OLD WEST BROMWICH PHOTOS

A severe earthquake was recorded in West Bromwich on the 4th January 1676

In the 17th Century there was a giant living in West Brom, the village Blacksmith named Walter Parsons who was 7'6", he later became a porter at the household of King James I

During the Civil War between King Charles I and Cromwell, the Whorwoods of Sandwell hall sided with the King, whilst the Turtons of the Oak House were Cromwell supporters

In 1731 a journey from West Bromwich to London by stage coach would take about 2½ days and a cost of one Guinea single fare

Izons and Co. were the first makers of cast iron holloware in England in 1780

In 1832 there were no less than 60 coalpits in West bromwich

The Town Hall was opened in 1875 and cost £18,000 to build

The present Public Library was opened in June 1907

The highest point in West Bromwich is at the junction of Thynne Street and Beeches Road, which is 567.83 feet above sea level

Farley clock tower at Carters Green stands 65 feet above ground level and was built in 1897

During the reign of King Charles ii, the overwhelming debts of the King led to the imposition of a Hearth Tax of 2/- on each hearth, the revenue derived from this being settled on the King for life. In West Bromwich in 1660, 332 hearths were taxed, including Sandwell Hall, making a sum of £33. 4. 0. for the King

In 1915 a certain Martin Fahey of Union Street, Spon Lane tried to murder his wife, Catherine Fahey at St Michaels Church while she was attending Mass there. He sat behind her and tried to cut her throat while she was praying, he was over powered and she only just survived

Corrugated steel was invented by John Spencer, proprietor of the Phoenix Iron Foundry, Phoenix Street. Apparently one day in 1844 a sheet of iron accidently fell into the rollers and got crumpled. John notticed the bends made it stronger and patented the idea.

The Albion ground is the Highest location of all clubs in the Football League.

The Hawthorns - built in 1900 - stands 551 feet above sea level

John Wesley Woodward  a Cello player and in the Ships Band from Hill Top perished along with three other West Bromwich men Alfred Davies, aged 21, John Davies, aged 22, and Joseph Davies, aged 17 years, all of Hardware Street on the Titanics Maiden voyage.

Robert Hudson invented the first dry soap powder, "Hudson's Dry Soap" in 1837. In his small pharmacy in West Bromwich, he ground up his original batch of soap powder in his pestle and mortar, probably using the coarse bar soap of the day. It was popular with his customers, and this led to an increase in demand. Hudson got his female staff to pack the soap, apparently singing as they worked!

Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy was born in West Bromwich and not Ireland !

Thank you all for the very interesting history lesson, The only one I knew about was the Titanic connection and that's only because in 2001 there was a display in Wednesbury Library which had a local flavour interest and that's when I learned about the Midlands connection.

This site continues to become more intersting every day.

Von

Here is a few more, pinched from the Black country site

W.B.A floodlights were erected in 1957

Dustbin men went on strike Sept –Oct 1970 for 55/- rise, they refused a rise of 36/-.

March 17th 1950. Nos 24 & 26 Bernard St were up for rent at £22.19.4d per annum each

The Adelphi Ballroom was burned down in the early hours of Sunday May 23rd 1971

May 1950, work started on renovating “Highfields” to create the MemorialGardens, High St by Councillor Mrs Wilkes, by knocking down the existing 150yr old wall, air raid shelters and other obstacles. Totalcost, £3,535.

The Tipton Slasher Born in 1819, opened a pub in Spon Lane when he retired from prizefighting; it was called “The Champion of England”. It stood on a site by Chances Glass. He sold the pub and all his possessions to back himself in a comeback fight in June 1857 against Tom Sayers. He lost the bout after 2 hours of hard fighting. He died a pauper in Wolverhampton Workhouse in 1880; he is buried in Kates Hill Churchyard

Dorothy Mills was killed Sat night 20th January 1961, her body was found at the top of the gully at the side of 123 Bratt St, the entrance to Wesley tennis courts. She lived at 26 Bernard St with her foster parents, she was 13 weeks pregnant, her watch had stopped at 8.45. No one was ever convicted of her murder.

The Technical College was built, July 1950

In the graveyard of the Baptist Church Sandwell Rd there stood a large Gravestone for Anne Cutler, who owned a nail factory in London plus lots of land around the Sandwell Rd area. She came on social visits and to collect the rents. When she was buried, the funeral cortège went along Sandwell Road, which was lined with her friends and tenants, all wearing black armbands made from crepe.

The “Manor House” of Oak Road stood next to the Oak House, Built around 1770, and lived in by Madam Wyley, Oak Rd was fefered to as Wiley’s Lane. She committed suicide on the landing of the middle house in such a way that her bloodstains could be seen when the sun was in a certain position. The next people to live there were the Hamblett family of the brickyard fame,also the Bates family, who were early coach makers lived there. In the cellar was a small old black barrel which was sunk into the floor, it was always part full of cool clear water, perhaps a spring.

Here are a few more dug out by john !

The Inhabitants of West Bromwich were traditionaly known as the 'Throstles'. This was long before the Albion were associated with the name but could explain one of the many stories surrounding the Albion. The name is said to derive from the numberless donkeys who grazed upon the open common lands and who's bray was thus satirically alluded to under the name of the sweet voiced thrush.

The Dungeon in West Bromwich was aproximate where the Cagneys Pub (Millfields) is now

The Gallows stood in Hall Green Road, on the opposite side of the road to the Manor House, by the nursing home.

Spon Lane was known as Rusty Lane due to the amount of tinkers selling pots and pans there

The Town Centre as we know it now was Heath Land until 1804 when it was enclosed and a new Town centre was formed.

On the 4th July 1837, the first ever train to pass through West Bromwich and was watched by thousands of people, it marked the opening of the Birmingham to Liverpool Line. Great crowds gathered in the fields by Newton Road Station and whilst there they drank 200 Hogsheads of ale (10,500 Gallons !)

In 1865 West bromwich had..... 84 Public Houses.....216 Beer Shops....10 Wine selling Grocers....7 Dealers in drink for consumption off premises....and 21 pawnshops dependant of the previous !

Plus A few more...

In 1914, the West Bromwich bus garage was situated in Hardware St, the army commandeered the chassis from the buses and the bodies storedthere. They were never returned.

In 1929, Oak Lane Bus Garage was opened and all buses were transferred there from Hardware Street. 

The Swan Inn, Swan Village, was built in aprox 1550, probably the first Inn in the parish; it was rebuilt in 1860 with some of the original material. Sadly this was demolished to make way for road alterations.

April 1939, the last tram ran in West Bromwich and the omnibus tookover, the last tram rails to exist ran into Crowthers Funeral Yard in Paradise Street and remained until Paradise Street was demolished.

There was a farm in Lyndon called Holyoak Farm, and opposite the Lyne Pearl Well there were cottages.

A 14 story block of flats and 180 garages were planned to be built on the allotments (now the car park) opposite Hallam Hospital

It is said that before they build Christ Church they excavated 5 shaftsand filled them with moulton lead to stop any subsidence as there aremine workings all under that area.

The population of West Bromwich in 1086 was 70.

The first stonebuilt church in West Bromwich was on the site of All Saints, built inaprox 1101, the first reference to it was in 1125. It has been replaced 3 times since then. Before being named All Saints it was called StClements. The present church was built in 1871. The window in the tower is offset, this was because the builder thought that the tower was going to be much wider, the window was already in place when they realised, and the cost to remedy all the tower was too great so it was decided to leave it as it was. When Christ Church was built in1829 people referred to All Saints as The Old Church.

Sandwell Priory was “The Monastery of St Mary Magdalene” it was built in 1180. It was closed in February 1524

In 1834 J.Doughty started a horse drawn service from High Street Birmingham to West Bromwich.

Cronehills School West Bromwich was built in 1925 on top of Cronehills Collery pit head.

In1837 there was only one fire appliance in West Bromwich. It was housed in New St. In 1854 it was transferred to Hudsons Passage and manned by High Street traders.

Gas lighting was first erected from Birmingham to Dartmouth Square in 1833-34

James Heeley the inventor of the double lever corkscrew was born in west bromwich and later moved his business to birmingham

During the building of the hawthawns stadium the builders came across an oak tree which had to be removed, that exact location is now known as the centre spot of hawthawns stadium and the oak tree can know be found whittled down to a solid block laying underneath the physio table in the wba dressing room

Chris Hill at 01:15PM on Jul 24, 2009

The Hawthorns - built in 1900 - stands 551 feet above sea level

Chris - some years ago I visted Wednesbury Art Gallery and they had a tribute display to those who died on the Titanic from our local area - along with photos of the bands. It was very interesting and a good feeling to have the locals names listed along side others who perished too, until then I believed the only local link were the chain links (or similar).

David Christie Murray (my great uncle) was a Novelist and journalist. He was born in High Street, West Bromwich. he left school at the age of twelve and went to work in his father's printing office which introduced him to the allied craft of journalism. He wrote pieces for the Wednesbury Advertiser and reported on police court matters for the Birmingham Morning News from his early teens until, aged nearly 18, he went to London, "to complete his education in the business".  Some of his best work can be found in the novels Joseph's coat (1881), Val Strange (1882) and Aunt Rachel (1886)

Judie

I have learned a lot about our old town  tonight, reading the facts here. thanks for placing this info here for us to enjoy.

Thanks for the bit about the Dungeon I have wandered about that name on the map for years.

Robert Hudson also made the first Baking Powder, Bowick was his brother -in -law and he  mixed it

for him as a favour.

The first British Typewriter was made in Salters Springs.

I'm doing my family tree at the moment and Walter Parsons the "West Bromwich Giant" who worked as a Porter to King James was my 8th or 9th great grandfather.

Chris Slater at February 4, 2011 at 7:12 AM

I'm doing my family tree at the moment and Walter Parsons the "West Bromwich Giant" who worked as a Porter to King James was my 8th or 9th great grandfather.

Apparently Ian Bott is doing a project on him at the moment only heard tonite now that's spooky!

The Baggies Board lost the plot the Weekend & sacked the manager De Matteo

Chris Hill at February 7, 2011 at 4:02 PM

The Baggies Board lost the plot the Weekend & sacked the manager De Matteo

A couple of Baggies fans have emailed me to say that roberto was on his way to west ham with his croonies at the end of the season anyway and it was all cut & dried and Peace caught wind of it and buggered him off

Fascinating stuff,  thank you all.    All very interesting.  I remember the hoardings screening the college building site so I must have been six years old.  Thanks for pinpointing the date for me.  Tram lines - the last ones I remember were in Old Meeting Street.