Lichfield Road, Great Charles Street and lower High Street 19th June 1952. Note the Station Hotel, remains of the brewery and canal wharf bottom right. Holland Park, bottom left, seems to have been partially created. Click for a larger version. Image generously supplied by Gerald Reece.
The wonderfully generous and knowledgable Sir Gerald of Reece recently sent me some scans of aerial images dating from 1948-52, taken of Brownhills and and stored on transparency, which I feature here today.
They are quite, quite remarkable.
I first saw them at Gerald’s last talk in Brownhills in 2012, when he had prints of them in an album; I mentioned them to him recently and he was good enough to dropbox me some scans. They’re every bit as wonderful as I remembered.
I shan’t waffle on, but note the remains of the Roberts Brewery and the wharf behind; a very undeveloped Shire Oak – is that The Fold visible? Claynager’s Spot is flooded and Anglesey Wharf looks busy.
Once again, thanks to Gerald. Piece by piece, we are building a fine record of our history – and you can come and hear another great talk by the man himself at the end of November.
These images are huge, so please be patient. It’s taken me over two hours to upload them.
Shire Oak and Walsall Wood Colliery (The Coppy Pit) on 27th March 1948. Clay hanger bottom central; not no Shire Oak School, and the Saddler Road estate yet to be built. Click for a larger version. Image generously supplied by Gerald Reece.
Brownhills Central, common and the Whitehorse Road estate 27th March 1948. The Hussey Estate is bottom right, lower corner of Chasewater and the Nine-Foot bottom left. Centre right Ogley Hay. Click for a larger version. Image generously supplied by Gerald Reece.