After my post earlier today featuring picture of the Brownhills Canal Rally in May, 1975, regular reader David Edwards contacted me via Facebook to say that he had a newspaper article relating to the event in question, which he’d scan and send me. David also contributed a picture taken from the now demolished Waine House, which stood near to Catshill Junction featured in the same article. It overlooks the yard mentioned in the last picture in the ‘On the cut’ set. This image, taken in 1983, shows the yard now fairly empty – the plant hire had closed, but the factories on the left were still operating, as was the car body repairer, Autocraft.
I thank David for his time and generosity in these wonderful contributions to The Brownhills Blog. If you have anything you feel may be of interest, no matter how trivial, please do get in touch. BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com, Bob Brownhills on Facebook or @brownhillsbob on twitter. Cheers.
I love the real look of the period these people posses - it's a fun picture, and the guy smoking the pipe in the background is fantastic. The picture is hand-dated 'May 16th, 1975'. David says the kids are, in order, Eddie Hayes, Gareth Edwards (David's brother) and Graham Hayes.
A fascinating image, taken from the now demolished Waine House in 1983. Raden Engineering, latterly Don Marine, was the collection of dark workshops on the extreme left. Autocraft Accident Repair in the tall building, centre. Watney Plant Hire used the yard that now stands empty to the right - it had previously been filled with earth moving gear and made a great playground. Linden Road, running central to top, hasn't changed much but in the distance stands Riley's Newsagents on the corner of Clayhanger Road, demolished and replaced by flats.
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That photo of the old foundry and Lindon Road is fantastic – it’s how i remember the area when i close my eyes.
I remember walking through the foundry yard to get to the canal with my Dad (often off for a quick dog walk) and hearing the crunch of crushed pieces of slag and clinker underfoot. I can even remember the sooty smell. Jam jars full of sticklebacks and water snails. Excitingly peeping through Dad’s polarized sunglasses at a big carp or pike cruising the waterways.
The sun seemed to shine almost all year – eternal summers of childhood and all that.
Bought my first racy magazine at Riley’s too (he shamefully admitted) – it was a copy of Escort, bought with sunglasses on a very deep fake casual voice. Oh the joys of being 13!
Seems like an odd thing to do, but i’m printing this out on the wide format printer at work as a poster…i want to look at it every day 🙂