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Essential reading in our house! Older editions can be read in the British Newspaper Archive: 1884-1896, 1898-1909, 1911-1931. Harry Harrison had a Black Country dialect poem in the 1960s -1970s.

Heather Shore at Leeds Beckett looks at policing and coining. https://crimeinthecommunity.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/i-am-now-in-the-service-of-the-mint-police-coiners-and-utterers-in-the-nineteenth-century-old-bailey/

The Barber Institute has a fine coin collection. They may know someone who could discuss the possibilities. BMAG also has a coin collection, but I think there's no access until at least October. William Booth is infamous. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Booth_(forger) You probably know...

Lyn, 'Slow Horses' is based at Slough House, the idea being that agents who screw up are sent there until they resign. It is self- deprecating bit like Brummie humour. But I imagine that a lot of hard work continues to be done in Birmingham to protect us. Just not glamorous. Derek

Lyn, the conversion to flats was apparently in 2011, so before then and after the time it was workshops? Ever read Mick Herron's 'Slow Horses' ! Derek

Viceroy House in Water Street, Jewellery Quarter was apparently used by MI5 formerly as offices. https://metro.co.uk/2022/02/19/birmingham-flat-in-former-mi5-office-goes-on-sale-for-950000-16134100/

Lyn, this appears to be a darker print of a picture which was taken Summer 1961 and reprinted in 2 Feb 2022 Black Country Bugle. The accompanying text says the shops were demolished shortly after the photo. I have Press Reader, I think it is free if this link doesn't load. Hardware shops are...

I'm afraid that lots of photos on older threads are missing. I gather the site was hacked some time ago. There's nothing you can do, unless you have a photo either digitally or physically.

That sounds about right. Sandwell MBC was created on 1 April 1974. Galton Bridge dates from 1829 and I think the valley was constructed artificially. But no-one called it Galton Valley until the 1970s. I confess that I have little sense of Sandwell as a physical place - unlike say Smethwick...

'Real Ale' is promised too! https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/fresh-hope-woodman-licence-application-29648468

The Woodman is being restored and will reopen as a pub in September! Good news for once.

Rosie, I'm pleased that the Shakespeare Garden has been restored. Mom was a keen gardener and we always looked in there. I don't know if the many poisonous plants in Shakespeare survived modern health and safety! What about the Lightwoods Park bandstand? I must go and visit the Woods this...

Richard, Sir Marc Isambard Brunel (the father) -- 'On 24 March 1841 Brunel was knighted by the young Queen Victoria. This was at the suggestion of Prince Albert who had shown keen interest in the progress of the [Thames] tunnel.' Wikipedia. Albert was keenly interested in Engineering, but he...

Lyn, in 1957 Warley Abbey (and the Woods) together with Lightwoods House and Park belonged to BCC (despite being outside the city bounds.) It was thought that Warley Abbey was too expensive to restore. The Gothic Revival was no longer fashionable then I suspect. Derek

Lyn, in the book linked by Pedro #24 above there is a photo of an interior room with a fire screen and pictures hung closely on the wall and another photo of an empty corridor with plastered ceiling, this last one taken before demolition. The house was completed in 1819, so Victorian Gothic...

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Thanks Pedro. I've not seen this before. Oliver Lodge and Alexander Chance together with the other subscribers were public spirited in saving the woods for the benefit of generations of local people. Derek

Happy Birthday!

The people who don't link their DNA to a tree are irritating. Also those who ask you for information, yet they don't want to reveal anything themselves! I appreciate there can be people who simply want to establish who their parents or grandparents were. They are not interested in family history...