In the last few days there has been a lot of interest in the subject of Chasewater in the old days – when Brownhills Urban District Council ran it as an amusement park, which was sadly, ultimately unsuccessful.
Many of us remember the paddling and boating pool, the miniature railway, those lakeside shelters, and the iconic but strange Brian Blumer concrete climbing Frame sculpture.
Well, sent in a few days ago, I feature this wonderful set of Chasewater from the Gerald Reece collection, o I’m fairly sure in the late 70s or 80s. This is part of a continual run of material from Gerald that he’s kindly shared with David Evans who’s done all the scanning so well.
You can see previous sets of Brownhills bridges here and Superalloys Chimney being felled here.
I thank Gerald and David for this remarkable set – it really is most excellent and for me personally has stirred many memories.
The donor of these remarkable images, Gerald Reece is of course a talented and superlative local historian, indeed now resident in Devon, who wrote the seminal work ‘Brownhills – A walk into history’ upon which this blog stands.
What do you recall from the these days of Chasewater? If you have any thoughts or questions, please do share them – comment here, find me on social media or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks.

Hi Bob
many thanks for your excellent presentation and to Sir Gerald, too. Who remembers the flamingo?
kind regards
David
That’s my childhood right there. What a smashing set of photographs!
I remember it all too. Loved my early years over chasewater.
Many childhood memories here. Was also my first job in high school!
Lovely photos a pleasure to see ☺
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Four weekends ago I walked around the Pool with friends. It was something I hadn’t since the mid sixties
What a timely reminder of the Sunday afternoons spent with our friends, all dressed in our Sunday best and wandering around our teenage playground
Great to reminisce about Chasewater, but can anyone tell me why the lake adjoining it, ( where the railway ra through) was known as the Swag.
I can remember in late 70s watching water skiing as a lady I went to college with used to do it and we went to watch there was a ramp to
These pictures bring back lots of memories from the sixties. I remember being on First Aid duty as a St Johns Ambulance cadet and taking part in walking patrols with my first aid kit in a shoulder bag. Also remember having to starch my uniform ‘hat’!!
I used to work the boating lake for two summers in 83 and 84.
Had some good times apart from being thrown in the pool by a group of older youths and being shouted at by parents of kids I had just told to get out of the pool. I also remember telling two rather large ladies that they would be ok in a boat together and then watching the boat sink to the bottom when they both got in, luckily they both saw the funny side.