Author Archives: swanny

Was the Tividale trickster “gender fluid”  or just trying it on with the law? I always had my doubts about Mr Sydney Sheldon, he of the ruining of Barnett’s brickworks fame into a commercial free for all tip come flogging off of parcels … Continue reading →

  Another interesting piece I have stumbled upon comes from 10th April 1958 Birmingham Daily Post- just 9 days after the local concern about the rattlechain waste and its effects on human health. This concerns the named foreman Ernest Sulley, … Continue reading →

  Another explosive revelatory newspaper article has come to light from Tuesday 1st April 1958 Birmingham Daily Post. The headline “Tividale ‘Up in Arms’ over smell from tip” is certainly no April fool, but just further confirmation that this site … Continue reading →

THE NOTORIOUS RATTLECHAIN LAGOON For many years I had heard the stories from many unconnected people- and they couldn’t all have been mistaken in remembering daydreams from childhood or early adulthood. Rattlechain lagoon the former marlhole that had once served the … Continue reading →

Hot on the heels of how the continuing “Oldbury smell” had tainted chocolate in Birmingham come yet more newspaper articles from the brilliant British newspaper archive. In the report below from the Birmingham Post of 4th December 1957. This appears … Continue reading →

The former Tividale sewage works area off John’s Lane has a long and murky history, almost as filthy as the solids that once passed through it. This post looks at some of the developments that occurred up to its eventual demise … Continue reading →

  Albright and Wilson as a company and as two families engaged in chemical production making profit from an industry which poisoned animals and birds with their industrial pollution effluent. What is less well known about the founder families was their love … Continue reading →

So to the inevitable Sandwell cabinet head nod to their planning officers ludicrous “garden city” proposals, part of which includes building more houses next to rattlechain lagoon on  land still heavily contaminated itself as part of a housing allocation scheme. … Continue reading →

  A great man visited Sandwell  last Tuesday, The West Midlands Mayor Andy Street. The free event at the now festively decorated Oldbury Kremlin offered “A chance for residents of Sandwell and the wider West Midlands, to come and ask … Continue reading →

    Another in the continuing saga of “The Oldbury smell” – you just can’t keep that kitty down! I have previously outlined how this had all started in The Albright and Wilson Oil additives plant. This ongoing social menace … Continue reading →