Brownhills Gazette October 1990 issue 13 – A huge issue at 24 pages, with a very strong campaigning lead, that still resonates today. This shows the decay in Brownhills started earlier than commonly held. Please click for a larger version.

Continuing the scans of the Brownhills Gazette – I present issue 13 of the long lost freesheet, from October 1990 for you to peruse and download. I’ve had an incredible response to featuring these long, lost publications here on the blog.

David Evans, very kindly granted access to the archive held by former editor and contributor Brian Stringer, has been assiduously and conscientiously scanning them all. Every single issue. Every few days, I’m going to feature the next in the series.

This issue is a real cracker – there’s a very strong lead story with an edge that still resonates. It’s clear that by 1990 the rot on the High Street had already set in, and the neglect of public spaces like Ravens Court and Silver Court was a major issue – most issues were fixed after this campaign by locals led by the Gazette; this was a paper that could actually get things done.

Brian Stringer was a brilliant editor who still knows his stuff, and campaigns relentlessly for the place he loves. Brian was clearly working hard and getting into his stride here.

Note the point about Richard Shepherd still holds true, too.

In other articles, a couple of great letters, a group photo from the lost Streets Corner Day Centre, more about the revamp of Silver Court Gardens, a great archive article and a lovely poem by Are Reg.

The history of how the Brownhills Gazette came to exist has been detailed in this post thanks to the wonderful John Sylvester.

If other bloggers want to use this material, can you please drop me a line first? I don’t mind, there’s just sone stuff I’d like to clear about the usage, thanks.

Cheers to Brian and David for sharing a wonderful thing, that’s part of our community history.

If you have any memories, questions or observations please do comment or mail me – BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com.

Brownhills Gazette issue 13 October 1990 – PDF format