Lost street scenes from early last century
BUGLE reader David Cookson of Amblecote had kindly supplied this selection of photographs dating from the early 1930s.
They were all taken by David’s father Norman Cookson, who was a clerk in the sanitary department of Stourbridge Council at the time.
As such, Norman was involved in many aspects of town planning and, as he was a keen amateur photographer, he often took his camera with him while working and was able to record scenes in Stourbridge that are now lost to history.
Over at the top of the opposite page we have views of Coventry Street that Norman took in 1931. On the left he looks across to the junction with Angel Street and the Angel Inn, which closed for good in 1936.
The second snap shows the Home and Colonial Tea Stores and Wright’s Central Bakery.
At bottom left on page 16, Norman was standing at the end of Coventry Street beside what was then the Board Inn (see the Bass sign) and is now Nickolls and Perks. He was looking across to the junction of the High Street and Enville Street.
Mitre
On the corner was a shop but to the right of that is the original Mitre Inn, which was demolished and rebuilt shortly after Norman took this photograph. The new Mitre opened in 1934.
That last photograph of page 16 shows another building that was soon to be demolished. It stood on the corner of Worcester Street and Bagley Street. Norman took his picture in July 1933 and the building was knocked down the following year. The three pictures on this page were all taken by Norman in Market Street in 1931. The picture at top right shows the junction with Bell Street with the Bell Hotel on the corner. Again, this pub was completely rebuilt soon after Norman took his photograph. At bottom left is another view of Market Street, this time with the Town Hall on the righthand side and the lamp post marking the junction with Smithfields. Our last picture is of an old building with a Dutch gable alongside St Thomas’s Church. While the railings and the old church gates have gone, the other building still stands and is now a hair salon.