BrownhillsBob's Brownhills Blog

As you’ll have all gathered I’ve been a bit busy in the run up to Christmas, with a heavy workload and not much time – on my 365days Tumblr journal I have been counting down the days until I finally finished work for 2016 on Wednesday.

Wednesday wasn’t the end of the dashing about though, as I had journeys planned to Bakewell, in Derbyshire on Thursday and an important errand to undertake in Bridgnorth on Friday.

While in Bakewell, I visited the excellent Hassop Station on the Monsal Trail which is somewhere I heartily recommend and a place I hope to ride again next spring.

Bridgnorth was as charming as ever and the views from the Castle Walk are stunning, as is the Victorian fernicular railway.

I love both towns, but hadn’t been to either for a good mooch around for some years. Although not on the bike, I thought readers – particularly the ex-pats – may be interested in the photos.

For more of this sort of thing, the 365daysofbiking journal is still running.

Another wonderful book from Walsall Wood author Clive Roberts – available right now!

I had an email from local historian and author Clive Roberts a couple of days ago pointing out that his latest book ‘Old Public Houses of Brownhills (Part One)’ is still available, but selling fast – so be quick if you want a copy for a present or just a Christmas treat for yourself.

Clive has previously written excellent and sought after books on Shire Oak, Walsall Wood and Brownhills. He comments and contributes frequently here on the blog and is a stalwart of the local history community.

Clive wrote:

Hello Bob,

I have put together a book on Old Public Houses of Brownhills (part 1), the book has about 90 pages and covers the history and other details of pubs on the west side of Brownhills,

The pubs covered in part one are: Anglesey Arms, Chase Inn, Hussey Arms, Jolly Collier, The Crown, Lamb Inn, Old Wilkin Inn, Pear Tree, Prince of Wales, Queens Head, Railway Tavern, Rising Sun, Swan Inn, Turk’s Head, White Horse and the Yew Tree Inn.

That’s 16 pubs in all… The book covers known landlords and some of the past history from newspaper reports and other sources, together with some interesting photographs.

Copies are available for just £8 each.

You can obtain yours from: Brownhills Library, Walsall Wood Library and also The DEI Convenience Store (Corner or Red shop) in Friezland Lane, and last but not least Walsall Local History Centre.

I’m also selling the book on eBay.

Best wishes
Clive L Roberts

I haven’t yet got my copy, but when I do I’ll post a full review here – Clive’s previous works have garnered him a great reputation for well researched, engaging local history writing that uncovers detail that others may well miss.

If you have any questions or observations for Clive, please do comment here or mail me: BrownhillsBob at  Googlemail dot com, and I’ll draw them to his attention.

I wish Clive all the best and look forward to Part Two!

The 1965 Ogley Hay lineup – Brian Bottomer is second from right, front row. A lovely image kindly supplied by George Martin.

When I reported the news here of the sad passing of Brian Bottomer at the weekend, I had no idea just how popular and well known in local football circles he was – there have been many kind comments on social media and I thank everyone for their kind, sympathetic messages.

As George Martin kindly informed us, the Funeral is on Friday 16th December 2016, at 2.00pm at St. St. Peters Church, Church Hill, Hednesford.

Seeing the awful news, long time contributor and top football commentator Bill Shaw dug out a nugget of gold for those who knew Brian or who may be interested in his history.

Bill explains:

Hiya Bob,

Sad to hear the news about Bottie (Brian Bottomer), one of the stars of the first golden years era at Oak Park, he was involved from 1954 – 1960, great times to be here.

In the early noughties I did a spot in the programme called, “Where are they now?”, and Brian was one of my first volunteers, his career made very interesting reading – copy attached.

After the first 50’s and 60’s players re-union in 2002 Brian came down the Wood more often and was my room-mate on the 2012-2013 trip to Guernsey for the FA Vase replay.

Incidentally, the food for the re-union evening was financed by the late Percy Claridge and his mate John Sylvester, father of course of Mark and Ian at Excel. Small world isn’t it?

Goodbye, God Bless Bottie, thanks for the memories.

Regards,

Bill Shaw.

I include Bill’s scan below, which I’ve transcribed. Thanks to Bill for a remarkable contribution on the subject of a very interesting man who will be sadly missed.

My, and all the readers condolences are extended to Brian Bottomer’s family and friends.

If you knew Brian or remember the team, please do feel free to get in touch: either comment here or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks.

Bill has been writing about the Woodmen much longer than I’ve been writing about Walsall Wood! Click for a larger version.

Where are they now?
Brian Bottomer 1954 -1960

Brian was born in Walsall and joined the R.A.F. as a five year regular in 1952 when he was 17 years old. Whilst in the R.A.F. he played with Jackie Mudie of Blackpool and Scotland fame. During his time in the R.A.F. he met up with P.T.I. Williamson who was also a scout for both Shrewsbury Town (who, under the managership of Arthur Turner had just been elected to the old Third Division North) and Walsall Wood. Brian together with four others had trials for Town. Although Brian played four times for the reserves he didn’t quite make it, so he signed for Walsall Wood.

As Brian arrived at Oak Park so Ray Boot departed to Burton Albion. This was the time that manager Alan Wakeman arrived at Oak Park and over the next few seasons Walsall Wood became a force in local football. They finished runners up in the Midland Combination of 1956 -57 to Wolves, having gone to a newly opened Castlecroft to beat Wolves 3-1, (Brian scored twice) to keep alive their championship hopes.   Wolves fielded a team that included Eddie Stuart, Ron Flowers (a member of England’s 1966 World Cup Squad) Barry Stobart and others who had first team experience to go to Gornal and win 1-0 to beat Wood by a point, making it a clean sweep of every league that a Wolves team played in that season. Wood also won the Walsall Senior Cup and were beaten finalists on another occasion. Brian incidentally holds the record for the number of appearances in the final, having played twice each for Wood and Rushall Olympic and once been the referee.

This was of course a great time in the Wood history. In Season 1957-58 Wood played West Auckland here at Oak Park in the F.A. Amateur Cup and in front of a crowd of 3,600 lost 3-1. Brian says, “We were all frightened to death and just froze in the first half and were down 3-0. We played better in the second half but by then it was too late.” West Auckland were that much of an amateur side they could afford to fly their left winger back from his National Service base in Germany. After beating the Wood they went all the way, winning the Amateur Cup final at Wembley. The next season saw Wood reach the second round, their reward was an away match at Willington, near Doncaster. Despite having the better chances Wood lost 1-0 to a freak own goal just after half time.

Brian played for a Middle East R.A.F. side against a Middle East Army side twice at Moaschar in Egypt and played against a Cyprus eleven at the Olympic Stadium in Nicosia. During this time Brian kept out a Scottish International called Brown. On his return to England he was stationed at Fradley together with Frank Upton who played for Chelsea and they played in the station side together.

In 1960 Alan Wakeman left to manage Stratford Town and most of the team went with him. For Brian who had only just married Jean the journey to Stratford for home games was too much, he was never home before 9.00pm. So for one season he played in the Wolverhampton Works League for his works team Aluminium Bronze. He then went to Rushall Olympic and played for seven seasons. During this time he became a fireman and was in the job for 28 years before retiring in 1988.

He represented the Midland Region as captain for 5-6 years. He was vice captain of the Fire Service national side and played three times. His last International match was against Scotland at the Meadowbank Stadium just before the 1970 Commonwealth Games. Brian continued playing until he was 40 and then a chance encounter with referee Arthur Holland (the only man to referee 3 Wembley finals: European Cup, F.A. Cup and F.A. Amateur Cup) he took up the whistle and had 8 enjoyable years before calling it a day in 1982.

Brian had a 4 way heart bypass operation in October 2000 and is now slowly getting back to normal. He’s here today with his wife Jean so pop and say hello.

Bill Shaw

Image by Madwblog.

I see from the excellent Madwblog that there’s a Christmas litter pick event going on in Clayhanger this Saturday morning (10th December 2016) from 8:30 to 10:30am and all are welcome – kit and gloves provided!

This is being run by local community volunteers with the support of Walsall Council for the benefit of the community, so it’ll be a worthwhile event to get involved with and help improve the local environment!

Walsall Council supported event open to all. Everyone is invited to attend the 4th and final litter pick for 2016 in Clayhanger. Meet at the co-op carpark 8.30 – 10.30am.

Bags and litter pickers provided by Walsall Council. Mince pies and Mulled Wine for all volunteers after the pick!Meet at Co-op carpark. Litter pickers and bags provided.

This is a walsall Council supported event. 10 minutes or 2 hours, it all has an impact on the health, welfare and appearance of your village. Clayhanger loves you!

You can check out the event’s Facebook page here.

The previous events have been a huge success, so let’s see if we can make this one even better!

It’s that time of year again!

Friend of the blog Ray Johnson has been in touch to let me know that there’s great Christmas Fete tomorrow afternoon (Friday, 9th December 2016) at Walsall Wood School – that’s the one just on Brownhills Road at Streets Corner.

The fun starts at 3:15pm and runs until 5:30pm and admission is free-so what’s not to love?

Walsall Wood School PTA had this to say about the fair:

Join us for our Christmas Fete after school on Friday 9th December for fun and prizes! The school choir and our musicians will be performing during the event and we will have lots of fabulous stalls and tombolas including: a Christmas stall for all your festive treats; a chocolate and a bottle tombola; craft activities; the secret room and many more.

Come and meet Santa and enjoy a treat such as a mince pie or cupcake.

We have some wonderful raffle prizes this year such as a hamper full of goodies!

We look forward to seeing you there!

This looks like a great event – don’t forget if you have a Christmas event going on, I’ll be old too happy to advertise it here: feel free to mail BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com.

Brownhills Brownies recently at a Christmas fayre. That’s an excellent Christmas jumper! Image supplied by Jenny from Brownhills Brownies.

I’ve been contacted by Jenny at the St James Brownies up at St James in Ogley Hay to ask if you could help by voting in a competition they’re entering for community group funding, from galaxy hot Chocolate.

The 2nd Brownies in Brownhills are a popular and active group who can often be seen out and about on activities, and a little community funding could help them do more with improved sports equipment and trips out.

If you have a wee lass that might be interested, you can go find out why the group are all about – it’s for girls aged 7-10 years old, and takes place at St James Church Hall on Tuesday evenings at 6.45pm.

If your little one isn’t so little, there’s also Girl Guides from ages 10-14 on Mondays at 6:30pm. See this section of the St. James website here.

Anyway, on with the appeal. Jenny wrote:

2nd Brownhills (St James) Brownies, Brownhills, Walsall

We are a Brownie group from Brownhills in the West Midlands.

We are a great bunch and enjoy many different activities such as crafts, cooking, games, badges, sports and lots more! We like having fun and learning new skills. Brownies is great for girls to get to know each other and mix with girls from different schools.

We provide a safe and relaxed environment where girls can have fun and make new friends.

HOW WILL YOU USE THIS PRIZE?

We would use the money to buy new resources for our programme. We are in need of some new sports equipment and a new lockable storage cupboard to keep it in. We would also like to buy some new craft items and put some money towards a trip for the girls.

Galaxy Chocolate is looking to help small, local community projects and groups through the GALAXY Hot Chocolate Fund.

From 7 November 2016 until 26 February 2017, they will be awarding seventy £300 donations to help community groups and people across UK and Ireland. Five donations will be awarded each week, four by our panel of judges and one through the People’s Choice award to the organisation with the most weekly votes.

They are also offering the opportunity to nominate an ‘Outstanding Volunteer Award’, giving you the chance of nominating a volunteer who has shown commitment and gone the extra mile. Each week a volunteer winner will be chosen and will receive a ‘GALAXY Hot Chocolate Hamper’.

Please vote for us to win £300 for 2nd Brownhills (St.James) Brownies! Go to the following website to vote!

http://www.galaxyhotchocolate.com/fund/profiles/2nd-brownhills-st-james-brownies

Jenny

This should jog a memory or two for Sue. A wafer master, from Bradford on Avon Museum.

An absolutely fantastic enquiry came in a couple of weeks ago (see how far I am behind? Sorry) from Sue Clarke in Hilton, Cambridgeshire which blends a number of disparate topics covered here including ice cream, old cycle shops, local music and cinema.

I feel certain here readers like David Oakley and Reg Fullelove may be able to help, and all contributions very welcome.

For reference; we’re interested in all Brownhills history on the blog – at over 4,000 articles there’s almost everything covered! We remembered Ice Cream here, the High Street recalled by Reg Fuyllelove here, and lots of stuff on the musical history of Brownhills here with a lovely homage to Brownhills cinema here by Mick Stackhouse.

I’ll let Sue explain:

Hallo Brownhills Bob,

I’m contacting you as a starting point as I begin to research my family history. Having read about you on your Homepage I think I’m probably older than you.

My own memory of Brownhills ice cream was walking across a stretch of grass, maybe a common, to buy Selwyn’s Ice Cream… made in a metal oblong ‘scoop’ and then placed between wafers.

The Burton Boys in Stonnall enjoy a Selwyn Smith ice cream. Lovely 1958 film from Desmond Burton

My memories date back to the early 1950s when I visited my Granny Jones on Lichfield Road. I know that my grandfather and uncles were miners but on searching out more about my father’s family I find that they were miners over several generations and they all lived around Brownhills, Pelsall and Walsall. My uncles made a quartet and were called the Jones Boys/Jones Brothers and were popular playing for local gigs. My aunt played the piano for the silent films in the local cinema. On my mother’s side I believe that her father, my grandad Elford, had a bike/bike repair shop probably in the early 1930’s on, I think, the High Street.

I understand that I can go to the Walsall Council Archives and plan to do that in the New Year, in the meantime I wonder if you are able to put me in touch with any relevant Local History groups… I see there’s a Burntwood group… do you think that would be relevant to my geographical area?

I think this was probably 1960s rather than 50s, but Brownhills High Street clearly pre Ravens Court, as the roof of Mount Zion can be seen on the left. I think Sue might recognise this. From the excellent work ‘Memories of Brownhills Past’ by Clarice Mayo and Geoff Harrington.

I think you comment on the present times in Brownhills, I don’t Tweet on Twitter and am not very computer savvy so I’m not sure if your interest in Brownhills goes back to the early part of the last century but any thing you can tell me about the cinema and possibly my uncles’ music would be very welcome, as would anything else you think relevant.

Many thanks, I hope to hear from you
Sue Clark
Hilton Cambridgeshire.

I’m currently unaware of any Brownhills local history groups that are active – but I can heartily recommend Burntwood Family History Group and also the Aldridge Local History Society whose territories clearly overlap in Brownhills, and I’m sure readers here will be happy to help with memories and contributions.

Thanks to Sue for a lovely question – if you can help, please do: Comment here or mail me – BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com.

Thanks.

This is good to see – a notice I spotted this week in Walsall Wood. Please call the coppers if you see anything concerning.

Here’s an absolutely horrific story currently running across local media – on Monday evening, 28th November 2016 a local resident found a badly injured dog at Chester Road up by Brownhills Common – the dog, later christened Elf, was suffering horrific injuries consistent with being used as a terrier in badger baiting.

This is a an awful story, and Elf has suffered terribly, but I’m concerned at the same time for the plight and protection of local badgers and their setts – we have a considerable local badger population in the area which I’m careful not to discuss here for exactly this reason.

Our open spaces hereabouts are a haven for mustelids where they can be untroubled by farmers and their unfortunate road ‘accidents’, so evidence of baiting is a huge concern.

I ask any local people who walk or use local green spaces, parks and commons to be aware of their local badger setts can call the police or RSPCA in the event of any human disturbance at all.

We have our own dedicated wildlife crime officer covering the local area, whose notices I saw just this week. Please contact PC Richard Collins if you have any suspicions – call 101 and ask for extension 6001 or email richard.collins@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk.

My thanks and best wishes to the who found and are treating Elf, who by all accounts is a lovely dog. Please people, if you have any information, for the sake Elf and the local wildlife, please do contact the police or RSPCA.

The Walsall Advertiser wrote:

Elf the dog with ‘horrific’ fighting and badger-baiting injuries rescued from Brownhills in Walsall
By Walsall Advertiser | Posted: November 30, 2016

By Ashley Preece

Image from the Walsall Advertiser.

The RSPCA is appealing for information after a dog with injuries consistent with fighting with badgers was found in Walsall.

The female Parson Russell terrier-type dog, thought to be aged around eight to 10 years old, is missing part of her bottom jaw.

She was found in Chester Road, near Brownhills, by a member of the public on Monday, November 28.

The dog, who has been named Elf, was wearing a radio transmitter attached to a red collar (below) – a tactic used by people who take their dogs badger baiting so that they can locate their dog when they are down in a badger sett.

The person who found her took her to a local vet, who immediately called the RSPCA.

RSPCA inspector Laura Bryant, who is investigating, said: “Elf was clearly in a bad way, with fresh wounds to her ears and a horrific old injury to her jaw – which the vet said is consistent with fighting with a wild animal.

“She has been through such a lot but she is incredibly friendly.

Image from the Walsall Advertiser.

“I suspect most of her life she has been used to locate badgers in their setts, clearly taking a battering in the process and never receiving vet treatment.

“She has either got lost in a badger sett or been dumped – either way, Elf is in the best place now and is getting a lot of love and attention from RSPCA staff.

“It is horrific to think of what she appears to have been used for and we are appealing for people to come forward with information.

“If you know anything about Elf and how she came to be this way, please call us in complete confidence on 0300 123 8018.

“We also urge anyone who sees any groups of people with dogs – particularly wearing a radio transmission collar – acting suspiciously in the area to contact us or the police.”

The RSPCA is a charity and we rely on public donations to exist.

To assist our inspectors in carrying out their vital work please text HELP to 78866 to give £3.