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Great Wyrley
Great Wyrley photos
Displaying the first of 2 old photos of Great Wyrley. View all Great Wyrley photos
Great Wyrley maps
Historic maps of Great Wyrley and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Great Wyrley maps
Great Wyrley area books
Displaying 1 of 4 books about Great Wyrley and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Great Wyrley
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West Midlands memories
Norton East Road
I was born in Norton East Road and left Staffordshire in 1969 to live with my family in Cambridgeshire. I visit Norton often to see aunts and uncles living in Norton Canes and Heath Hayes. I am in contact with Ann Jones (now Ann Armishaw) and June Anderson (now June Smith) who were my friends from school.
I have photos in my home of St James Church where my great grandfather sang in the choir and the Methodist Chapel at the top of Norton East Road. SUCH HAPPY MEMORIES.
Journals in The College
My grandfather, W. W. Share, was a mining engineer who worked at Walsall Wood Colliery. After he died, his mining engineering journals were transferred to the college.
A Fifties Lad in Cannock
The Crown Hotel dating back to the reign of Queen Anne circa 1702. Demolished to make way for hideous 1960s architecture, Dickie Wright's butchers shop and cottage on the corner of Church Street, the bandstand where Bob Simmons stood selling the Express & Star evening newspaper, Watkiss's seed and corn shop, later to become Yates Radio & Television where we bought singles for six and eightpence, and Beasleys Grocery and provisions where as children we were fascinated by the overhead cash system where the takings and change were taken via a container running along cables. Rosa's Ice Cream which was truly delicious and they came around the streets in their Ford E83 delivery vans. Further along we came to Linfords hardware shop where the aroma of the pink parrafin stove greeted you in the winter months, you wouldn't find a wick for the stove in Wilko's today. The New Hall was a place of public entertainment where Amateur Dramatics, Pantomimes and Christmas Bazaars took place, the lucky dip off Father Christmas was... Read more
Wartime Cannock
As a 9-year-old I remember after being bombed out from Birmingham and going to stay with a great-aunt in Heath Hayes (Aunt Polly Ingram) and going to a hall in Cannock and being kitted out with a set of clothes, and being given a doll. I am 78 now.
Schools
I was five and walked down this road to the infants school on the left (you can just see the school railings). My future primary school (St Johns) is in the old building to the right. There was a little sweet shop on the left (out of shot ) where we all rushed to get our halfpenny's worth of 'SUCK'. At the bottom left past the car is the HAUNTED vicarage that put the willys up me on dark stormy wintry mornings. I was only just turned five and could safely walk to school and home in this quiet village.
Hells Angels in The Box
I'm not sure if the box was still in use in 1965. I remember it better about five years later when Hells Angels used it as a type of den. We (a few mates and I) used to walk the railway line from the pithead to Broad Lane playing fields, we always had a nosey into the box as it was pretty derelict by then (aged about 10). I see it now and can't believe how well the owners have restored it and converted it into a lovely home. I think only goods (coal etc) used the line and it has long been removed along with the pit it served.
Key Factory
The long low building to the rear of the picture I remember as the Key factory (Huffs), my mom worked there for some time and we would rush to meet her on payday to get our treat. It was one of the few places in Essington to employ women and is still there now I believe... To the right of the Key factory (out of shot) was the Scout hut, then the pit and the doctors surgery.
