Cannock Road Chadsmoor

The row of houses mentioned earlier were re numbered in the early 1950s. Our row started at 206- 214. The row of houses we lived in were actually owned by my grandmother Minnie Garbett. She bought them sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s. I remember being told that she caused chaos by fencing off her property and making the people next door at 204 use the next entry by number 202 instead of taking a short cut across our garden. The well at the top of no 208 was also filled in. My parents Mr and Mrs Bill Bridges, lived in 206 (next to the entry). Mr and Mrs Alf Carter lived at 208. Next to them was Gwen Groves. The next was someone called Brown and Mr and Mrs Hollingshead lived in the last of the 5 houses. I can remember Harvey’s shoe shop on the corner of Burns Street. Other shops down from there were Goodwins butchers and a greengrocer owned by various families - Richards, Smart and Edginton - while I lived there. Further down the road was Reeve’s grocers where I used to go to buy sweets. Another well-known character lived next to the Baptist church - Mr Briggs. He was the school crossing man and seemed to know everyone in the area. I have just posted some info about the closing of the Central Boys school and the opening of Blake in 1961. I do have some knowledge of some of Chadsmoor history but I would love to see some photos if you have them. I have been researching my family tree and I have found a lot of my ancesters lived in and around Chadsmoor. They were originally Shropshire miners or pottery tile men and came to the area when mining and brick making was big industry in the area. Wendy Barr (nee Bridges)