later moved to a central position.
Tickets were 2d on the ‘pig benches’ as we called them, (1d for children) a series of
rough wooden benches, about six feet from the screen. Stalls were 4d, (green plus seats)
Behind the stall seats were two small steps, partitioned off, with a velvet cord protecting
the entrance. with about three rows of seats in red plush. Here you could sit in splendour
for just 6d. There was one show a night at first, later extended to two. Shows were
non-continuous, which meant that if you missed the first bit – too bad !
Enoch never remained to the end of the programme. Allowing a small amount of time for latecomers, the paybox light was switched off and the ticket egress blocked, and Enoch with his carpet-bag would be off to his Brownhills home, with the night’s takings.
Enoch Simpson’s right- hand man at the Palace was young Harry Russell, who rose from that position to become the General Manager at the Avion, introducing Variety with
live acts, even skiffle groups and other musicians who become very well known in the
boom for that kind of music in the ‘sixties’.
Interesting reading these various comments.
As a young lad I spent time in Walsall Wood my Grandfather was Sid Taylor and my Grandmother was Daisy the lived in Stewarts Road.Sid drank in the ‘Brickies’ and Daisy was a barmaid at ‘Charlies’ .Fred Huckle had the newsagents and remember doing a paper round at Claytons in the mid 70’s
Remember your family quite well, Dave. Three sons, Robert, Joby and John. Your Nan had black hair and had a very distinctive hair style which I remember very well. The sons would all be into the 80’s now, but if any are still around – Best wishes from an old Salters Road guy.
Hi David,have you any info on the bungalow next door to st johns school lichfield road.i can remember the lady giving us sweets at playtime cant remember her name she used to shop in the coop on the wood corner.thanks Brian.
Hi David my mum is marvelous she`s just getting over a mild stroke but was so interested in all the comments on this site about old Walsall Wood and I thought you might like to hear about when she went to the church school in 1924 : There were 2 or 3 houses before the school 1 was Mrs Langford was in 1 of them she used to make the tea and coffee for the teachers break and 2 of the children had the honour each day of fetching it , the teachers were Mr Gardener [ the headmaster ] he lived in the school house ,Miss Chapman Miss Chema [ she was too handy with the cane and 1 girl Polly Pratt hit her back with it and was expelled this girl was later to become the window cleaner for many years around Walsall wood and Brownhills ] also Mr Boot the childrens names she can remember were Phillis Bourn , ? Loverock , Aurther Wadey , Billy Topp, Jack Lester, Ethel Cooper , Jack & Amy Blakemore , Amy & Miriam Dillany Harry & Ken Webb , Joe Blackmore, at 11 she went to the school on streets cornerwere Mr Morris was Maths teacher they called him Moggy 4 eyes because he seemed to have eyes in the back of his head and could always tell who was not paying attention even while writing on the board also Mr Adams [ English ] Miss Orme , Miss Guntripp , [ who later married George Bradbury ] ,Miss Crosley [cooking and taught us how to make polish and scouring powder ] and MissTrubshaw what a memory she`s got , she also told of a boy and his sister who drowned in the canal by the Blackcock Bridge one Christmas eve their mother was Pauline Corbett their gran lived in Camden st the girl fell in and the boy tried to save her they were aged 4 and 6 , she remembers the water mill opposite the coop corner that pumped water from the railway when it flooded because of the brook there was a half house there that the Jones`s lived in and next door was a double fronted house were Penns lived she thinks they belonged to the railway . the children who lived over the bridge had to go to Shelfield school , some more names she`s remembered from school are Madge Cund ,Billy Cherry,Frankie Corbett ,Douglas Walker ,May Merrick , Iris Griffiths, Alice Ditchfield , Lena Hawthorn , and Ernie Arrowsmith ,she asks if anyone remembers Mr Latham the Dentist`s over the bridge he later went to Brownhills he needed to pull one of mums wisdom teeth he started in the shop and ended in the back yard nearly breaking her jaw the root had tangled around her jaw she never went anywhere near him again .[ I don`t blame her ] regards to all x Lynne
HI Lynne
lovely to hear from you and to read your mum’s memories. My thanks and kind regards to you both!
David
Hello! I am a Corfield. My family was from Ivy House, Muckley Corner. My father was John William, his Dad was John and his Mum was Florence Broadhurst Corfield.
They immigrated to Canada in the early 20’s and settled in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
I am interested in learning more about my family.
Mike Pinder, who was a founding member of the Moody Blues band & original keyboardist for them is a friend. He is from Brown Hills & we used to laugh about being cousins. He used to sit on his Dad’s lap at the pub there and they would play “Roll Out the Barrel”.
I hope to come visit some day soon.
Hello to all of the Corfield Family!
Theres been mention of the rechabite bungalow ,cant remember where it was.
Hi Brian I am from walsall wood Diane Codrington nee Roberts from Beech tree rd. We were at school together. Didn’t you live near Mr. Morgan. In reply to your question it depends which side bungalow, if looking at front of school on the right I think her name was miss Knowles not sure of spelling. She did the most amazing needlework, you couldn’t tell front from back. She was a friend of moms and gave me her wooden writing chest which I still have.
HI DIANE,I remember you very well along with a few more class mates ,we lived next door to the post office on the high street ,I live in Dolgellau west wales now took early retirement in 2007,I believe the old school has gone ,i last saw it many years ago and it was boarded up then,i can just remember some of the teachers the headmaster smoked a pipe mrs Beasely was class 1 mr Till was class 3,if your still in the area you would notice all the changes,i love to here from old school mates ,keep in touch Brian.
Hi Brian
Kept in touch with the blog and noted your pleasure when you found an old school friend. I was on the phone to Matthew, my granddaughter’s partner, the other day, he lives Moxley area, but works in Wolverhampton. He had a workmate who lives in Salters Road, many years ago, John Pincher. I had a long chat with him as I knew the family very well. Reading some of your old blogs, a john Pincher is mentioned two or three times as an old mate of yours, is it the same chap?. He had an uncle we used to call; ‘Blossom’. If it is the same old mate, I may be able to arrange a contact, although he isn.t on the blog, it would have to be by phone or email.
cheers.
Pingback: Front Teeth Root Canal In Crabapple
In an early volume of the Black Country magazine an article referred to the early days of Chasetown, and stated that it used to be known as “Little Tipton.” The name being used as a nearby colliery employed men from Tipton.
As anyone ever come across this before?
I think you mean the labour club on salters Road the wmc was on the Lichfield Road
Does any one remember the cess pit with pump house,by the horse and jockey,spurrals,it had a steel rail around,and the top was open,any one could fall in,or the club at the bottom of Queen St,or scrap yard by the 2 bridges,corner of Queen st,Boatmans Ln
forgot,who knows bulldog,what is it?
The club on salters Road was the labour club not the workman’s club that was where fitness first is on Lichfield Road
Hi Shaun,just to add to your comment,the same club,also had a Youth Club,and a fair,,,that came once a year,and erected its rides on the club ground.i tryed to join the youth club,but could not take any more youngters
Who drove the colliery locomotives?
Who worked the colliery winding gear?
Are there any photographs, please
I’m roger Evans. Son of billy and floss Evans who had the paper shop in Walsall wood. Does anyone remember rollingsons garrage down past the travelers rest. Where I was born. I was the one with rollingsons son who set fire to his dads house boat and sank it at the basin at brickyard road
Hi Roger ,i lived in the high street then poxon road ,the paper shop used to be owned by Beals when i had a paper round i think they moved to Aldrdge that was back in the 60s.Was that the old travelers rest pub? Brian.
Salters rd WMC was on the other side to the shops where the newer house were built as you look at them it was to the left side nearer the older built houses x
Hi can anyone remember the Dolrick club on wilkin rd its now a nursing home
Hello Amelia
I think you will find that New Wood Grove , along Salters Road, occupies the site of the former Salters Road Labour Club…..which was an extended bungalow building, famous for its air rfle shooting team, and Councillor Fereday
Walsall Wood Working Mens CLub “, the top club “, was on Lichfield Road ..presently a car sales..near Streets Corner
kind regards
David
Hi, have enjoyed the memories of walsall wood. I asked for update on my grandfather Mr Simpson with regard to cinema in walsall wood. thank you. I was born in Druids walk 1954 and have many memories of sliding down railway embankment behind cemetary in carboard boxes and running wild up the fox covey brilliant times.My father Ron Fennell was a very good marksman I believe.