Tag Archives: Conduit Colliery

A Coppice, lots of timber and a little backtracking

The SLS rail tour that took place in 1959 has proven to be a rich seam of material, and has provoked much debate amongst blog readers about the locations of some photos, and just how and where the Diesel Multiple Unit pictured managed to reverse.

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Posted in Brownhills stuff, Chasewater, Environment, Events, Followups, Fun stuff to see and do, Interesting photos, Local Blogs, Local History, Local media, News, Reader enquiries, Shared media, Shared memories, Walsall community, Walsall Wood stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Up around the bend

More here today that goes to show the Venn diagram of history forever curiously overlaps – Ian pell has waded in once more on the subject of the notorious May 1959 rail tour up the Walsall Wood line to the Conduit Colliery – from which a few pictures have emerged over the years and was raised here again last week by Simon Swain with a great new picture.

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Posted in Brownhills stuff, Chasewater, Environment, Events, Followups, Fun stuff to see and do, Interesting photos, Local Blogs, Local History, Local media, News, Reader enquiries, Shared media, Shared memories, Walsall community, Walsall Wood stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

It’s the rail thing

A great one for the train enthusiasts comes in from new Brownhills resident Simon Swain, who’s been doing some great railway history stuff in the South Staffordshire Railway group on Facebook – it seems that the notorious May 1959 rail tour up the Walsall Wood line to the Conduit Colliery – from which a few pictures have emerged over the years – continues to fascinate and unearth new images.

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Posted in Brownhills stuff, Chasewater, Environment, Events, Followups, Fun stuff to see and do, Interesting photos, Local Blogs, Local History, Local media, News, Reader enquiries, Shared media, Shared memories, Walsall community, Walsall Wood stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Special branch

The resident rail expert on the Brownhills Blog has been at it once more – Ian Pell, a man with a huge knowledge of the local railways, has written another excellent piece which I present here, covering a mystery rail depot handing cakes, closure of the Walsall Wood line and that lost canal/rail interchange wharf behind the Station Hotel.v0_web-3 Continue reading

Posted in Brownhills stuff, Cannock Chase, Chasewater, Clayhanger stuff, Environment, Events, Followups, Fun stuff to see and do, Interesting photos, Local History, Local media, News, Reader enquiries, Shared media, Shared memories, Social Media, Spotted whilst browsing the web, Walsall community, Walsall Wood stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Classical Gas

I noted the other day that the National Library of Scotland mapping archive was growing, as is the National Newspaper archive – another service that’s quietly gaining content is the Aerofilms archive of aerial photography of Britain from 1919-1953.
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Posted in Brownhills stuff, Churches, Environment, Followups, Fun stuff to see and do, Interesting photos, Local History, Local media, News, Shared media, Shared memories, Social Media, Spotted whilst browsing the web, Walsall community, Walsall Wood stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Weaving the Canes

Alan Harvey has dug deep in his own collection and sent me this wonderful, disparate collection of images and other ephemera relating to Norton Canes, which I hope will spark discussion amongst the readership.
Henry Harvey's house
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Posted in Environment, Followups, Fun stuff to see and do, Interesting photos, Local History, Local media, News, Reader enquiries, Shared media, Shared memories | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

As far distant as the millennium

Found coincidentally to reader Alan Harvey’s request for more Norton Canes, this article on the village, from the Saturday, 30th January 1886 copy of The Graphic, is a remarkable travelogue written by a visitor to a small, dirt-poor community, just before everything changed.

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Posted in Churches, Environment, Followups, Interesting photos, Local History, Local media, News, Reader enquiries, Shared media, Shared memories, Social Media, Spotted whilst browsing the web | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 25 Comments

Bicycles. Always a problem.

A great spot here from Peter ‘Pedro’ Cutler regarding a report in the Lichfield Mercury of Friday, 16th August 1935.
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Posted in Brownhills stuff, Clayhanger stuff, cycling, Environment, Just plain daft, Local History, Local media, Local politics, News, Shared media, Shared memories, Spotted whilst browsing the web | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Over the water

Here’s a great post from top reader a contributor David Evans, who’s something of an expert on the history of Methodism in the area. Over the course of last Christmas, the question of the religion and it’s chapels in Norton came to the fore.
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Posted in Brownhills stuff, Churches, Environment, Followups, Fun stuff to see and do, Interesting photos, Local History, Local media, Local music, News, Reader enquiries, Shared media, Shared memories, Walsall Wood stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Bending Conduit

Every so often (and so it seems, with increasing frequency of late) I’ll get a response to an article I post here that leaves me speechless with the sheer depth and breadth of knowledge it demonstrates. There are, it seems, some very, very knowledgable specialists reading the shambling pile of old toss, and I really have no idea why they’re sticking around, but I’m very grateful for their contributions and presence.

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Posted in Brownhills stuff, Cannock Chase, Chasewater, Clayhanger stuff, Environment, Events, Followups, Fun stuff to see and do, Interesting photos, Local History, Local media, News, Reader enquiries, Shared media, Shared memories, Social Media, Spotted whilst browsing the web, Walsall community, Walsall Wood stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Keeping track

Here’s an unusual one that came in yesterday afternoon. When I saw the picture kindly supplied by Ian, I immediately thought of the image of a similar charter in Bill Mayo and John Sale’s great book ‘Memories of Old Walsall Wood’, which I include at the foot of the post.

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Posted in Brownhills stuff, Chasewater, Environment, Events, Followups, Fun stuff to see and do, Interesting photos, Local Blogs, Local History, Local media, News, Reader enquiries, Shared media, Shared memories, Walsall community, Walsall Wood stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Face to face

Following on from my post last week where I featured local historian Gerald Reece’s research and loving reproductions of the mapping for the the proposed Norton Branch of the South Staffordshire Railway, I have an interesting document to share with … Continue reading

Posted in Brownhills stuff, Cannock Chase, Environment, Followups, Fun stuff to see and do, Interesting photos, Local Blogs, Local History, Local media, News, Shared media, Shared memories, Spotted whilst browsing the web, Walsall community | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments