The old foundry units on Lindon Road, in the process of demolition in the early 1990s. Image courtesy of Brownhills George, posted on Panoramio.
On Lindon Road, just in the no man’s land between Brownhills and Walsall Wood, there’s a close of newbuild housing between Catshill canal junction and the road, called Chandlers Keep – I believe this to have been built around 1990-1992.
Reader Matthew Godridge contacted me at the weekend to ask if I had any photos of what existed on the site of Chandlers Keep before the housing was built. I hadn’t any of my own, but that wonderful treasury of images posted by Brownhills George contained a fair few, so I’ve made a gallery out of them for Matthew – see the foot of this post.
You can go and have a look at George’s remarkable collection here.
Chandler\s Keep and Catshill Junction: once a hive of industry. Imagery from Bing! Maps.
What existed on the site of Chandlers Keep was actually a collection of businesses in a variety of rambling units and outbuildings; Raden Engineering was there for a good few years, and accident repair business Autocraft was in the large 1930s unit. There was an earthmoving equipment hire company there in the 1980s; and also a boatbuilders called Don Marine.
The 1884 Ordnance Survey mapping records a house here called Lindale Hose, but it’s not clear if any remnant of that survived into living memory; in later editions, a smithy and foundry were marked on the same spot.
Lindale House only seems to be marked on the 1884 mapping – this selection of 1:10,000 scale draft is from the National Library of Scotland Archive. Click for a larger version.
By the canal where the narrows are was a small brick hut called a Tonnage House where boats were gauged and tolled for weight.
If anyone has anything to add to this, I’d be glad to hear it; I’m sure there’s some history I’ve missed. Comment here, or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Cheers.
