The Sandhills Quarry cottage, as it was in 2003. Image kindly supplied by Ian Broad.
Reader and friend of the blog Ian Broad has once more been in touch to share another picture of the still derelict old bungalow at the old driveway to Shire Oak Quarry, just of Shire Oak Hill on the A461 near Sandhills, in which he grew up.
Ian has previously sent us wonderful memories of his father setting up the shop Toms Cabin in Brownhills, a carpet shop in the spot formerly occupied by Ladies Hairdresser May Brown. May was, of course, wife of noted barber Tommy Brown who used to operate from a shed in the back yard of May’s shop.
Ian had this to say about thee image above:
Hi Bob,
Just found this old pic of the old ‘quarry’ bungalow from about 2003.
I went down there to see what my childhood home looked like. I have more pics somewhere. I’ll find them.
Me and my dad put the concrete slab down in front of the house and also on the drive. As you can imagine there was no shortage of concrete living next to s quarry.
What I find incredible from recent aerial images is how much of the field behind the bungalow is overgrown and just ‘gone’ there is no distinguishing the three massive sycamore trees that were in the field side by side.
As you can see the front porch and side ‘lean to’ are still fairly in tact.
I also made a visit to Dave Kay who lives in the house that’s right next to the quarry lane. Incredibly he still has the Macaw bird called Stanley that I remember as a child. He’s 43 yrs old!
Anyway enough of my ramblings.
All the best,
Ian.
Thanks for the contribution, Ian, I’m still very interested in this lost house and memories of it – at the moment, I’m also very intrigued by the empty Fishpond Cottage on the other side of the quarry, and also for any memories of the transport cafe that used to be on the Chester Road between Shire Oak and Stonnall.
If you have anything to add, please do – either comment here or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com.
Situtated at the fenced off, disused Lichfield Road entrance to Sandhills Quarry, stands this derelect, boarded up bungalow. It turns out that reader Ian lived there, and it was once quite a place!