Report by Dave Galley
Ian Bott very kindly agreed to lead a walk around Willenhall for us this year. The last time we had a walk around Willenhall it was led by David Plant who sadly died in 2006 so it had been some time.
When David led the walk, I can remember it was a very wet night and I can remember seeing closed emptied factories that were once the centre of the lock making industry and, as David explained, victims of the asset strippers. I remember that the drain pipes were missing and the rainwater dropping from the rooftops. This year the weather could not have been better and I could not believe the cars coming into coming into the carpark.
There was a good fifty people when we set of towards the Ring of Bells public house. So named because the church bells could be heard there. The Church happened to be our next point of interest. There had been a church on that site since 1313 but the current church was built in 1867. Interestingly it was a Chapel of ease for St Peter’s church in Wolverhampton, the starting point for our walk the previous week. Apparently, the river Tame was very close to the church but we could not see it from our viewpoint.
The Market Place was our next stop as Ian had something special for us to see but we needed the daylight as there was no electricity in the building. We reached the Market place along the appropriately named Cheapside. Ian's unplanned treat for us was a visit to the Bell Inn which had been offered to him by the trustees of the restoration project while he was on an earlier reconnaissance mission. The Bell is known to be Willenhall's oldest building, although it had been empty for some time and was coming up for auction with the possibility of demolition. Enough money was raised and a local consortium succeeded in out bidding the opposition to save the building and set about restoring it. Two of the stalwarts of the consortium were there to show us around - Wendy Evans and Ralph Jackson. Ian felt I should mention two others - Rupy Pandaal and Tina who could not be there. Tina became part of the restoration team when she was 14 and has worked there ever since.
To allow everyone to look inside we split into two groups, one group going with Ian around the Market place and one group staying at the Bell and then changing over afterwards. The group at the Bell still had to be split into two groups, one upstairs and one group downstairs. All restorations present challenges and the challenge here was to retore an original Cruck framed building with exposed beams and wattle and daub plus all the bits that had been added to it over the centuries.
Meanwhile Ian led the other group around The Market Place. The centrepiece was the Memorial clock and drinking fountain dedicated to the towns popular medical officer, Dr Joseph Tonks. He was well thought of by everyone because he cared for the poorer people in the town, being a local lad, himself meant he could connect with the families. Sadly, though he died just days before his 36th birthday, a result of his heavy workload and underlying injuries from an accident he recently had. There was an old-fashioned Iron mongers that sold everything, including oil for Tilly lamps according to the engraved window advert and on the opposite corner a shop where we could see the strong original oak beam supporting the upper story.
Once we were all united into one group outside the Bell, we carried on long a narrow blue brick paved passage which gave me an air of nostalgia as it did to one of the fellow walkers who commented about the diamond blue brick pavers he remembered
We moved on to Moat St, passing the factory of B.E. Wedge where its night shift was in full swing, metal bashing sounds not so common these days. Moat street came by the name of the moat that surrounded a large house that was once inhabited by members of the Leveson family. The house was knocked down, the moat was filled in and factories erected on the site. One of these factories became the Colonial Works of Joseph Legge a well-known lock manufacturer who began making locks there in 1881. Nowadays just the walls and skeleton roof frame remain and guess what? Broken off drainpipes! Could this be the missing drainpipes I remembered from David Plant's earlier walk, I think it was.
Judging by the number of fine chapels we saw religion was very popular in Willenhall at one time. One of the most ornate of these chapels was on the corner of Union St and in front of it was a preserved section of diamond cut blue brick pavement the sort my walking companion remembered.
We had now reached New Road home of the Locksmiths Museum, a wonderful, underrated place but sadly not one of the easiest places to visit due to staffing levels these days. The walk ended with Ian taking us along New Road to see Willenhall's second Toll House, now a barber's and before that for many years the Sue Ryder charity shop, built in 1818 in brick with the original cast-iron window frames. Far less obvious as a Toll House than Willenhall's other one but it's still here at least for the time being.
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