The postcard found last week on eBay showing ‘The Coppice, Brownhills’ had much more interest than I expected. Although there was some speculation to the contrary, I’m sure it showed Birch Coppice long before most of it was destroyed by the clay pit.
Well, in the huge amount of material donated by Sir Gerald of Reece to David Evans last week, there is a post and of ‘The Coppice, Brownhills’ from a more familiar angle: The canal just up from the Pelsall Road Bridge, between there and the Jolly Collier.
The card is labelled ‘T. Jayne, Brownhills’ whom I’ve never heard of. Have you?
It still looks a lot like that today, with birch woods on the canal bank leading up to the clay works.
We have, of course, seen a photo from around this location before: Kindly supplied by Patricia Cotton. We can identify this wonderful 1955 image as being on the coppice side of the canal on the Jolly Collier side of the Pelsall Road bridge, as the truncated remainder of the South Staffordshire Waterworks surge stack by the railway is clearly visible on the horizon.
I’m thinking that before the clay pit, and until it grew in size, this part of Brownhills may have been considered a bit of a beauty spot. Was it? What do you know? Do you remember it?
Come on folks, what do you know? Please do comment here or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com – or tug my coat on social media.