Chris Bains takes a walk through the Black Country in 1984. He visits Saltwells Nature Reserve, the derelict Round Oak steel works and looks on as Merry Hill Farm is destroyed to make way for the shopping centre.
I remember playing there late 40's early 50's with my mates when the area was pretty derelict, and still had relics of the Earl of Dudley's railway. We called it the area the Coppice. Mousesweet Brook was bright yellow from pollution (I thought that was the normal colour for streams). The Doulton Clay Pit was a frightening place with green pools and tales of drownings. Our parents allowed us to go although we got hammered coming home covered in mud. Often families used to go to the Woodman pub somewhere there. It was great to see the transformation after moving away in 1960.
Thank you for this. It is very sad on both sides of the story. Factories shutting down, people loosing their jobs and on the other hand loosing beautiful green and pleasant fields.
Saltwells is beautiful, as is Baggeridge. Both manmade sanctuaries (one an ex quarry, the other an ex coal mine) that have been returned to green following the the industrial era. They are lovely places to walk. Baggeridge has been a particular sanctury to me and my family throughout 2020. I just wish some of my fellow Black Country men and women would learn to look after their environment.
@@robferguson8696 Thank you! My husband and I did the 4 mile round walk from Baggeridge to Himley at the weekend. Lovely and mucky underfoot and LOTS of birdsong. Definitely a hint of spring in the air now!!!
Thanks for sharing this. I remember watching this as a young boy the first time around and we had a vhs recording for years (BBC2 I think) and as living in Brierley Hill at the time, the building of the Merry Hill shopping centre. Still go over Saltwells Wood occasionally and walk the local canals. Brilliant video. Thanks 🙏
I literally live a mile from the “Merry Hill Shopping Centre” although the centre holds many memories for me growing up, it’s sad to see what had to be removed for it to exist. No more than a year ago now I was stood on the viaduct that you can see in one of the the shots by the canal by the steelworks, makes me abit emotional.... my how things have changed.
had family work at the ole oak steel works as a kid we used to ride our motorbikes along that canel and cross old sites to ride to west brom and brum and back for the day, they were overgrown back then sometimes had to back track as bridges had fell apart wooden sleeepers used to repair the walk ways had fell away never really saw or knew how massive round oak was till it was gone and they built not so merryhill shopping centre ,ive told my kids of the old canels and old factories we rode and played around and in great footage thank you for the old memories
I didn't notice the date on the description but as I watched the credits at the end I was guessing it was between 1977 and 1984. Just about a good guess! The children seemed like 1970s/early 1980s children... on BMX bikes?! Some of my ancestors and their siblings probably worked there or not far from there... as clay miners, quarry labourers... things like that. Thye must have been tough people to do heavy work like that for too many hours a week!
I doubt if there is. We were very fortunate that this version was found and copied from film to a digital format. The rest I imagine was swept up from the cutting room floor.
