I thought I’d continue sharing the hugely popular recent run of archive images today and the images featured today from the immense Gerald Reece collection are a miscellany of shots of local freight rail, canals, bridges and mines, and some oddities thrown in for good measure.
There are some images here – particularly ones of mines I can’t recognise at all, but I’m sure readers will; note also the remains of the surge stack by the rail over bridge near Pelsall Road on the Wyrley and Essington Canal, and the rotting remains of the fingerpost by the rising sun before it’s removal and replacement with a replica.
This slide – so it might be backwards – is particularly puzzling. I have a feeling it may have been the bridge over the railway at Albutts Road but I’m really not sure. Can you help? Image kindly supplied by Gerald Reece via David Evans. Click for a larger version.
These images have been scanned by David Evans from Gerald’s material recently donated to the blog, and show a surprisingly tree-less area. That shot of Ogley Junction from Middleton Bridge is quite remarkable in that respect.
I’m also intrigued by the location of the derelict signal box with the young lad before it. I had thought it was Norton Junction at Ryders Hayes, but the box there is clearly a larger affair.
I thank Gerald and David for yet another remarkable set – you are a very wonderful and generous gentlemen.
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 this gallery? 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.
