BrownhillsBob's Brownhills Blog

Here’s something from a good friend of the blog who found the clipping while having a tidy-up: did the Parkview Centre really open ten years ago this year?

I’ve never been a huge fan of the modernisation, but it does seem like only yesterday, and thanks to Brian and the lLocal Committee, at least the clock is reliable now…

Thanks to a great pal for making me feel like a very old man indeed 🙂

Sorry for the brief hiatus in updates – technical issues afoot.

From the Express & Star, 12th June 2006. Click for a larger version.

An early version of Cyclocross? A still from ‘Runners versus Cyclists’ a 1925 Pathe film from Walsall.

My thanks to local author Clive Roberts, who’s spotted this curiosity on YouTube – a 1925 Pathe newsreel film of an early variant of cyclocross, with cyclists riding against cross country runners.

Since Pathe took the inspired decision to take their archive from a proprietary format and transfer it to YouTube from where I can embed films in blog posts and it’s much easier to share, it makes highlighting these films a lot easier. If only other archives were as sensible.

MACE, are you listening?

I’d like to know more about this film, and whether the event was a one-off of was a regular thing. I’m certainly surprised at the very modern, sleek design of the bikes – there’s some splendid metal there.

Anyone got any idea where the race happened, or maybe who who was involved?

Please do comment here or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Cheers.

The Silver Street junction on to what would become the Miner Island – note the traffic lights. This island was very problematic and remodelled around 2009. Image by Peter Booth.

I was pleased to receive an email out of the blue yesterday from photographer and friend of the blog Peter Booth, who’s been busy looking through his photo collection and turned out these remarkable photos of Brownhills as the council was building what would become the Miner Island and Halliards Superstore in the mid 1980s.

Peter, you’ll remember submitted a fabulous and very popular gallery of Black and white photos of Brownhills just before Christmas. If you haven’t seen them, do take a look by clicking here.

Peter wrote:

Hello Bob

Have come across these photos from when they were building the island and had just built Halliards in Brownhills – what’s now Tesco – thought you and fellow readers might find them interesting.

Regards
Peter Booth.

I can’t thank Peter enough for these wonderful pictures, and I’m honoured to share them here with readers. Thanks to the work of Peter and other local photographers, little by little we’re building up a wonderful record of out area. Cheers for taking the time out to send me such wonderful pictures – it’s really appreciated.

If readers have anything to add, please do comment here, or mail me: Brownhillsbob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks.

Press photo kindly supplied by Graeme Clarke, very likely from the Walsall Observer.

I know I keep banging on about it, but the community and helpfulness exhibited by both contributors and readers of this blog never cease to amaze me – and yesterday, on the question of lost Brownhills Seaman John Thomas Faunch, you surpassed yourselves.

Thanks to all who contributed – Andy Dennis, Lisa Ashby, Linda Gibbets and lots of others – and yesterday afternoon I had the following great mail from old friend of the blog Graeme Clarke, that wraps all the information up.

Graeme wrote:

John Thomas FAUNCH

Able Seaman C/SSX 22481
H.M.S. “Pelican”, Royal Navy
Died at sea on Monday 22 April 1940

John was the only son of George Thomas and Ethel Maud (née Horton) Faunch of Vicarage Road, Brownhills.

After leaving school he decided to follow his father’s footsteps and become a miner, being employed initially at the Cannock Chase colliery and later at the Walsall Wood colliery. A member of the band of the Salvation Army in Brownhills, he enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1937.

John served aboard H.M.S. Pelican, an ‘Egret’ class sloop, built by Thornycroft Limited of Southampton, launched on Monday 12 September 1938 and commissioned on Thursday 2 March 1939. At the time of John’s death she was under the command of Commander Lennox Albert Knox Boswell D.S.O.

H.M.S. Pelican was attacked by aircraft during Monday 22 April 1940 whilst steaming near Molde, off the coast of Scotland. Struck by a bomb, she was severely damaged with 57 of the crew being killed when her sink mines exploded on deck.

John is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial on 35.2, on St. James’s Church War Memorial, and the roll of honour at Brownhills Memorial Hall. He was 21 years of age.

H.M.S. Pelican survived the war only to be scrapped on Saturday 29 November 1958.

Hope this helps,

Regards,
Graeme

Andy Dennis noted in the comments to the original post:

There is a tree on Ancestry that led me to what befell AB Faunch.

His birth was registered 1918 Jun-Sep Lichfield 6b 716. His parents were (as it says) George T Faunch and Ethel Maud, formerly Horton, who married in 1914.

According to the UK Commonwealth War Graves Memorial Register, he is commemorated at the Chatham Naval Memorial, and there is some indication that he was buried there, rather than at sea. This confirms the date of death as 22 Apr 1940 and says that his ship was HMS Pelican.
According to Wikipedia HMS Pelican was a successful anti-submarine vessel and took part in the Norwegian Campaign [anything but successful!] of Apr – Jun 1940, when she was badly damaged in an air raid off Narvik.

According to naval-history dot net, on 22 Apr 1940 she was hit on the quarterdeck during air attack whilst on passage to Romsdalfjord. She sustained major damage, including toal loss of main electrical supply amd was withdrawn from operational duties. On 24 Apr she was taken in tow to Chatham for repair.

The Chatham memorial can be found here (I hope)

Thanks to all for the help, it really is appreciated – you folks are the substance and life of this blog and it wouldn’t be possible without you.

From the Lichfield Mercury, Friday May 3rd, 1940.

From the Lichfield Mercury, Friday May 3rd, 1940.

Here’s a quick one I hope the researchers can help with: reader Rob Kinnon-Brettle has been in touch asking about the date of passing and any other information relating to Able Seaman John Thomas Faunch, of Vicarage Road, Brownhills, who died most likely in service of the country in 1940 – probably the April of that year.

Rob is keenly researching local Salvation Army history including Brownhills, and as the article I found above notes, John was with them in Brownhills.

If you can assist with any further information, please do: either comment here or mail me – BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks.

Brownhills Common is beautiful: why not join a regular wellbeing walk here every Monday?

Reader Ben Brittain has been in touch with me to ask if I’d advertise a great new Monday morning wellbeing walking group that’s taking place in Brownhills – and of course, I’m happy to do so.

Ben wrote:

Dear Bob,

Kaleidoscope Plus Group is a local Mental Health Charity which provides services across Sandwell and the Black Country. I am presently supporting the Team Leader for Walsall to move operations in to Brownhills. I feel the area would benefit from mental health services, as well as health and wellbeing services. At the moment the Project Leader is setting up a completely free service, to aid in exercise, and encourage positive healthy wellbeing.

It will operate around Chasewater, The Common and Holland Park. The particularly good thing about this is that it showcases some of the natural highlights of Brownhills – a thing we all take pride in.

Attached is an advertisement poster. Due to the large following on your blog, I would be delighted if you were to put this on your blog, to increase awareness of this new service.

Thank you.

Best Wishes,
Ben

You can find out more by calling Liz Rogers at Kaleidoscope Plus on 0121 565 7818 or by emailing liz.rogers@kaleidoscopeplus.co.uk.

This looks wonderful, and I’d ask that so people can attend can anyone involved please clarify where the meeting point is please? Cheers. As soon as I find out I’ll update the post.

Hopefully Ben or Liz can clarify where the meeting place is because this looks like a great thing

Sometimes the arcs of queries to the blog are very wide, and take us to unexpected places with a surprising web of connections – several years ago, the wonderful Paul Ford of Walsall Local History Centre posted an image of Brownhills Albion Football Team that he was keen to know more about.

That generated lots of discussion, and was believed to have featured some notable dignitaries from Brownhills of the late Victorian period – and thanks to the generosity of Margaret Thompson, we can now light the whole thing up.

Margaret has very kindly shared a wealth of material related to Edgar Pritchard, which we’re still working through. The Poacher’s Aprrentice film in particular has been a spectacular hit.

The young David Evans met with Magaret and supplied the following article and pictures – my thanks to David for a wonderful conclusion and to Margeret for her continued and thoughtful generosity.

As far as I know, that’s the only extant image of Dr. John Maddever, one of the historical figures of Brownhills I have huge respect for – read this report to find out why.

David wrote:

A great photo very generously donated by Margaret Thompson of a very old Brownhills football team; the photo is believed to have come from the Hussey Arms at some point.

This amazing sepia photograph measures 23.5 cms x 19.5 cms and is mounted on card which has the name ‘A Broiler, Walsall’ printed in the card, just discernible below the photograph.

I believe this is the original photograph of Brownhills Albion Football Club which once adorned the wall of the first Hussey Public House in Brownhills, and was featured here previously in this post inspired by Paul Ford, upon which there was much speculation.

Lets look more closely, with a good scan:

This… this is remarkable. The somewhat rotund chap on top of the carriage in black, centre of the group is none other than Dr. John Maddaver, so prominent in Brownhills civic and social history. image kindly supplied by Margaret Thompson.

And the legend says:

The inscription on the photo – good solid information. Click for a larger version.

Who are the people in this photograph?  Well, there’s also a card with the following diagram:

I’d love to know who created this – it’s been thoroughly researched and thought about. Image kindly donated by Margaret Thompson. Click for a larger version.

The card gives a list of names, and states the following:

Photo taken on ‘Hussey Arms’ filed, (now site of the council houses) 1895 [that’s the Hussey Estate – Bob].

Brownhills Albion FC formed in the 1880s, played here until 1914.

Sir T. Courtney Warner was Liberal MP for Lichfield.

John Croft was the Chairman of Brownhills Urban District Council.

Dr. J. Maddever (then Brownhills only doctor) lived at Coombe House.

C Emery was the licensee of the Hussey Arms.

This remarkable document is hand-written on a sheet of photographic print card. It measures exactly 8 inches by 10 inches, and, like the original football photograph featured above, comes from the Edgar Pritchard materials, courtesy of Mrs Margaret Thompson.

I would like to offer my immense thanks and gratitude to Margaret who has so readily made this precious historic material available to readers and students to appreciate.

David Evans
January 2016

Hints School – note that in the original post, I suggested artistic license in the use of the church bell as the schoolhouse has no bell – how wrong I was. Clearly, they mirror each other so I wonder if Oldrid Scott, the architect who designed St. Bartholomew’s at Hints also designed the Schoolhouse. Image kindly supplied by Joe Headley.

Last week, I featured a film here that I was absolutely stunned by, and although well received, it’s been a real slow-burning success, being viewed much more later in the week as people discovered it.

‘The Poacher’s Apprentice’ is a remarkable piece of film, made in 1952 by Brownhills filmmaker Edgar Pritchard, who also made the 1934/5 Brownhills Carnival film and the short feature ‘Hope Springs Eternal’ – Edgar clearly had a real talent and seems to be a hitherto overlooked son of Brownhills.

Coming up, I have much more about Edgar and his life, a huge quantity due to remarkably diligent research by Peter ‘pedro’ Cutler, but also from David Evans, who’s been working closely with the source of the recent Pritchard related material, Margaret Thompson.

But, back to Hints for now. I know Hints, the tiny little village just off the A5 west of Tamworth where ‘The Poacher’s Apprentice’ was filmed. Many of the spots seen in the film are unchanged; so on Saturday I took a ride over there to photograph them and give a modern point of reference. Those church gates haven’t changed since the young lad came out of them 64 or so years ago.

Those photos are in the gallery at the bottom of this post.

Hints on modern 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey mapping. In the 80s and 90s it was very busy with the A5 going through it, but since the opening of the A5 bypass to the north, it has returned to being a sleepy hamlet.

Also in response to the film, I heard from old friend of the blog Joe Headley, who happens to have family connections to the village; he sent me the following wonderful message and photos.

Hi Bob,

I watched with great interest the old film on Hints by Edgar Pritchard and noted also Pedro’s comments about the history of Hints drying up somewhat and wondered if a few old photos of hints and its inhabitants would be of interest.

My mother grew up at Hints, went to school there, and lived there until her mid-teens which would be about 1930-ish. My gran and grandad lived behind the school house and gran used to serve afternoon teas etc., to visitors of the village. My grandparents later moved to keep the Haycock Inn at Little Hay. My great grandparents farmed at Mile Oak Farm which was purchased from Sir Robert Peel whose estate encompassed it at that time.

The Loader family inhabited the school house and I remember visiting as a young boy, the Missies Loader were then owners and I think I’m right in saying that the one sister taught at the school for some years.

My grand father Harry Slyfield was an amateur jockey and rode successfully both in the Midlands and the home counties. Whilst shooting at Bucks Head Farm in my teens I was introduced to a retired Colonel whose name sadly I cannot recall but he remembered my grandfather riding ‘The Squire’, the owner of the horse is not known to me but the colonel said they were a force to be reckoned with in Point to Points.

I will scan some old photos from 1916-1918 at Mile Oak Farm and Hints in I guess the 1920’s and if they are of interest please use them.

Best regards
Joe

My mother taken at Home Farm Hints 1929.

Great grandfather and grandmother with my aunty Peggy and uncle Clarence taken outside Mile Oak Farm I guess from the children about 1916.

Grandfather aboard “the Squire” 29th March 1922 see back of photo. This was at the Meynell Hunt Point to Point.

Threshing at Mile Oak Farm 1916-1918 The gent on the extreme right is my great grand father, the lady in white my great aunt Ethel also an accomplished horse woman winning at the White City Show Jumping, the lady in black my great grand mother and the little girl in white my aunty Peggy. The rest I’m afraid are unknown but obviously formed the threshing party on that day.

Back of photo on board “The Squire”.

Hints Post Office. [Some readers may remember in the 80s (and probably beforehand) there was also a cafe here called ‘Rosa’s’ – It’s now a private house – Bob].

Hints School.

Front L-R my aunty Peggy, the two Loader sisters Elsie and Maud, back row my dad Harry Headley, Bob Rix (Peggy’s husband they were builders in Sutton Coldfield), my gran and my grandfather Harry Slyfield ( jockey) taken behind the School House at Hints.

Hints Hall (Original demolished after the Second World War) and again I guess late 1920’s early 1930’s.

All images and captions in above gallery very kindly supplied by Joe Headley.

Thanks to everyone involved in this post: Peter, David, Joe, Margaret and all the readers who’ve contacted me. So much more to come – Edgar deserves recognition.

Comments welcome, as ever, or mail me – BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com.

The footpath around the ford features in one scene.

The Old School House is now a private dwelling – but most of the features remain.

The ford has had tarmac laid through it, but it’s still flowing and muddy! It’s seasonal, and dries to a trickle in dry summers.

This is the Black Brook east of Home Farm. A true water meadow surrounds it.

I think this is the location of the kissing gate, but could be wrong.

When the young lad collects stones for his catapult, he’s doing it from the ford, which hasn’t changed much at all.

It’s still alive with rabbits, and it’s easy to lose your foot down a warren.

There’s a steep path to the ford from the back of the church through the woods surrounding the grounds to Hints Hall. This is in the film I think.

I wonder if those gates are original?

This was quite a large school in the day.

These gates and steps to the church haven’t changed at all.

The Black Brook Valley features heavily in the film.

The Churchyard is level with the coping stones on the wall. I think the shots with the ferret at the end were in the graveyard, before the hedge existed.

This is Rookery Wood, where I believe the ferreting scenes were filmed.

The bridge to Home Farm has changed little.

There are a couple of shots of the Black Brook; it’s hard to tell whether they were east or west of the ford.

This looks familiar…

Rookery Lane drops to the Ford. This is where the sign was being nailed up.

Brereton Colliery at it’s heigh by Mines History on Google +.

An interesting one reaches me from Peter ‘pedro’ Cutler regarding the shocking state of mining housing and the tyranny of the tied house in the mid-1930s, with regard to local colliers.

This was a time when housing was in very much short supply, the rash of Council House construction only just underway; and mine owners, ever mindful off profit, weren’t generally too bothered about the communities that laboured for them.

This is a salutary lesson for those hankering after ‘the good old days’…

Yeah another great piece of research by Peter, for which I’m ever grateful – he must spend hours digging through the news archives for this stuff, and I don’t know what we’d do without him.

Peter wrote:

Brereton pit was an important colliery. Image from Mines History on Google+.

Hi Bob,

While looking for something quite unrelated, I noticed a piece in the Litchfield Mercury from November 13th, 1936.

Councillor G Newman of Rugeley Council was incensed with the Brereton Colliery Company who were shortly to evict 28 tenants. The tenants were former employees of the Company. Mr Newman had received an assurance from Mr Staley that the Company would take no action if the Council agreed to rehouse the tenants.

Two weeks later Cllr Newman wrote to the Lichfield Mercury to make the position clear. The unfortunate tenants of the Company houses should know the disastrous plight into which they have been placed. He said that if the Council had excepted his motion to bind Brereton Colliery to the agreement with Mr Staley the tenants, who are now under notice, would have been quite safe.

The Council had received a letter from the Company saying that the Council could not interfere with the Company’s proposals to evict these persons, as the houses were wanted for the housing of other employees, and so prevent migration to other areas. But Mr Newman said that he had been ‘sat on’ and told that Mr Staley was a gentleman and we should take his word. It was fortunate that with 10 minutes to elapse before the evictions they were delayed for another 14 days by Mr Cadman. He added that the Council would not be able to find houses in time, so the only hope was that the Company would further suspend the evictions.

To get some idea of the Brereton Colliery Company I turned to the CCMHS publication ‘The Cannock Chase Coalfield’ which gives a whole chapter to the history of the Brereton Collieries from 1791 to 1960.

In September of 1920 the collieries were taken over by James Cadman and his elder brother Sir John Cadman. They appointed John Staley as the General Manager, and James Cadman was the Chairman and Managing Director. John Cadman was the academic who had been knighted for his services in coal and oil during the Great War. In the 1930’s he was advisor to the Government and became Baron Cadman of Silverdale.

It is not clear when the company started to build houses for their employers but…

…there was a terraced row named Talbot Road, known locally as ‘the Barracks’. Others in Springhill Terrace and Redbrook Lane. In addition to the new houses many old disused colliery premises were converted into living accommodation, a typical example of this was the conversion of the large stable block built at the Levels, originally to house the large number of horses needed to work the old pits. In 1932 the Company owned some 133 dwellings.

I was not able to find how the evictions progresssed but did find this picture of ‘The Levels’ from April 1936…

‘This group of huts and houses at Brereton, known as ‘The Levels’ has occupied the attention of Rugeley Urban District Council for some time, including a Special Committee appointed to inspect them. If the Council find alternative accommodation for the 26 occupants, the owners, Brereton Collieries Limited, will make no opposition to a demolition order enforced on ‘The Levels.’ – Image from Lichfield Mercury, Friday 3rd April 1936.

Reading the remainder of the Cadman tenure of the Collieries in ‘The Cannock Chase Coldfield’ something further puzzled me. It was stated that during the Miner’s Strike of 1926 Mr Cadman pleaded with his workers to return to work. This seems at odds to the hard attitude adopted with the evictions, and it would be very unlikely that gentlemen of the Cadman’s stature would plead with the working man!

…..’Prior to the strike,’ he said, ‘the mine was losing 2 to 4s per ton and foreign coal was coming into the country.’ Even so there was a drastic shortage of coal in the area, and a premium price could be commanded. He offered the men the same rate of pay as before the strike, plus a bonus of 1s per shift for men and 6d to each boy, as long as he could get a price of 25s per ton of coal. 120 men immediately returned to work and many more quickly followed.

According to local reports half of the miners in Rugeley worked at the Brereton Collieries, and in early June the owners offered to open the pits after Whitsun on the same terms as before the strike, and invited the men to return to work. Very few took advantage of the offer, but the number that were working was greater than the last week. Ample police protection had been provided for the men working, although they were not regarded favourably by the people of Brereton; there had been no disorder. The general feeling was to wait for a national agreement.

The strike was into its 8th week and there was a great deal of dissatisfaction in many parts to the Brereton men returning to work. There were 500 down the pit, and a meeting was addressed by Mine Agent Baker. He said that he had great difficulty restraining 15,000 men from marching down in a body and burning the Brereton pits. He strongly advised them not to work, but although initially less worked the numbers working gradually increased.

In the 15th week there were over 600 working, and the number was expected to increase as those out of work feared loosing their work permanently. In September there was nearly a full complement of workmen.

The Cannock Chase owners were totally against national agreements, they wanted their own local bargaining. It seems to me that Cadman offer was designed as an enticement and not a plee.

Below is the Circular sent to the workforce…

You have heard Your Mr Cook.
What fresh facts has he told you? None.
What hope has he given you? None.
What Union pay has he offered you? None.
What prospects have you secured? None.
What good are you doing stopping out? None.

So – it was a photo for the Walsall Observer in 1921 – (left to right) Back row: Adams (injured), Wilkes (Goalkeeper), Gregory, I. Humphries (Committeeman) Second Row: W. E. Cooper (secretary), Jones, Cooper, E. Lowe, Madhan (Trainer) and J. Brown Front row: W. Cooper, W. Biggins, Davis, Ellis, Shingler, Cole.

Here’s a turn-up for the books – no wonder that mystery football photo looked familiar, I featured it here before: and thanks to the keen eyes of Mandy Cockram, we can now say what team it was and who was in the photo.

Mandy spotted that I’d featured a grainy, microfiche archive photo of the image before; it’s a Walsall Observer press photo from 1921. Regrettably, I don’t think I have the press article it came from. It was featured in an early photo post about local football teams from April, 2011 called ‘On the Wing’.

There are some familiar names in the lineup – Shingler, Humphries, Cooper. We’re no closer to knowing where it was taken, but I’d suspect that’s outside a pub or club looking at the doorways. Ogley WMC, perhaps? Or am I just being silly?

Thanks so much to Mandy for the help – that really is wonderful, and the kind of community spirit I love about the blog.

Curse my bad memory, but thanks for such wonderful readers!

Mystery solved by Mandy Cockram – Brownhills Town in 1921.

Looking at the flat caps, maybe 1920s? What do you think? Bill Mayo would like to know who this team are, and where they are. Image from Bill, via David Evans.

Here’s an interesting enquiry from the Young David Evans to see if we can help local historian Bill Mayo – Bill is of course the wonderful local historian and collector of photos who co-wrote great books on Brownhills, Walsall Wood and wider borough history. Without Bill’s work, local history would be very much the poorer.

Bill has the above mystery football photo in his collection which is dateless and nameless, yet he’s convinced it’s a Brownhillian team.

David wrote:

Hi Bob

Please can your readers help local historian BIll Mayo identify these proud local footballers?

Bill believes the photo is of a local – that is, Brownhills – team but can your readers please help to identify the people in the image, and if possible the location and date the photo was taken?

Kind regards
David

If you can help, please do. Bill has done so much to preserve our local history, and it’s on his shoulders, and those of his contemporaries like John Sale and Gerald Reece that we all stand here on the Brownhills Blog.

That strip looks familiar. I’m thinking perhaps fellow local historian and author Clive Roberts might have some insight.

If you can help, please do comment here or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Cheers!