Remembering way back when ...
STRANGERS to Wordsley back in the 1920s could be forgiven for thinking that it was a sleepy village, with its wooded areas, fields and open spaces. There was a rippling brook running from east to west, where children gathered watercress, that wound its way through Foxhill, where children played and foxes, rabbits and partridges roamed. Its old English name was Wuluardeslea, meaning a “Woodland Clearing.”
It was a pleasure to awaken before the break of day, to hear the dawn chorus of the many varieties of songbird filling the air with their beautiful song. The cuckoo in the Dingle told that spring had sprung; off the sandy path to Lower Ashwood Farm, the skylark could be seen and heard, together with lapwings and peewits. The church bells would peel for Sunday worship and weddings; owls hooted in the grounds of the Manor, formerly Park House, then Wordsley House, built in 1757.
There were large houses where the captains of industry resided. Field House, built in the early 19th century was first occupied by the Ensell family, then in the early 1900s by Arthur Richardson. Wordsley Hall, built in the late 18th century, was thee home of Benjamin Richardson, followed by his daughter Martha Haden Richardson, until her death in 1906. The Mount and Bank House were home to the Stuart families, while up the common, Lawnswood House, built in 1813 by the Foley family, was bought from them by Jack Bean, of Bean Industries, the famous car manufacturer in 1924. He later sold it to the Marsh family, of Marsh and Baxter, and it remained in that family until the death of John Marsh in 2014. Woodfield House, built around 1822, was the home of Colonel W.G. Webb, the glass, seed and hops manufacturer, and later William Harcourt Webb, followed by Walter Marsh, son of Albert Marsh, the founder of Marsh and Baxter. Green Bank House was occupied by William Webb, brother of Edward Webb the seed merchant. Green Bank Villa, built 1871, was first occupied by the solicitor John Lidstone Holberton. Sandfield House was home to the Cochrane family, ironmasters of the Woodside Ironworks. White House, on the corner of Brewery Street (now Brierley Hill Road), in 1880 was home to Owen Gibbons, then Dr Tweddell, who used his home as his doctor’s surgery.
Wordsley was far from sleepy. Besides having Sandfield Workhouse, later converted into a hospital, there were two churches. Holy Trinity, built in 1829, and New Street Methodist, built in 1882; Richardson Hall, the former Drill Hall given by Colonel Webb as HQ for D Company, First Battalion of the South Staffordshire Volunteers; also the Rectory, built in 1836, home of the rectors of Holy Trinity; and Ashfield House, home of Robert Stuart of the Red House Cone.
There was the glassworks owned by Frederick Stuart, where families were employed. Later, a sports club and sports ground were added.
William and Edward Webb’s seed works was founded c.1850, being in Mill Street and also employed families. At least once, to my knowledge, the management of Webbs Seeds hired a steam train and took the workers to Blackpool on a day’s outing.
By Webb’s garden centre was Royal Wordsley Knitwear, founded by Fred Martin in 1926, then taken over by Horace Piddock in 1939 because of Fred Martin’s ill health. After Horace’s death it was taken over by his brother Norman. It was on the site of the High Building after it was demolished.
Fry’s Die-casting, later Cookson’s Steels, was just inside the entrance to Brierley Hill Road, established after the Second World War. Also in Brierley Hill Road was the Wordsley Brewery, Maltsters and Mineral Water Manufacturers – hence the former name of Brierley Hill Road as Brewery Street.
The Olympia Cinema was attached to the brewery and there was also Robinson’s Garden Nursery, with the brook running through it. When it rained the brook overflowed and the nursery flooded. Later, the brook was piped and known as Mouse Brook.
At one time there were five farms: Swiss Farm, farmed by Blunts; Mr Snelson’s Ashwood Farm; Tack Farm, owned by the Sanderson family; Rectory Farm with Johnny Giles as the farmer; and Cot Farm, farmed by Chaucer Giles.
There were four sand holes, two owned by the Richardsons. There were two banks, Midland and Barclays; Mr Randle the saddler; two blacksmiths, Mr C. Barker and Bob Yapp; three slaughterhouses, Mrs Whitehouse’s, Harry Oliver and Fred Webb’s; three tailors, E.C. Whitney, C. Dudley and Ben Cotton; six coal yards, Lowe’s, Poulton’s, Pitt’s, Young’s, Hill’s and Webb’s. Also, there was a malthouse, a pawn shop, and a printer, Wilf Chance. Most of these shops were on the High Street, where it was said, you could go in the front door of a shop and out the back door into the countryside.
Businesses
Other shops and businesses in the High Street were Finch’s, plumbers and paint shop, where accumulators were recharged; Collier’s bakery and cake shop; Mr Allett’s barbershop; Kinsell’s fish and chip shop; Price’s grocery shop; Mr Boylin’s barbershop; Mr Wootton the cobbler; the Central Stores grocery, owned by Bill Abbot, where glass artist John Northwood had been born. Next door was Fred Sneyd’s corn shop; John Hammond’s barbershop; Mr Cooper’s sweet shop; Griffiths’s papershop; Dick Guest’s builder’s yard; the police station; Mr Blackwell, wheelwright; W. Edwards’s builder’s yard; Fletcher’s garage; Matthews’s fish and chip shop; Miss Ryder’s sweet shop, where her brother Maurice had a barbershop at the back and Miss Ryder’s sister had a ladies’ clothes shop. There was Whitworth’s the cobblers; Miss Randle’s hardware shop; Mr Spear’s greengrocery shop; Mrs Whitehouse’s butcher’s shop, with the slaughterhouse at the back; Yeates the chemist; Mr Whitehouse’s bicycle repair shop; Wood’s bakers and cake shop; Farmer’s undertakers; Stanier’s garage; Miss Norwood at the post office; Mrs Warren’s haberdashery; the Wordsley rates office; Mr Green’s greengrocery, with a barbers at the back; Mrs Jones’s wools and cottons shop; Mr Oliver the butcher, with the slaughterhouse at the rear; Charlie Moody the cobbler; Mrs Southall’s greengrocery; Sporty Matthews’s papershop; Mrs Groves the tobacconist; Sid Priest’s garage; Mr Page’s bicycle shop and Jack Alwen’s fish and chips, next to Sadler’s, just off the High Street.
In the early 1930s change came to Wordsley, with Mount House and Lower Tack Farm being demolished to make way for a new council house estate, Bank House survived a while longer, renamed Churchill House, as the new Conservative HQ. Today that no loner remains.
Soon all the farms and sand holes followed suit. Ashwood is now a large housing estate, Woodfield House was demolished, again to make way for houses. The rectory and farm house were demolished in the 1960s, now the Rectory Fields housing estate.
Escape
The Manor still remains but its grounds are reduced by housing. Sandfield House was converted to Fairhaven children’s home but this, like Sandfield (Wordsley) Hospital, could not escape the bulldozers. Stuart Crystral (closed 2002), Webb’s seeds and garden centre, Wordsley Knitwear (closed 1995), Fry’s Diecasting, the Olympia cinema and the brewery, Robinson’s garden nursery – all are now sites covered by housing. Wordsley Hall remains as a residential home and Lawnswood House is being turned into a public house.
Old Wordsley Green now serves as the centre of the community. There are 10 shops, a supermarket incorporating the post office, cafe, opticians, health centre, community centre and library.
In the High Street, that was once the hub of the community, there are still a few shops in the old buildings. The chemist is now a balti house; Collyer’s shop is now flats, while the bakery site is now houses; Priest’s garage is now called Beech Craft Autos. New Street Methodist Church is standing but unused. The undertakers is still operating under the same name. Wood’s shop and bakery is now a convenience store. Other shops include a chippy, six hairdresser/barbers, a dentist, florist, Chinese takeaway, t-shirt shop, sewing shop, dog grooming, a computer shop, turf accountant, Chapel Windows, two tile shops, a cafe, Perfect Paving and the party office of the local Conservative MP. Camp Hill supports a Halfords car centre, a Chemix, and two restaurants, one being a fish and chip shop, and a Volkswagen car sales centre.
There is very little industry left in Wordsley, with Micron Engineering and a few works in Junction Road. It’s true to say that Wordsley since the 1930s has seen houses built on woods, open spaces, industrial sites and many of the old shops have been demolished for houses or converted into flats.
I am pleased to say that three of Wordsley’s 18th century buildings are still standing – the New Inn, the Rose and Crown and the Old Cat. I am also pleased that what is claimed to be the oldest building in Wordsley, Rose Cottage, marked on Fowler’s 1822 map and once an inn named the Sign of the Finger, is still standing. For many years it was the home of the Ryder family and Miss Ryder kept a collection of animals in the extensive paddock behind the cottage.