One for the weekend I’ve been meaning to raise here for a while – there’s a historical mystery just down the road from here we’ve never properly explored, and I’d be interested to see what we can find out about it.
Marked on the 1:2,500 maps from the turn of the last century (in the instance shown, 1912) there is a building marked in Footherley, near Shenstone, as ‘Reading Room’.
Lazily, I’d always assumed the ‘reading room’ was a social club of some sort and later became Footherley Working Men’s Club, which still exists, but actually having studied the map, they’re in two different places.
This has really piqued my interest.
The reading Room is actually marked on the map as being attached, or adjacent to the barns at Home Farm, and not near the site of today’s Working Men’s Club at all.
I’d love to know what we can find out about this: Was it an early library? Gentleman’s club? Why in Footherley, and not the larger, nearby Shenstone? Is it related to the club, or are they different?
I’ve been idly wondering about this for years and I’d love to know what readers think – Please do comment here, grab me on social medial or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks.