Sunday 29 September 2013

PHOTOSET: An Autumn Day In Wednesbury


I would like to welcome you all to my beautiful home town of Wednesbury, West Midlands.

I lived in this wonderful town from the day I was born in 1987 until the day I moved out to live with my boyfriend in Wolverhampton and boy, do I miss this place.

So I've made it my duty to visit Wednesbury as often as I can and last year I had the idea to photograph my favourite place with my friend, so when feeling a little homesick I just look at my photos and I feel better.

This post will be a photoset from the photos I took yesterday on our visit back to Wednesbury.

Wednesbury has a very rich history to it:

It is believed that Wednesbury was originally and Iron - Age hill fort, and the actual spelling of Wednesbury was 'Wodensbyri'

Here is a little history of Wednesbury: 

Wednesbury is one of the oldest parts of the Black Country. The ending 'Bury' comes from the old English word "Burgh" meaning a hill or barrow So "Wednesbury" may mean "Woden's Hill" or "Woden's barrow". It could also mean Woden's fortification, although the former description is often accepted.
During the Anglo-Saxon period there are believed to have been two battles fought in Wednesbury, one in A.D. 592 and one in 715. According to The Anglo - Saxon Chronicle there was "a great slaughter" in 592 and "Ceawlin was driven out". Ceawlin was a king of Wessex and the second Bretwalda, or overlord of all Britain. The second battle, in 715, was fought between Mercia (of which Wednesbury was part) and the kingdom of Wessex. Both sides allegedly claimed to have won the battle, although it is believed that the victory inclined to Wessex.
Wednesbury was later fortified by Ethelfleda daughter of Alfred The Great and known as the Lady of Mercia. 
Ethelfleda erected five fortifications to defend against the Danes at Bridgnorth, Tamworth, Stafford and Warwick with Wednesbury in the centre of the other four.
 Wednesbury's fort would probably have been an extension of an older fortification and made of a stone foundation with a wooden stockade above. Earthwork ramparts and water filled ditches would probably have added to its strength.
 There is now a plaque on the gardens between Ethelfleda Terrace and St. Bartholomew's church stating that the gardens there - created in the 1950s - used stone from the graaf, or fighting platform, of the old fort. Exploration of the gardens reveals several dressed stones, which appear to be those referred to on the plaque.
We first off visited my favourite place in the whole Borough - St Bartholomew's Church or as everyone else in Wednesbury have come to call it 'The Black Church' 

I have no idea why I love this church so much, I guess it because wherever you go in the surrounding areas of Wednesbury you can see this beautiful church for miles and it always reminds me that I'm not far from my first home.

Here's a little bit about St Bart's taken from their website:

Our church building is a very large and fine medieval church enlarged and developed by the Victorians. It is a grade II listed building first mentioned in 1088. It has a superb collection of William Kempe stained glass windows and plenty of original medieval furnishings.  Sitting on the top of Church Hill, seen for miles around, St Barts has been at the heart of Wednesbury for centuries.


There was certainly a church at Wednesbury by the early thirteenth century because it is recorded in the Plea Rolls of King John for 1210-1211, that Master William, a royal chaplain had been appointed to the church at Wednesbury.The present St. Bartholomew’s Church dates from the late 15th or early 16th century and contains a pulpit carrying the date 1611. At the west end of the nave is a table tomb with recumbent effigies of Richard Parkes who died in 1618, and his wife. It has been greatly restored and rebuilt, and stands on the site of an earlier 13th century stone built church. Remains of the earlier church were found during restoration work in 1885 and consisted of a three light window contained in a round-headed arch. The three lights date back to the 13th century but the arch itself could be earlier. The ancient window is to be found at the west end of the north aisle. It is next to the doorway which gives access to the choir vestry. This has a pointed segmental arch and is said to be from the same date as the window.In 1757 the tower was restored and the top 16 feet were rebuilt. At the same time the ball and weathercock were replaced. Restoration work continued in 1764 and 1765 when the nave roof was repaired and a ceiling added to the nave. Unfortunately during the work, part of the parapet on the northern side collapsed onto the roof and both fell onto the pews beneath, causing serious damage. As luck would have it the pews were empty at the time. Only an hour earlier they had been occupied during a funeral service.

As the parapet on the south side was found to be in an extremely poor condition, the decision was taken to rebuild both parapets and also to add a ceiling above the north aisle. As the restoration was now much larger and so more expensive than previously envisaged, neighbouring parishes were invited to make collections towards the cost of the work. In 1775 part of the south transept was enclosed and a wall added to form a vestry, and in 1818 the body of the church was coated with Parker’s cement. Nine years later the church was enlarged by the addition of the north transept and an extended nave. The pews were also replaced and a new font was presented by the Rev. Isaac Clarkson in 1827. Restoration work continued in 1855 when the upper part of the spire was completely rebuilt and the 8 bells were recast. Two new bells were also added, along with a new clock and weathercock. The cost of the repairs was raised by subscription and amounted to nearly £1,200.

In 1878 the spire was raised by 10 feet, and in 1885 the internal galleries were removed and the floor lowered to its original level.  Further restoration work took place in 1902 and 1903 when the transepts were restored. In 1913 the Chapel of Ascension was added to the south transept.
The church contains 15 late 19th or early 20th century windows containing stained glass by Charles Eamer Kempe and is also known for its unique fighting cock lectern. On 2nd March, 1950 the building was Grade 2 listed.



St Bartholomew's also has a beautiful garden full of flowers, which I also photographed:



I love the Wednesbury locals, everyone is so friendly and always happy to have a chat with you, while we were taking a little break on Church Hill we had a lovely Border Collie dog approach us with a ball in his mouth which he dropped at our feet and patiently waited for us to throw the ball for him, his owner was very friendly too, having a little chat to us about Wednesbury and us photographing all the old places.




We said our goodbyes after that and we went on our way back through the oldest parts of Wednesbury capturing photos as we went:



 I wanted to also visit our oldest pub in Wednesbury too called 'The Leathern Bottel' 
Legend has it that Dick Turpin once called into this pub to water his horse in the early 18th Century as he travelled from London to York, so the place is quite historical!



Its such a pretty looking pub as well and hidden away from the main road, just around the corner from our local park.

There's a lovely little sweetshop in Wednesbury called Teddy Gray's.
Teddy Gray's was founded in 1826 by Edward Gray of Dudley, there are only 4 shops across the whole of the West Midlands, and those are in Wednesbury, Great Bridge, Bewdley and Kinver.

The business was passed down to his son Teddy Gray and now five generations of the Gray family have worked in the main sweetshop in Dudley.

You have to pop into Teddy Gray's when you visit Wednesbury and get some sweets!
I had a bag of cola cubes and pineapple rock (pictured) two blocks of chocolate fudge and some Jelly Babies :)

 So, after a huge walk around Wednesbury we decided to visit our local park - Brunswick Park.
I've got so many great memories of this park from playing in the paddling pool to visiting Pat Collins Funfair in the September to hanging about with my friends there in my teenage years. It was where I had my first alcoholic drink (Frosty Jack, YUK) and it was where I had my very first kiss, so this park will always have a huge place in my heart.


This huge park was opened in 1887 to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.
There are huge hills to climb in Brunswick Park, tennis and basketball courts, a bandstand where some Sundays they have a brass band play and multiple twists and turns that take to to the top of the park, with gorgeous surroundings and you come across the squirrels a lot too. Its an excellent place for collecting conkers and acorns. 

The park keeper's house is beautiful and sits at the top of the park and has a stunning garden and a huge willow tree: 



 The other really beautiful part of Brunswick Park is its graveyard. I was told that there used to be a chapel in the middle of the graveyard, which was knocked down in the early 70s I think, and there hasn't been anyone buried there since.
The graves are so old in this graveyard, I saw that most of them were from the 1700s which told me this graveyard was here well before Brunswick Park was even thought about.



So after around 5 hours of walking around my beloved hometown, discussing memories and gawping at the beauty of it, I sadly had to make my way back to Wolverhampton.

But even looking at my photos now, I feel happy I visited again and I'm sure I will visit a hundred times more, because as we all know, 

There's no place like home.







6 comments:

  1. Hi Brogan,

    Nice post. You photographed many of the things I have.

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  2. Hello Mike!

    Thank you for your comment! Ooooh do you like in our beautiful town too? I love photographing Wednesbury :)

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    1. Oh of course you do! I've seen your photos of Wednesbury on the History Of Wednesbury Facebook page and I love them! Your photos were the reason I went out and photographed Wednesbury myself! I've followed you on Twitter and can't wait to see more of your photos :)

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    2. I saw you had followed me on Twitter. I wouldn't have spotted these comments otherwise. I didn't get an email. I don't think Blogger likes me, perhaps because I abandoned it for Wordpress!

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  3. Just found your blog - lovely photos! I'm a Wednesbury native but moved out of the country as a child. I would always go back and stay with my grandparents on school holidays. They lived on Hall End, right by St. Barts. I still live abroad and don't get to visit too often, so it's lovely to have a look at these pictures :)

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    1. Hello Liz!
      Aww thanks so much for your lovely comment! So great to meet another Wednesbury native!
      Where are you now and how long have you been away from Wednesbury?
      I'm so happy you like the photos, even though I'm a couple of miles away from Wednesbury I miss it so much too!

      Thanks again :)

      xxx

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