The War Memorial Many people are surprised when I tell them I often enjoy spending […]
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WOLVERHAMPTON A TALE OF TWO CITIES My pictures and stories I hope will illustrate the […]
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“There was no room at the Inn, for the Named and Shamed.” I have classified […]
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The War Memorial Many people are surprised when I tell them I often enjoy spending time walking through graveyards. Why? Well, names on graves have held a fascination for me ever since as a lad of seven, I stood with my family amongst the many ancient tombstones in Merridale Cemetery […]
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Join me on a pilgrimage to a Civic Centre, standing today on “A celebrated piece of gone but not Forgotten Land” The end of the 1950’s marked the beginning of a new era. In the background from left to right you see the Education offices or the Clinic. Where outside here today stands […]
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Seventy years on from Horsefair Looking down from the tower of St Peter’s Church in the late 1960s, we see again that “Times are a Changing”. In the foreground, we see there are now two extensive car-parks where the Majestic Retail Market and Patch once stood. On the left is […]
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Changing times around North Street, before the “Civic Centre” The elegant lichgate of the ‘Wolverhampton Education Offices’ makes a perfect frame for this busy picture of the old market patch in the summer of 1953. The Lich gate and the building behind them were in North Street, built-in 1881, for the […]
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WOLVERHAMPTON A TALE OF TWO CITIES My pictures and stories I hope will illustrate the many changes which have taken place in Wolverhampton at various times particularly in relation to the street scene and general landscape. If you recall in part 5, I was talking about Giffard House and the […]
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WOLVERHAMPTON A TALE OF TWO CITIES My pictures and stories I hope will illustrate the many changes which have taken place in Wolverhampton at various times particularly in relation to the street scene and general landscape. If you recall in part 4, I was talking about the Two Great Survivors, […]
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At the Eleventh hour, of the Eleventh Month of 1977. I stood for the last time with my adopted father and great friend, William Oscar Williams at the Cenotaph in Wombourne. Born on the 14th of October 1893, he survived five years as a dispatch rider in the great war […]
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The Joy of Reading The way by which little words on pages stir your imagination and resurrect yesterday pass to your brain. In the process, they endow themselves with rich, warm life, and all that has been is again, you hear poets sing. The love of storytelling came to me […]
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The traditional rhyme goes “Remember, remember the fifth of November, Gunpowder, treason and plot”. Over four hundred years ago a man called Guy Fawkes and a group of co-conspirators hatched a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament. “The Gunpowder Plot”, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason […]
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Well, as it is approaching Halloween I wondered if this little story, which first came to light in Wolverhampton’s town hall pub, would be of interest to our members. It was told to me as a youngster, by a friend of my fathers who worked atthat time in the Retail […]
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WOLVERHAMPTON A TALE OF TWO CITIES My pictures and stories I hope will illustrate the many changes which have taken place in Wolverhampton at various times particularly in relation to the street scene and general landscape. If you recall in part 3, I was talking about The Deanery, but if […]
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Wednesfield High Street used to fall under the Wednesfield Urban District Council. Wednesfield and Heath Town former Urban District Councils from 1894, were eventually swallowed up by Wolverhampton. Heath Town was absorbed in 1927, whereas Wednesfield remained entirely independent and physically separate until the early 1950’ when Wolverhampton’s overspill housing […]
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“There was no room at the Inn, for the Named and Shamed.” I have classified this story as unfit for under 18’s and anyone with a weak constitution as it contains scenes of Graphic Horror. Binge drinking and anti-social behaviour never seem to be out of the news, with politicians […]
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We hear today many convincing stories regarding the centre of town being plagued by rats in the 1940’s and 50’s. Now, as I have mentioned often before, I was born close to St Peter’s Church which seemed to be the centre of all activities during my childhood. To hear a tale […]
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WOLVERHAMPTON A TALE OF TWO CITIES My pictures and stories I hope will illustrate the many changes which have taken place in Wolverhampton at various times particularly in relation to the street scene and general landscape. If you recall in part 2, I was talking about Bluecoat School, but if […]
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Do you remember the Bluecoat School? Well, in this series, I hope my pictures and stories will illustrate the many changes which have taken place in Wolverhampton since 1750, particularly in relation to the street scene and general landscape. If you recall in part 1, I was talking about North […]
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Welcome to Billy’s Picture Book! In this new series, I hope my pictures and stories will illustrate the many changes which have taken place in Wolverhampton since 1750, particularly in relation to the street scene and general landscape. Book One – North Street North Street, whilst still containing some interesting […]
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In modern times, it is home to University buildings and relatively upmarket watering holes like The Royal London and Hogshead, but allow me to take you on a journey into the dark side of the area we know today as Princes Square. A Den of Iniquity Although this photo of […]
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Have you heard the one about the lawyer and the bible? Despite the set up, it is no comedy, moreover, a poignant family tale from Victorian times. Now I know I said in my last outing that it would be the final part of our “Tales from Carribee Island”, but […]
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“No man sympathises with the sorrows of vanity” – Samuel Johnson The year is 1854 and a cholera epidemic ravages the land, leading to demands for a clean water supply and proper sewage systems, especially in poor neighbourhoods like Carribee Island. But can you believe there was opposition here in […]
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Of all the methods by which our history can be preserved, one way that is often overlooked is that of the names of the streets and roads around us. Whilst some of these are more obvious, such as Dudley Street, Walsall Street or Billy Wright Close, some are altogether more […]
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His Name was James Gatis… He was a man of the people and spent all his working life in Wolverhampton fighting for the Irish immigrants of Carribee Island and the poor in other deprived areas of Wolverhampton. “[A man] whose loss will be deeply felt by the poor, whoever found in […]
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An Island Far Away? Despite sounding somewhat similar to the Caribbean Islands, the area of Wolverhampton City Centre once known as “Carribee Island” was no place in the sun! “CRIBBEY – ISLAND” the place was called, yet twas no harbour seen; Nor, save the songbirds patch of turf, a single blade […]
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One of the most personal decisions in a person’s life is the nature of what happens to them once they shuffle from this mortal coil. In present times, many people choose cremation over burial, partly due to its more cost-effective nature, but also for the freedom it offers. Rather than […]
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Isn’t it funny where a good read of an old newspaper can get you? The date is Monday, January 23rd, 1933 and the headlines cry, “It’s just not cricket!” The main evening story in the Express and Star newspaper concerns the protests of not just cricket, but the entire Australian nation. […]
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Wolverhampton Hippodrome was formerly the old Empire Palace Theatre But what caused the fall… of the old Wolverhampton music hall? The tragic loss of this majestic Queen Square icon happened sixty-two years ago this week. The Wolverhampton Hippodrome framed through the arch of the Queen Arcade, shortly before […]
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A Pre-War Plan – That with hindsight, could have gone better. Mayor wants market- place Air-raid shelter for Wolverhampton! Advocates big Car Park Underground A scheme for a large subterranean car park to be constructed underneath the marketplace, which would also serve the dual purpose of being an air-raid […]
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What happened to The Big Garage? During the 1960’s and 70’s, we old Wulfrunians seemed to be forever mourning the continuing loss of our Victorian and Edwardian buildings. This old depot’s facade made a silent departure. But the mutilation of the former Tram depot another casualty on Cleveland Road seemed to pass by unnoticed. […]
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This brief history of a little fruit shop in Horseley Fields was sent to me in 2015, from Malcolm Smith. A proud Wulfrunian of 70 years standing (as he put it), now exiled in Cornwall. And it came about when Malcolm who had signed up to Lost Wolverhampton sent this […]
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