Wordsley House, a remarkable building that has inspired much debate and legend over the yaers. Image from my 365days journal.
A delayed one here today courtesy of old friend of the blog and Stonnall historian Desmond Burton, who’s sent me scans of the sale particulars for Wordsley House Farm in 1918, and it’s attached estate including Fighting Cocks Farm.
The sale included Druids Heath House in Aldridge, as well as assorted cottages and parcels of land around the village.
Wordsley House and farm from 1912 1:1250 scale Ordnance Survey Mapping, courtesy of the National Library of Scotland Archive. Click for a larger version.
Wordsley House stands on Main Street in Stonnall, just off the Chester Road, and was once the Welsh Harp public house, source of much legend, and also the subject of a recent post regarding tunnel lore and unusual wall murals.
This home movie clip recorded in 1958 and previously featured on the blog was donated by Desmond Burton shows the Burton family and pals, including Sandy the dog, enjoying ice cream from Selwyn Smith. Selwyn was one of the two noted ice cream purveyors in Brownhills, the other being the Pelari family.
The van is parked up outside Wordsley House.
The estate being sold is of a quite large size and must have caused considerable upheaval at the time, following the death of Dr. W. H. Cooke. The sale document contains a fantastic map of the lots and shows how changing land ownership shaped Stonnall Village today.
I’d like to thank Desmond for this generous donation and apologise for the delay in posting: It was scheduled for last weekend but sadly the thefts at Knaves Court interrupted my plans – apologies.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to point out that this blog is open to anyone interested in Stonnall and it’s history, and to anyone who finds current Stonnall local history fora a tad exclusive. There will always be a warm welcome to you here.
You can download a PDF version of the whole document here – it’s been enhanced and made text searchable, or you can click on any page from the gallery below.
Any observations or queries? Want to tell me I’m banned? Come join the club – comment here or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Knock twice and ask for the wee purple troll.
