Following my feature yesterday on perhaps the last passenger train to ever traverse the line from Aldridge to the Conduit Colliery in Norton Canes, Simon Swain has sent me a great gallery of images of the Grove Colliery site as it is today.
The Grove pit was, of course, the site of the notorious 1930 disaster in which 14 men were lost, and has currently been the subject of debate here. Last year I posted a gallery of images of the Grove Colliery and surrounds, taken in the late 1950s and held in the Canal and River Trust archive – as reader Andy has pointed out, many of the images are of Yates’ Boatyard next door, but I feature that gallery at the bottom of this post for comparison.
The Grove also makes an appearance in the 1963 cinefilm of Brownhills, donated by Brian Stringer (which I featured in Simon’s post yesterday – you see, it’s all circular!)
Simon Swain said:
Dear Bob,
I thought that readers would appreciate this set of images that I have taken recently of the site of Grove Colliery. It is amazing that so much appears to remain after over 60 years since closure. Despite the visible signs of neglect I feel that the buildings still hold so much character and it would be nice to see them restored and put to a future use.
In my research I have found the National Library of Scotland archive maps to be an invaluable font of information and what I find interesting is that not only was there once a tramway from Grove to nearby Brownhills Number 3 pit but the 1888-1901 map shows that this ran on a viaduct on the approaches to Grove. I would imagine that this was not a viaduct in the conventional sense but probably a wooden structure but the fact that it existed has inspired me to return in the near future and see whether any evidence remains of its existance.
1921 Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 mapping showing the tramway from Tithe Grove to Brownhills No. 3. In all my years, I never noticed that. Wonderful spot by Simon Swain. Imagery from the National Library of Scotland aArchive. Click for a larger version.
I hope that you and the readers find the images interesting and of course it would be brilliant if readers could flesh them out with some history.
Kind Regards
Simon
I must confess, I didn’t know there were any remnants of the Grove still extant, but I rarely wander that way – this has made me want to go and explore. If you find yourself similarly motivated, please do contact me with any thoughts or pictures.
Thanks to simon for a great, thought-provoking gallery. If you have anything to add, please feel free: comment here or mail me. You know by know – BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks.
