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.
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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.
That’s my childhood, I lived in Poole Crescent right by it and me and my friends had many a fun time over there, the pools were fab in the summer, and in a Sunday morning all we could hear were the go karts racing, great memories x
Hi Bob
Re your comments about the Fair ground at Chasewater, my family were tenants on the original Fair Ground and took over the second Fair and Amusements etc and were at Chasewater for 38 years, The First Fair was successful but Mr Bill Bagnall lost his lease because he broke it because he wasn’t supposed to have tenants?
So he was was given notice to Quit.
The story goes deeper ?
Which I’d be very happy to chat with you about it and I also have all the news paper cuttings etc and much more back ground history and stories about the Fair and History.
My Late father and mother Bill and Jill Peace took over after the original Fair stopped.
It became a smaller family Fair which extended to the cafe bingo and amusement arcade.
The story of the the Two Fairs is in my history and is a story in its self which contradicts lots of the stories people talk about and are not quite right!
I’m a member of Chasewater Friends group who asked me to do a talk at a meeting re the events etc
Unfortunately Covid-19 hit and time has past, maybe in the near future I can take some questions and enlighten the history of the Fairs,
I’m more than happy to chat re the storyline as lots of family’s have wonderful memories of the old Chasewater,
These Fairs put Chasewater on the Map as it were for the Midlands people,
Best regards Will Peace (son)
I worked on the fair at weekends in the late 60’s early 70’s on the pick a duck. Billy Swan and I went to the same school, his dad ran some rides on the fair. I often wonder what happened to the family when it closed