Historic England - The Black Country

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Originally Posted by albion68

absolutely fantastic experience woods.mine was but not so dramatic was going from Wolverhampton l.level to Stafford road on the footplate of king John.they use to change engines at low level.my late uncle was a singleman which box I don’t know somewhere between West Brom and low level.he arranged for me and my mate to be on low level at the time of the change over.can you the imagine two 13 year old kids the adrenaline was coming out our ears never to be forgotten.P.S.whats kids got today to equal these experiences.

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Fantastic mate. I had a similar but slightly less dramatic experience. I was with a mate on the fence close to the Cannock Road signal box which was just north of Low Level station. The signal man, who turned out to be a guy that lived at the top of our street, recognized me and got us a ride on a the footplate of a little pannier tank engine that was running back to the shed. Not as grand as a King but like you say never to be forgotten.

One of the saddest sights sites I have seen was looking over the wall of Dunstall Park Station into Stafford Road shed yard and seeing all the King locomotives in a row, withdrawn from service never to run again. It was in 1961 I think.

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Originally Posted by WOODLANDSWOLF

Fantastic mate. I had a similar but slightly less dramatic experience. I was with a mate on the fence close to the Cannock Road signal box which was just north of Low Level station. The signal man, who turned out to be a guy that lived at the top of our street, recognized me and got us a ride on a the footplate of a little pannier tank engine that was running back to the shed. Not as grand as a King but like you say never to be forgotten.

One of the saddest sights sites I have seen was looking over the wall of Dunstall Park Station into Stafford Road shed yard and seeing all the King locomotives in a row, withdrawn from service never to run again. It was in 1961 I think.

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they were all gone by 1962 woods,only 3 remaining in preservation,a little snippet but you might know they were 2king William 111,first one was involved in a accident and was scrapped just after being built and replaced by a second.that little pannier tank you mentioned it’s was still a working engine ,and probably doing a intragual job.

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Originally Posted by albion68

they were all gone by 1962 woods,only 3 remaining in preservation,a little snippet but you might know they were 2king William 111,first one was involved in a accident and was scrapped just after being built and replaced by a second.that little pannier tank you mentioned it’s was still a working engine ,and probably doing a intragual job.

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Didn't know that about King William and I thought I knew most everything!

According to my little reference book here there were 16 panniers tanks allocated to Stafford Road in 1960. They would have been used for dragging train coaches from Cannock Road sidings up to Low Level, and back, also all the local shunting work including to and from Butlers Brewery of course. Useful little buggers. And when you got up close to one not so bloody small actually, not to a kid anyway.

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Originally Posted by phild

Courtesy of Q165

Post compiled by Q165

Saw this and was reminded of my youth. Bob was quite a name and had a shop in Oldbury Road Smethwick. I was cycling there one showery Saturday morning. I was in a hurry as I wanted to get to the Albion. When a heavy shower finished I went off again hastily down the road. A car stooped in front of me, I crashed into it and went flying over the top. A man got out and said something I could not understand and drove off. There was this kid nearly crying and shouting but luckily they came back. The only thing I could do was to carry the completely broken frame to Bob’s. He was surprised at the sight but agreed to sort it out. Result! I am going to get a coveted new Bob Mansell frame. No such luck, I got a Falcon. I did get to the Albion though and we beat Northampton 4-3 I think

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Hey Phil wow bought back some memories

Bob used to come to our school when we could pick PE subjects I had a few years of cycling with him, along canals mainly he was such a cracking bloke, treated us like grown ups not kids and was quite a laugh
Pissed himself when my mate fell in the canal and we fished him out, but then demanded we put him back in to get his bike which he had to wrap his legs round and pull up while we held his arms, poor kid had to cycle back to school absolutely drenched and was shivering and blue by the time he got back

POST COMPILED BY Q165

Two pics on the same theme of finishing materials - I am assuming these were taken somewhere in the Black Country. I am always interested in materials of construction. These surprisingly show the use of stone as opposed to the more usual and common place brick. I find this curious assuming of course that it is in the Black Country.

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Originally Posted by phild

POST COMPILED BY Q165

Two pics on the same theme of finishing materials - I am assuming these were taken somewhere in the Black Country. I am always interested in materials of construction. These surprisingly show the use of stone as opposed to the more usual and common place brick. I find this curious assuming of course that it is in the Black Country.

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I agree about the stone, a bit of an anomaly, looks a bit like a scruffy Cotswolds! However the profile of the hill on the upper picture sure looks like the back of the Wrens Nest. See pic below.

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After a second look it has to be Dudley cause I can see my mates Reliant three wheeler parked back of that house!

Stone could be an expensive building material except near to where it was found. It was often not economical to use it because of the costs involved in transportation. There were no such constraints on some such as the church and wealthier property owners. For general housing it would most often be the case that whatever was local was used. It is likely those buildings are/were in Dudley. The nearby Wrens Nest was used extensively for quarrying limestone for use in industry. It seems it was also used sometimes for housing. That was possibly the case here. It makes sense....I find it interesting anyway.