Wow – an 1887 account balance sheet from St. Thomas’s Mission Church. Image supplied by Eryl and Lesley Powell of Watling Street School.

It’s often the case that when discussing one topic here on the Brownhills Blog, it leads to an interesting discussion going off at a tangent, and so it has with the subject of the Watling Street School Walsall Observer article from 1931.

Eryl and Lesley Powell contacted me after showing great interest in the piece. Lesley is, of course, the Headmistress of Watling Street, where Eryl also teaches. It seem that in the course of roof renovations a couple of years ago, the above document – an account balance sheet covering the year 1886-1887 from St. Thomas’s Mission Church – was found in the roof of the school, and they’ve kindly sent me a photo.

It’s interesting to speculate how the sheet came to be there; were there close links between St. Thomas’s and the school in years gone by? They were, of course, just over The Parade from each other until the church’s demolition in the early 70s.

Thanks to Eryl and Leslie for sharing. I know they’ve been a great help to fellow local history blogger Mike Stackhouse too – which is lovely to see, and very generous of them. I love this communal history thing we’re all involved in. If anyone is good with old handwriting (I’m hopeless with it!) please do have a go at transcribing it.

Please comment here, or mail BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks!

St. Thomas’s Mission Church, which was opposite Watling Street School. From ‘Memories of Old Brownhills’ by Clarice Mayo & Geoff Harrington.