Whilst mooching through the aerial photography so kindly supplied by Gareth Thomas of Lichfield District Council, today I spotted something I should have twigged before. The whole question of Silver Court and it’s extension was under our noses the whole time.

The aerial image of Brownhills in 1963 actually covers Silver Court in the truncated edition – and also New Street (not New Road), which we found on the map from 1962.

Silver Court, symmetrical, with land cleared to the northwest in 1963. Later, it would be extended by a further four units. Note New Street, too, now a footpath, but then linking High Street to Warren Place. Click for a larger version. From imagery donated by Gareth Thomas and Lichfield District Council.

This comes from this larger image, which will be of interest to students of Clayhanger and its flooding. Note by now, Walsall Wood Colliery was using the old mineral line as a roadway to access The Spot and the rear of Jones’ Pool for spreading spoil. I think this was part of the wind-down of the pit.

Brownhills central, June 1963. Note what’s going on around Clayhanger, too. Imagery donated by Gareth Thomas and Lichfield District Council.

At the same time, quiz dynamo Tony Jakeman asked me on Facebook if I could overlay the old Chasewater imagery from the 1976 series onto the modern landscape. Challenge accepted.

There is some distortion in the area around Anglesey Basin I can’t correct: like many transparencies do, I suspect this one has distorted a little in storage.

Lichfield Council December 1976 aerial of the south shore of Chasewater overlaid on current Google Earth imagery. Click for a larger version.

Naturally, I’ve made a downloadable Google Earth overlay for the above, which you can play with at your leisure. For instructions how to use it, see this post.

Download Chasewater South aerial overlay 13 megabytes

It’s amazing what a casual conversation on Facebook can make you remember…