My earliest recollection was at a place called "Wright's Buildings (or "Monkeys Ruck"), which is now non-existent. The location of thit place was by the present Wrockwardine Wood to Town Centre new road (North Eastern Primary Road), overlooking the Greyhound Roundabout. Wright's Building consisted of 5 houses and 2 barrack type houses (no upstairs) with 2 wash houses to serve the little community. A fresh water tap was put in the wash houses, sometimes called Brew houses, just before my family moved into Wright's Buildings from my birthplace at Gower Street, St Georges (next door tothe Bell public house). The only water available before this was from a well at the back of the buildings about 100 yards from the cottage occupied by the caretaker (Mrs. Barrow) who looked after the Snedshill Forge offices, nearby. To obtain water from the well a bucket had to be lowered and at certain times of the year, tadpoles had to be sieved out of the water. This was one of our boyhood delights, to blow up the tadpoles and frogs by pushing a piece of hollow grass in them and inflating them and then giving them a sharp rap with a stone or stick.

Wash-day was on a rota system and my word what trouble it caused! Somebody had not cleaned out the boiler or had left ashes in the fire hole.

Sanitation was primitive. A small lean-to building on the back of another little building which served as a coalhouse was about four yards away from the houses. There was one for each house. At the rear of these buildings was a small patch of land which served as a garden and was about 12 yards long.

THE COAL WHARF

Then at the bottom of the garden was a railway which was part of the Lilleshall Company's means of conveying coal from the Grange and Granville pits to the Priorslee Steelworks, and Snedshill Forge, and also of sending wagons of coal to other places and wharfs where the coal was distributed around the district.

One such wharf was at the bottom of the garden at Wright's Building, and about 10 wagons of coal would be put there, then the various owners of horses and carts would come and empty them and take the coal to the houses in the neighbourhood. This §ometimes gave us boys something to do, helping to load the carts and in some instances lead a spare horse behind. The spare horse was there to help pull the laden cart up any steep hill. In the winter the wharfage was easily 6 inches to a foot deep in mud and great ruts sometimes made it impossible to move the carts. Along from the wharf was a shop known as "Corfields", where groceries were sold.

About 20 yards away and near to where the present Greyhound Roundabout is was a little hardware stores where paraffin was obtainable. This was used in lamps to light the houses, otherwise wax (tallow) candies were used. What a variety of lamps were used, all sorts of shapes and sizes, including some which hung from the ceiling.

Behind Wrights's building was rising ground called The Wood (now part Silkin Way) and beyond this was Snedshill. On the top of this hill were stanchions over which clay was transported from the Hydraulic Pits (now top of Cannongate), to the Brickworks which were situated at the end of Wright's Buildings. The conveyance of the clay was by buckets which were carried by an endless wire from the pits to the Brickworks. This "Wood" (Hill) was used as a short cut by the miners who worked at the Woodhouse Pits and who lived in the locality around Ketley Bank and Oakengates, and what a sight this was to see dozens of black-faced men coming down the hill, past Wright's Building, and sometimes we boys were lucky, for occasionally we were given a miner's lunch (bacon and cheese) which was a luxury and oh how good it tasted, especially after being down the pit.

COTTAGES AND COMMUNITIES

The houses of Wright's Buildings were typical of those in the district of which I can recall my earliest association 'I was between 3 and 5 years old). Near to my house were a few more houses, a block of th ree known as " Forge Place". In later years I ived in one of these at No. 13. The Lilleshall Co. railway lines were at the front of the house and at the back the LMS (London, Midland, Scot,tish) railway had replaced the Canal which used to run from Wrockwardine Wood. The canal wharfage or signs of it still existed until a few years ago. My old house No. 13, was part of the warehouse, for here stood the junction of another canal which ran alongside the present Holyhead Road. Forge Place consisted of 11 houses altogether, the name being derived from the Iron Forge which was only a few hundred yards away.

Station Road, known as Quoab Lane, was another community of about 16 small houses. What puzzles me is, how did our forefathers bring up such large families in such small houses with such primitive means of cooking, sanitation, etc?

The cottage heating was usually by means of an open fire. The firegrate was equipped with an oven at the side and hanging from a bar over the hobs were hooks which could be swivelled around on which one could hang the frying pan or kettle over the fire. This was quite efficient. The firegrate was usually the pride of the housewife, the surround being blackleaded, and the dustpan in front of the fire, which prevented the ashes from failing out of the ess-hole, was usually made of brass. The fender and the rest of the fire irons (poker, shovel, tongs) completed the equipment. To keep all these clean and shining was quite a job and required much spit and polish.

Another group of cottages was at Murnpton Hill, opposite the Snedshill Trading Estate, but like the Station Road cottages is now completely obliterated. This community consisted of about 16 cottages and my earliest memory of Mumpton Hill was the murder of a Mrs. Turicy by her husband, who later killed himself. This happend on Saturday 30th July in the year 1910. I well recall seeing the body, covered by a sack, lying outside the little Barrack House where this woman had sought refuge.

Here is an extract from the "Wellington Journal" of 'August 6th 1910 of the funeral of the victims:-

"Scarcely ever before in the history of the district, was there manifested greater public interest in a funeral than that shown on Thursday afternoon on the occasion of the interment of the victims of the tragedy.
From early in the afternoon people began to assemble along the route, from Jubilee Terrace to Holy Trinity Church. The large yard in front of the houses was densely packed with spectators watching the proceedings: The crown was very orderly, great credit due to the police who were under the direction of Chief Superintendent FULCHER of Wellington and Inspector HARRISON of Oakengates. A feeling of awe seemed to pervade the crowd as the two coffins were brought out of No. 10 and placed on two chairs. All along the route and on the lofty pit mounds was a dense crowd of spectators. Large numbers of people continue to visit the scene of the tragedy and much sympathy is extended to the poor children (seven) so suddenly bereft of their parents".

(I have obtained frorn the "Wellington Journal" a report of this tragedy, which verifies my earlier recollection of the date 30th July 1910.)

Another group of cottages was just past the Greyhound but on the opposite side, known as Jubilee Row (Tommy Shop). This was the place where the Turleys had lived. I lived for about three years in one of them from when I was seven. The cottages were for the convenience of the men who worked on the barges which came along the nearby canal. Of course there were public houses nearby, the Greyhound and the Stag and in between them was a private house. The old Stag building is at present a second-hand shop. Along the road about 200 yards is the Omnibus Inn, which is still in business though very much altered. Near the Greyhound and going towards Ketley Bank, stood another group of houses, these were known as Greyhound Terrace. Nearby was another small house with its back to the road, and a few yards away a small farmhouse occupied,by a Mr. Harrison. It was from this farm that we fetched milk.

The old Foundry Yard (now under North East Primary Road) was another little community of people. Some of these houses had been converted from the foundry workshops. Much of the cinder (slag) from the cupolas (furnace) was revealed when the Ring Road was being laid at Oakengates. It was, as I saw, many feet deep and spread over a very wide area. This area was mainly the L.M.S. Station Yard, on which is now G. Ellarn's warehouse, which in turn belonged to the L.M.S.. Adjoining this was Millington's Timber Yard and facing the Station Road another few cottages which I recall looked very old, and 'funny' people lived in them.

Between the Foundry Yard and Snedshill Forge was a road known as the Hydraulic Bank, now called Canongate (The Dollick), which according the the Rev. Gordon Cartlidge's book, "The Gates and Vale of Usc-con" was the old original name when it was used by the monks of Wombridge Priory.

Copyright:  Estate of  Moses Evans