A journey through time with a Black Country bus ticket

Chance find in a West Country book sale contained a tiny piece of our history

I recently purchased a book entitled Days at the Cricket, written by John Arlott, the doyen of cricket writers.

The book was published in 1950 and covered the series between England and West Indies which took place during that season, and was priced at 2/6d.

What, you may ask, has that to with The Black Country? The only tenuous connection in the text of the book is that the outstanding West Indies side included left arm spinner Alf Valentine who a couple of years hence was to appear in The Birmingham League as the professional for Walsall Cricket Club.

I had obtained the book amongst a number of volumes I bought from the clearance sale of the collection of author David Foot, who wrote a number of books both on cricket and about the west country, his home being in Somerset.

Part way through reading the book as I turned a page I discovered a ticket which I assumed had been used as a book mark. As the photograph shows, the ticket was issued by Wolverhampton CB, probably as either a bus ticket or maybe a trolley bus ticket.

The advert on the reverse is for ‘Jury’ who were based in Thorns Road, Quarry Bank and produced a wide range of kitchen utensils before closing down towards the end of the 20th century. The wording of the advert is in the language of the time, but the slogan ‘Buy her Jury for her kitchenware’ would certainly not get past the Advertising Standards people in the present day and age! There is a name, Hazlehurst, written on the inside cover and he/ she may well have been the original owner. Perhaps one of the descendants of the family will be reading this! Although the ticket is not dated it is obviously prior to decimalisation of the currency in 1971 as the cost is 2d. If I could hazard a guess I would put the date as the 1950s, as at that time you may well have been able to travel by public transport for such a meagre charge. If I am correct then ‘Hazlehurst’ may well have purchased the book when it was published rather than picking it up in a second hand bookshop.

The wording of the advert was very much in the language of the time

Right: The Wolverhampton ticket found in a book from the West Country. Can you give it a fairly precise date?

West Indian cricketers at the Queen’s Hotel in Birmingham, 1950s. Alf Valentine on the right

Unknown workers at Judge-jury holloware works in Quarry Bank in the1960s

The rear of the ticket, featuring an advert for Jury Kitchenware

Below: Terry’s copy of John Arlott’s cricket book