I’m interested in pursuing a few stories for the blog. I’m attempting to research them, but I’m hitting brick walls, and wonder if you, the readers, can help at all? If you can, comment on this post or mail BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. You will, of course, be credited for any information you provide, as well as developing the warm and rosy glow that only comes from the preservation of obscure local history!
If the Edditer from The Bloxidge Tallygraph is reading this, please throw me a bone if you know anything. I suspect you know a fair bit about these things…
- On maps of Brownhills of the late Victorian era (say, c1880 to c1925) there is a building on Barracks Lane marked as ‘Isolation Hospital Brownhills U.D.C.’. I suspect the building is actually now (or was on the site of) the white house just past the brow of the hill. Do you know more about it? Search engines have drawn a blank. Anyone have a name or partial history with which to go archive dredging?
- On Coppice Lane (perhaps Engine Lane) there were two houses; one named ‘Coombe House’ the other ‘The Coppice’ which were enclosed by Birch Coppice. By the time I was old enough to understand much about them they were long gone. Someone told me that the ruins we wandered through as kids were the remains of the garden of Coombe House – we used to call it ‘Doctor Bradford’s Garden’ and were under the impression that the Hussey Estate had roads named after the local doctors who practised from Coombe House <mumble> years before (Wallace? Albion?). Is this true, partially true or total cobblers? Google has given me nothing except a Paranormal Investigation team and their uniformative mention of the site.
- Does anyone have a picture of the gardens – complete with railings – that used to exist in the centre of the Hussey Estate?
- Staying on Coppice Lane, the old Chapel on the corner, now dwellings. I seem to remember a preacher there – Mr. Smith I think – in the mid 70’s. Who was he, what’s the story of the Chapel (what was its name?) and what denomination was it?
- There are tales told of a streaker running down Brownhills High Street at the height of the 1970’s streaking craze. I have heard he was a driver for Taylor’s Transport and did it for a bet. Did the incident occur, if so, when? Just who was our nekkid freind and can he be contacted? I can’t delve the newspaper archives without a date to go on…
- Was there really once a gents hairdresser operating from a shed/cabin behind Marie James’ fish shop?
- Also in the 70’s, a freight train carrying some kind of munitions or explosives is said to have derailed between Pelsall Road and High Bridges. The incident was apparently quite serious. Did it happen? When? What’s the full story?
- Daisies Field used to be the wasteland beyond the cemetery at the end of Barnets Lane. Who was Diasy?
If you can help, you’d be assured a place in heaven. Thanks.