Bradmore wolverhampton, Gunmakers and Church Road

[truebritmega]

lovely to hear from you (and for re awakening the Bradmore thread)... I cant say too much personally (as I was only hatched in 1971  lol ), but yes to Brockhouses, mom regularly mentions Brockhouses.. i'll print your post off and find out more of that tomorrow...

As for me, im born and bred Bradmore (you can always tell when someones from bradmore, cos we call it Bradma instead LOL) but I have always been proud of being from here, and now I know my family goes back a good few generations here too... it just makes it that much more special

Back to the Byhlly lane subject... mom was telling me how they( her and her friends) used to go down there especially... to see the barrage baloons


Id like to find out more too, about the origin of "Bradmore" Im sure I heard somewhere that it came from Broad-mere...

[giraffe]

Hi Truebrit, Not quite Bradmore, but nearby.
We lived in The Avenue, off Bhylls Lane, 1939-1950. Your mention of barrage balloons - I can remember seeing them from our back bedroom window, also on one occasion search lights in the sky. I think they must have come from the Langley Road, but I was only little, so didn't understand quite what they were. I can also remember my Mum helpless with laughter one day. My sister and I were peering down the drain, and when she asked us what we were doing we told her we were looking for 'germans'!
giraffe

[judijee]

Brockhouse's it was.  I can remember Gran using her ration book there, so that's going back a bit!!  I wonder if anyone recalls my gran, or the terrace of houses in Maple Road?  Her name was May Finch and she had two daughters: the younger one (from her second marriage) was also called May, and the older one was my mother Gwen Fowler, a glamorous little blonde who loved going dancing.  Next door at the end house was a family named Williams - I used to play with their grandaughter Olwen.
The old postcard photo of the Trysull Road - although it dates from around 1900  - is pretty much as I remember it from the 1940s, although by then there were some houses on the right hand side, too.  Maple Road turned off to the left just round the corner from the end cottages, and there was an area of rough wasteland that we used as a playground.
I would guess that the name Bradmore has the same origin as Broadmoor (!) and originally described a broad, open tract of land that sloped up towards the Goldthorn Hill/Coalway Road ridge.

- Judy  

[truebritmega]

I'll ask mom about the maple house terraces, she might even know you!, mom was born in 33... her family were all around the area  lol (the Griffiths's)... I was thinking... that Bradmores origins could have been to do with this ancient lake that was supposed to be around here, between Highfields school and tettenhall i think it was... someone did mention to me once it came from "Baroad mere"... but for the life of me i dont remember who lol... but there were boggy areas around here, apparently the "rec" in church road was originally boggy, and had to be filled in etc before it could be used,.,

[Kaliannan]

With reference to the Broad Lane and a lake in the area.  Dr. K.M. Farr of Wolverhampton University gave a lecture "Wolverhampton Geology and History" In this she attributed the name Bradmore to Broad Moor and showed a sketch map locating the area between Uplands Avenue, Trysull Road and Broad Lane as a site shown on a geological map having lake silts and clays.
I hope this is of interest.

[Pedrocut]

Thanks for that Willow.
As regards the Dead lads grave, I don't think you will find an answer to that as it has been a bit of a legend for many, many years and no-one to my knowledge has been able to find out the origin of it.
Here is a pic that might interest you both. It is one I took many, many years ago (I can't remember when but the cars might give it away) of Star Street, Bradmore prior to it all being altered.

Regards, Bob.

Fascinated recently by the occurrence of Dead Lads Grave on the old maps, still there in 1920 but not in 1938, I searched the net without success.

But I think the answer was under my nose! I have a booklet called Investigating Penn written in 1975 and this is what it says…

Near Knave’s Grave is an interesting field name and is believed to be an allusion to the practice of burying suicides at a crossroads. Sewer excavations earlier in the century uncovered some very old human bones and these seem to bear out the theory. Hence the field names in Broad Lane…Near Knave’s Grave and Far Knave’s Grave, and in Birches Barn Road…Dead Lad’s Grave (Gravepiece).

All the best Peter

[truebritmega]

well done!! never heard of that all the more interesting:)

[Pedrocut]

well done!! never heard of that all the more interesting:)

As an afterthought I found this from wikipedia concerning burials at crossroads...

[edit]Burial at cross-roads
Historically, burial at cross-roads was the method of disposing of executed criminals and suicides. Cross-roads form a crude cross and this gave rise to the belief that these spots were selected as the next best burying-places to consecrated ground. Another possible explanation is that the ancient Teutonic peoples often built their altars at the cross-roads, and as human sacrifices, especially of criminals, formed part of the ritual, these spots came to be regarded as execution grounds.[citation needed] Hence after the introduction of Christianity, criminals and suicides were buried at the cross-roads during the night, in order to assimilate as far as possible their funeral to that of the pagans. An example of a cross-road execution-ground was the famous Tyburn in London, which stood on the spot where the Roman road to Edgware and beyond met the Roman road heading west out of London.
Superstition also played a part in the selection of cross-roads in the burial of suicides. Folk belief often held such individuals could rise as some form of undead (such as a vampire) and burying them at cross-roads would inhibit their ability to find and wreak havoc on their living relations and former associates.

All the best Peter

[Willow 4873]

Well done Peter very interesting

It doesn't say anything about staking the bodies which I think was also done with the stake going right through the body into the earth (form of earth magic). I think it was also rumoured to be a Yew tree stake cus there is something tickling the back of my brain about Yew trees in graveyards but I cant remember what it is (or there again I've been watching too many horror movies  )

I think there was also another legend about them being buried at crossroads because if they rose then they wouldn't know which way to go

Willow x