Black Country Ride No 9 - The Rowley Hills

Our very own Roving Reporter Dennis revisits the Black Country to find out what's still there and what has changed.

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Black Country Ride No 9 - The Rowley Hills

Postby Dennis » Fri Jun 25, 2010 8:19 pm

OK, there's a bottle of Tizer from the fridge on the back seat and The Crickets are singing "Please Don't Ever Change" - we're off to the Rowley Hills. Unfortunately it's like a furnace out there, people are driving like angry wasps, and in the distance the slopes are starting to go yellow from too much sun. It's curious thing: as far as I know these hills don't feature in anybody's Book of Really Interesting Places to Visit. Believe me, if this were Cambridge, say, they'd be telling you that this was "the highest place west of the Urals" or some such nonsense. But we're in the Black Country, so nobody bothers to mention the hills at all. Yet the views from here are nothing short of spectacular. In fact I once lived here, at quite an altitude, in the thinner atmosphere of Tower Road, in a house with a garden sloping up to an air-raid shelter and Bury Hill Park, and with a glass verandah for plants. The sound of rain pattering on a glass roof is guaranteed even now to send me off into catatonia, probably because of many hours spent dozing in a pram among my Granddad's geranium pots. At the top of Tower Road, by a stile there was a spring, always a place of mystery, where water bubbled up inexplicably through a patch of pebbles, creating a brook which ran down between the park and the houses and ultimately to the distant Trent. I used to love that brook and played in it for hours. Today I stop the car next to where the spring used to be: there's nothing except grass, although a gap at the end of every garden, now filled with an impenetrable tangle of vegetation, suggests that I might not be losing my reason after all...

Site of spring at top of Tower Road (below silver car).jpg
Site of spring at top of Tower Road (below silver car).jpg (49.89 KiB) Viewed 15739 times

Somebody's been busy mowing the grass on the hill, I stumble through swathes of hay up to the top of the ridge. At my feet is a vertiginous drop now covered with dense bramble and pink dog rose where once you would have had absolutely nothing to break your fall into icy water. Down in the valley there is just a glint of sunlight on the pool, now overgrown, where, in a landscape full of smoking chimneystacks, once stood the neat and opulent "Edale", a 1930s house by its own lake next to the Wolverhampton New Road, with trimmed lawns, a gazebo and (unless I'm dreaming) a boathouse. The whole area had been cunningly reclaimed from the Blue Rock Quarry, perhaps, or from a marlhole. Further along the ridge and down towards Bury Hill Park, an implausibly tiny yellow Post-it note stuck on the iron crossbar of an old broken iron fence says "Warning - Risk of Death", written in an ornate hand. "Edale" has been demolished and a drive-thru Kentucky Fried Chicken stands in its place. Its lake has been similarly democratized and is now used by a local angling association whose members, at intervals among the rushes, gaze intently at their floats on this opening day of the coarse fishing season.

Edale circa 1953 S.jpg
Edale circa 1953 S.jpg (12.52 KiB) Viewed 15714 times

Site of Edale and lake, house now demolished and slopes overgrown.jpg
Site of Edale and lake, house now demolished and slopes overgrown.jpg (59.5 KiB) Viewed 15726 times

Former motorcycle scramble area, Wallace Road and site of Pratt’s marlhole viewed from Bury Hill Park.jpg
Former motorcycle scramble area, Wallace Road and site of Pratt’s marlhole viewed from Bury Hill Park.jpg (56.52 KiB) Viewed 15726 times

Steep slope to Edale lake from Bury Hill Park.jpg
Steep slope to Edale lake from Bury Hill Park.jpg (59.41 KiB) Viewed 15726 times

P1020945[1] Edale Pool today S.jpg
P1020945[1] Edale Pool today S.jpg (62.96 KiB) Viewed 15645 times


I half march, half slide down the slope to where Bury Hill Park once had its swings, long iron rocking horse and roundabout. There's nothing now to graze my knees or bruise my head - just a patch of ground in a woodland clearing. And yes too, the smell of nettles - you can remember it - that dusty, pungent, green smell from those innocent-looking tassles. It's the essence of wild and abandoned places, with just a hint of menace like the plant itself. These hills were never entirely safe, which is, I suppose, part of their attraction. There was always the chance of some mishap. I remember my Dad carrying me from one end of the Rowley Hills to the other on his shoulders, past the gigantic chasm of the Hailstone Quarry with water lying at its bottom, like no hole I'd ever seen, and its colossal machinery silent on a Sunday afternoon when nobody in those days worked. You would try in vain to get near the Hailstone now, apart from on Google Earth - it's sealed off on every side. And Bury Hill Park? Nothing left of the rockeries and border displays, the path is overgrown and leads nowhere - except possibly to oblivion if you go through the hole in the fence (see above). The park keeper's building has gone. All that is left are the rusting green gates with the words "Bury Hill Park". They once bore a magnificent polychrome metal crest of Oldbury Borough Council, which somebody told me has been saved from the general shipwreck of the place. Higher up the hill is a modern children's playground. That's pretty much it now.

Former site of swings, Bury Hill Park.jpg
Former site of swings, Bury Hill Park.jpg (60.98 KiB) Viewed 15726 times

Entrance to Bury Hill Park from Wolverhampton Road at Rounds Green.jpg
Entrance to Bury Hill Park from Wolverhampton Road at Rounds Green.jpg (58.69 KiB) Viewed 15726 times

Bury Hill Park Gates.JPG
Bury Hill Park Gates.JPG (54.63 KiB) Viewed 15726 times

My brother, who loves hill walking, went to Rowley Regis Grammar School, just before it ceased to be one. If I remember rightly, the school's motto was from Psalm 121, Levavi oculos, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help". So let's head back up that way. Although much of the area has been built on, the (more or less) south-facing slopes of the Rowley Hills are still pretty much wild and covered in trees, scrub or grass. With a bit of work and imagination they might produce a passable bottle or two of fizz...Birmingham presents an unmistakably North American skyline to the east, with its Post Office Tower, Quinton is straight ahead, Blackheath and Clent over to the west. To the north east, beyond West Bromwich, is Barr Beacon, further still around the compass is Tipton and a glimpse of canal. But let's climb higher up, to Turner's Hill with its pencil-like radio masts replacing the one of my childhood which looked like a fencing mask.

Slopes of Rowley Hills to Turner’s Hill radio masts.jpg
Slopes of Rowley Hills to Turner’s Hill radio masts.jpg (47.42 KiB) Viewed 15726 times

Birmingham skyline from the Rowley Hills.jpg
Birmingham skyline from the Rowley Hills.jpg (46.02 KiB) Viewed 15726 times

Whiteheath, Blackheath, Frankley Beeches from Rowley Hills.jpg
Whiteheath, Blackheath, Frankley Beeches from Rowley Hills.jpg (46.91 KiB) Viewed 15726 times

Bottom of Tower Road from Bury Hill Park , looking towards Great Bridge and Walsall.jpg
Bottom of Tower Road from Bury Hill Park , looking towards Great Bridge and Walsall.jpg (46.94 KiB) Viewed 15726 times

There's a lane behind the Wheatsheaf pub from which you can see in the other direction across Dudley Golf Course, surely one of the best locations in the country, that is if golfers were ever inclined to take their eyes off the game long enough to notice. I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at, ten to fifteen miles to the west, but I think it's the Clee Hills and then the area around Abberley.

The Wheatsheaf pub, Turner’s Hill.jpg
The Wheatsheaf pub, Turner’s Hill.jpg (44.87 KiB) Viewed 15726 times

P1020991 View west to distant hills from Dudley Golf Club S.jpg
P1020991 View west to distant hills from Dudley Golf Club S.jpg (43.08 KiB) Viewed 15645 times

Let's return to the Wolverhampton Road. Rounds Green and Brades Village were very much my grandparents' stamping ground in the 1940s and later. I can see them now at a St James's Church Garden Party, they had friends at the top of Dingle Street and for a while my grandfather worked for Edwin Danks the boilermakers, where my other Granddad had lost an eye in a rivetting accident. The Prince of Wales was their pub, of course, now demolished and being replaced by flats. Go down the hill and there's not a great deal you'll recognize of Brades Road, if you knew it when I knew it. The infants school is still there and Brades Tavern, but there's no trace of the Brades Works where the famous garden tools were once made. But between the modern factories there's a tantalizing hint of the past with the word "Edwin" still visible across the canal on the side of Wellman Robey's factory, into which Edwin Danks was absorbed.

Dingle Street, Rounds Green leading to Brades Village.jpg
Dingle Street, Rounds Green leading to Brades Village.jpg (45.71 KiB) Viewed 15726 times

Florence Road , Brades Road , Rounds Green Primary School.jpg
Florence Road , Brades Road , Rounds Green Primary School.jpg (47.88 KiB) Viewed 15726 times

Brades Tavern, Brades Village.jpg
Brades Tavern, Brades Village.jpg (48.34 KiB) Viewed 15726 times

Former Edwin Danks boilermakers, from Brades Road.jpg
Former Edwin Danks boilermakers, from Brades Road.jpg (44.68 KiB) Viewed 15726 times

Continue along to Brades Bridge and you're in for a pleasant surprise. On this glorious day in high summer the post-industrial canal, once crammed with narrowboats, toxic with heavy metals and covered in a film of oil, is tranquil and lined on both sides with beds of yellow water lilies. There are even fishermen here. I ask whether there is anything alive in what was once such a dirty stretch of water that you were reputedly in danger if you fell in and swallowed any. Indeed there is, comes the reply: huge carp, tench, pike, but also that omnivorous interloper, the European zander, which has spread inexorably across the country from the Great Ouse where it was first introduced in 1963, hoovering up everything in its path... You may have come across it as sandre, since it's considered very good eating in France. A nice Brades Village filet de sandre en blanquette, anybody, washed down by a Côtes de Rowley?

Fishermen clearing canal weed, Brades Village.jpg
Fishermen clearing canal weed, Brades Village.jpg (57.13 KiB) Viewed 15726 times

The former Edwin Danks factory and canal, Brades Village.jpg
The former Edwin Danks factory and canal, Brades Village.jpg (53.33 KiB) Viewed 15726 times


© Dennis Wood 2010
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Re: Black Country Ride No 9 - The Rowley Hills

Postby MarkCDodd » Sat Jun 26, 2010 1:52 am

Interesting they have trouble with an introduced fish. The European Carp caused havoc in Australia. It is like Darwin himself oversaw the counter attack of evolutionary adaptation. Native fish became more tolerant of the silt generated by the bottom feeders and the taste of young carp became more palatable to our carnivorous species. I have a picture my uncle Colin from Oldbury holding up his prize catch of over 50 years of fishing, a huge European Carp. I didn't have the heart to send him a photograph of a pile of carp of equal or bigger size that I discarded on the bank as vermin after a fishing trip in the mid 1980's.

It is sad to see the special places of your childhood vanish under the relentless progress of "civlization". They create artificial replacements, such as making lakes out of old quarries, but they don't have the sense of age and belonging that natural features, such as your brook, have. Animals seems not to mind though and it seems that in no time the animal telegraph service has let the relevant species know there is a new upmarket address they should move to.

I find your stories invaluable as I try and picture where my families lived. Although I plan to visit these places sooner or later, I know that they have changed dramatically from what my cousins saw and experienced. You let me know some of what was, rather than just what is.
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Re: Black Country Ride No 9 - The Rowley Hills

Postby Dennis » Sat Jun 26, 2010 8:02 am

Invasive species are a problem here, Mark, as they are in Australia, whether it's pets that have been turned loose in the wild or escapees from farms - snapping turtles, wild boar, mink, American crayfish, many more. I've seen big flocks of green parrots in a London park! The zander or pike-perch, which in theory at least could wipe out all other fish species - just look at those teeth - falls into the "it seemed like a good idea at the time" category, like your cane toad. There's a big zander cull organized from time to time. And then there are the plants, of course, like Japanese knotweed...
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Re: Black Country Ride No 9 - The Rowley Hills

Postby peterd » Sat Jun 26, 2010 9:06 am

grey squirrel another pest
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Re: Black Country Ride No 9 - The Rowley Hills

Postby Annie » Sat Jun 26, 2010 7:16 pm

Another lovely Black Country Ride Dennis, I really do enjoy them. :grin:

I went back to the area I was born today placing flowers on ancestors grave and every thing there is so different, the house I was born in is no longer there. :(

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Re: Black Country Ride No 9 - The Rowley Hills

Postby Dennis » Sun Jun 27, 2010 7:26 am

Many thanks, Annie. Yes, Peter, I remember a park in Bournemouth which was already overrun with grey squirrels in 1952. Ironically nearby Brownsea Island is pretty much the last haven of red squirrels in the South. Let's not talk about the Harlequin ladybird from Asia, allegedly the UK's fastest-spreading alien species on record...
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Re: Black Country Ride No 9 - The Rowley Hills

Postby MarkCDodd » Sun Jun 27, 2010 12:37 pm

New Zealand are having trouble with Australian Possums.

I would quite gladly ship over the dozen or so who live in my garden.
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Re: Black Country Ride No 9 - The Rowley Hills

Postby Rob » Sun Jun 27, 2010 1:35 pm

I haven't been up Bury Hill Park since i was a kid.
Reading this re-kindled childhood memories of Blue Rock pool and motor bike scrambling on sunday afternoons.
I get homesick for sunny summer days in Oldbury!! :shock:
Another job well done Dennis!!
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Re: Black Country Ride No 9 - The Rowley Hills

Postby Dennis » Sun Jun 27, 2010 7:50 pm

Many thanks. When all the photos go up, Rob, there'll be a view of the (now densely overgrown) banks above Wallace Road where motorcycle scrambles once took place, with the flat green plain which has replaced Pratt's Brickyard and marlhole. Do you happen to know who owned Edale?
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Re: Black Country Ride No 9 - The Rowley Hills

Postby queeny » Sun Jun 27, 2010 8:09 pm

dennis my husband who lived in wallace rd said lewis lowe owned edale.
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Re: Black Country Ride No 9 - The Rowley Hills

Postby Dennis » Sun Jun 27, 2010 9:03 pm

many thanks, queeny!
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Re: Black Country Ride No 9 - The Rowley Hills

Postby Rob » Mon Jun 28, 2010 3:16 pm

Now i'm wondering who Queeny's husband is? :lol:
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Re: Black Country Ride No 9 - The Rowley Hills

Postby Annie » Mon Jun 28, 2010 5:00 pm

Rob wrote:Now i'm wondering who Queeny's husband is? :lol:



Bet you will know him Rob when you find out. :grin:

Enjoyed the photo's Dennis it's lovely seeing what these places look like when you have never visited the area.

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Re: Black Country Ride No 9 - The Rowley Hills

Postby queeny » Mon Jun 28, 2010 5:50 pm

my husband is vic bastable
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Re: Black Country Ride No 9 - The Rowley Hills

Postby mallosa » Tue Jun 29, 2010 7:09 pm

Dennis wrote:Many thanks. When all the photos go up, Rob, there'll be a view of the (now densely overgrown) banks above Wallace Road where motorcycle scrambles once took place, with the flat green plain which has replaced Pratt's Brickyard and marlhole. Do you happen to know who owned Edale?


queeny wrote:dennis my husband who lived in wallace rd said lewis lowe owned edale.



Sorry for the delay folks, they're all on now - enjoy! :grin:
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