Pear Tree Estate

I too remember the Pear Tree in its very earliest days, moving into Landor Crescent and watching as the houses on the other side of the road were built. Naturally my father was a miner, and we had previously lived with my Gran in Hednesford much later on we returnes the complement and gran came to live with us). During the course of our time there my Father worked at almost all of the local pits.including Brereton Colliery, Fives (Hednesford Road) The Valley, Hednesford, Walsall Wood, and Lea Hall. Because of the large influx of children the local schools were overwhelmed, so at five my first school was Church Streets infants, a former Victorian school that had been brought out of retirement, to say conditions were old fashioned would be an understatement, there just one room with sliding dividers that was used for morning assembly before the dividers were slid across and benches stacked at the sides were put in position as our seating, there were no desks, the Teacher (a Miss Simms i think) taught standing at a blackboard while we the children wrote with chalk on slates and held up for our answers. For physical excercise the benches were removed and we did floor excersises. After a couple of terms a number of us pupils were moved to the Pavilion (now Tennis Pavilion) of Hednesford Road, under the same Miss Stubbs as mentioned by Sue above. again a makeshift schoolhouse while awaiting the completion of the Hardy Avenue, Pear Tree School were i finally went into the new top class at seven years old.

The annual miners gala was held in the field adjacent to the Pavilion after a parade, and it did seem that all of the pear Tree and St. Michaels residents attended. Great fun for old and young alike. The Gala helped raise the funds to build the Lea Halll Miners Club on the same site, the other annual jolly was organised by the Miners Social Club on Hardy Avenue and funded by a weekly raffle, This involved putting on a train to Rhyl or Blackpool with 10 shillings spending money and a packed lunch for the kids. For the adults the Pear Tree had the Pear Tree Minstrels, along the lines of the George Mitchell Minstrels, with so many families on the Estate there was a wealth of musically talented recruits, as well as comedians and other entainers, these not only entertained locally but would travel England and Wales performing to other mining communities. As children growing up you could never be lonely all of the Estates houses had young families and some of them large families so there were literallly hundreds of potential playmates.

Another memory that springs to mind from those early days on the Estate, and possibly before the Queensway and Coppice Road shops were built, was the mobile trades people, we had our Daily Bread delivered by a baker based in Lion Street, fruit and vegitables from Dougie masons van (later his son) and a Mr Marshall delivered the Milk, of course there was the more exotic appearance of the Friday fish and chip van, and the Rugeley Co-Op employed a fellow in a terrible three wheel van (with motorcycle syle steering and a cover over his exposed legs) possibly a very early Reliant or more likely a Raleigh as both a weekly collector and sales man, there was also a couple who sold from Commer van which was literally an Aladins cave and my parents bought a Dansette Radiogram from them, green and white vinyl covered and it smelt great. Of course upon purchase we had no records, so away to the record shop on Upper Brook Street, for a small but eclectic assortment of records that included an LP, Swiggin Doors from Diana Dors, a single by Nat King Cole, The Rudder and the Rock by David Whitfield The Desert Song EP and best of all Rainin in my Heart by Buddy Holly who was to meet his death in an aircrash just a couple of weeks later.

A memory shared by Rob Knight 13th Dec. 2018

I am the bakers son and helped my dad on his round along with my brother. Our surname was GROVES and the colliery was Lea Hall. I remember the Pear Tree estate,the colliery and the power station all being built.