A house for £800 when the Black Country was still green

How things have changed in 70 years

- By CLIVE CORBETT Bugle correspondent

GOING through old documents often sparks memories and great stories, and this happened recently in the case of two close relatives. Please bear with me whilst I provide a little background.

The papers belong to our Auntie Cath (nee Corbett) and Uncle Barry Bridgewater, who were together for well over seventy years.

Cath hailed from Brierley Hill and Barry from near the old Post Office in Tipton. In July 1936 the young Bridgewater family moved to Stambermill Road, between Stourbridge and Lye, to a pub called the Rose and Crown, which stood on the site of what is now the Rainbow Palace.

In the early 1950s, during Barry's National Service in Germany, his mother and father moved to a house near Lightwoods Park, and by the time he left the forces they had bought Luckman's Cottage in Washwood Heath. This was adjacent to a garage that his dad part-owned.

Meanwhile, the Corbetts moved around, from Waldron Avenue and the Wallows to various pubs. Cath's mom and dad ran the Town Arms and the Mitre, and by the time she met Barry they were at the Commercial in Brockmoor. They were there when Cath and Barry got married in March 1957.

There was no real need for a wedding car as they could have walked the five minutes down the road to St John's Church. But that would have been far from dignified, so they did get one in the end, from a bloke who owned a furniture shop up in Harts Hill. Barry's dad had done some work on one of his funeral cars, but Cath is quick to confirm that she wasn't transported in a hearse.

After they got married they eventually ended up in a flat above the garage at Washwood Heath, but they did live with Cath's mom and dad at the Old Commercial in Brockmoor for a time whilst the flat was being redecorated.