HISTORY

Straits Friends 1930's - Updated with Sid Plant's memories Sid Plant & friends, click photo to enlarge Our thanks go to Clive Holmwood for sending us this photocopied picture of his grandfather Sid Plant (seated on motorbike) surrounded by friends (neighbours?) near his Straits home, some time in the 1930's. Sid moved to The Straits in 1925, after his father Henry began working for the Earl of Dudley at Himley Hall. Towards the end of his life, Sid related many memories in a taped conversation with grandson Clive Holmwood. We have transcribed this interview, and publish relevant extracts at the foot of this article. We think that this picture may be of general interest to Gornal genealogists because the other people in the photograph are members of the Wakelam and Hartill families, two locally noteworthy surnames that will regularly crop up in our readers' Family Roots investigations. The photo line-up is as follows, left to right: Lewis Hartill (child), Mrs. Hartill holding baby Hartill, Great Aunt from Spennymore Durham, Hartill child, Martha Plant (mother), Sid Plant on motorbike, Win Plant (sister), Mrs. Wakelam's toddler, Mrs. Wakelam holding baby Wakelam. Here are Sid's memories of the era depicted in the Straits photo: Father was a cab driver at Pearsons Cab and Posting Co., New Street, Stourbridge. He had another job under the Earl of Dudley, so we left the old house and moved to the Straits in 1925. The old house at the Straits was a one down and three up. One bedroom was over the brewhouse and one room was only an outhouse. Another was built over the outhouse. Another was underneath, and we kept the beer barrels under there. We used to keep our own pigs and get the man from Gornal to kill them and salt them on Friday down in the basement and sell them. We'd sell the pork to the neighbours when they were killed. Henry Plant, click photo to enlarge Father worked at Straits House, belonging to the Earl of Dudley at the top of the Straits. My father was a groom, and looked after the gardens. Dad used to make his own ice cream. Also he would packet tea and go round the neighbours selling it. He would go out with the horse and cart and he would say the horse and cart would not go past the pub without going in to have a drink. He sold the ice cream and tea and he used to spend the money on beer. He turned the house into a shop, and mother used to sell sweets and tobacco and cigarettes for the local neighbours, and ginger beer and lemonade for Saxons. One of my neighbours in the Straits was a carpenter for the Earl of Dudley - he had two sons who worked at Baggeridge Colliery, one in the Engine House and one in the Carpentry Division. In the other three houses, two families lived in one house, name of Pasmore, Tom and John. They worked as colliers at Baggeridge. Mr. Wakelam lived in the next door house, but I don't know what he used to do. The other one, Mr. Bell, he was a carpenter for the Earl of Dudley. There were others farther down the road, named Wellsbury. Someone down the road, Mr. Fellows, used to work by my father. Then there was the Jones's down below. Of course all these houses have gone now. There were two houses in Sandyfields Road, and three where we lived and coming down the hill on the main road there were two on the hill and down below there were two more, the Jones's. At The Straits House, which is now the pub, there was a lodge at the bottom of the drive. The people were named Bench (sic. see footnote below). I think they were quite well to do, but we didn't have a lot to do with them. Dad never told me what it was like working at Himley Hall because he only worked doing odd jobs and taking them out in the horse and trot. I don't think he ever met the Dudley's because they weren't there half the time. There was a cinema in Gornal, it was called the bughouse or the fleapit, I forget the name of it now. The only other cinemas were in Stourbridge, the Kingshall. That was a big wooden place, it was a skating rink before the picture house. When we lived at the Straits, we used to have a little dog, the next door neighbours had a dog as well, but it was a bitch, and we could not let the dogs out together because they would just run off into the woods, and then one day they both happened to break away both together and went into Baggeridge Woods to do some rabbiting, and one day only the bitch came back and our dog never came back anymore. He must have gone digging round the holes for rabbits and we never saw him again after that. I only ever went to Baggeridge Colliery once, I spent more time at Stourbridge. I went once when I went a walk over there. Had a look at the old wishing well. About 500 people worked there. You could hear them coming up the road at night shift when they went for a change of shift. There used to be a footpath down into the wood to a pool called the wishing pool and at the side of the pool was a well with an old slab on top but I don't think it is there now. The water used to come out of Baggeridge pit and it was a wishing well and it would overflow into there and into the Himley Park and into their lakes. I lived at The Straits for about 20 years until I met a girl , got married and lived in Brierley Hill, working at the post office till I joined the army in 1939 * * * Footnote 4/2/06. Many thanks to Paul for emailing to confirm that the surname of the Straits House family was actually Bent, rather than Bench. However, Peter Bent has subsequently been in touch (18/7/07) to confirm that his father owned the house itself, and that the occupiers of the lodge were the Leach family ( click here for Peter's Straits House memories). We would be happy to hear from anyone who can supply further details. And of course, if you have your own images to share, we would be delighted to see them. Contact us at admin@yampy.co.uk