Come to think of it’ I’ve seen susrprisingly few post-war pictures of Walsall Wood High Street. All we seem to have are images like this – beautiful indeed – from John Sale and Bill Mayo’s book ‘Memories of old Walsall Wood’
I’ve had a couple of appeals reach me in the last couple of days, one from Pat at Clartidges, and one from Emma Kempson from Pioneer Magazines in Aldridge who are writing an article celebrating 60 years of the local electrical retailer’s trading.
Claridges is a longstanding and well-respected local company with stores in Brownhills and Walsall Wood, and it’s rare indeed to see an independent electrical sales shop that survives and thrives.
The wonderful local photographer Peter Booth took this image in the 1980s of the Brownhills store.
The only image I have is this one of the Brownhills store, taken by Peter Booth in the 1980s from this set. I shall seek his permission to share it for publication.
Emma wrote:
Hi Bob,
I regularly find information from your blog and have come across it again today, hence my reason for e-mailing.
I am from the Pioneer magazines and I am currently putting together an article for Claridge Electricals. It is their 60th year of trading and so we are writing a little about the history of the business, alongside what services they offer nowadays. Upon a Google search your blogs come up quite often with reference to the late Percy Claridge. I was wondering if you had any information on him or the business, or more importantly, any photographs of either of the shops/the Claridges that we could publish? I have spoken to Percy’s ex wife (now Mrs Reade) and she was most helpful but she was unable to locate any photographs.
If you could help out that would be gratefully appreciated, and we can of course thank you in the article. Not to worry if you don’t have anything but it’s always worth asking!
Many thanks,
Emma Kempson
If you’ve got any memories or photos, please do get in touch. In the mean time, Claridges was the first place I ever saw a digital camera (although not truly digital – technically a video still camera) – the Canon Ion that took bizarre 2 inch floppy discs.
It was another five years before digital photography took hold.
Any contributions? You’re most welcome. Comment here or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks.
Claridges has always been the go-to place for local electrical goodies: This advert from the Brownhills Gazette, June 1991.