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Edgmond Wolf
Guest
Boooo your article is not in the Shropshire Star 
My book has been published - Ironopolis - Standing Up For Wolverhampton
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reanswolf
Guest
Definitely not, tho really as I stress in the book or in its conclusions, it is not a Dudley v Wolverhampton thing. I actually just wanted Wolverhampton’s industrial contribution to the Black Country to be more recognised and celebrated. 600 miners died in Wolverhampton mines in the 1800s (and that’s excluding Bilston) yet some would have us believe there was no mining.
But I understand that as a news story, that spin has been put on it to grab attention of people.
All this means is I ca go to the Merry Hell shopping centre with the Mrs ever again.
Bonus
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reanswolf
Guest
Not surprised, I know they have different staff there Edge.Boooo your article is not in the Shropshire Star
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Edgmond Wolf
Guest
Yes mate
Joey has written for both sets of staff but they often share articles
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Deleted member 4594
Guest
Great work Reansy but that’s a poor photo the e+s have used, you’re much better looking in the flesh
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reanswolf
Guest
Absolutely Bright. First words from my lad.....”they’ve mugged you off with that photo”.Great work Reansy but that’s a poor photo the e+s have used, you’re much better looking in the flesh
I could tell my son was just oozing with pride though, when he added quickly “dad you’re such a ****er” !
The photographer must have took 100 photos, I felt like the hunchback of Notradam- not very photogenic. My hair was all over the place, I could feel it on my top lip from me left nostril
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Deleted member 4594
Guest
Absolutely Bright. First words from my lad.....”they’ve mugged you off with that photo”.
I could tell my son was just oozing with pride though, when he added quickly “dad you’re such a ****er” !
The photographer must have took 100 photos, I felt like the hunchback of Notradam- not very photogenic. My hair was all over the place, I could feel it on my top lip from me left nostril
Class mate!
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Deleted member 3518
Guest
Absolutely Bright. First words from my lad.....”they’ve mugged you off with that photo”.
I could tell my son was just oozing with pride when he added quickly “dad you’re such a ****er” !
The photographer must have took 100 photos, I felt like the hunchback of Notradam- not very photogenic. My hair was all over the place, I could feel it on my top lip from me left nostril
He will be proud of you like all your mates on here are, fantastic achievement!!
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reanswolf
Guest
Bless you Nick, thank you very much.
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Deleted member 3518
Guest
Your welcome mate and far too modest, going to download it to my Kindle and look forward to reading it when in Spain over Christmas.
Dawley wanderers
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The boy from Crewe done good! Nice one Nick
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reanswolf
Guest
I do say I’m no Black Countryman Northy.
Lived in Crewe, but not from Crewe
-Adopted Wulfrunian, but my family is from Oakengates, Brownhills, and ........... west bloody Brom. Also Aberdeen, Sheffield, Ireland........bloody mongrel.
But Wolverhampton is where I’ve lived most of my life and I lov it.
I’ve just read the comments on the E&S Facebook link to the article. Oh dear.
To sum up, the expert opinion of the average Facebook E&S contributor is: ‘Wolverhampton is Staffordshire so it can’t be Black Country’. They really are a bunch of planks on there!
To sum up, the expert opinion of the average Facebook E&S contributor is: ‘Wolverhampton is Staffordshire so it can’t be Black Country’. They really are a bunch of planks on there!
Dudleywolf
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Why ? he's alright !
He's not what he SEAMS is our Nick !
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reanswolf
Guest
Ha cheers Dave, really appreciate your support btw!Why ? he's alright !
But you know my book is NOT a Wolves v Dudley thing, I go to lengths in the intro to say as much and I emphasise any key points sensitively but with evidence. And a lot of it.
The express and star article is crucial for me but please bare in mind they will sensationalise it to make a story. I’m eternally grateful to them.
For every intransigent uneducated shouting commentor in response, I hope there is someone who thinks “hold on, what do I really know about the Black Country and Wolverhampton before any of us alive today were born?”
There will always be ignorance I’m afraid, people who think Wolverhampton had no coal and no foundries. I’m hoping after this, just a few less.
-. I fully expected such responses but it’s all about education. Sadly, there will always be those who don’t want to be educated, they are scared of the truth. And I am sorry that that is condescending, but it’s true.Ercall Wolves
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I'm about half way through reading it, cracking book and really enjoying it. Thanks ReansHa cheers Dave, really appreciate your support btw!
But you know my book is NOT a Wolves v Dudley thing, I go to lengths in the intro to say as much and I emphasise any key points sensitively but with evidence. And a lot of it.
The express and star article is crucial for me but please bare in mind they will sensationalise it to make a story. I’m eternally grateful to them.
For every intransigent uneducated shouting commentor in response, I hope there is someone who thinks “hold on, what do I really know about the Black Country and Wolverhampton before any of us alive today were born?”
There will always be ignorance I’m afraid, people who think Wolverhampton had no coal and no foundries. I’m hoping after this, just a few less.
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reanswolf
Guest
Wow, thank you very much Ercall.
Its very heavy I know, too much so in parts, but I just didn't want people to accuse me of selectively quoting to form an argument.
Thanks again Gary.
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Edgmond Wolf
Guest
4.00am in the morning?Ha cheers Dave, really appreciate your support btw!
But you know my book is NOT a Wolves v Dudley thing, I go to lengths in the intro to say as much and I emphasise any key points sensitively but with evidence. And a lot of it.
The express and star article is crucial for me but please bare in mind they will sensationalise it to make a story. I’m eternally grateful to them.
For every intransigent uneducated shouting commentor in response, I hope there is someone who thinks “hold on, what do I really know about the Black Country and Wolverhampton before any of us alive today were born?”
There will always be ignorance I’m afraid, people who think Wolverhampton had no coal and no foundries. I’m hoping after this, just a few less.
Bloody hell must have been on the nest
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Edgmond Wolf
Guest
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reanswolf
Guest
I have a highly active sex life and had to get up to wash my hands
-.Seriously I’m insomniac at times. Have been for several years - it’s sll anxiety based sadly.
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Edgmond Wolf
Guest
I need to let you into a sleeping secret mate.....it involves maltI have a highly active sex life and had to get up to wash my hands
Seriously I’m insomniac at times. Have been for several years - it’s sll anxiety based sadly.
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Edgmond Wolf
Guest
Books arrived mate, looking forward to reading itHa cheers Dave, really appreciate your support btw!
But you know my book is NOT a Wolves v Dudley thing, I go to lengths in the intro to say as much and I emphasise any key points sensitively but with evidence. And a lot of it.
The express and star article is crucial for me but please bare in mind they will sensationalise it to make a story. I’m eternally grateful to them.
For every intransigent uneducated shouting commentor in response, I hope there is someone who thinks “hold on, what do I really know about the Black Country and Wolverhampton before any of us alive today were born?”
There will always be ignorance I’m afraid, people who think Wolverhampton had no coal and no foundries. I’m hoping after this, just a few less.
Thanks mate
I always thought that the Black Country was to do with Black Malleable Iron.....so iron ore and coal to run the furnaces...I guess I will find out when I read the book
Big Nosed Wolf
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Having now read this and fully digested the contents it is a very impressive piece of work and I've read quite a bit on the subject and of course have lived here all my life, growing up in Wednesfield, with all my parents, grandparents (except my maternal grandmother who came from Tunstall but lived here from 1921 until her death in 1971) living in the districts of Horsley Fieids, Blakenhall and Monmore Green at some point in their lives.. My paternal grandfather was living in Monmore Green aged 14 in 1908. So not long after the Industrial Revolution 'proper' had finished in the late 19th Century. It musty have looked and felt much the same although he was a man of few words so never really heard much about it from him. He lived to age 90 so I knew him well as I was 30 by the time he passed away.
This might be a bit of a lengthy contribution so bear with it and I'll attempt to put a bit of eye-witness stuff to this wonderful book, whilst adding my own knowledge to it, both personal and from the more formal education I have on this subject. Particularly the oft quoted 'Black Country accent' , which, as my forbears spoke it (and myself when in their company) was dialect rather than accent.
I have never really been a fan of the museum. In truth I have little time for any 'living' museum because they can never be truly accurate. What tends to happen is a sanitised theme park version which I suppose is a necessity because they need feet through the door, and no one would want to experience the squalor on the East Side of Wolverhampton at the time of the subject.(even if those who founded it and the society would probably do their utmost to write it out anyway) When I was a boy late fifties early sixties, the real Industrial Revolution had been over for the best part of a century, but Chillington Works was still there (in part) and an uncle who lived just off Willenhall Road used the Working Men's club regularly, as did a cousin up until quite recently. There were also many old IndustriaI mills and buildings backing on to the cut, many still working in some form although the dereliction had started to take a toll. I remember well Willenhall Road merging with Horsley fields and then ending in Wolverhampton centre. St James Square just off it and on the corner a shoe shop whose owner was Methodist Preacher at Bethel Chapel on Willenhall Road. The only building still standing from that time on that side of the road and now a Mosque. My cousins all attended that chapel and, along with her sister (my aunt) my mother would get our school shoes from here. I vividly remember the more expensive ones being turned down, (cor run to that) only for the shoe shop manager, himself of the Chapel, quietly allowing mother to buy the shoes with 'whatever she could afford', usually at a fraction of the cost. Therefore I always had the 'best' even though we 'war rich!'.
At no time did we ever think of ourselves as 'Black Country'. We knew that the area had been termed that but that's was all it was. We all came from Wolverhampton when asked, even though I lived until I was 23 on the Wednesfield/ Willenhall border. As Nick correctly concluded in his book, there has been an association with Wolverhampton, Wednesfield and Bilston (and Willenhall for that matter) for many centuries before the mid nineteenth version. As he points out, and which I can concur, there was no 'heath' between Bilston, Wednesfield etc, as far as I could remember, although the books I read claiming this I always gave the benefit too as once upon a time there might have been, which 'cut off' Wolverhampton as being part of any 'Black Country'. At school, I never visited 'proper' Wolverhampton schools when representing the school and football. It was always Bilston, Willenhall, Wednesbury, Darlaston and Wednesfield schools. South East Staffs at the time.
Nick frequently asks the question Why does the BCS seem reluctant to acknowledge Wolverhampton as not only being 'in' the BC but was in fact probably the original town deemed as such by many travelling through the area at the time, and in any case probably it's biggest contributor, along with Bilston, to the said 'blackness'. It's also worth pointing out, as Nick does that Wolverhampton's contrasting 'leafy bits' with the less leafy, are more prominent than many Towns and Cities. That you can travel from Bilston Road Island, and Monmore Green and withing minutes, by car or foot, be looking at some very pleasant scenery shouldn't negate the earthy bits. In fact it only enhances the place.
I have much more on this for those interested but I'll finish this postwith some observations of my own, based on both being a native and much reading on the subject.
In 1966, about the same time as the Dudley influenced BCS was being muted/formed/recognised, 1966ish, there was considerable municipal reorganisation. Wednesfield, Bilston, and Tettenhall had all been independent Urban District Councils but in 1966 they became 'Wolverhampton' proper whilst Willenhall became 'Walsall' (something many I knew who lived there couldn't understand as they always felt more affinity to Wolverhampton/Wednesfied/Bilston). We in Wednesfield were not too bothered about it, always having that sense that Wolverhampton was the place we all called home. Tettenhall was a different kettle of fish. Many resented being associated with the 'grime' and it has to be said there was a hefty degree of snobbery involved here. When I started work, a middle aged office Manager came form Tettenhall and would often try to belittle the way I spoke. (I used to use much more dialectic stuff then than I probably do now) often pointing out my 'slang' was unnecessary. I also heard her advising a new Rep who had been transferred to Wolverhampton from Yorkshire 'Keep to the West side of Town, Compton/Tettenhall don't go anywhere near Wednesfield or Bilston'. I have often concluded that perhaps one of the reasons the Dudleycentric version of where the BC was was allowed to go relatively unchallenged was down to some in Wolverhampton, both in local government or the more general population, who were quite happy to be 'freed' from the 'underlass' associated with the grime, even though many fine houses in Tettenhall were built on the proceeds.
There is much more I could ramble on about and will probably return to the subject for those interested.
This might be a bit of a lengthy contribution so bear with it and I'll attempt to put a bit of eye-witness stuff to this wonderful book, whilst adding my own knowledge to it, both personal and from the more formal education I have on this subject. Particularly the oft quoted 'Black Country accent' , which, as my forbears spoke it (and myself when in their company) was dialect rather than accent.
I have never really been a fan of the museum. In truth I have little time for any 'living' museum because they can never be truly accurate. What tends to happen is a sanitised theme park version which I suppose is a necessity because they need feet through the door, and no one would want to experience the squalor on the East Side of Wolverhampton at the time of the subject.(even if those who founded it and the society would probably do their utmost to write it out anyway) When I was a boy late fifties early sixties, the real Industrial Revolution had been over for the best part of a century, but Chillington Works was still there (in part) and an uncle who lived just off Willenhall Road used the Working Men's club regularly, as did a cousin up until quite recently. There were also many old IndustriaI mills and buildings backing on to the cut, many still working in some form although the dereliction had started to take a toll. I remember well Willenhall Road merging with Horsley fields and then ending in Wolverhampton centre. St James Square just off it and on the corner a shoe shop whose owner was Methodist Preacher at Bethel Chapel on Willenhall Road. The only building still standing from that time on that side of the road and now a Mosque. My cousins all attended that chapel and, along with her sister (my aunt) my mother would get our school shoes from here. I vividly remember the more expensive ones being turned down, (cor run to that) only for the shoe shop manager, himself of the Chapel, quietly allowing mother to buy the shoes with 'whatever she could afford', usually at a fraction of the cost. Therefore I always had the 'best' even though we 'war rich!'.
At no time did we ever think of ourselves as 'Black Country'. We knew that the area had been termed that but that's was all it was. We all came from Wolverhampton when asked, even though I lived until I was 23 on the Wednesfield/ Willenhall border. As Nick correctly concluded in his book, there has been an association with Wolverhampton, Wednesfield and Bilston (and Willenhall for that matter) for many centuries before the mid nineteenth version. As he points out, and which I can concur, there was no 'heath' between Bilston, Wednesfield etc, as far as I could remember, although the books I read claiming this I always gave the benefit too as once upon a time there might have been, which 'cut off' Wolverhampton as being part of any 'Black Country'. At school, I never visited 'proper' Wolverhampton schools when representing the school and football. It was always Bilston, Willenhall, Wednesbury, Darlaston and Wednesfield schools. South East Staffs at the time.
Nick frequently asks the question Why does the BCS seem reluctant to acknowledge Wolverhampton as not only being 'in' the BC but was in fact probably the original town deemed as such by many travelling through the area at the time, and in any case probably it's biggest contributor, along with Bilston, to the said 'blackness'. It's also worth pointing out, as Nick does that Wolverhampton's contrasting 'leafy bits' with the less leafy, are more prominent than many Towns and Cities. That you can travel from Bilston Road Island, and Monmore Green and withing minutes, by car or foot, be looking at some very pleasant scenery shouldn't negate the earthy bits. In fact it only enhances the place.
I have much more on this for those interested but I'll finish this postwith some observations of my own, based on both being a native and much reading on the subject.
In 1966, about the same time as the Dudley influenced BCS was being muted/formed/recognised, 1966ish, there was considerable municipal reorganisation. Wednesfield, Bilston, and Tettenhall had all been independent Urban District Councils but in 1966 they became 'Wolverhampton' proper whilst Willenhall became 'Walsall' (something many I knew who lived there couldn't understand as they always felt more affinity to Wolverhampton/Wednesfied/Bilston). We in Wednesfield were not too bothered about it, always having that sense that Wolverhampton was the place we all called home. Tettenhall was a different kettle of fish. Many resented being associated with the 'grime' and it has to be said there was a hefty degree of snobbery involved here. When I started work, a middle aged office Manager came form Tettenhall and would often try to belittle the way I spoke. (I used to use much more dialectic stuff then than I probably do now) often pointing out my 'slang' was unnecessary. I also heard her advising a new Rep who had been transferred to Wolverhampton from Yorkshire 'Keep to the West side of Town, Compton/Tettenhall don't go anywhere near Wednesfield or Bilston'. I have often concluded that perhaps one of the reasons the Dudleycentric version of where the BC was was allowed to go relatively unchallenged was down to some in Wolverhampton, both in local government or the more general population, who were quite happy to be 'freed' from the 'underlass' associated with the grime, even though many fine houses in Tettenhall were built on the proceeds.
There is much more I could ramble on about and will probably return to the subject for those interested.
Danny's day out
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A relative married a Willenhall factory owners daughter the factory owner had other relatives that owned other factories
They moved from Fibbersley to Tettenhall they nevr settles and moved back the Tettenhall folks did'nt take to them and the pubs wor as good i
They moved from Fibbersley to Tettenhall they nevr settles and moved back the Tettenhall folks did'nt take to them and the pubs wor as good i
Munro Munro
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Great achievement congratulations, have just ordered mine
cheers
cheers
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reanswolf
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Thank you Munro Munro.
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reanswolf
Guest
Didn't expect this..................thank you so much BNW.
The one thing that always griped with me is that some BC folk claim that Wolverhampton people never did any of the real dirty work & never contributed to the Black Country, yet its miners were the worst paid, its smoky environment was probably the worst due to the sheer amount of iron works, and its workers including kids lived and worked in appalling conditions.
But yes, you do have to go back to the Industrial Revolution period from around 1840-1930 to really examine the Black Country at its productive and dirtiest best! That is when it really earned its name of 'the Black Country'. Not in our lifetimes, though even in the early-mid 1900s, times were still quite hard.
As I said previously, its probably not an easy read, its very detailed and slightly repetitive at points, but all done to highlight key points.
And BNW is right, Wolverhampton people were split east-west, with many on its then much smaller west side feeling aloof and above the Black Country. He is also right where he says they were proud primarily of coming from Wolverhampton, the name has always been significant in its own right, and I think this has diminished any sense of yearning to need to belong to the Black Country. Especially from the 1930s when its politicians first claimed the town was "of the Black Country but not in it". Prior to that it was widely considered the Capital of the Black Country, whereas today Dudley is.
Anyway, thx again BNW. I owe you one mate.
Big Nosed Wolf
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One thing I didn't know until I read the book was that you ' Ay one o we' (only joking). I found that interesting because whenever I have met those who come here from other parts of the country I have been surprised to find how much they are surprised and fascinated by it's 'culture' and the underrated view it has from the wider country. Today we still see those who should know better slagging it off, not that many aspects of it shouldn't be, but that isn't the whole picture. I think it's because you came to it late, growing up in Crewe etc, that you were more surprised by the whole Black Country marketing tool wanting to give a slightly 'skewed' view of it all than those of us who lived here and really were not that bothered about it. We didn't have that insecurity (not you) that perhaps exists in areas of the region where they need a bit more of an identity. After all Wolverhampton, (as you have successfully argued with evidence), and it's 'associate towns' have much identity of their own.
It's also no surprise that it's greatest creation, WWFC, was at the forefront of forging one of the original great teams out of this social deprivation. Something which, by 1966, had done much to give the place further identity. Dudley has a ZOO! (again only joking I spent many hours there as a kid on days out)
That Rep I mentioned from Yorkshire (a place where we think of people having strong pride in and he did) was one such fascinated individual after we took him under our wing and showed him 'proper' Wolverhampton.The leafy bits and the not so. There was a lot more of the 'not so' back then,(early seventies) particularly the still 'traditional' boozers in most areas .He stayed here long after leaving the company he first came to work for and he was genuinely surprised, interested in and not a little intimidated by it all. Now that might have been because he was a gentleman, or because it was just him but he was often shocked at the seemingly cruel, forthright and 'honest' approach in which we dealt with each other/him. As an example we introduced him to a character called Clarence. He was the gaffer of a Working Men's club long gone. I won't name names. He always spoke with his false teeth clattering around his mouth because they were too big for his gums which had shrunk. When this Yorkie went to order his round we knew he wouldn't be able to understand him because it took months to learn what he was saying. After a while watching the poor ******* struggle he haplessly called me over to help. 'You'll have to excuse Clarry' says I, he's a tight fisted ******* and will insist on wearing his dead wife's teeth so that he won't have to pay for any for himself.
The Yorky shocked at this (although finding it funny) sat shaking his head, muttering, 'Naw Naw Naw tha shoudn't have spoken too him like that'. My turn to be surprised. 'Why?' I asked.' Well perhaps he can't afford it' ' He can and they are his dead wife's teeth' says I.' That's why he went quiet.'He spent the next half an hour shaking his head, and tittering, before coming out with a telling statement.
'Tha naws, I've learnt more about people since I moved here than I ever did in Yorkshire, all human life lives right here'.
But I digress a tad. Wolverhampton is still in many ways a 'tale of two cities' and why one of my grandfather's spent much of his life as a labour party activist between the wars, He had grown up on Steelhouse Lane from 1894 until he went to the obscenity that was WW1 in 1914. He came back, like many, full of 'revolution'. As you point out in your book and evidence, even by the late 19th C, when he was born, East Wolverhampton was still one of the most deprived areas in the country although we tend only to ever here about 'oop North' being grim. Not many places were grimmer than those Wolverhampton districts and why on a personal note, I have always seen the dilemma in wondering at the sheer scale of industry in the period, but should we really 'celebrate' any 'Black Country, given the abject misery it dished out to so many.
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reanswolf
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That's a great story BNW............love the false teeth bit !
You're right in a way, I was always fascinated by the gold and black, even not living in the area for a period when I was young. But I had close connections to the Black Country and I remember my granddad and Uncle telling me all about Wolves and the area in general. I was drawn back to town.
I think your last point is a very poignant one - should we look back so fondly on a period that was so desperately harsh. But the Industrial Revolution was an incredible period, when peasants flocked to the towns for work as industrialisation transformed pastoral districts to a bleak environment like eastern Wolverhampton. "Out of Darkness cometh light" is a reflection of Wolverhampton's east to west transition I always think, or managing to evolve to become a better place than it once was.
And it strikes me that a lot of Wolverhampton people don't want to reflect on darker times (you can understand why), but I found it fascinating to read so many press reports from darker days, such as the explosion of a boiler at a small works in Horseley Fields when the owner naively poured cold water into it - with the resultant explosion hurling him into the street and killing six workers, including one who survived but with his brain protruding, he died a few days later. One man was arrested for picking the pockets of one of the deceased! 28 died in another boiler explosion in Stow Heath, and a sad total of 400-600 miners died in Wolverhampton coal-mines, with no health and safety to help them. The miners were lowered in skips, but in one accident killing 6 at Rough Hills Colliery, the chain that lowered them had already been repaired 68 times with rivet links put in. Accidental death was nevertheless the official verdict.
So many sad stories!
Today, many therefore hark back to happier memories, or reminisce about the lovely Victorian buildings it once possessed (and rightly so), but it was a desperately impressionable place even for a young teenager like me in the 1970s. Dark, dank, dangerous, ghetto-ish around Molineux (Waterloo Road and surrounds were dreadful at the time). The pubs were incredibly educational back then, a reflection of the underclass or wrking class who inhabited sections of the town. People moaning about a few homeless chaps sitting on the street these days, would have the shock of their lives if they could be transported into the George in the 1970s, for instance, to see the characters, and the violence that occurred.
Tarcisio Mifsud
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Reans. Would you send me a private mrssage so that I will buy your book please. I love Wolverhampton
Ginger Chimp
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It can be also found on Amazon - Ironopolis standing up for Wolverhampton
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reanswolf
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Thanks ginger Chimp.
Yeah the Kindle is about £8 on Amazon, but the hard copy is too much - £17.99 (a price set by publisher).
I also sell hard copies that I have, for £12 which is exactly what I paid for them (I bought 100 and still have 15 left).
Can post out.
Woodsetton Wolf
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Still got lots to read, but it’s a great book, with lots of interesting references about the areas. Will have a better crack at it when I’m on me hols.
Big Saft Kid
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On the subject of the history of w'ton, there's another excellent book called 'Rough Hills, an East-side Story' by Derek Mills, a bloke I went to school with back in the 50s. Tells the story of the Rough Hills Estate from the time it was built in the mid-50s, the industries, history of the area, with lots of fascinating archive-based stuff.
Uncle Festa
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Had many an arguement with my old man when he was alive. He would argue all night that Wolverhampton wasn’t in the Black Country. Not sure why? He went to school in the middle of Wolves, worked all his life as a mechanic in Park Village area, but was brought up in Penn, and moved to Codsall when he got married. So guessing it’s due to the fact he lived in the leafier areas and wouldn’t be budged from his view that Wolverhampton was Staffordshire.
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reanswolf
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I think a lot of Wolverhampton people would actually agree Unc, especially after Wolverhampton's coal expired about 1880, and along with its coal and iron-ore reliant great iron industry declined. But the irony in what you're dad said is that the name 'Black Country' was originally given to the Staffordshire section alone (Wolverhampton, Bilston, Willenhall, Tipton, Wednesbury, West Bromwich), and only slightly later did it also become to include the Worcestershire section (Dudley).
Newer somewhat cleaner engineering industries evolved in the 1900s, so again that may be part of the reason why people said it was not Black Country. Of course the whole region became cleaner and freer of the smoky atmosphere that the Black Country was named after.
And then of course, since 1967, you had the Dudley-based Black Country Society wrongly telling people the Black Country only lay where the thick coal seam was found - and for 50 years this view has prevailed, but it is/was clearly wrong.
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Big Nosed Wolf
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Some further observations from the 1970s attempting to give some personal perspective to the book long after the period discussed in it and how although social and manufacturing issues had evolved, well up until the 1980s there was still plenty of evidence that this area should not only be considered an original (if we have to use the BC term at all which I prefer not too as it's already bred a 'professional 'Black Country Mon and Wench' which rival the tedious professional Yorkshireman, such is what happens when indigenous populations begin to 'claim' some kind of 'unique' idea and, as this book so brutally exposes, uses faulty 'proof') part of any BC there were still issues with pollution a century later.
For the first three years of our married life myself and Mrs BNW lived in a multi story council flat on the corner of March End Road. Mrs BNW grew up in Bilbrook and a completely different landscape to that which I was used too and that she had to get used to at this time. In fact when she was a girl she can remember the pond opposite the Woodman pub before the shops were built. Now there was Boulton and Paul's up the road and the 'new' industries of aerospace in Fordouses but Bilbrook was (and still is more or less) proper rural. I had lived in Wednesfield all my life and went to school across the road from these flats. This period we lived in the flat was from 1973 to 1976. At that time from our second floor window we could see across to Neachell's Lane and it's length towards Willenhall Road. Manufacturing could be seen, heard and sometimes smelled. Weldless Steel Tube (a cousin had recently started there as a trainee Draughtsman in 1970), C&B Smith Foundries, Jenks and Cattell, Green and Russell Iron Founders, Willenhall Radiator and Ductile Steel to name just a few. Where Bentley Bridge now stands (roughly) there were further smaller engineering companies and the larger Wolverhampton Metals. (the remnants of this factory has recently been cleared for further development I think). These are just the few I can recall easily.
We had a balcony (no longer does this apply as the blocks have recently been refurbished and the balconies removed) on which we used to hang out a few bits and bobs of washing to dry. I did 'advise' Mrs BNW this was a bad idea and she soon found out the reason. Depending on when the production was greatest all clothing ended up with a light dusting of sooty ash. At that time I worked as Rep for a company which made and distributed automotive parts and Industrial bearings so I called on every type of Industry, including the still productive British Steel Works in Bilston. (There were parts of the plant where, when you walked through it -which I had to once or twice- when the heat was literally 'breathtaking' as it did make breathing difficult and would leave with shirt wet with perspiration).
The firm I worked for had a distribution centre in Watery Lane, off Neachell's Lane nearer Willenhall Road end than Wednesfield. Today it's possible to travel on asphalt surface to Noose Lane from Watery Lane but back in the seventies the asphalt ended at the entrance to the industrial estate where the distribution unit was located, opposite a firm of galvanizers who's name escapes me. After this the road became a track surrounded by marshy pools, tethered 'osses' and a family of tatter's who must have lived there for generations. Their back yard full of scrap metal from which they made a living. I stood along the track on occasions and it was still possible to get a flavour of what industrialisation must have been like at the 'beginning' of it all.
My manager at the time was from Birmingham and on returning to the unit one day I learned he had been on to Environmental Department at Wolverhampton Council. His office desk was covered in the aforementioned sooty ash because it was summer and he had opened his window. There was no single offender of course, just an accumulation of several 'heavy' industries producing. They sympathised with him but informed him the unit was in one of the most polluted square miles in the country. Another 'pollution' in summer for us living in the flat with windows open was the sound of drop forge hammers and clanking metalwork of several descriptions. You just got used to the sound of that and often went on in the middle of the night when production was in full flow. The smell could be off putting at times, a sort of dull sulphuric smell.
Across the road from the flats was the Falcon pub, now gone along with the 'Tube' down the road for road widening when the 'Wednesfield Way was constructed'. This was a Bank's pub and had, like many then an 'outdoor' where 'offsales' were purchased. Many of the locals could be seen carrying in an empty jug and leaving with it with a full jug of ale, before sitting on the car park, front wall (for those who had one) in summer and enjoying the contents. One or two even used a glass to drink it from!
As Nick notes in his book right up until the eighties there was still much 'Black Country' to get a handle on but in that decade, (80s) virtually all of it disappeared so that today even the 'blackest' parts are several shades of green.
For the first three years of our married life myself and Mrs BNW lived in a multi story council flat on the corner of March End Road. Mrs BNW grew up in Bilbrook and a completely different landscape to that which I was used too and that she had to get used to at this time. In fact when she was a girl she can remember the pond opposite the Woodman pub before the shops were built. Now there was Boulton and Paul's up the road and the 'new' industries of aerospace in Fordouses but Bilbrook was (and still is more or less) proper rural. I had lived in Wednesfield all my life and went to school across the road from these flats. This period we lived in the flat was from 1973 to 1976. At that time from our second floor window we could see across to Neachell's Lane and it's length towards Willenhall Road. Manufacturing could be seen, heard and sometimes smelled. Weldless Steel Tube (a cousin had recently started there as a trainee Draughtsman in 1970), C&B Smith Foundries, Jenks and Cattell, Green and Russell Iron Founders, Willenhall Radiator and Ductile Steel to name just a few. Where Bentley Bridge now stands (roughly) there were further smaller engineering companies and the larger Wolverhampton Metals. (the remnants of this factory has recently been cleared for further development I think). These are just the few I can recall easily.
We had a balcony (no longer does this apply as the blocks have recently been refurbished and the balconies removed) on which we used to hang out a few bits and bobs of washing to dry. I did 'advise' Mrs BNW this was a bad idea and she soon found out the reason. Depending on when the production was greatest all clothing ended up with a light dusting of sooty ash. At that time I worked as Rep for a company which made and distributed automotive parts and Industrial bearings so I called on every type of Industry, including the still productive British Steel Works in Bilston. (There were parts of the plant where, when you walked through it -which I had to once or twice- when the heat was literally 'breathtaking' as it did make breathing difficult and would leave with shirt wet with perspiration).
The firm I worked for had a distribution centre in Watery Lane, off Neachell's Lane nearer Willenhall Road end than Wednesfield. Today it's possible to travel on asphalt surface to Noose Lane from Watery Lane but back in the seventies the asphalt ended at the entrance to the industrial estate where the distribution unit was located, opposite a firm of galvanizers who's name escapes me. After this the road became a track surrounded by marshy pools, tethered 'osses' and a family of tatter's who must have lived there for generations. Their back yard full of scrap metal from which they made a living. I stood along the track on occasions and it was still possible to get a flavour of what industrialisation must have been like at the 'beginning' of it all.
My manager at the time was from Birmingham and on returning to the unit one day I learned he had been on to Environmental Department at Wolverhampton Council. His office desk was covered in the aforementioned sooty ash because it was summer and he had opened his window. There was no single offender of course, just an accumulation of several 'heavy' industries producing. They sympathised with him but informed him the unit was in one of the most polluted square miles in the country. Another 'pollution' in summer for us living in the flat with windows open was the sound of drop forge hammers and clanking metalwork of several descriptions. You just got used to the sound of that and often went on in the middle of the night when production was in full flow. The smell could be off putting at times, a sort of dull sulphuric smell.
Across the road from the flats was the Falcon pub, now gone along with the 'Tube' down the road for road widening when the 'Wednesfield Way was constructed'. This was a Bank's pub and had, like many then an 'outdoor' where 'offsales' were purchased. Many of the locals could be seen carrying in an empty jug and leaving with it with a full jug of ale, before sitting on the car park, front wall (for those who had one) in summer and enjoying the contents. One or two even used a glass to drink it from!
As Nick notes in his book right up until the eighties there was still much 'Black Country' to get a handle on but in that decade, (80s) virtually all of it disappeared so that today even the 'blackest' parts are several shades of green.
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shaygriff
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I paid the publishers price, and not regretted it
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reanswolf
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Love that story about the dirty atmosphere, its hard for people to understand what pollution was like even back in the 1970s-1980s. But even In 1952 local author Phil Drabble noted that "the Black Country was no longer black".
But as you say, Wednesfield became quite heavily industrial whereas during the Industrial Revolution it was a rather primitive town generally producing animal traps and mantraps. When the Wolverhampton Workhouse was deemed unfit for habitation at its Monmore Green/Horsley Fields base, it was stated that the new Workhouse proposed for New Cross in Wednesfield would mean 'much cleaner air in the Black Country's green borderland'.
So back in the late 1800s, Wednesfield was seen as a vast improvement on central Wolverhampton.
There is a story of the local Wednesfield health council taking legal action against a manure company, back in the 1890s I think it was, who were all-too predictably creating a bit of a stink locally through their open-air operation. It was noted that the only people they could employ were "the men from the stinking slums of Wolverhampton who wouldn't notice any difference".
As the 1900s progressed, Wednesfield industrialised at a fast rate with all the companies you mention.
Pagey
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Galvaniser, is Edward Howells, wedge group, i worked there for about 15years, we used to escape on, break time, friday afternoons, across the field at the back to have a quick couple of pints in the falcon.