walsall Wood from the air to the southwest, looking northeast up the Lichfield Road to Shire Oak and beyond. Note the Shire Oak Brewery chimney at the top of the hill. Image diligently hunted down and donated by David Evans. Click to marvel at the full size version.
Here’s a quick one while I’m a bit tied up with other stuff. This image was featured here in various forms before, but never at this size or clarity. David Evans, reader and contributor extraordinaire, has spent no little time hunting down a good copy for all to marvel at.
David Said:
Hello Bob
This is a complete, in focus, intact scan of my 1926 aerial photo for your readers to enjoy sometime.
Please if you can, put this on the blog. It is just as good as the original photo… And you can clearly see the Fold in Friezland Lane, the cot in Brownhills Road, Bulls Head Yard, Higgs bungalow (there’s one for the locals!), the tennis courts behind the church and another tennis court (which belonged to a well-known person), a couple of local bakeries, a blacksmiths forge or two, the railway staion in all its glory, just a clip of the Bloodtub, a snooker room, the Royal Exchange fold ,the newly extended school near Streets Corner, a certain thatched cottage, the Rookery, the windpump, the back to backs in Brownhills Road, Lovers Lane and much more!
I am so grateful to a certain kind artist whose own meticulous computer records have saved this photo for everyone to enjoy .
My grandma lived in Brownhills Road and locally we talked of ’round the Cape’.
The common there was orignally common grazing. I wonder if there is a drover connection, and also possibly then with Friezland Lane’s Fold, which first showed as an enclosure on the common.
kind regards
David