Image from an eBay sale by Gutteridges.

A great spot on eBay here for folks into local church history. Most of you will know that Walsall Wood Church of St John is older than Brownhills, which was ex-parochial until St James’ was constructed in 1850. Walsall Wood has had it’s lovely, devotional Church of St. John since 1837.

Old pal of the blog and top Wood Mon™  Brian Beard spotted this memorial coin – presumably struck for subscribers(donors) to the new church in Walsall Wood in 1837 – for sale on eBay, at the time of posting for £65. The seller, Wednesbury based Gutteridges, says they obtained the item as a result of a house clearance.

You can see the original sale here.

Image from an eBay sale by Gutteridges.

The coin appears to be copper, and notes:

This church erected to the glory of The Triune Jehovah [Holy trinity as I understand it – Bob] and for the eternal good of souls was built by voluntary subscription.

Consecrated Aug 22nd 1837.

Eph.11.20.21

[Ephesians, I think: Perhaps a Bible scholar could look that one up? – Bob]

Image from an eBay sale by Gutteridges.

On the other side is a nice relief of the original church, before either extension, and as it was originally built, and the test says:

‘An habitation for the mighty God of Jacob St John’s Walsall Wood’

I have no connection with the seller, and just wondered what readers might have to say about this curious bit of ecclesiastical ephemera: Are there many about? Do your family or relatives own such a coin? Comment here, mail me or find me on social media. Please have your say!

Thanks to Brian for a remarkable spot.

St Johns looks a bit different today to how it did on that coin. Not just the 1980s aberration at the tower end, but the flanks added at the sides and rear by the Victorians which make this a much bigger church than it was when opened in 1837. Image from my 365days archive.

For those who want to know more about the history of St. John’s, way back in 2012, local lady Jenny Langford donated a printed booklet entitled ‘The Parish Church of Walsall Wood, A Short History’, which does exactly what it says on the cover. David Evans subsequently took great effort to scan each page, then sent them to me by email. I reassembled them into a .PDF file for readers. 

You can download a copy here – it’s well worth a look.

There’s a similar history of St. James’ Church in Brownhills, which has been available online for some time. It appears to date from the 1970’s or 80’s.

Click on the image above to download the .PDF file. It’s 4.1 megabytes in size, so it may take a while on a slow connection.