Collis Street, Amblecote

A Memory of Amblecote.

I lived near to the top of Collis Street opposite King William Street from 1944 to 1967. My mothers cousins lived opposite on the corner of King William Street, which was a big double house built by my 2 great Uncles Jeavons and Tom Chattin owner of the drapery shop Chattin and Hortons Brierley Hill lived opposite them on the other corner. At the top of the street on the Brettell Lane main road was Mrs. West's grocery shop. Just above that was the Clock Lodge which was originally the lodge to Sammy Taylor's house which originally stood on the land my mother's house in Collis Street and Dennis Hall Road was built on. The estate was built 1939 onwards. My mother moved in on New Years Day 1939, it wasn't a holiday then. There was a lane beside the lodge which led to the clock fields. I think they were called that because of the many dandylions there. It was also a lovely bluebell wood with a brook running through. There were snakes in it too and I saw one and have been terrified of them ever since. A walk through led to the Murder Bridge where a body was supposed to have been hidden in the rafters of the railyway bridge. That area was all under-mined and had mind shafts that had opened up. No one who'd lived in that area then would have bought a house on the estate that was later built for fear of the house sliding into a mine. Halfway down Collis Street was the 'rec' with swings and a seesaw and allotments with a path led out opposite the Fish Pub now a Chinese Restaurant. But going back along that lane from the 'rec' was a British Legion Club and later on a school was built. My first school was in King William Street towards the bottom which has since been pulled down, although the forked tree where we played shops is still there. By it was Darby's Bakery and the smell of new bread takes me straight back to age five and that school. Mrs.Starkey was the teacher and there was a pot bellied stove in the schoolroom that heated it and would glow red in Winter leaving us to wonder if it would explode one day. Outside at playtime we would tuck our skirts into our navy blue knickers and toss up against the wall.