Panoramic view from 1950 showing Rose Lane marked in red. To the left The Rattlechain brickworks and Rattlechain lagoon, the Tividale sewage works, and bottom left, The Vono Lagoon.
Chris Adams got in touch on reading recent posts about the area West of Rattlechain Lagoon off Rose Lane. She vividly recalls the agricultural land shown above, and fills out further information before it was turned into a vile tip. Here are her recollections.
“We used to ride up Rose Lane and turn right by the Boat Inn down the long grass verge (houses there now!) then right again and back down past the sewerage beds (John`s Lane) which were on the right hand side. These would have been in the area of Rattlechain. There were big fields on the right as we rode up Rose Lane. (I remember it being cobbled.) They used to fatten cattle up on there. Then some horses were grazed on there by Les Parsons of Halesowen. I believe they may still be in business?
We used to spend hours at my friend Mrs Jones as she loved to see the horses as the fields came right up to her house in Lower Chapel Street. This would be about 1960/63 approx. When they started tipping on there my friend was so upset she had to move.
Many acres of green space, with just a few houses.
I remember some cottages on the left as you came out the tunnel but they may have been derelict by then. They grazed what I think were either Highland cattle (or longhorns) on that piece of land. I only knew about the tipping when Mrs Jones used to write and let me know.
I next saw the changes after we moved back here in 1990.They had just started to build Sheepwash Urban Park as it was known then.
I was devastated to see what they had done to the area of John`s Lane and Rose Lane, under the tunnel. Not progress to me!
Another memory was Monk`s Farm which bordered the Tipton Road, possibly the area where Blakely School is? The farmer`s son used to come down to Ivor`s Riding School driving a little black pony called Sambo, pulling a little trap.(I have one of Sammy`s shoes in the shed still!)”
