To celebrate national Libraries Week, 8-13 October 2018, Walsall Council is launching a new and free online service called PressReader. The service is now available in all of the borough’s libraries. Access it online and you will be able to download over 7000 full colour newspapers and magazines, if you haven’t joined one of Walsall’s libraries, it’s free to do so! Just take along proof of address to any Walsall borough library and you will be able to get your card.
Once you’ve got a Walsall Library Card you can access PressReader from a library, or from a PC at home. If you log on via Wi-fi in the library, it will keep you logged in for 29 days after you leave the library – so it’s ideal if you only visit the library once a month. If you have a smartphone or tablet, you can download the PressReader app and then you’re in.
The service gives you great choice and includes all the main national British newspapers like the Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Daily Mail, Mirror and Daily Express. Sunday editions are available too. PressReader allows you to subscribe free of charge to your favourite newspapers and have them delivered directly to your device each day – it’s a great way to save money. Popular regional and local titles are just a login away. There’s also a range of popular magazines which includes Auto Express, BBC Good Food, Red, Grazia, Heat, Men’s Health, Gardeners’ World and many more. Continue reading Free online newspaper service launched in Walsall libraries→
With the absence of Bloxwich Carnival this year, Pat Collins Funfair, long associated with both the carnival and Bloxwich itself, stepped in to fill the gap with a new (but actually old) event, the Bloxwich Wakes Festival, on Friday – Sunday 3rd-5th August 2018. And although the event didn’t draw the crowds that the carnival usually does, especially on Sunday, charity stallholders have reported a worthwhile turnout.
Stuart Williams of The Bloxwich Telegraph visited the wakes in brilliant sunshine on the Sunday to meet participants and take pictures for this photo feature.
Pat Collins Bloxwich Fete & Gala, Wakes Ground, 1965
The tradition of Bloxwich wakes goes back centuries, but from the late 1800s-early 1900s, Pat Collins, ‘King of Showmen’ and proprietor of the original Pat Collins Funfair, used to hold the Bloxwich Wakes, later officially known as Pat Collins Fete & Gala, here in the village every August, and it was a much-anticipated local tradition until the Collins family left in the early 1970s.
Pat Collins Funfair is no Mickey Mouse operation!
The ‘wakes ground’ site is now the ASDA supermarket car park, but in modern times, Pat Collins Funfair has traditionally been held in the King George V Memorial Playing Fields, near to the entrance in Bealey’s Lane, Bloxwich.
Revellers were guaranteed a super welcome
The ‘new’ Bloxwich Wakes Festival was organised by the modern proprietors of the current Pat Collins Funfair, Mr Anthony Harris and family, and in the spirit of the old Bloxwich Wakes offered not only their traditional giant funfair, but also arena events on the Saturday and Sunday with live music, plus live wrestling, charity stalls and more. Naturally, though, the real star was all the fun of the fair, as it always was with Bloxwich Wakes!
Traditional wrestling, 1970s style!
To view a larger image, just click on any of the pictures shown here.
Owen Allen and Demi Woods of Thespian Arts were amongst the performersJanet Cook, a fundraiser for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.
For info on the Bloxwich Branch of the Royal British Legion, follow this link, or the RBL and the Poppy Appeal in general, via this link.
Becky Weeks, Suzanne Williams and Cheryl Jones of Walsall RSPCA
For more info on the Walsall Branch of the RSPCA, follow this link.
Bryan Tilt, fundraiser for St Giles Hospice Walsall
For more info on St Giles Hospice, follow this link.
Shelby Hillback, Sadie Allen and Owen Allen of Thespian Arts
For more info on Thespian Arts, who are based in Clayhanger, follow this link.
Donkey rides – seaside style!The ever-popular Alfonso Urso serves from his classic BMC ice cream van
For more info on Alfonso & Son’s Icecream, follow this link.
Riding high on the Super Star!Crash-bang-wallop on the Dodgems!Scream – you know you want to!Shooting Gallery and Hook a DuckFlash dancing on the TagadaThe Ghost Train and bungee jumpingGoing for a spin on The SizzlerYour chance to fly Super Star!Definitely a Sunday Smackdown in progress
All pictures copyright Stuart Williams. Persons pictured may post these images on their Facebook pages, but no other publication or commercial use is allowed without permission.
For information on future events, be sure to keep an eye on the Pat Collins Funfair Facebook page and the company website.
With the absence of Bloxwich Carnival this year, Pat Collins Funfair, long associated with both the carnival and Bloxwich itself, has stepped in to fill the gap with a new (but actually old) event, the Bloxwich Wakes Festival, on Friday – Sunday 3rd-5th August 2018.
The tradition of Bloxwich wakes goes back centuries, but from the late 1800s-early 1900s, Pat Collins, ‘King of Showmen’ and proprietor of the original Pat Collins Funfair, used to hold the Bloxwich Wakes, later officially known as Pat Collins Fete & Gala, here in the village every August, and it was a much-anticipated local tradition until the Collins family left in the early 1970s.
The ‘wakes ground’ site is now the ASDA supermarket car park, but in modern times, Pat Collins Funfair has traditionally been held in the King George V Memorial Playing Fields, near to the entrance in Bealey’s Lane, Bloxwich.
The ‘new’ Bloxwich Wakes Festival has been organised by the modern proprietors of the current Pat Collins Funfair, Mr Anthony Harris and family, and in the spirit of the old Bloxwich Wakes will offer not only their traditional giant funfair, but also arena events on the Saturday and Sunday with live music, plus live wrestling, charity stalls and more.
Yes, after a much-needed period of hibernation, The Bloxwich Telegraph is back!
Following a trial roll-out on Twitter and Facebook using some of our best stories from the last few years, which it’s clear that you’ve enjoyed revisiting, as of this weekend we’ve upgraded our hosting and we’re back in action, so expect both improvements to the website and regular updates from now on, using a combination of news posts, articles and social media.
Since its foundation in 2006 as The Bloxidge Tallygraph, The Bloxwich Telegraph has aimed to support local people, publish local news and promote local events in Bloxwich and district plus more recently, through our social media, Willenhall. Now, we’re also looking to extend some coverage to Walsall town centre. We’re interested in everything from church and club events to major local developments.
You are invited to send in your local news stories and press releases, no matter how small, as well as events info and reports, via this site’s Contact page (which you’ll find under the About menu tab). You can also get our attention through our Twitter feed @BloxTelegraph
We’re also glad to continue helping to relay news from other local sources, and will be actively doing so via social media. Be sure to tag us on Twitter – if it’s locally relevant, we’ll give you an RT! Local news can also be posted on our Walsall North News Facebook page.
It will take time to get everything moving again, so give it a while and keep coming back. If you want to keep updated with all our news posts, be sure to subscribe using the button on the front page.
Sad news today is that the popular Walsall Advertiser newspaper has ceased publication after 40 years and 2,059 editions, leaving the Wolverhampton Express & Star-published Walsall & Willenhall Chronicle as the last of our local borough-focused conventional weekly print newspapers.
Historic
The Walsall Advertiser, a Tamworth-based paper which has long been owned by London group Trinity Mirror, which also famously closed down the historic Walsall Observer in 2009 after 141 years of continuous publication, was a well-liked and substantial freesheet, although perhaps not so much by the earlier publishers of the Walsall Observer, then West Midlands Press, which was badly shaken at the time of its arrival in the town, and was eventually also forced into being given away.
In January 2017, the Advertiser, which was not the first paper of that name in the town (the original being published by Victorian printer and publisher W. Henry Robinson and his father J.R. Robinson from 1857), was merged with another Trinity Mirror freesheet, the Great Barr Observer, in a move which the then-editor said brought together two “cherished news brands”, though no local papers have actually been published in Walsall for many years, nor have there been any local newspapers present in the town since the Express & Star pulled out of their new, purpose-built Walsall offices in 2009.
Observing the Advertiser
Separate editions of the Walsall Advertiser and the Great Barr Observer continued to be published for each area, featuring localised front page and sports coverage, and were variously known as the ‘Walsall Advertiser incorporating the Great Barr Observer’ or ‘the Great Barr Observer incorporating the Walsall Advertiser’ depending on where distributed. The Advertiser and Observer also retained their own websites until last year, when they were absorbed into the Birmingham Mail website under the banner of what is now Birmingham Live. Perhaps the writing was on the wall for both papers from that moment, as they have now both folded for the last time, and will surely be missed by local readers.
Party lunch is served at the Stan Ball Centre for Bloxwich Carnival Senior Citizens Party 2017
Thursday 13th July 2017 saw the traditional annual prelude to Bloxwich Carnival – the Senior Citizens’ Party – take place at the Stan Ball Centre in Abbotts Street, Bloxwich. And a great deal of fun – and food – was had by all!
This traditional celebration for local people from care homes and local groups is laid on annually by Bloxwich Carnival Committee, using funds raised by Bloxwich Carnival. They are supported on the day by 196 Squadron Walsall ATC, care home staff and others.
Air Cadets from the local 196 Squadron help members of Bloxwich Carnival Committee and supporters in serving partygoers
Each year since 2006, at the invitation of the Committee, The Bloxwich Telegraph’s editor Stuart Williams has also had the pleasure of supporting the event by photographing it and making pictures available online.
Larry and Kate of ‘Kate’s Party’ in full swing
This year hundreds of local senior citizens streamed in by minibus to be rousingly entertained by traditional and other popular songs from ‘Kates Party’ – professionals singer Kate and instrumentalist Larry – who regularly provide entertainment for the over 50’s (tel 07969 755229) and had some partygoers dancing in the aisles! There was also bingo, and a tasty party lunch and other refreshments for all. Continue reading Bloxwich Carnival Senior Citizens’ Party 2017 pictures posted!→
A friendly Walsall police sergeant shows his radio to curious children in Lichfield Street as the crowds wait
Today marks forty years to the day since Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II honoured the borough of Walsall with a very special Royal Visit to mark twenty-five years of her reign – her Silver Jubilee. Many of our readers may well remember that day. We certainly do – and we have exclusive pictures to prove it!
The day of the visit, Wednesday 27th July 1977, had dawned grey and chilly, but there was to be nothing chilly about the reception which the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh would receive; indeed their route into town was lined with people up to twelve deep, despite hours of waiting.
Waiting for the Queen to arrive, Walsall Police enjoyed the occasion as much as the people
The Royal motorcade arrived some twenty-five minutes behind schedule, and the crowds, made up of all ages from throughout the borough, had been there for up to seven hours. Despite this, there was an air of excited anticipation; even the local police on duty in Lichfield Street seemed to be enjoying the sense of occasion.
Walsall policemen on duty for the occasion proudly show off their medals.
Press photographers had not been wasting the waiting time, and both they and reporters from local newspapers had been doing the rounds of the crowds, taking likely pictures for publication and gathering quotes and comments to take back to their editors. Many members of the public had their own cameras at the ready, unsurprisingly. Notably one Stuart Williams, then aged 16, now editor of The Bloxwich Telegraph. Stuart had placed himself carefully on the Council House side of Lichfield Street, hoping to get some interesting pictures with his new Russian Zenith E camera. The professional pressmen had the best gear and the best access, but Stuart and his rather slower and clunkier camera were ready for action nonetheless. He took a few pictures of the crowds and police, and even targeted one of the pros who was busy snapping away at an excited group of young royalists nearby. Then waited patiently. Continue reading Queen’s Silver Jubilee Walsall Visit – 40th Anniversary Exclusive→
Yes, it’s that time of year again! Bloxwich’s biggest and best public event of the year, our annual Carnival, is almost here, and is all set to land in King George V Memorial Playing Fields on Saturday 5th August 2017. Apart from the traditional Pat Collins Fun Fair, there’ll be a host of stalls, attractions and arena events on offer – with FREE ADMISSION! And as always, it will be a feast of fun for all the family!
Bloxwich Carnival will be open from 12 noon to 5pm, with arena events spread throughout the afternoon. Times may be viewed below – scroll down to view. Main admission is as usual on foot, via the Bell Lane/Bealey’s Lane entrance. There may also be limited parking via the Stafford Road entrance.
Flyin Ryan follows Jumpin James over the Council truck
Special attractions
Apart from all the fun of the fair, and various other smaller independent rides and attractions, special attractions this year include:
Flyin Ryan Stunt Riders
Elaine Hill Sheepdog Trials
Pete the Animatronic Dinosaur
Armitage Birds of Prey
Mad Dominic
Please note that while admission is free, rides on the Pat Collins Fun Fair and other rides are charged for individually. Continue reading Bloxwich Carnival 2017→
The Bloxwich Flag Launch – Julie Hikins and the Mayor of Walsall fly the new flag at The Bloxwich Tardis. Click to download large version.
Saturday saw the launch of a brand, spanking new flag for Bloxwich, in the presence of the new Mayor of Walsall Cllr Marco Longhi, while local Bloxwich West councillors Louise Harrison, Matt Follows and Brad Allen, the recently-elected MP for Walsall North Mr Eddie Hughes and others looked on.
The flag, as far as we know the first of its kind for Bloxwich and district, has came about as a result of a competition for local people and schools, at the instigation of a Bloxwich Flag Committee formed by the heritage-minded organisers of the Bloxwich Old & New Facebook group Martin Morris and Tony Kulik plus local councillors and others. The editor of The Bloxwich Telegraph, Stuart Williams, acted as historical advisor to the committee. Continue reading Bloxwich Flag launched in heart of the town→
I was reminded this past week of the centenary of the passing of a man who I usually think of in November, the month of remembrance, poppies, services and parades. A man who is probably not as well known as he should be, but of whom I have written several times in the past. Harold Parry, Bloxwich’s own War Poet, who like so many others, made the ultimate sacrifice for king and country in the Great War of 1914-18. And that centenary is this Saturday, 6 May 2017.
Harold Parry (‘Hal’ to his friends), son of Alderman, mine engineer, colliery proprietor and landowner David Ebenezer Parry and Sarah Parry, of ‘Croxdene’, Bloxwich, was born on 13 December, 1896, one of twins.
Croxdene in the late 1960s.
After studying at a junior school in Bloxwich (probably the National School, High Street), Hal won a scholarship to Queen Mary’s Grammar School, Walsall, where he became an outstanding pupil, head of his House and captain of the school’s football and cricket teams, as well as a cadet officer. While studying there, he won the Queen’s Prize for History and in 1915 won an Open History Scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford.
Exeter College, Oxford (Wikimedia Commons).
Hal volunteered for army service in January 1916, being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in The King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, and after training at Rugeley he transferred to the 17th Battalion, The King’s Royal Rifle Corps, on the front line in France.
Badge of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (Wikimedia Commons).Badge of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps (Wikimedia Commons).
Before the war, Parry had been a prolific writer of poetry. The bitter experiences of the trenches, at the Somme and in Belgium, soon made him turn again, this time for relief, to poetry, both reading and writing, and letters home to family and friends. He could express himself clearly in both prose and verse, and his writings are important in that they reveal what the young men who died in “the war to end all wars” thought about their experiences in that terrible conflict.
A British trench on The Somme, 1916.
One of his shortest poems, ‘Tommy’s Dwelling’, written in the field, tells of the ever-present water and mud which was the curse of the trenches:
Tommy’s Dwelling
I come from trenches deep in slime,
Soft slime so sweet and yellow,
And rumble down the steps in time
To souse “some shivering fellow”.
I trickle in and trickle out
Of every nook and corner,
And, rushing like some waterspout,
Make many a rat a mourner.
I gather in from near and far
A thousand brooklets swelling,
And laugh aloud a great “Ha, ha!”
To flood poor Tommy’s dwelling.
German dead at the sunken road in Guillemont during the battle of The Somme.
Just two days after a battle, on 14 October 1916 Hal wrote to his sister’s friend Isabel “The average Fritz is as sick at heart over all this destruction as we are. We are preached a doctrine of frightfulness, and yet is it not sufficiently sad to think when you come across an unburied dead German, perhaps this day his wife and children mourn for him, and in the future can know neither peace nor comfort? I must confess it distresses me beyond measure, for I am not a soldier at heart.”
“The real evil in this conflict is not of the individual so much as of the powers that be. If these dignitaries could only be sat in the trenches for a wee short space, and made to carry heavy coils of wire for long distances up long communication trenches – blasted by the incessant force of the guns, I could guarantee that their war would not last longer than the time to fix up provisional peace terms. Let Dot read this letter, but not my mother or father, it would make them grieve and I don’t want that.”
Band of the 5th Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment in the ruins at Ypres.
Sadly, like so many soldiers Hal was fated to die young, killed in action on 6 May, 1917 by a German shell at Ypres, in Flanders, while moving from his billet to safer quarters in the cellars nearby. He was just twenty years old. Writing to Hal’s father, his commanding officer said “He was a splendid youngster, and a most capable and keen officer, much loved by all. Had he been spared I am sure he would have made a great name for himself as a soldier.”
Second Lieutenant Harold Parry, Walsall Pioneer, 19 May 1917.
Instead of making his name as a soldier, in the decades following his death Harold Parry instead become known to posterity as a war poet. A posthumous volume of letters and poems compiled by G.P. Dennis ‘In Memoriam: Harold Parry’ was published, showing he was exceptionally gifted for such a young man. The letters show above all his extreme cheerfulness and loyalty, even in the face of danger and death. Some of his poems are also published in ‘Songs from the Heart of England’, an anthology of Walsall poetry edited by Alfred Moss with a foreword by Jerome K. Jerome.
G.P. Dennis wrote of him “Harold Parry was no saint, he had with the rest of us his faults and failings and annoyingnesses; but that the evil in him was less than most, and that he fought it harder, that the good in him was greater, and that he used it better – of these things his friends are certain. He always tried to do what he believed was right: what more can a good man do?”
Such is the measure of the man. His good name and his words live after him, and he is not forgotten.
Harold Parry is buried at Vlamertinghe Military Cemetery, West Flanders, Belgium. His headstone bears the inscription “Death is the Gate To the High Road of Life And Love is the Way (Harold Parry).”
Its twin, rather more careworn after a century, honours his name in Field Road Cemetery, Bloxwich.
I usually go there to ponder on the life of a Bloxwich man and the folly of war in cold November. This time around, in the sunlit spring, I have visited that small, forgotten shrine of remembrance and placed flowers for the centenary of his passing. I placed them today. Perhaps others may do the same tomorrow, and think on the apt words of another poet, Mary Elizabeth Frye.
Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning’s hush I am the swift uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there. I did not die.
Monument to Harold Parry at Field Rd Cemetery, Bloxwich.
Ironically, although Harold Parry has a monument at Bloxwich, and there are a number of similar stones there, he is not listed on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s list for Bloxwich Cemetery, he is listed at Vlamertinghe. But there are also many men who are listed as buried here, via this link, and they are all worthy of remembrance.
Lest we forget
News & heritage for Bloxwich, Walsall & Willenhall. Formerly The Bloxidge Tallygraph. Est. 2006, inspired by a Victorian news-sheet. Edditid by a Bloxidge Mon.
The Bloxwich Telegraph - incorporating The Bloxidge Tallygraph and Walsall North News. Founded 2006. 