Is there anyone out there who remembers way back in 1955/6 a Troupe who appeared on the piece of land in front of the band stand opposite The central school. From memory they were called he Traber rens troupe. some of the children came to Central for a couple of weeks while they were doing local shows. They erected a big pole and a motor cycle climbed up the wire. They collected money in buckets. I remember hundreds of people being there, watching the shows.
On the subject of Holland Park, I remember a touring High wire act performing on Holland Park for a few days. I think this was about 1957 or 1958. The company was the Traber-Renz Troupe, and they set up a wire at an angle from ground level, to the top of a tall pole. A motor cycle was then driven up this wire, and various stunts performed whilst at a height, including a trapeze performance on a trapeze under slung from the motor cycle, can anyone else remember this?
Well, in a quick search, I found this from Pathe News. Click through for the video: their licensing restrictions are a bit mad and I can’t embed the video directly.
Pathe clip of the Traber Troupe at Salisbury Agricultural Show in 1960. Click on the image to visit the clip.
I also found this on the brilliant Pelsall History site. It seems they toured extensively locally. It also seems that the descendants of the original Traber-Renz Troupe are still in business – check out the site of the Johann Traber Family Show. Your German may need a little refresher, I think, with that one.
Any other contributions, memories or recollections please? You know the drill… BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com, or drop a comment on this post. Cheers.
From the wonderful Pelsall History site: ‘Super Photo of The Traber-Renz Troupe in 1955-56 who had a trapeze act on Victoria Road Common. One end was a 100 foot pole with a cable coming down to the ground attached to a army winch truck, they then drove a motorcycle up the cable with others balancing on the wheels etc. After the stunt they would come round with buckets collecting cash.’
A real Brownhills hero from the days of baggy shorts and the scent of liniment. Image from Sue Lote.
I was recently contacted by reader Richard Lee, who gently suggested that I was missing something with my local history coverage. Richard was quite right, I have left untouched a quite large piece of Brownhills history – the fact the we had a major-league football star in our midst.
Dickie Dorset played for Wolves and Villa and was a real footballing hero, signing to Wolves in 1937, and after the football break during World Warr II, during which Dickie served in the RAF, he signed to Aston Villa for the princely sum of £3,000. He was a well respected player, and by all accounts a solid good sport with a great deal of skill and integrity. After a car accident in 1950, he briefly returned to mainstream football, but retired to become a coach in 1953. After a spell at Liverpool, Dickie returned to Brownhills around 1962 and ran Brownhills Boy’s Cub. Dickie sadly passed away in 1999.
Much is written about Dickie Dorsett online, but it’s Sue Lote’s work that most interests me. Sue states that Dickie actually came from a family with a strong footballing pedigree, and has some really interesting bits an pieces on her page dedicated to the man who became known as ‘The Brownhills Bomber’.
I’m interested in why there seems to be no memorial to Dickie in Brownhills that I’m aware of – no streets named after him, and I’m similarly unaware of any memorials or dedications to him. Surely that’s a bit of a municipal oversight?
As readers can probably tell, football is a long way from my natural constituency, but I’d be interested in anything anyone would like to contribute about Dickie, or any other local sporting heroes. We’ve mentioned Walsall Wood Football Club before, and it would be nice to hear about Dickie’s life and folks’ recollections and legends. Brownhills has had various football and cricket teams over the years so there must be loads of stuff out there.
What do you know, folks? BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com, or comment here. Thanks to Richard Lee for the prod.
Sue Lote’s site contains a wealth of information about the Dorsett family. Click on the screenshot to go take a look.
Carved into the side of the Warreners Arms, like so many Brownhills Names. Yet Sue Lote’s Dorsett family tree contains no W Dorsett. What do we know, folks?
The water level at Chasewater – as well as other questions – continues to fascinate. It seems I’m not the only one gazing on the waterfront – there’s another contender, top reader Andy Dennis. Following my musings last weekend on the nature of drought and the contribution of recent rains to the refilling of our local canal feeder reservoir, both Andy and myself have visited Chasewater a few times to see how things are progressing. Andy was good enough to take some pictures and send them to me… I’m not quite sure how we’ll judge it when the secondary outlet culvert is finally submerged, but not yet up to the foot of the rain gauge..
I’ve attached a few pictures related to rising water levels at Chasewater.
Two of the secondary outlet (continued filling without further rain) and today, taken from roughly the same place as your recent shots.
Sharp-eyed folk may have noticed the gauge on the pier, though it is till high and dry. The intervals appear to be 10cm.
One of the outfall from Fly Pool and two of Great Crane Brook running vigorously.
Today there were some people looking around the nine foot pool area and as there was one with Staffordshire Highways on his hi-vis I asked him about the status of Pool Road across the dam. He said it is a BOAT (Byway Open to All Traffic) subject to a temporary closure order in connection with the works. They are to consult soon on permanent closure.
Andy
Going… 1:53pm, Monday, 30th April 2012. Picture by Andy Dennis.
Going, going… 10:34am, Wednesday, 2nd May 2012. Picture by Andy Dennis.
Nearly gone… 4:22pm, Thursday, 3rd May 2012. Picture by BrownhillsBob.
The rain gauge. I hadn’t noticed this, either. Need about another meter and a half to register on it, I think. 1:42pm, Monday, 30th April 2012. Picture by Andy Dennis.
The outfall, or creek from Fly Pool on the North Heath. Flowing healthily at 2:17pm, Monday, 3rd May 2012. Picture by Andy Dennis.
Further north, the Great Crane Brook is also in steady flow. 2:49pm, Monday, 3rd May 2012. Picture by Andy Dennis.
The new balance of Walsall Council. Interestingly, the Tories lost seats and the Liberal Democrats stayed as they were. Labour took 2 from the Tories, but lost two to independents. Graphic from Walsall Council’s results page.
Remarkably, the council has remained in no overall control. Labour gained two seats from the Tories, but lost two to independents. One of the independents is Pete Smith. Longstanding students of Walsall politics will be aware of the significance of this.
Considering some of the premature triumphalism in the Labour camp, and the gains seen elsewhere in the country, it’s clear something went a bit wrong for Labour in Walsall; I think we’re in for interesting times.
No surprise in Aldridge North and Walsall Wood, with Keith Sears returned, presumably for another quiet four years, with the BNP still bumping along the bottom. The man who couldn’t spell Walsall in his 2011 leaflet did, however, beat the Liberal Democrats to third place. Expect some gloating, but they still did very badly.
In Brownhills, Tory councillor Alan Paul got the chop and we have a new Labour councillor, Stephen Wade. Again, Liberal Democrats last place by some considerable margin.
Congratulations to the winners, commiserations to the losers. What happens next will be very interesting indeed. One thing’s for sure, Walsall politics is never, ever dull.
Standing water is an issue that vexes me particularly. It’s presence reduces braking ability, can lead to loss of control, conceals potholes, and leads, through hydraulic action, to the premature breakup of road surfaces. And it also drowns pedestrians.
Why this can’t just be fixed, and the bill passed on to whoever is responsible, is beyond me, and apparently, beyond most readers, including one very well clued up one.
Welcome to Knaves Court, partly financed by Walsall Council, our spanking new extra care facility. High tech, up to the minute and sodden with mud. Come meet the residents, but don’t forget your wellies!
Meanwhile, in Lichfield Street, Walsall, a pothole keeps opening up and attempting to digest both me and my bike. This one keeps reoccurring, and I think it’s the fault of South Staffordshire Water, who obviously aren’t effecting a sealed repair. Time to sort it and send them the bill? It’s right in a spot where you’re concentrating on the traffic, not the road surface. It could easily have a moped or motorbike rider off their machine.
Then there’s Brownhills High Street. Passing the Ornamental Lakes of Monitoring mentioned above (thanks to David Evans for finally giving them a name), there’s a fun assortment of potholes, sunken drains and pools of standing water, the nastiest of which is right in the shadow of Morris, the Brownhills Miner. Good job he’s stainless, otherwise he’d match the Walsall Wood Pithead by now.
I don’t know what it is about drains, but Walsall Council – or their contractor, Tarmac – don’t seem to be very keen on cleaning them out. After complaining last week, a gully cleaner was send to Sandhills, Shire Oak, and about half the drains there were restored to use, for which I’m very thankful. On the other hand, the drains on the new Ring Road in Walsall, I complained about on January 24th, Haven’t been touched. I know that the people handling the initial complaint are doing their jobs well, and are fine, conscientious people for whom I have great respect – but the problem seems to stem from actually getting technicians out to do the job.
As a cyclist, I feel the poor quality of the roads probably more than others – but the damage affects everyone. Please, I implore Walsall Council to look at these issues – and others – and to try and find a fix for them. People don’t really care much for small print and shuffling, they want action. If it’s the responsibility of a third party, hassle them. Tell us exactly who it is, so we can hassle them. Perhaps even do the job, and send them the bill.
I know folks at Walsall Council listen and do care – the excellent reaction to the Great Shelfield Daffodil Massacre (in which an old hippy got very distraught about some flowers) proved that. I have immense respect for people doing hard jobs in tough circumstances, I really do. But someone really needs to kick the arse of the contractors involved.
Otherwise, the end result is Walsall Council look uncaring, and I know that not to be the case.
Just a short note to jog people’s memories today. Today is the day of the local council elections, in which those of us in Walsall (and many other places) get to vote for our local councils. Here in Walsall, it looks very much like the Conservatives, who’ve had control of the council for the last twelve years, may lose to the Labour group.
I’m not about to tell anyone who they should vote for – I don’t think it’s any secret that I’m a hairy old left-winger. I just implore you to take part in the democratic process and exercise your right to select who represents you. If you don’t take part in this, you can’t, in all honesty, whinge about the result. Polling stations are open until 10pm, and you don’t need your polling card to vote.
I can’t pretend to be optimistic about the future of Walsall’s Council. I loathe the current incumbents with a passion, and we desperately need a change, although with budgets already set and a government neutering local authorities, there is, in reality, very little a new administration can do to change course quickly.
Labour in Walsall also seem to have a PR problem, don’t ‘get’ the internet (except for one or two isolated examples) and are hostile to questioning. Since one of their first intentions is to attack thee press office, expect and administration that won’t be big on communication.
The important thing is to take part in the process and hold our elected members to what they say. Call them on their promises. Make their lives difficult. Demand progress checks on issues that matter. Make these representatives understand that they work for you, not the other way around. That guy whose face you only see at election time? Make him face his responsibilities and earn his allowance.
Rest assured that I – and I’m sure other commentators in Walsall – won’t rest up. I’ll be watching what happens very carefully, and will not hesitate to speak out, no matter how rattled it makes the incumbents.
Today, you have a choice. Go and make it, take part, and think about it carefully. I thoroughly expect the usual howls of derision from those who assert that the process is pointless and makes no difference. It isn’t, and it does.
This is your chance to select who represents you. Take it.
In spring, this patch of grass in Shelfield is normally a riot of yellow flowers. It won’t be next year. 6:15pm, Tuesday, 1st May 2012.
I know i’ve covered this on my 365daysofbiking Tumblr journal, but this issue deserves as wide an audience as possible. On my way through Shelfield this morning, I noticed that Walsall Council had been mowing the grass verges along the Lichfield Road, which is great, and they normally do a wonderful job. I was, however, heartbroken to note that this time, the intellectual giant behind the mower had mown off the daffodils that grow in abundance on these verges. Normally, they are left until summer to decay before cutting.
People who follow me here, or on my cycling travels or even through social media will know just how much I love those flowers. They’re a sign of spring and warmer days, and bring colour to an otherwise drab urban landscape, usually devoid of soft textures and bright natural colour.
After flowering, daffodils reabsorb nutrients from their decaying foliage back into their bulb, where this goodness forms the flower ready for next season. If you cut the top off such a plant before this has occurred, the next season will present a plant with no flower. At a stroke the flowers which are normally a joy here in April are wrecked for next spring. Well done, chaps. In how many other places across the borough has this happened? Considering how many bulb-planting sessions went on with local kids last year, this could be a real disaster.
I realise this wasn’t intentional, but it’s a real blot on the reputation of an otherwise fine department. I’m really, really sad about it.
How the same spot looked on the 2nd April 2012. Next year, there will be few flowers here. A tragedy.
Now, here’s an interesting, if slightly bizarre thing. For a while now, I’ve been chatting on twatter to a Brownhills lad exiled in San Antonio, all the way over in Texas, USA. He goes by the name of PorkTorta – which I think is probably a pseudonym (‘Hello Mrs. Torta, is your Pork playing out?’) – and he’s a very interesting, engaging chap with a fine sense of humour. PorkTorta is a biologist, a graphic design whizz and works in the latter capacity at San Antonio Zoo. How cool is that?
Now, being holed up in the sunshine over in Skank Antonio, as he’s wont to call it, isn’t all gravy. Between dodging tornados and arranging displays of animal poo, PorkTorta gets a wee bit homesick, which is understandable, really. To alleviate the pangs of loss and longing for Bank’s Mild, he reads the Brownhills Blog and chats to the locals on Twatter.
It was while reading the blog recently that PorkTorta spotted my report that the Chasewater terrapin may not be dead after all, the announcement of which, it has to be said, had caused some consternation. I must confess, I thought the fellow to be lost, like most folk did, but it seems he has a fan club who are keeping the faith. Terrapin-related enquires flooded in, not least from YamYam supremo and latter-day Hackneyite Mark Blackstock, who always had a soft spot for the reptilian refugee.
Over in Texas, it seems they know a thing or two about the turtle family, and PorkTorta checked with experts. Our chap is apparently a Yellow-Bellied Slider.
@BrownhillsBob Was curious about the Chasewater turtle, showed some of my esteemed Zoo colleagues his shell-clad mugshot…
In short, he (or she) could live to be about 40, eats vegetation and the odd worm or two (but did like bugs and insects when young, but not as an adult), likes algae laden, slightly brackish [Thanks to Mick_P for the heads up: I didn’t mean brackish, I meant stagnant. I’ve misunderstood brackish for years. In a nutshell, they like it a bit gloomy and a bit smelly – Bob] water, and will probably be working to keep pond weed in check. If he is still with us, I think he must be living in the untouched pond next to the former Nine-Foot, which does answer that description, and is relatively undisturbed. Find out more about this species at Wikipedia.
Chasewater interloper and veggie.
A colonial cousin in the wild, by Roy Brown Photography. Please click through to Roy’s gallery.
My heartfelt thanks to Porktorta, and I ask all Chasewater wildlife spotters to be on the lookout for our long-lost terrapin. I feel better now I know he’s not eating the newts, and I hope Graham can rest a bit easier, too. I’m quite fond of this curious bit of Brownhills absurdity, and it’s not like the poor fellow will ever get chance to breed.
This is a fantastic demonstration of how some questions on this blog can remain mysteries for years, and then someone with the right knowledge – in this case a Brownhillian miles from home – can wander in ad solve the problem. PorkTorta is a top chap, and I trust he’s looking forward to his holiday here later in the year.
I’ll keep a pint of Bank’s ready for you, old chap.
If you fancy a good night out, why not give The Brownhills Musical Theatre Company a punt? This much-praised group stage beautifully produced, hugely entertaining, award-winning shows. This one looks set to be a real hoot.
hkkj
1st – 5th May 2012 at The LICHFIELD GARRICK
Brownhills Musical Theatre Company is proud to present the one of the funniest shows ever to be staged on Broadway!
Adapted from the 1968 Mel Brooks film, The Producers tells of Max Bialystock, a struggling Broadway impresario who discovers he can make more money from a flop than a hit. With the help of timid accountant Leo Bloom, Bialystock sets about staging the worst play he can find.
Eventually he stumbles upon Springtime for Hitler, “a gay romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden” written by Nazi sympathiser Franz Leibkind.
The pair then hire the worst director in Manhattan: a gay fop named Roger DeBris, who never goes anywhere without his fey partner Carmen Ghia. All that’s left is to raise the money, which Max does by seducing an army of randy old ladies.
With hoofing geriatrics, Nazi arm-band wearing pigeons and a Busby Berkeley pageant featuring goose-stepping stormtroopers, there is something in The Producers guaranteed to offend just about anybody without a funny bone and bring nothing but child-like glee to everyone else!
Such is the level of sustained hilarity and mock outrage you will be laughing long after you have left the theatre!
The Producers is an absolute must see!
BMTC currently have a deal for all tickets booked online – go to www.lichfieldgarrick.com and enter BMTC10 when checking out – this will adjust tickets to £10 each – regardless of performance.
BMTC are always looking forward to welcoming new members, if you’d like to join this award winning theatre group and then call Jamie Norgrove on 07850 329462 for details.
This evening, like yesterday evening, I visited Chasewater. The day’s rain had ceased. I noted yesterday on my 365daysofbiking journal that I think the water level has increased about 500mm in the last week, and I was interested to see how much a days worth of heavy downpour had added to the level.
At the moment, the secondary outlet culvert is still just above the waterline, so it’s a ready indicator of depth. So I thought I’d compare photos 24 hours apart.
7:46pm, Saturday, 28th April 2012.
8:52pm, Sunday, 29th April 2012.
As you can see, there has been an increase in level, but not a massive one – maybe 20mm or so. The main area to witness the difference is between the vegetation and the dry bank. So really, a whole day of quite steady rain hasn’t made much difference – and that difference will become less the more the reservoir tends towards full, as the surface area increases.
I’ve seen a lot of comments in the last couple of days about the drought, the water shortage and suchlike. The rain we have had – and it feels like we’ve had a deluge – is clearly not that great. We’ve had three very dry seasons now. One wet week will not correct that, as can be seen above. Please let’s engage our brains. If Chasewater isn’t filling much, neither are our water supply reservoirs.
Anyone who says the word "drought" after today needs their head testing
I noticed last week that it’s now fashionable for rightwing blowhards an op-ed commentators like Peter Rhodes of the Express & Star to deny the drought, the same way they deny climate change, or anything else whose existence threatens their limited, selfish worldview. Take a trip up to Blithfield or Carsington, and take a look at the water levels. Then take a look at the water levels where the drought has really hit, down south.
We still have a drought. We’ve had a wet week. This will not end the problem unless we get a sustained season of heavy rain. In 1976, after a single, long hot summer, it started raining on August Bank Holiday Monday and didn’t really stop again for months. That’s what we need now.
Following the request by reader Mike Hawes, here’s another delve into the cartographic archive for the denizens of Aldridge, our posh neighbours to the south. Mike asked for some mapping from around 1940, and sadly, there is none. I’ve found plots – based on the same 1920’s survey – from 1938 and and 1955. They are clearly plotted from the same baseman, and in reality, were probably hand-traced. I’ve done this to illustrate a point really, about the mapping history of the UK.
The centre of Aldridge as recorded by 1:10,000 Ordnace Survey mapping of 1938. Click for a larger version.
Note that the map above – the 1938 issue – is exceptionally vague in the area of Anchor Road. At a guess, the buildings had been spotted from an aerial survey, but not ground surveyed. This map hadn’t changed much – more, it had evolved – since the second survey, around 1915-1920. This is referred to as the ‘Second Epoch’. This map base persists until the sixties. There are few complete larger scale maps of this period, too: nothing at 1:2,500 really exists. There’s a reason for this: there had been a couple of wars on.
The centre of Aldridge as recorded by 1:10,000 Ordnace Survey mapping of 1955. Click for a larger version.
Our mapmakers had been busy for the military, and the growing mapping needs of commerce, local authority and development were not being met. It takes a long time to resurvey a country, and new survey sheets only started to appear in the mid-sixtes. I’ve mentioned this before in my posts ‘last of a Generation’ and ‘Time Passages’. Quite simply, there’s a gap in effective mapping between about 1930 and 1965.
Of course, there is that other resource, the aerial imagery dated from 1945 in Google earth. I showed how to access this in a previous post, too. A quick note to Mike – if you’re having trouble with the overlays, make sure you’ve downloaded the files, then check you have the very latest version of Google Earth installed by going here. When you have, just double-click the overlay files and they’ll load automatically.
Aldridge from the air, 1945-ish. A remarkable thing. Courtesy Google Earth.
Tesco Brownhills, Sunday 29th April 2012. Picture supplied by a reader who’d prefer to stay anonymous.
The above image of water leaking from the cladding of Brownhills Tesco certainly makes you think. With buckets dotted about the store to collect other ingress, just how bad to things have to get before Brownhills deserves a decent place to shop?
Grim as hell... and we’re stuck with it, all on the whim of Britain’s biggest retailer. Don’t it make you glad?
From the Walsall Express & Star, Thursday 26th April 2012. Click for a larger version.
The local press is proving a rich seam of content at the moment here on the Brownhills Blog, and I really wanted to resist raiding yet another reader’s letter from yet another op-ed page. However, this one is so unbelievably bittier, nasty and asinine that I can’t let it go unchallenged. It’s so ill-informed that I question whether the writer is actually from Mars rather than Brownhills.
The gratuitous attack on the pensioners, long time followers of the saga will recall, was due to their utterly justified protest at the council’s initial capitulation to Tesco in allowing the Senior Citizens Centre to be razed to accommodate the proposed car park. This is a very popular group meeting in a well-loved, custom built facility. They had every right to protest at the prospective loss, and quite correctly, after pressure from a number of quarters, they won their battle. The plans were modified and the centre retained long before final approval.
Since Mr. Goulding appears to consider a new Tesco store to be the height of urban development, I’m surprised he’s not aware o the machinations over the stores he mentions in West Bromwich, Walsall and Lichfield, the development process for the first two stretching out for at least 8 years apiece, the West Bromich one being over a decade, and for much of the time the site remaining derelict and undeveloped.
The delay to the Brownhills store development and our ultimate retail salvation is not the council, but the saintly entity of Tesco themselves, whom, upon hitting choppy retail waters, have decided to scale back their expansion plans, and quite clearly seem to think the dump they already have here is taking enough money.
The reason we won’t be getting a new Tesco is because Tesco themselves don’t want to build one, and that’s nothing to do with any of the limp attacks in the letter in question.
The prospect of Tesco pulling out of Brownhills – where they make a huge amount of money from a down-at-heel, unloved, shabby store, is ludicrous. Brownhills is clearly a busy unit that’s pulling in punters, hence the complacency about upgrading it.
Mr. Goulding also seems a tad confused about what ails Brownhills. In one paragraph he opines that we need a new store like the one in Hednesford, yet in another bemoans the loss of the town’s vibrant retail scene of the 1970’s. This is clearly doublethink, and as to the Chasewater situation – now in the hands of Staffordshire after Lichfield District council pulled the plug – literally. I’ll happily meet the correspondent there for a quick sail when in refills… 2016 suit you?
To those hacked off about this, I suggest voting with your feet. I’ve never welcomed the prospect of a new Tesco store, but it was the only offer on the table. Now, that’s gone. We put all our development trust in the hands of Tesco, not realising that when you lie down with dogs, you usually wake up with fleas.
It’s been a while since we took a stroll down memory lane with top reader and blog contributor David Evans. Last week he sent me this great piece, and the tat-bazaar that is YouTube has thrown up some fabulous applicable videos. So, without further ado…
We all know this line, and sometimes hear it being recited by someone, somewhere. But that song by Flanders and Swan, ‘A Transport of Delight’ with its gently satirical lyrics from the 1950s brings a nostalgic tear to many a local who remembers the ‘Buzzes’ of the time, and the thrill that travelling in one of these would bring to the children of the times.
Catching a bus meant adventure to parts and places not yet discovered by the kids of the village. The metal stairs which led up from the open deck at the rear of the vehicle, once the bus was on the move, were a challenge to any hapless child .Hold on very tight to the handrail, if you could, that is.
Not an easy task when you were wearing woollen gloves and steel toecapped shoes.
You then entered a smoke-filled narrow greenhouse , the floor was metal, the seats in rows were sometimes wooden, sometimes imitation leather covered. All had chrome hand-rails to hold on to, in your woollen gloves, remember. But at least when you went upstairs you were spared the agony of sitting by the plump ladies who nestled, bags and baskets in hands, handbags protruding ominously in the direction of any foolhardy yet innocent child who tried to sit on what was left of the double seat. You were lucky to manage one cheek, so best to go upstairs.
This photo of a bus is the Walsall’s own Festival of Britain bus and the photo was kindly provided by local chap Bryan Lynk, whose father helped to designed and construct this vehicle in 1951. Picture supplied by David Evans.
From this glass-lined shaky cabin in the sky, and especially from the front seat, you travelled far above the surface of the earth in your Buck Rogers spacecraft, or Zeppelin, or at the bridge of a Battleship, or if you crouched down, you attacked the Normandy beaches from the bow of the first landing craft of the flotilla.
You crashed over the huge tidal wave that you always met as you went over the canal bridge and cowered low, furtively glancing up to the skies, just in case an enemy tank, or ship, or plane, was hiding out of sight. This was a dangerous mission that you were undertaking, remember. Unknown territory, danger round every end. The Horse and Jockey was passed, though you never saw the Jockey, the Spring Cottage stayed there whatever the season, then you gritted your teeth and stiffened every sinew. The George and Dragon! Never saw either. The bus always passed this battlefield too late. Then on, on to the decapitating Navvies railway bridge. On past the Boiling Lake with its giant squid in the Arboretum. Then the hustle and bustle of the town centre at Walsall at last . From the safe height of the upper deck you saw the mirriad of stalls winding their crooked way up the hill to the Church, the gleaming ‘stores’, and the bus station with its straight, neat lines of buses . Never too many, never too few.
[I know the above is trolley busses, but come on – what great shots of Walsall! – Bob]
The town centre with its wonders, its sights, its sounds, its smells, its people, cars, lorries, shops and arcades, its ‘Otherworld’ feeling, its home-made sweets shops, its shoe shops with X ray machines to see your own feet (so that’s why you had to put clean socks on!), the market stalls where crock stall holders conjured and balanced plates and saucers, and cups, all at the same time, and towel stalls where you could buy towels you never needed to wash as the dirt ran down the stripes, razors that never went blunt, soap you could see through, toothpaste tasting like chewing gum, and that shop that sold guns and ammunition, but you weren’t allowed to go in, and ‘real’ coffee shops you could smell a mile away, cake shops with magnetic shop windows, chemists’ shops that sold goods that didn’t concern young children, butchers shops with pig’s heads in the windows, or whole pigs split clean down the middle, and trays of scratchings, tubs of brawn, faggits in lace curtains, livers and kidneys, and necklaces of sausages hanging from hooks, and shops that sold Dinky toys, Meccano, model steam engines..by the arcade..but always kept till last! Tusk! Then the artists shops, wool shops, decorating shops, paint shops, glass shops, mirrors, lampshades, curtains, umbrellas , walking-sticks, everything for everybody.
Gentlemen’s trilbys, ladies ‘Fowl on a Nest’ hats, fox stoles, ladies’ never-you-mind handbags, gentlemens’ head-smacking bracers, boys snake-belts, gents’ aftershave lotion that stung, ladies’ vanishing cream that didn’t work, non-iron shirts you had to, ladies’see-through blouses (ooh!), collar-studs, hat-pins, penknives or just a bag of hot roast spuds to juggle all the way home.
Back to the Wood, arms full of shopping bags of things you would grow into, at a price you couldn’t miss. Back to the playing fields, the boat, the swings and the giant’s stride. Back to fried eggs from the chickens in the garden, home-made chips , and a well-earned cup of tea from the brown teapot. Then to plan for the next adventure!
I was contacted yesterday by reader Mitch Battison, who relayed news of a nasty act of vandalism on the Chester road at Shire Oak on Friday, the 20th April 2012. It seems that at 10:33pm, a white BMW 1 series vehicle with blacked out windows pulled up, three males got out, and smashed his mother’s car windows.
The car believed to be involved in the attack caught on CCTV. Did you see this car at around 10:30pm on Friday, 20th April 2012? Image supplied by Mitch Battison.
Mitch has no idea why the attack occurred, and the police have been informed, although as of last night, when he contacted me, they had yet to pick up the CCTV footage which had been ready for them at the shop since the Saturday after the incident.
Please, if you have any information at all about this horrid attack, if you witnessed something or have any information at all, please contact Walsall Police or Crimestoppers. If you’d rather, pass details to me and I’ll pass them on. BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com.
Such crime is very, very rare in Brownhills and I’m surprised that the police don’t seem to be faster onto it. If any cops are reading this, I have contact details if required.
The damaged vehicle. Please do contact the police if you have any information. Image supplied by Mitch Battison.
Following yesterday’s dreadful crash in Friezland Lane, Brownhills, the story has started to make the local news sites. I note with some amusement that the Express & Star reporter, although apparently being able to find the site of the crash and interviewing the owners of the shop nearby, chose to feature a picture of a bus stop on Lindon Road, a third of a mile away. I have no idea what their thinking is here…
Consider this, though: if they routinely do this kind of thing, but we don’t have the local knowledge to spot it, how much of their content can be trusted to be accurate?
I won’t comment on the thorny issue of whether the locality is considered to be Brownhills or Walsall Wood. There be monsters…
This photographic oddity was also picked up on Facebook by local lady Cheryl Hirst.
Six teenagers have been injured following a road traffic collision in Brownhills this afternoon.
West Midlands Ambulance Service was called to the incident at the junction of Lindon View and Friezland Lane in Walsall Wood shortly before 3.15pm today.
Three ambulances, an ambulance officer and the Midlands Air Ambulance from Cosford were dispatched to the scene.
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: “Crews were called to reports of a car that had been in collision with a number of pedestrians at a bus stop.
“On arrival at the scene crews found six teenage pedestrians, two girls and four boys, that had become injured in the collision.
“One of the teenage boys was treated at the scene for a fractured leg before being conveyed to Walsall Manor Hospital.
“The five other casualties were all treated for minor injuries. Ambulance crews conveyed two of five patients to Walsall Manor hospital for further assessment and treatment.”
It seems that this afternoon there was a car accident involving a single vehicle at a bus stop in Friezland Lane, Shire Oak. As usual, the rumour mill is in overdrive. PC Richard Stanley, of West Midlands Police, has just made the following statement on Twitter:
Anyone any further information? Please, solid info only, not speculation, but do comment if you have anything to add. I ask that you don’t name anyone for legal reasons.
Thanks, as ever, to PC Stanley, on the ball, on the beat and always happy to help. Top copper.
Brownhills High Street, outside Knaves Court, 7:06pm, Tuesday, 24th April 2012. Picture by David Evans.
I just thought I’d drag the issue of the standing water at Anchor Bridge, and Walsall Council’s response to it, into the light again. Following last week’s post on the subject, council officer Glyn Oliver replied to my concerns here on the blog. His reply is remarkable, and I’d like to feature it prominently so everyone concerned about this issue can be aware of it.
Glyn Oliver
We have been conscious of the problems with the gullies in this location and have regularly attended to clean them out. Each occasion the ponding has taken longer and longer to release which suggested a problem further along the line. We carried out a survey and discovered that the developer had placed a bollard through the public sewer. The majority of gullies drain to a public sewer. Public sewers for over 20 years now are the responsibility of the water company in this area it is STW (one assumes this means Severn Trent Water – Bob). Walsall Council cannot a repair on a third party property for a number of reasons not least being ultra vires. This is the legal position and Walsall operates within the law. The problem has been reported to STW and will be monitored to ensure they repair the problem.
This response, to me, seems mealy-mouthed and unhelpful. Who is ‘The Developer’? How might we contact them? We need to get this fixed before it causes a serious accident. One assumes the ‘bollard’ talked of is one of the ones on the right of the image, to the front of Knaves Court and inches from the public footway. Since Walsall Council bigged up their part so much when Knaves Court was opened, it seems strange that they won’t lift a shovel to this. Perhaps the civic investment was in all the functioning bits of the building. Mind you, straying 6 inches into private property – all be it a social housing complex part funded by the authority – would be a heinous crime indeed. Anything in latin sounds profound, but is usually bullshit.
I would, however, point out that this situation has existed before Knave’s Court and before those bollards were erected, so I think it’s probably a red herring. Still, the council are ‘monitoring’ things so we can all sleep easy…
Since I posted last, a complaint about the same issue has appeared of Fixmystreet, and David Evans has got a great picture last night of just how bad the situation currently is. My hopes were raised somewhat earlier today, when David mailed me to say workers were excavating nearby, but having been to look and the hole, I don’t think the job is connected, and South Staffordshire Water (whose name is on the barriers) seem to be digging in order to lay a water pipe instead.
I welcome opinions or knowledge of the matter.
I was digging a hole - and causing awful traffic congestion. 6:05pm, Wednesday, 25th April 2012. Picture kindly supplied by David Evans.
If you fancy a good night out, why not give The Brownhills Musical Theatre Company a punt? This much-praised group stage beautifully produced, hugely entertaining, award-winning shows. This one looks set to be a real hoot.
hkkj
1st – 5th May 2012 at The LICHFIELD GARRICK
Brownhills Musical Theatre Company is proud to present the one of the funniest shows ever to be staged on Broadway!
Adapted from the 1968 Mel Brooks film, The Producers tells of Max Bialystock, a struggling Broadway impresario who discovers he can make more money from a flop than a hit. With the help of timid accountant Leo Bloom, Bialystock sets about staging the worst play he can find.
Eventually he stumbles upon Springtime for Hitler, “a gay romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden” written by Nazi sympathiser Franz Leibkind.
The pair then hire the worst director in Manhattan: a gay fop named Roger DeBris, who never goes anywhere without his fey partner Carmen Ghia. All that’s left is to raise the money, which Max does by seducing an army of randy old ladies.
With hoofing geriatrics, Nazi arm-band wearing pigeons and a Busby Berkeley pageant featuring goose-stepping stormtroopers, there is something in The Producers guaranteed to offend just about anybody without a funny bone and bring nothing but child-like glee to everyone else!
Such is the level of sustained hilarity and mock outrage you will be laughing long after you have left the theatre!
The Producers is an absolute must see!
BMTC currently have a deal for all tickets booked online – go to www.lichfieldgarrick.com and enter BMTC10 when checking out – this will adjust tickets to £10 each – regardless of performance.
BMTC are always looking forward to welcoming new members, if you’d like to join this award winning theatre group and then call Jamie Norgrove on 07850 329462 for details.
The story was discussed on Birmingham Cyclist, and other forums. Readers of my blog commented, and were shocked, and as a result of a publicity push over social media, including Facebook, the police now seem to be revising their position. It’s very early days and I don’t want to jinx anything but it’s certainly looking better than before. I do hope the single person on Facebook who noted that they’d rather we shut up has learned something now. This is an example of the local online community uniting around a local issue and making its feelings felt. West Midlands Police – and indeed any other public-facing organisation – would do well to take note. The times have changed, and public relations is no longer a one-way medium. The community has a voice and will be heard.
As a result, Linda, Aiden’s partner, was interviewed on the Aidrian Goldberg show on Radio WM, as was Police Superintendent Shaun Russell, who both gave excellent accounts of themselves. You can listen to the recording below.
I’d personally like to thank Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale, for yet again getting involved via twitter and weathering the storm, as well as all those who got involved. Thank you, folks.
Reader Mike Hawes requested that I do the Google Earth overlay trick with last weekend’s Aldridge Northwest 1914 map, so I’ve done just that. This was a very difficult one to align, as something seems erroneous about the drafting of the canal to the south west. I suspect either drafting error, or an imaging distortion. Since so much has changed under this map, it’s a bugger to line up anyway. Trust no apparent correlation between surface features and draft to be accurate, or be an verbatim depiction of what lay where. Having said that, it should be accurate to 5m or so.
You can download a copy of the overlay (7.1Mb) for use within Google Earh by clicking on the link below…
The overlay applied in Google Earth. By downloading the overlay, transparency of it can be adjusted. Click for a larger version.
There are instructions on how to use overlays like this one in my previous post “Mapping the past’. Note that you can also use this file as a basemap in most modern, mapping handheld Garmin GPS units – GPSmap 62 series, Colorado, Oregon, Dakota etc. Again, I can’t guarantee accuracy, but it shouldn’t be too bad. Just take care not to fall into the canal whilst using it…
I note with interest that someone appears to be listening down at Chasewater. Earlier in the month, I complained about the new anti-vehicle barrier erected on the dam road to prevent cars pulling down into the canal basin and Nine-Foot Lay-by.Whilst I support this barrier – it makes absolute sense, as anti-social behaviour was an issue here previously – I railed at the fact that the barrel-and-post improvisation had been made in such a way that it rendered passage by cyclists very difficult. Those not knowing of the barrier would be forced to go all the way back and use the dam path, potentially causing conflict with pedestrians.
Thankfully, someone with a hacksaw has spotted the problem and lopped the extended bar off, which is excellent. I’m not arrogant enough to think it was because of this blog, but it’s nice to see the rangers and powers that be listening to park users who ave been complaining about this bitterly.
I’m not sure if the other issue raised in that post has been sorted – the gravel repair the the trail on the north heath – but I hope so. I haven’t been that way for a week or so and it was just too wet to be slithering over the north heath last night.
To the people responsible for this sensible and considerate modification, I say thank you. It’s what was needed. Cheers.
Sense prevails. How the barrier looked last night, 22nd April 2012. Someone - I Presume the park rangers - have cut the extended pole from the side of this barrel so folk on bikes can get round. Spiffing job.
How the barrier looked on the 7th April 2012. Note the long protruding pole either side.
I first published this post on April 23rd, 2010. I’ve modified it slightly, but I feel I can’t write this any differently now, to how I did then. Remember, no rights you have as a British citizen were given to you. Our ancestors had to fight for every single concession we have. That fight is the spirit of this country. Please do play the video and check out the artist’s work. I think people like Pete ‘Pedro’ Cutler in particular will understand where i’m coming from with the kinder scout thing.
Today, 23rd April 2012, is, as I’m sure you’re aware, Saint George’s day. Now I’ve always felt that it has never really been in the nature of the English or by extension, the British, to wave flags and do the public patriotism thing. It’s just not our way – traditionally, we Brits have generally been an understated bunch. In recent years, it seems there’s a movement toward a more public celebration of nationality and Englishness, which I welcome. It’s good to see Saint George reclaimed from the extremists and those that strive to divide, and placed securely back in the hands of the ordinary people.
What readers may not realise is that the day following, Tuesday 24th April 2012, is the 80th anniversary of the Mass Trespass on Kinder Scout, in Derbyshire’s Peak District. This momentous event – little mentioned outside the circles of ramblers and lovers of the great British outdoors – was a catalyst and key trigger to giving the ordinary British citizen access to the common wealth of countryside we all share. For that which we now have a legal right to explore and enjoy, back in 1932, those pioneers were assaulted and later jailed for nothing more than wanting to share the best that their country had to offer, with those who saw the landscape as their own private playground. To those trespassers – and the subsequent millions of walkers, artists, cyclists, twitchers, fell runners, photographers, geocachers, botanists and all-round enthusiasts for our unique land who have marvelled at the wonders of the country around them – you are the spirit of England and the United Kingdom.
Is there anywhere finer? Staffordshire's Roaches, from Morridge, Saturday, 15th September 2007.
My feelings about England and all that Saint George stuff have been wonderfully summed up by a song I first heard on the ‘A Quiet Eye’ album by June Tabor. Written by Maggie Holland, June does an excellent job of covering this song, full of incisive, but affectionate sentiment about our shared heritage. It’s not the first time I’ve dipped into the work of June Tabor for a blog post, nor indeed this album. If you like it, please do hunt it down.
Remember that many of the rights we take for granted today were obtained through the selfless sacrifice of others. Beware of anybody who clings to the national flag and preaches division. We’ve always seen the best of times when we stand together. I think Maggie Holland summed it up in the line, ‘England is not flag or Empire, it is not money it is not blood. It’s limestone gorge and granite fell, It’s Wealden clay and Severn mud.’
Best wishes to all, and happy Saint George’s day.
(Sadly, June Tabor’s version is no longer available on youtube, but this version – by Simon Jackson – joyous)
A Place Called England I rode out on a bright May morningLike a hero in a songLooking for a place called EnglandTrying to find where I belongCouldn’t find the old flood meadowOr the house that I once knewNo trace of the little riverOr the garden where I grew I saw town and I saw countryMotorway and sink estateRich man in his rolling acresPoor man still outside the gateRetail park and burger kingdomPrairie field and factory farmRun by men who think that England’sOnly a place to park their car But as the train pulled from the stationThrough the wastelands of despairFrom the corner of my eyeA brightness filled the filthy airSomeone’s grown a patch of sunflowersThough the soil is sooty blackMarigolds and a few tomatoesRight beside the railway track Down behind the terraced housesIn between the concrete towersCompost heaps and scarlet runnersSecret gardens full of flowersMeeta grows her scented rosesRight beneath the big jet’s pathThey bid a fortune for her gardenEileen turns away and laughs So rise up George and wake up ArthurTime to rouse out from your sleepDeck the horse in the sea-green ribbonsDrag the old sword from the deepHold the line for Dave and DanielAs they tunnel through the clayWhile the oak in all its glorySoaks up sun for one more day And come all you at home with freedomWhatever the land that gave you birthThere’s room for you both root and branchAs long as you love the English earthRoom for vole and room for orchidRoom for all to grow and thriveJust less room for the fat landownerOn his arse in his four-wheel drive England is not flag or EmpireIt is not money it is not bloodIt’s limestone gorge and granite fellIt’s Wealden clay and Severn mudIt’s blackbird singing from the may-treeLark ascending through the scalesRobin watching from your spadeAnd English earth beneath your nails So here’s two cheers for a place called EnglandSore abused but not yet deadA Mr. Harding sort of EnglandHanging in there by a threadHere’s two cheers for the crazy DiggersNow their hour shall come aroundWe can plant the seed they saved usCommon wealth and common ground
Today I learned something rather disturbing. It seems that despite the new-media gloss, sheen of approachability, and constant boasts about falling crime, West Midlands Police can no longer be trusted by cyclists to investigate accidents involving them. The tale I will relate here is outrageous, and I’m shocked to the core.
I am disgusted by this, and include Aiden’s latest blog post on the matter below. Even when Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale was pulled in via twitter, there was a reluctance to act. I can only conclude that our local police force don’t care for the safety and security of cyclists like us, and are much more interested in delaying tactics, prevarication and any course which will cause recorded crime to drop. As we’ve seen before, West Midlands Police seem to present a very caring and publicly engaged face to social media, but continually fall down when it comes down to translating that into action.
In car collisions, we cyclists rarely come off well.
Aiden wrote today:
96/365 a travesty of justice by WEST MIDLANDS POLICE
As everyone knows I had an accident on the 1st March coming home from work. As everyone knows the Police weren’t interested and refused to attend or even talk to me until the intervention of Marcus Beale ACC for WM Police. They reluctantly dragged their feet throughout, broke promises left, right and centre. Pushed me from pillar to post and finally interviewed the driver five weeks after the accident.
All bad enough, however the long awaited decision by the Police has arrived and I am to blame, partially but irrespective of that, they actually believe as does the whole of the Investigating officer’s superiors.
Quite how am I to blame. Forgive me if I bang the keyboard too hard.
I was travelling at 20 -25 mph. so therefore 5 – 10 miles per hour below the speed limit.
It was getting dark, well it may have been I didn’t choose the time to go home. It wasn’t lighting up time and I had my lights on.
The driver’s view was obscured, even though he stopped in the middle of the bus lane. Fortunately for him I wasn’t a bus then.
I was 12 feet from the car when he overshot the junction from a side road into the main road. Therefore I could have braked.
Ok. For a start how is his overshooting the junction my fault. He shouldn’t have been there for me to HAVE TO AVOID.
Secondly take a look at 12 feet for a moment. About the length of most people’s living rooms. At a speed of 20 to 25 mph, is it reasonable to expect me to brake?
Is it even actually reasonable to expect me to react?? Of course it isn’t. The fact I managed to react and decide that I couldn’t brake and try and avoid him should have been commended not used against me.
So let us cut to the crux of the matter… The driver filed an accident report to his own insurers stating I wasn’t to blame. I have that letter. Yet the police arrived at a different conclusion. Five weeks later, probably at the sight of a copper on the doorstep he may have mitigated the causes. He couldn’t claim my speed was to blame, otherwise his decision to pull out would be dangerous driving. “He was going way too fast so I pulled out on him to teach him a lesson”. That doesn’t sound right does it?
So he would have said he didn’t see me. How is that my fault?. I took every step to ensure I was visible to other road users.
He may have said his vision was impaired. However he must have seen the junction he overshot? Whatever problems he may have encountered on the main road were after he failed to stop. Again, how could this be my fault? It can’t.
We pushed the Police to investigate. They didn’t want to, in fact the refused to do so. I didn’t want revenge or punishment. How many times did I say this? Enough for someone to understand I didn’t want revenge or punishment. I only wanted it recorded he was at fault. And yet the findings of my protectors are that I was at fault. It is hard to put into words the, anger, the disappointment, frustration and the sheer bloody INJUSTICE of this episode.
I hope that no one else finds themselves in need of the Police as they can’t even put the facts together and come out with a half decent conclusion.
He failed to stop at a junction. He was joining a main road from a side road. He failed to observe the traffic and he caused the accident.
How can I have any control over his actions? Therefore how can I be partially responsible?
The Police, have failed me. They were odds on for failing me from the start. But it isn’t only me they have failed. As the most frail of road users, we need protecting. A clear message needs sending out to other road users that we DO have a RIGHT to be ON THE SAME ROADS and that justice will be served if you hurt one.
This is my belief. The Police reluctantly responded because their Assistant Chief Constable goes on Twitter. They really didn’t investigate anything. They didn’t even read my statement. They don’t have to prove what they did, they won’t be held accountable as I was “only a cyclist” I had the sheer bloody audacity to be on the same road as road tax payers and worst still I was batting on a bit.
It is also my belief that the POLICE TAUGHT ME A LESSON, they never wanted to investigate and HAVE PUNISHED ME for making them do so. There you are, the Police are better than you. Car drivers are better than you. Don’t DARE REPORT ANYTHING so that their figures will look great and their ACC CAN TWITTER ABOUT WHAT A GREAT JOB THEY ARE DOING.
Thanks for nothing, in fact thanks for less than nothing.
They show a rapidly expanding Aldridge, with a huge and growing area of collieries, brickworks and marl pits to the north, and a complex railway infrastructure. The current arterial road of Northgate had yet to be built and would run, as it does today, to the west of Leighs Wood.
1:2,500 scale 1884 draft of Aldridge northwest. This is a digitally archived copy, so should be accurate if overlaid on Google Earth. Download a high quality version from the links below.
You can download copies of the above map at high resolution below. They’re quite large, so patience will be required on slow connections.
1:2,500 scale 1914 draft of Aldridge northwest. This is a digitally archived copy, so should be accurate if overlaid on Google Earth. Download a high quality version from the links below.
You can download copies of the above map at high resolution below. They’re quite large, so patience will be required on slow connections.
See that peace and quiet? It would be nice if we could keep it that way. Cheers.
From the Lichfield Mercury, Friday, 19th April 2012. Click for a larger version.
After the miasma of all the official ‘Dam works are complete, it’s good news week’ press releases, I was wryly amused to spot this letter in the Lichfield Mercury this week. the dust has barely settled on the Chasewater dam works, the contractor’s teapot barely gone cold, and motorists are already whinging about not being able to drive along the dam and access the southern car park. Well, I’ve got news for them: I sincerely hope they never will, as they have been prevented from so doing for many years.
For most of the period Chasewater has been ascribed a ‘Country Park’, the dam road was effectively a dead-end. The track at the north end to Paviors Road was barely passable and not much would risk coming further than the access to the Sailing Club. Unfortunately. that situation changed with the opening of the new Burntwood Bypass in 2005, which improved road connections to the sailing club and the dam road. Cars began to use the route, and created such nuisance that the way was eventually blocked with a sturdy metal gate, exactly as it is now – a good couple of years before the dam work commenced, to prevent this.
The road in question has just reopened to foot, cycle and residential traffic. During the day, and especially at weekend, it’s crowded with people taking the air with family and children free to wander, the last thing we need is motorists in the mix. It takes barely five minutes to drive round and use the Pool Road/Watling Street entrance, so what’s the problem?
Alternatively, peeved motorists like Mr. Thompson could consider parking in Church road by the Football Club, and actually walking over the dam. Here, they could no doubt take in the fresh air, fascinating wildlife and engaging company of fellow park users. Of course, the flaw in this is that it may inadvertently lead to the taking of unnecessary exercise, but I’m informed it’s not deadly.
There are a few technical points with this peevish, petty missive I’d like to take issue with. The road surface – relaid for only a short section over the new bridge and Nine-Foot heath access – is the minimum necessary. It’s not generally heavy duty, as can be seen by the lack of edge-sealing and general texture. Secondly, the rest of the road surface has only been patched and is still quite poor.
Further, I’d tenure we’d contributed to this ‘tremendous cost’ to preserve the park and it’s environs, not to enable the unthinking and careless to destroy the peace and ecology with their vehicles. I realise having to visit Brownhills from the lofty ambience of Chase Terrace must be awfully unpleasant, but we promise not to steal Mr. Thompson’s wheels while he’s waiting at the A5 traffic lights. Keeping his arms inside the vehicle will also prevent the theft of his watch. Hand signals are therefore not advised.
We’ve just got Chasewater back, I hope sense continues and we don’t lose it again to those who begrudge the small inconvenience of having to take a slightly longer journey to get there.
Motorway quality? Sir, you jest, surely. In short, bugger off, you're not welcome on this road.
The Fortunes of War/The Pier Hotel/Inn in it’s final days. From the wonderful book ‘Memories of Brownhills Past’ by Clarice Mayo and Geoff harrington.
Brian had this to say:
Hi Bob,
Some of your older blog readers may be interested in this letter I came across when doing some research for my next book.
I spoke to Billy Horobin who as a child lived along the spot path, and he told me that he heard somewhere that the Pub at the bottom of Pier St known as the Pier Hotel was once called the FORTUNE OF WAR. Looking through some papers I came across this and thought you might be interested. Thanks are in order to Mr H Williams. I can’t make out the name of Ind Coopes District manager.
Cheers
Brian
Brian included this photo of a 1956 letter, from Ind Coope, the brewery, to a Mr. H Williams, relating to the pub. It seems the name changed between 1885 and 1889:
Image courtesy of Brian Stinger. Click for a larger version.
THE CLAYHANGER KID – Will there be a Volume 2 ? It may depend on YOU!
Brian Stringer has said……
‘I NEVER realised, when I wrote my first book The Clayhanger Kid, the impact it would have on many readers. To me Clayhanger was always a wonderful place for children to grow up, despite the few photographs taken in my day showing a grim and flooded landscape dominated by pit mounds and a refuse tip.
To me and the rest of my peers the reality was very different, with an abundance of positive features. Our own school, church, chapel, farm, three shops, pub, thriving workingmen’s club and our own bobby, with the icing on the cake being one of the best parks in the area.
Our three streets were surrounded by a large triangle of railways plus a canal on two sides. Each street was backed by acres of fields, both farmed, open wetland or common.
It was only through talking to readers of my book, that I began to sense the depth of feeling for the old place and the reverence it still held in their hearts. Someone told me that, given the chance, they would choose to be buried there because they would be back home. No one derides it, only related fond memories, and all agreed that it was a unique and special place.
I knew then I had to do a sequel, still about Clayhanger but this time not all about me, but through the eyes of others. I could even cover teenage years and spread farther afield as long as we didn’t stray too far and kept to those times.
So now I would appreciate your help in gathering material for a new book. If you lived in Clayhanger or Brownhills, went to Ogley Hay Juniors, Brownhills Central or the Girls School, or you have any tales to tell of the ‘40s no matter how insignificant you think they may be, please contact me via bestring@hotmail.co.uk. It may be funny, sad, or even a bit of history and if you want to remain anonymous that’s ok by me.’
An 1876 'Inclosure' map of Walsall Wood and parts of Brownhills, Shelfield and High Heath. See below for download links.
Top local history technician [Howmuch?] has been working on this beauty for a while now. It’s an ‘Inclosure’ map of Walsall Wood, dating from, I believe, 1876. This will be of interest, no doubt, to the Walsall Wood Wallahs like Davids Evans and Oakley, but also to people from Shelfield, Brownhills and High Heath. It’s not an accurate map geographically – it was made and used for legal purposes only, and shows property ownership. It’s a thing of great beauty and interest, and many of the names contained within it will be familiar to readers here. I featured a fragment of it a few weeks ago in the post ‘Where the Streets have a name‘. An awful lot of personal effort has been put in by [Howmuch?] into cleaning and presenting this map. He’s every bit the star and this blog would be a shambles without him.
Cheers old chap.
You can download high quality versions of this map at the following two links:
I have put an “e” on the end of Aldershaw and the first thing I came up with was the above. I was quite taken aback.
A quiet Ceremony my arse!
The recent family bereavement was probably the death of WB Harrison in 1912.
Am I reading this correctly? Did they really receive all those presents?
I have now quite a lot of knowledge of how George Kynoch treated his employers, but not yet about the Harrison family. I have a feeling they should be exposed!
Angered of Wolverhampton!
I’m 100% with Peter on this. One of the things forgotten when many people talk of the ‘good old days’ and ‘when Britain was great’ is that it became so on the backs of a subjugated empire and working class. It was great for a rich minority. The rest of the population had to fight for every single concession – education, the vote, equal rights, access to the land, social welfare, the social state, healthcare.
These people held the reigns. They did not let go without a fight. Thanks to Peter for keeping this fact alive in our minds with his exacting and thorough research.
Just a note – the clip is legible, just. Click on it to zoom in. I really hadn’t time to transcribe it, but it bears close study. There are some familiar names there, too, to local history buffs.
This has shown me how disconnected memory can be. David found this photo, and very specifically dates in as 12th September, 1982. I can remember it being reported on Beacon Radio as a mine collapse, fairly sure it was a Monday, because I wanted to go look but it was a school day. I remember walking down here with the canal drained on a snowy, grey winter’s day, so it was clearly dry for a long time after. Picture courtesy David Hodgkinson.
Digging through his archives, David has located a series of photos and a sketch made after the incident, and some later during the reparations. He is also able to date the occurrence to sometime around the 12th September 1982 – almost 30 years ago. That any material from this work survives is remarkable, let alone this veritable treasure trove. Readers of this blog and my fellow Brownhillians never cease to amaze me.
All I remember of the incident was hearing reports on Beacon Radio’s lunchtime show, when home from school for dinner, saying a mine collapse had happened and the canal had burst onto farmland. I wanted to go and look, but had to go back to school. I remember that evening, it was light (so not in the winter as I falsely recalled) and men in waders were collecting floundering fish from the mud of the canal near the Anchor bridge. I’d never seen so many fish. I think, to be honest, they were being taken illegally, as they were loaded into vans. I also remember crayfish struggling in the black mud.
I recall walking past the works on a winters snowy day sometime – must have been winter of 82-83, and the work was still ongoing. You can, of course, still see the length of rebuilt canal – it narrows slightly and has different bank construction.
I can now see a further reason for the creation of the new storm drain at Chasewater – it may have been to reduce incidental load on the canal. It’s possible, I guess, that if Chasewater had recently overflowed, that the existing overflow system on the canal itself into the Crane Brook had not been able to dissipate the surge quickly, and caused loading further down. I have no evidence for this, it’s pure speculation.
David sent the following message:
Dear Brownhills Bob,
I have found a few photos of the rebuilding of the canal after the leak. These were taken August 1983. There were three or four actual cave-ins covering both sides of the canal, in a line crossing at an angle. I thought that the problem was put down to mine workings but can’t remember any more at the moment. I may have some cuttings from the local papers of the time if I can find them.
I have done some scans of the prints from a not very good 35MM camera (I thought it was wonderful at the time but looking back cheap camera and cheap processing equals fuzzy results). I have scanned at 600dpi.
(I am now looking for a photo I took of the actual breach at the back of the school.)
All the best,
David Hodgkinson
PS – Are you allowed to use “Mum” in Brownhills! I search high and low to find birthday cards using “Mom” (but I’ve got nothing better to do with my time!)
I say, that old Mom/Mum question is a linguistic nightmare. Prepare for comment incoming!
And then…
Dear Bob,
I have found the photo taken on 12 September 1982 that would have been soon after the breach occurred. I have not found a picture of any of the other nearby collapses.
Taken with a Kodak 126 Film Instamatic so square photo.
David
So finally…
Remarkably, David also found this sketch of the layout of the breaches and sinks. People never cease to astound – for me, this was all a hazy memory. Original sketch by David Hodgkinson.
Dear Bob,
I have found my note from 12 Sept 1982. At the time I marked three cave-ins as shown on the sketch. One at the back of the school field, one on the towpath and one in the farmland beyond.
From the photos it looks as if the canal was being pumped out just before the junction with the Rushall branch and although blocked at Lichfield Road (Anglesey Bridge) was in low water all the way back to Chasewater.
Yet again I can’t remember the exact details. I think in court it’s called “Not A Credible Witness”!
David
David, I can assure you, you’re a wonderful witness, and thanks for adding so much history to the blog. Cheers, you’ll always have a beer in with me, old chap.
It was clearly still late summer when these pictures were taken. Up the bank to the right would be the old Anchor Inn. Picture kindly supplied by David Hodgkinson.
This is the narrows at the back of Chandler’s Keep – then a plant hire yard and auto repair business. The canal was dammed here by dumping a pile of clay as a dam. Again, I think site safety would have something to say about that today. For many, it’ll bring back memories of just how grim that bit of the cut was back then. Picture kindly supplied by David Hodgkinson.
This is Qwikform shuttering, as produced up the canal in Aldrdge at RMD. Note the old bank and remains of Brawn’s Wood on Lanes Farm in the distance.Picture kindly scanned by David Hodgkinson.
This was some project, and must have been planned and executed on the hoof. Costly, too, I’d wager, in a time of little public funding. Image donated by David Hodgkinson.
A less successful dam near Anglesey Bridge. Some vies never change. Picture supplied by David Hodgkinson.
David seems to have had fairly open access to the worksite – how different to how it would be today. Those vehicles bring back some memories. Another great capture by David Hodgkinson.
For those confused about the electricity pylon, we had a line of these run over what is now Clayhanger Common, next to the flats and over the fields to Lichfield. They were rendered redundant, along with a large substation in Clayhanger, by the installation of new underground cables in North Walsall, and a new distribution compound in Cartbridge Lane South. The pylons were subsequently removed. Picture donated by David Hodgkinson.
Might be best if you don’t mention my name, my mom might be reading… 🙂
When I was a young bad lad we used to go down the tunnels by Chasewater, there are actually two chambers from what I can remember, the larger one just under the canal and a smaller one towards the far end of the tunnel, by the new road. There used to be a manhole cover just above the smaller chamber and there was a ladder and came up in the heath land.
I’m not sure where this cover would be now as the landscape has changed so much with the building of the new road.
We used to access the tunnel via the route you took or under what we called ‘the grids’ , the canal over flow on the opposite side, a real challenge to access the tunnels without getting wet.
The thing that you may be really interested in is that there was a story that the old mines could be accessed from the tunnels, there was supposed to be a drain cover within the one chambers that lead down to the mines. May well have been few over imaginative young minds, but I’ve always wondered if it was true.
The new tunnels were built in the mid-late 1980’s, I guess following the canal breach near the Anchor Bridge.
Really would be interested to know more about this incident, was just a vague memory of the canal bank bursting just north of the anchor and flooding large area of farmland.
Hi there! I do remember the canal bursting at Lane’s Farm, just where the Sandhills Arm would have been. We’ve speculated in the past, and [Howmuch?] reckons the bank gave way because of a weakness in the cutting off of the disused, dry arm. However, your suggestion that the work at Chasewater’s spillway to install new storm drains was actually at that time suggests it may have been caused by storm loading on the canal. Interesting.
Does anyone have a date for this event? If so, we can probably find news reports. I’m thinking about 1981. Winter, maybe January or February. All contributions welcome.
I think it’s unlikely that the mines were accessible from the storm drain – any such hatch would create a weakness in the system, and the history doesn’t really support this. More on that in a subsequent post. Stay tuned…
On February 5th 2012, I posted about the awful state of drainage on the High Street/Chester Road near Knaves Court in Brownhills. It only takes a small amount of rain for huge pools of standing water to develop just by the pedestrian crossing. These pools are large, can stretch right across the road and are very deep at the gutters. Passing traffic splashes water continuously over the entrance canopy and doorway to the old folk’s home, and drenches passing pedestrians. This really is unacceptable.
ENQUIRY from Bob – Brownhillsbob blog – logged on 06/02/12 13:50 – deadline – 06/02/12 00:00
The problem is that it only takes a small amount of rainfall for large pools of standing water to gather in the gutters at either side of the High Street, just by the pedestrian crossing in front of Knaves Court. I’d like to ask Walsall Council when they intend to do something about this.
RESPONSE
We will look into the problem and get the gullies cleaned.
Glyn Oliver, Services Manager
For further information please contact: Steve Sharma on 01922 653573
sharmasteve at walsall.gov
[#PE-10582:634641420094432500#]
Over ten weeks later, and the problem persists. It has been going on for years. Is anyone, anywhere, going to take ownership of this mess and sort it out? I’ve noted the problems before with drain clearance in Walsall, and lay the blame squarely with Tarmac, the contractors who are responsible for roads maintenance in Walsall. I’m sure the jobs are getting passed on, but they just will not seem to carry them out. Tonight, after a moderate shower, the A461 at Sandhills had a river in the northbound gutter.
If by a remote chance any Brownhills Councillor is reading this, please take up the issue – it’s a menace to pedestrians, and causes vehicles to swerve into the road.This could buy you some brownie points before the election. Is this really the image of Walsall’s roads we want to be conveying?
The staff and residents of Knaves Court must be thoroughly fed up with this.
Come on in, the water's lovely. Rumours that lost Vietnamese Boat People were found here last month have proven unfounded.
Before I start, I’d like to point out that this investigation was conducted by two people – myself and [Howmuch?]. We are both sensible (well, usually) adults and have experience of, and training for, confined spaces. Entering such environments – and storm drains in particular – is a dangerous thing to do. I advise nobody to do it. Water can enter at a moments notice, there can be sudden drops, trips and gas hazards. What we did here, we undertook at our own risk, and in the full knowledge that we were trespassing and could well get into difficulty. Doing so without training, the correct equipment or suitable permission is dangerous, stupid and nobody should do it.
Since this blog started, there’s been a huge interest in Chasewater, and it’s dam. The reservoir was built as Norton Pool in the late 1700’s to feed the canal network. It’s worth thinking about this for a while, as it’s quite a concept, and one often lost on the casual observer. The canal system through the towns of the northern Black Country is almost exclusively fed by the 144m O.D. level of the Wolverhampton canal network, which runs from Horseley Junction, all the way through the suburbs of Worverhampton eastwards to Bloxwich and Brownhills in the form of the Wyrley and Essington canal. There is no canal linked to this that is higher – so where this contour canal transitioned to other waterways, downhill locks were employed. There were 30 alone on the Lichfield and Hatherton, for a start. Then there are locks at Longwood, Aldridge, At Birchills in Walsall, and several complex series at Wolverhapton. Every time a boat uses a lock, water is lost downhill. A busy canal, operating as the freight motorway of it’s day, would see huge water consumption.
Google Earth aerial imagery with annotations as to the drainage arrangements of the spillway. Click for a larger version.
Water was precious, and Norton Pool was built to feed the canal’s voracious thirst. Over the years, the reservoir has been fed by the Crane Brook from the north (as it always has been), and has seen some water pumped into it from nearby mines. Water also seems to have been recovered from the canal at times when the level was high, and following an enquiry rom fellow Brownhills historian Dave Fellows, Chasewater Wildlife Group head honcho Graham Evans has discussed the nature of the pumping and feed arrangement last year. I’m now fairly sure water was being pumped from the coal mines on Brownhills Common into the Slough Arm. I think a mine owner may even have charged for this supply, although I can’t place where I got that impression. Together with other such sources of what would certainly have been very foul water, these contributed to the general canal supply. When the water was at a high level, it appears to have been pumped back from the canal into the Nine Foot Pool (so called because of the measuring scale erected in it). The Nine Foot is the pool on the Canal side of the dam, at the beginning of the spillway basin, designed to take the flow should the reservoir overflow. The spillway in general seems certainly to be as old as Chasewater itself, although alterations and strengthening seem to have taken place in the late Victorian period.
Ornance Survey mapping of 1902 showing the area in surprising detail. Note the 'Basin' - now dry - is marked full of water, possibly contained by the market sluices.
On Sunday last, after talking about the site for months previously, myself and top local history ferret [Howmuch?] decided to investigate the spillway, and it’s interesting drainage arrangements. To do this, we decided to enter the culverts to see where they went. On the way, we noticed some intriguing things about the civil engineering, and some pointers to the history. Much of this has already been suggested by the wonderful Andy Dennis.
We noted:
The current state of the spillway basin between Nine-Foot and the old sluice gates is stepped in profile on one side rather than a plain trough shape. We think this may be due to sediment dredging.
In Google Earth, and on the ground, the land within is darker. We’re thinking this is due to sedimentation from the filthy canal water it would have contained.
We’re wondering if the canal water was pumped into the basin to settle out before possibly being allowed to flow back into the main body of Norton Pool.
We have no direct evidence of that, just a hunch.
The top of the sluice seems to have had lock-style gates. We feel that water probably was retained by them, and they therefore sealed like lock gates.
The culverts on either side acted as a level control for the basin, but maybe a drain, too, depending on the location of the upper portals which are now buried.
The new storm drain seems to have been built any time from mid-1960’s to the late 1970’s. It’s a classic Reinforced Concrete Pipe (RCP) design.
The storm drain runs under the brickwork sluice, under the canal and heath, and emerges on the north of the new bypass as the continuation of the Crane Brook.
We think it was built to avoid possibly contaminated washdown or runoff water from the old spillway basin contaminating the then improving canal water.
The above seems daft but it’s all we can think.
We’re wondering how it was all constructed, and if anyone has dates or photos. In places the brickwork in the sluice seems to have been disturbed and regrouted.
The brick sluice is probably now redundant, although in heavy flow conditions I wonder if the basin would backfill as a buffer?
I chose to enter the right hand culvert. About 24″ diameter. Don’t do it kids – it’s messy, uncomfortable and dangerous.
The culvert cuves gently and travels up the slope. The brickwork is in excellent condition. Not a tight fit, but not comfortable.
It seems about 6-8m to the top. As one nears the apex, the channel gets wetter and the debris gets uncomfortable on the belly.
Eventually, there’s a chamber at the peak. I think it’s fairly evident that this held a drop-paddle sluice gate.
On the far side of the gate chamber is a semicircular culvert, too small to enter, the brickwork forming a perfect lip.
Looking upwards to ground level above the chamber. The top is blocked with planks or slabs, and there are guide rails and a control channel for the gate mechanism.
Coming out is a long journey. At the dry section, I turned over and came down on my backside. The air was stale and I was glad to get out.
The upper main sluice gate post. These, we think, were like lock gates and retained a permanent pool in the spillway basin. The portal to the semicircular culvert is somewhere just to the right in the brickwork – the masonry is falling away due to the cavity below.
The culverts are identical both sides. At some point in the last few decades, a storm drain was installed beneath this system. I’m interested in how that was built.
The entrance to the storm drain, below the brick spillway. I only noticed this recently, with the help of an old hand. Made of 5 foot diameter RCP, it’s walkable with care.
The complex and modern canal overflow is part of the ‘new’ system, the overflow itself being slightly to the side of the drain culvert beneath, which is central to the brick sluice, as indicated by access covers.
There’s an access cover at the foot of the brick sluice, central to it. It’s about 2 foot 6 inches diameter and is bolted down securely – presumably to prevent heavy flow from blowing through it.
Similar access covers exist beyond the overflow on the far side of the canal. Someone has been here recently – possibly when the canal was drained to rescuer the dredger.
Back on top, entering the new drain, it’s reasonably airy and dry in the upper area.
After the treacherous downhill of the section under the brick sluice, there’s an access chamber leading to it’s foot.
The tunnel becomes damp and the air stale under the canal, before opening into a very large chamber with a sudden drop. Here, the canal overflow ethers the system from above right. I suspect this is designed to buffer heavy flow. Here, you can hear road noise from the bypass.
Without a rope, I turned back at the overflow chamber – it was a fair drop down and I didn’t want to risk getting stuck.
We found the northern portal – the Crane Brook, effectively – just on the north of the new embankment on the south of the bypass. From here, it winds round the road system before heading toward Stonnall.
Looks like a good day, apologies again to everyone affected by us having to shut down the A5 just at the same time that everyone was wanting to use that very stretch of road to get to the show itself. There’d been a fairly serious crash but hopefully everyone was able to find their way around and enjoyed the event.
This should serve as a reminder to all: lets be careful out there. The roads are mental sometimes. My sympathies to the bereaved and a hearty ‘get well soon’ everyone hurt in yesterday’s accidents.
From the Express & Star website, Monday, April 16th 2012. Click to visit the original article.
You know what the trouble with modern cars is? No vinyl bench front seats. Cram a beleaguered father in one end, and four kids, a small, yappy dog and a bag of sticky, aged pear drops and we're off to Rhyl. No messing. You just don't get that with a Ford Focus.
Well, the day came, and as I always do I pottered up to Chasewater to kick a few tyres, dream a few dreams and ponder over the cars of my youth. I love the Chasewater Transport Show, and as ever, Helen Borton and co. put on a wonderful event. There was the usual array or old, forgotten and beautiful motors, and utility vehicles ranging from the Green Goddess to an old Chase Coach. There were a huge variety of cars, motorbikes, trucks and even bicycles.
I drooled over some old Raleigh choppers, and remembered the rides as a kid in an old Zephyr, children wedged into the bench front seat. I marvelled at the immaculate restorations and loving care lavished on otherwise once mundane cars, now rendered classics. The south shore of Chasewater thronged with people. The weather was good, despite a cold wind, and Brownhills seemed to be having a good time.
I implore Helen to bring the show back to Chasewater next year, although I could understand why she might not do so, with the trouble she’s experienced this year. Today, the park was alive with people. I met good friends with every turn, watched folk exploring not just the show, but the whole place. The dam was open and busy, and people seemed to be really engaging with the surroundings.
A fine day. Loved every minute. Even though I spent most of the afternoon in a drain. More of that later…
I was so tempted to buy this as a project. Very tempted indeed...
This was Jenny’s home, in fact. It was also the cottage which suffered extensive damage from the bomb blast. Readers may remember that one dear soul refused to take cover in the celler… and the false alarm proved to be something quite different that night!
with kind regards
David
Well I'm stumped. Anyone know the exact location of this compact and bijou residence? Picture kindly supplied by David Evans.
This wonderful creature was a family pet and lived in one of the large local gardens. He had a fine life, good pasture, the merry song of the birds in his accommodating garden paddock. He thrived and enjoyed the companionship of attentive and caring owners, but , most of all, he had lashings of good fodder every day.
However, one dark winter’s evening he discovered that the gate had been left slightly open, and in the rapidly thickening fog he ventured and became lost. Temporarily, that is.
A local neighbour in his shiny new Mini Estate car was inching his way down the road in the thick fog, returning home after a day at work and with the new roses he hoped to plant in his front garden that week-end. Fortunately he was travelling very slowly, but, as it turned out, not slowly enough. The front of the car and the rear of the poor lost donkey suddenly “came into contact” with each other.
This resulted in the donkey and driver reacting in different ways. The driver slammed his brakes on. The donkey sat down sharply on the car’s bonnet, flattening it, and oh yes, he did something else before he fled the scene and ran away, back to the safety of his paddock from where he never ventured again.
Now whenever I drive past that bungalow I admire the roses in the front garden – and smile. I can only imagine the telephone call the car’s owner made to his insurance company, though.
Freshly mown overspill parking ready and waiting. What more could you ask? Picture by event organiser Helen Borton.
Just a note to remind readers that it’s the Chasewater Transport Show today. After no little controversy, the grass is mown, the turtle wax is out and petrol heads are preparing to descend in their droves on Chasewater Country Park today. It’s always been a cracking day out, so get your backsides over there and take a look… There’s something for everyone, young and old alike. Cars, PSV’s, steam engines, motorbikes, rides, entertainments, stalls, lorries… if it’s got wheels, it’ll be there, from all eras.
If you’re on foot or bicycle and coming from the south, access from the canal is open again following the completion of the dam works, as is foot and cycle traffic across the dam. For drivers, parking is available from the south off Pool Road, with extra overspill mown specially for the occasion. Cheers, John.
Hundreds of classic, vintage and modern vehicles will be on display at the annual Chasewater Transport Show.
The event – which is now in its fourth year – has become a successful and popular event, attracting over 6,000 visitors.
And this year’s show on April 15 promises to be no different with everything from huge commercial vehicles and coaches to motorbikes, military and steam on display.
Chasewater also features spectacular arena events, traditional family entertainment and a live music stage.
Our chosen charity for 2012 is Help for Heroes.
The event has raised thousands for local and national charities including the Midland Air Ambulance, Guide Dogs for the Blind, along with local schools and community groups. This year, Help for Heroes will benefit.
Prospective bog-trotters: this one's for you. Have fun with a shovel and then do the Transport Show afterwards?
The Friends of Norton Bog – the area of wetland lying northeast of Chasewater – are taking a special interest in their particular protected habitat, and are holding their April event this Sunday, 15th April, at 10:00am.
I was contacted by Graham Evens of Chasewater Wildlife Group recently, who pointed out that these work parties are increasingly popular and making a huge difference to the environment of the bog, and anything that encourages community contact with the environment has to be a good thing. When you knock off, what better way to spend the day than take a walk to the south shore and enjoy the Chasewater Transport Show, which is also on all day tomorrow at your favourite country park.
If you’ve nothing better to do on Sunday, this could be the thing for you. Families are welcome. This is a hugely important habitat in our area, and this is a great chance to help manage it for future generations. The chance to chat and learn a bit about it’s incredibly diverse inhabitants from some old hands can’t be a bad way to spend a Sunday morning, either. Meet at the car park on the Burntwood Road. Wear outdoor clothes and be prepared to get a bit grubby.
The dates for 2012 work parties on Norton Bog are as follows:
January 8th, February 12th, March 11th, April 15th, May 13th and June 17th.
All are on Sundays and run from 10:00AM -1:00PM, meeting at the car park on the Burntwood Road (which is the little one with the horses nearby)
Rob Davies, Staffs County Ranger Service – contact number 07855 336 907
Steve Archer, Community Volunteers Project Officer 07817 863303
Linda Florence, Norton Canes Parish Council 01543 276812
Norton Bog is a remarkable wetland habitat bordered with urban development. The importance of such sites cannot be overstated. The Burnwood Road car park is highlighted in red.
This is an interesting newspaper item sent to me by keen reader Ian Bourne. I’m not sure of the date or the newspaper it came from, but it’s certainly around the last war looking and the adjacent adverts before I cropped the image. I’ve never heard this tale before: it’s extraordinarily tragic and just goes to show what odd twists and turns fate can take. Does anyone out there have any further information?
I was reading some old newspapers that Kelly (my missus)’s granddad had lent me a while ago, about the war etc. Then I came across the enclosed story; which tells it’s own story, but poor Ann Green!
Cheers,
Ian
I'm not sure which newspaper or what date, but how very unfortunate. Clipping supplied by Ian Bourne.
Sadly, I’ve been neglecting poor old David Evans recently. He’s working tirelessly in the background, collecting memories, working on a couple of special projects and continually generating new content for readers here on the Brownhills Blog. Of late, things have been a bit manic and I’ve not had time to squeeze in enough of David’s contributions, for which I heartily apologise. David, all your work is very popular and immensely appreciated. It takes a lot to keep this show on the road, and sometimes I have to just drop things in when I can.
Thanks for your understanding on this.
Meanwhile, David has posed a really interesting question. I don’t know the first thing about this, so I’m hoping for a bit of illumination from the old Woodians out there. Not being aWalsall Wood lad myself, the mysteries of the village continue to enthral and delight. Just a thought (and I know nothing, so don’t shoot) it wasn’t a catholic cemetery, was it?
The iconic Walsall Wood photo of David Yates watching the last coal train from the Rabbit Bridge in Vigo Road, also featured on Oakparkrunner's site and scanned originally from 'Memories of Old Walsall Wood' by Bill Mayo and John Sale.
Hi Bob
Marion Fadelle’s local quiz comment about an Irish Cemetery in Walsall Wood raises the question, why was this cemetery called ‘Irish’? This quiet backwater of Walsall Wood has seen some dramatic changes in the last century. The nearby Vigo farm has gone, its land was ‘dug out’ and for many years a huge claypit, one of several, and the adjacent brickworks and chimney stacks were the dominant feature in a spoiled landscape, and what now remains is a landfill site, now completed, and a large mound and methane capture plant which have replaced the once green fields with their crops and cows.
A small post-war emergency estate of pre-fab bungalows stood nearby, in Vigo Terrace. These, too have been demolished and replaced by modern houses.
The above photo, which appears in one of Oakparkunner’s glorious blog articles, shows the view from VIgo Road towards Brookland Road , with the main cemetery to the right. The piece of land there has another cul de sac and retirement bungalows. This was where the Irish Cemetery was. The close is named after one of the Wood’s most respected doctors who lived in nearby Beech Tree Road.
The firelighter’s yard, Powells, which was just down this road, closed down many years ago. People were using gas to heat their homes… Easier and cleaner than coal, I suppose.
But questions still remain. Why was this part of the main cemetery called the ‘Irish’ cemetery? Was it ever used as a cemetery?
kind regards
David
Google Earth 1945 aerial imagery showing Walsall Wood - the newly-built prefabs David mentions are centre. It can be seen that this is a rapidly changing area. Click for a full-size version.
Just a quick heads up; there’s a really interesting article on Lichfield Lore, the wonderful Lichfeldian history site. It poses a question that really deserves wider exposure, so I’d like anyone interested to read the article and contribute. If you have something to add, please post it on the Lichfield site, to keep discussion all in one place. It’s a really interesting story, and has intrigued me greatly.
Please take a look. As ever, my regards to Kate. Lord knows where she finds so much great stuff (OK, Lichfield, but you know what I mean…)
A cracking post from a wonderful blog... what do you know? Click on the screenshot to visit the original post at Lichfield Lore.
I was contacted yesterday by Naomi Jones at Brownhills Library, who asked me if I’d like to publicise their local history appeal for Royal Jubilee year. Whether you’re a royalist or not, the social impact of the royal events – from Coronations to Jubilees, weddings and even births have all had their own community occasions. So please have a look in those family albums and bundles of pictures. Why not ask Gran and Grandad what they might have lurking in their collections? This is all valuable social history, and that’s what it’s all about here on the Brownhills Blog.
Hi BobCould you please mention this in your blog?Share your Royal memories with Brownhills Library.Brownhills Royal fans are invited to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year with Brownhills Library.
If you have any photographs celebrating past Royal events you’d like to share, bring them along to Brownhills Library where staff will copy them and return them to you.
Maybe a school photograph with you and your class mates receiving a specially minted silver jubilee crown piece?
We would love to be able to share your photographs and present them as part of an exhibition that would take place in the library from May 31st – 16th June.
Call into Brownhills Library, Parkview Centre, or call 01922 650730
Just a note to remind readers that it’s the Chasewater Transport Show this weekend. After no little controversy, the grass is mown, the turtle wax is out and petrol heads are preparing to descend in their droves on Chasewater Country Park, on Sunday, 15th April 2012. It’s always been a cracking day out, so get your backsides over there and take a look… There’s something for everyone.
Hundreds of classic, vintage and modern vehicles will be on display at the annual Chasewater Transport Show.
The event – which is now in its fourth year – has become a successful and popular event, attracting over 6,000 visitors.
And this year’s show on April 15 promises to be no different with everything from huge commercial vehicles and coaches to motorbikes, military and steam on display.
Chasewater also features spectacular arena events, traditional family entertainment and a live music stage.
Our chosen charity for 2012 is Help for Heroes.
The event has raised thousands for local and national charities including the Midland Air Ambulance, Guide Dogs for the Blind, along with local schools and community groups. This year, Help for Heroes will benefit.
I’m getting lots of folks looking for why the local rozzers were playing with their whirlybird around midnight last night (11th April 2012). Here’s why:
Another quick look from the dam produced a Little Ringed Plover by the pier and another displaying over the Sailing Shore where 1-2 wind-surfers had parked their cars on the shore well away from the launch site used by the Sailing Club. There needs to be an agreed single access route to the water’s edges, otherwise the plovers will have little chance of success on this shore where at least 4 pairs bred successfully last year. 20 hirundines were over the main lake and 2 Willow Warblers were singing in the Nine-foot Pool area where removal of newt fencing has revealed the presence of several Smooth Newts and an immature Great Crested Newt. A recent night survey also proved the continued presence of the large terrapin that has been seen irregularly for many years (Graham Evans).
Graham, old chap, I know you’re reading this. You know how I love that terrapin. Please fill me in with some more detail… this is just too good to be true!
I’m immediately wondering if this is the same Thacker family as the famous Thacker Barrows…
David says 'Just checked with cousin Cyril. Not sure what the function was, could have been somebodys birthday or a church do. Will ask again tomorrow. Probable date early 1930s before uncle Cyril got married in 1934.'
David had this to say:
Hi Bob
Please find attached a photo of Mr Thacker sitting with his wife to his left, and their family of eight sons. I belive the photo was taken at a friend’s house in Hednesford Road, at a family function, and not at their farm. I am grateful to Mr Cyril Thacker, son of the gentleman seated second from left on the front row, for kindly offering this image to the blog
with kind regards
David
If you have any other information relating to Highfield Farm or the Thacker family in general, both myself and David would only be too happy to hear it. Comment here, or email if you prefer on BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Cheers.
Please, if anyone else has any further recollections or ephemera from this fascinating period in Brownhills history, please don’t hesitate to contact me. BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Cheers.
Thanks to David for the photo and the lovely words.
Hi Bob.
Hope you are well.
I really enjoyed finding your web pages today. As a passionate jazz guitarist and lifelong friend of Paul Degville and his dear Dad and Mom, the information about the Crown was a joy to see (and hear)
I spent many many happy and musical times there in the mid to late 60s and before that at the Wheatsheaf in Walsall, which of course was the jazz guitar ‘mecca’ and where Paul ‘learned the trade’.
Quite a coincidence, it was only last year I came across an ancient photo of myself playing guitar with Paul at the Crown and a rare occasion when Fred played piano for a few numbers. I have attached the photo for you to see and what great musical times we all shared.
As often happens, I lost touch with Paul for many years but last year we contacted each other and spent a great day together going down memory lane and of course playing a few of the ‘old ‘uns’. I hope to see him again in the Summer at his new home in Malvern and knowing him and his Mom and Dad has always been very precious to me.
Take care and I send you my very kind regards
David Danks
Paul Degville and David Danks play together. Picture generously supplied by David Danks.
I’ve received a few requests to do the Google Earth overlay trick with yesterday’s Pelsall North and West Brownhills map, so I’ve done just that. Please bear in mind that this was a scan of a paper map, which is old, and hasn’t been geometrically or geographically corrected, therefore distortions will be present. Trust no apparent correlation between surface features and draft to be accurate, or be an verbatim depiction of what lay where. Having said that, it should be accurate to 10m or so.
I guess I’m just pointing out that if the overlay says there’s a mineshaft under your house, it’s not necessarily the case, and panicking is probably not the answer.
The overlay applied in Google Earth. By downloading the overlay, transparency of it can be adjusted. Click for a larger version.
You can download a copy of the overlay (2.65Mb) for use within Google Earh by clicking on the link below…
There are instructions on how to use overlays like this one in my previous post “Mapping the past’. Note that you can also use this file as a basemap in most modern, mapping handheld Garmin GPS units – GPSmap 62 series, Colorado, Oregon, Dakota etc. Again, I can’t guarantee accuracy, but it shouldn’t be too bad. Just take care not to fall down any holes whilst using it…
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