I know there was a a scrapyard here for a while, but was there a tyre storage facility too? Imagery from Bing! Maps.
I’ve had this enquiry in for a few days now, and I’m curious – please, if anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them. I don’t recall any such facility in Chasetown (one assumes at the LCP), but it was never my territory in those days.
Jenny France wrote:
Hello Bob
I was wondering if you have any recollection of a large fire at a tyre storage facility at Smithy’s, the dump Chasetown/Chase Terrace in the early 70s.
I belive the facility was operated by goodyear but im not certain I recall it being quite an event at the time but I can find no reference to it anywhere now.
Regards
Jenny France
Thanks to Jenny for a really great question. Can you help please folks? Comment here, or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Cheers.
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re the dump following the end of world war two and the begining the clearance of the area around where the old wembley workshop stood lots of wwar time waste was deposited in hangers around the area hence the name the dump it was listed by the emergency services as a high risk place so mutch so if a call was sounded of problems several brigades would turn out imeadiatly when its use ceased the hangers were used by the tyre companies to store their tyres you can still see traces of the old warehouses on the buisness park opposite morrisons i believe one ore two are being demolished at present another memory lane going
Goodyear had extensive new tyre storage, which later moved to Marchington, the fire as I recall was in casings stored for remoulding, which was a possible joint operation with, Goodyear/Vaculug and the then Tyre disposals ltd., ask John Jones if he is still around, he would know, while I am about it, rgards to John.
We were still living at Pear Tree Lane, at the time of the fire. It was a really Big Fire which lit up the sky. I cannot remember how old I was but I think it would have been around 1950 ish. I know that the ( Express and Star had it all over their front page as we did not have a paper in those days (only on special occassions Like the Coronation and the like) but dad did get it for a couple of days as they did a big display of pictures(B&W of course) and if memory serves me well, Fires engines from Derby and Shropshire were in attendance. It took some time to put the fire out as it burned for a couple of days and the sky was full of Black acrid smoke. I have not been over there for some years, but do remember that as a kid there were a few Hanger type buildings on the site.
Hi Bob, I can recall 2 fires at least , firstly around the early 60′ s I think and then more recently in the mid 90’s when the tyre storage, Goodyears I think went up, we were living localy in Union St at the time and we saw it all from our house, Goodyear were very appologetic and held a open day the next year for all the local families.
Hello Bob the fire at Smiths was in 1960 when an aircraft hanger filled with Goodyear tyres was on fire. I was in the fire service at Brownhills then and attended the fire. Ten pumps were there plus a hose laying lorry, and water was pumped direct from Chasewater to the fire. Also there used to be an underground water tank on Sankeys corner, and water was also pumped from there. It was my job on the night to control the hydrant feeding the tank so it did not empty or overflow. regards Godfrey
Thanks for the reply’s… the fire i’m referring to was certainly late 60s early 70s as I deffinatly recall it and I didn’t come into the world until 64 . We lived very close to Sankey’s Corner at the time and I can certainly remember the smoke and commotion it caused and yes it did burn for a number of days