THE MARKETS

The original market place as you probably know was in High Green, which is now Queen Square; and was long a nuisance to the inhabitants and a great trial to the health of the Butchers, green-grocers etc, who possessed the stalls.

So in 1848, the newly elected Town Council agreed that a new General Market Hall was necessary for the town. This was opened in march 1853 alongside its aspiring neighbour; the Exchange on the west front of St Peters Church, where it remained for 100 years.




If I tried to describe the feeling I had every time I entered the old retail market in Cheapside with my mother during the war, you'd think I was talking about entering the Coliseum in Rome, because it was certainly built on a similar grand scale.

On its two main fronts, the east and west ones, the entrances were enriched with many Corinthian and Doric columns. The pictures here can only give you a glimpse of this magnificent interior so full of variety and atmosphere, with a bustling spirit of life.

But every one over fifty will have their own memories of the markets I just hope my pictures will help to take you back a bit.


In 1953 the handsome structure pictured on the right celebrated its Centenary, and who would have dreamt it would be gone in just ten more short years, but Sainsburys had just recently opened the first supermarket in London and for the days of the old traditional markets, the writing was on the wall.



A learned gent said, at one time 'There are no good old days, nor bad old days, just changing times where the new benefits are always at the expense of losses in other ways'.

Take the varieties of fruit and veg available nowadays in the supermarkets, you might say, we are spoilt for choice, if you want strawberries at christmas you can have them, but this has come at a cost. And just to give you a little idea of what we are missing today this was Jim Goughs pre-war fruit stall .

I can honestly say, I think myself most fortunate to have seen the markets in their prime. full of atmosphere, and pageantry. Stalls passed down through generations of the same families, selling every variety of household needs., the likes of which I doubt we will ever see again.




Its hard to believe now, that our parents and theirs before them, trod this same ground, purchased at these same stalls from different generations of the same family. So perhaps this was the factor that made a visit to this market something more than a shopping expedition, a tour of the market in those days was indeed a happy and social occasion.

WHOLESALE DESTRUCTION

After leaving school in 1952 I found employment with H.Goodhall Ltd, in the Wholesale Market in Wolverhampton as a groundsman and porter. I would say the first three years working here in the market (before a break for National Service) were the best three years of my working life.

Rest In Peace

The hand bell that rang out daily at 3.00p.m. around St Peter's Square, to herald the closure of a days trading has now been muffled for good.

And the many tradesmen and customers that had for many years gathered around at 6.00 a.m. outside these once majestic wrought iron gates of Wolverhamptons old fruit and vegetable wholesale market have long since departed after paying their last respects.

All that's remaining is this brief unique view of the Catholic Church of St Peter and St Paul and Giffard House, framed by the last remaining arch, which adds an extra poignancy to a deeply moving scene at the end of the life of this Edwardian built masterpiece R.I.P.

North Street - its final indignity was Wholesale Destruction.

The eye catching Wholesale Market, of which I recall with great affection, was erected in 1902, on a site now occupied by the Civic Centre, Wulfruna Street, in an area formerly known as Horse Fair.

The last Picture Show

Seventy years later in the early 1970's the market building itself was still in quite good condition, but unfortunately its design and layout, didn't meet with the demand for modern day distributing. Its existing facilities couldn't cope with the quick handling, of the huge transports, and this caused terrible congestion, around Wulfruna Street during busy periods.

This, plus the lack of storage and garage space, for use by the merchants etc, added further handicaps to smooth organisation, and it was with much regret a new site had to be found away from St Peters Square.

1963 in like a Lion and out like a lamb.

For those of us who worked in the Wholesale Market during the first two months of 1963 there was no need for threats of being sent to Siberia, it was colder in here. It snowed heavily just after Christmas and then for weeks a glazed frost piled on the agony.

It was the worst freeze up since 1947, two things that always spring to mind was the tea freezing in cups when left a while unattended, and the price of the few vegetables produced leaping in price each day. The ground became so hard one local farmer Wallace Cartright from Wombourne resorted to using a pneumatic drill to dig parsnips!

This is a shot of the market interior in summer of 1963. The market appears very quiet now at the end of the day's trading.

It mainly features the large trading area allotted to H. Goodall Ltd fruit & veg merchants. One of Goodhalls fleet of vehicles is seen fully laden, about to leave with goods for delivery to Newport Shropshire. The gentleman with arms folded was Tom Price, the General manager of H.Goodall; seen here chatting to Jack Thomas, a local greengrocer from Park Village.

Vegetables in their Blood.

A group of market veterans force a smile even though they are being uprooted from the ornate aisles of the Wulfruna street headquarters, where they have spent most of their working life.

They are from left to right: Sam Leason, George Henson, George Talbot, Horace Horton, Bert Weaver, Tom Adey, Steve Thomas, Edgar Finney, and Arthur Green. Looking back with hindsight perhaps, a tear or two would not have gone amiss.

Gone but not forgotten

In the local press on 22nd November 1973 it said... By Monday next the Edwardian shell of Wolverhampton wholesale market will be strangely quiet, because the trade will have moved two miles away to Hickman Avenue. The bustle and the banter of the fruit and veg trade, will now be echoing around new £500,000 premises at Monmore Green.

QUERY CORNER

Hello to everyone who enjoys reading my Blog, again I would like to say a big thank you, as it's always fun to get an email or a comment on something I have posted.

I have had a few more comments left on the posts recently and I hope this trend continues to grow as I really enjoy people asking me if I remember certain places or people from Wolverhamptons yesteryear.

To make it easier to for other blog followers to read peoples questions and my answers, I have decided to try something new.

From now on if someone leaves a comment with a question, if i have anything to say on the subject I will feature the original comment and my answer in it's own little post.

I will be calling these posts 'Query Corner', and will show the original comment and my reply to them within the post.

OK, with that little explaination out of the way I'd like to move on to the first ever Query Corner.



QUERY CORNER

'Hi Bill do you, or anybody out there remember a second hand car pitch in Molineux St just past Vincent St, opposite the football ground, in the mid 1950s, or have any photos of Molineux St in this time?' - John


Yes John, I remember it well It seemed to me from stories I heard that there had always been an area of open ground on that corner of Vincent Street used over the years for garage related businesses.

One such story came from Kath Thomas, whose father Albert Thomas was the licencee at the 'Cottage Spring' in North Street.

Its beer garden overlooked that area of open ground and Molineux Street. When the original Molineux Street stand blew down in the gales in January 1925, he allowed the customers to stand on the garden tables on match days, and did a roaring trade.

But back to your comment and this photo from the time in question. At that time S & H.Amis limited, sold second hand cars from here next door to Pay Pool Motor engineers on the corner of Vincent Street, seen opposite the returning trolleybus.



There were times before and after the war, when the No.3 bus from Fordhouse's would have been stranded here in Molineux Street for above ten minutes, as the hordes of fans left the ground after the final whistle.

A little further up the street next to the hoarding which separates it from O'Connors shoe repairs, the pet shop is finding the trade very slow these days.

But on the opposite corner to Jimmy O'Connor. The Fox Hotel is still doing a good trade, especially when the 'Wolves' are at home.

The bus will continue on its return journey from Fordhouses and make its right turn into North Street, in front of Jones' fish and chip shop and Corkes Radio shop next door, and will proceed to its stop at the 'Chequer Ball'.


Whadya Know? Whadya Say?

THE BOYS OF SAINT PETERS SCHOOL

These are school rooms belonging to the Collegiate Church, erected in Craddocks Walk, (later St Peters Walk) which led from the Churchyard, and ran down in between - at this time in the picture - the Retail Market Hall and the open patch and ended in North Street.
The Schools attached to St Peters Church, were erected in 1847, at a cost of upwards of £1,500.

There were many National Schools of similar design which went up during the 1840s, in Wolverhampton. ( St Pauls, St Marks, St Matthews etc) where instruction was offered to children for small weekly payments, and some these schools were rigidly divided into separate buildings - for boys, girls and infants.

St Peters school remained on this spot until being taken down in 1903, when the site was acquired by the town and became an extension to the open market Place.



The School was then re-built in St Peters Square at the rear of the Deanery, just 100 yards or so from the newly erected Wholesale Market, were it would remain for a further 70 years, until this site became part of the University.

St Peters School now stands, off the Compton Road.

Sorry John I didn't have any post war photos of St Peters boys, but I have a section of the school photo dated 1936.

They say every picture tells a story.

Every time I happen to look at this nostalgic print I think about the school leavers during that summer of 1936.
What future had they got to look forward to I shouldn't think there were a great many in those days worried about getting a place at University, and jobs of any description were in short supply. But as these lads approached their 18th birthdays in just four short years there would be plenty to occupy their minds and bodies we would be at war with Germany; the country that in the summer of 36 (as they left school) had hosted the Olympic games.

I think about the lads that survived this war spending their time in the many factories on war production and on the land. Then I wonder about the many others who may have gone overseas an endured the likes of Arnhem and Normandy, and mostly I feel for the ones who never returned.

A WARTIME MEMORY OF SAINT PETERS CHURCH

Now here in the 21st Century, I still feel close to St Peters.

My forebears had already lived close by St Peters Church for over a century. When my parents married and settled in Nursery Street, in 1936; I was born there the following year.
From our house No. 11, on the south side of Nursery Street the tower of St Peters can easily be seen from my back bedroom window, and during the euphoria at the end of the second World War a large cross was placed on top of the tower made up of electric light bulbs. I have never forgotten this wonderful sight illuminated against a dark sky.

Sometime later I spoke to my Grandfather about this spectacle and he told me a similar interesting tale.

Around the mid 1800s when his own grandfather; was a small boy, living at that time; close to the top of Horseley Fields, he was awakened one night by a commotion in the house, it seemed that the whole of the tower of St Peters Church was on fire.

As it turned out, what had happened was the wooden cross on the tower that supported the weather vane had been struck by lightening and caught fire.

This fiery cross standing out against a dark sky, presented a spectacle he never forgot. Thank God; before it could spread to the beams, passing volunteers hacked through the cross and prevented the fire reaching the belfry and it was put out.

THERE WAS NO RHYME NOR REASON

A thank you in verse for lifting this curse.

There came a time my drink ran dry,
and those who once cared passed me by.

And all around me was swept away,
never to see another day.

I felt certain this would happen to me,
and the same sorry end was my guarantee.

Then a miracle arrived with my last curtain call,
to offer a new beginning for this old hall.



In my prime didn't I look proud,
my head held high up in the cloud.

Now on the hill I stand alone,
this Fallen Monarch has regained his throne.



No matter that my welcome fold,
has been replaced by this cruel road.

And my ancient way to Whitmore End,
is now just a part of this continuing bend.



For I've returned, to my former glory,
and my contents now tell a different story.

I offer Wulfrunians a greater pleasure,
to re-discover their forgotten treasures.



So it's Out of Darkness Cometh Light,
as I light up the sky again at night.

And God Bless to all who had this vision,
for it's thanks to you - 'from the Ashes I have Risen'.

IS THERE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL?

The North Street I knew is still around, you find it now through a hole in the ground.



Remember old Wadhams Hill was here.



Now today no Wadhams Hill, no Milner Hall, and no shops that reached up to the Chequer Ball.

But what about these shops that made way for the ring road?

(The Shops in North Street 1954)

The two large lamp posts that frame this scene are also supporting wires that power the trolley buses as they travel from Wulfruna Street, turning right from Giffard House (from where this picture was taken). Then left at the Fox Hotel, down Molineux Street, en route to Ford Houses.

At the side of the pole on the left, we see the building advertising Ekco Radios. This was an electrical goods shop, one of two belonging to Corkes' Radio Stores. Their principal shop being in Princess Street. Moving up right, past the little white bollards on the corner of Tin Shop Yard, was a double fronted shop belonging to Lathes, they were know for house clearance and second hand goods.

The two shops would be filled to capacity with every item of old family belongings, such as pictures, clothes and furntiture. Mr Lathes son George, became well established in the motorcycle trade that was dominant in the area in the 1950s, and had a large store in Salop Street.

Next door to Lathes was Mrs Preeces' upmarket second-hand clothes shop. Similar to the charity shops of today.

Next door to Preeces was a small cafe. In the early days it always looked a bit run down, but in the late 1950s it was sold and renamed The Nook. The quality of food and the service vastly improved and it became the in place for the market crowd close by.

Next door was the smaller of the two grocery stores, both situated in North Street and owned by Kidsons Food. The larger store was at the top of North Street, next to Bakers nurseries. Kidsons large warehouse and formidable house stood opposite each other on Wadhams Hill.

Next door to Kidsons is the building with four impressive shop fronts; Smiths Fruit & Veg, Higgs Printers, North Street Post Office and finally Helene, which was a ladies hairdressers.

Standing last on the photograph is the red telephone box on the pavement in front of J. A. Vints' Builders Yard.


The large Victorian building on the right of Vints' has three fine shop fronts. The first was Lathams' confectioners. Then came a double fronted antiques shop, which in the early 1960s' became a betting office when Tommy Butler, a well known turf accountant moved there from premises above Samuels' Jewellers in Queen Street.

Finally, the large building next door with the railways delivery goods vehicle parked outside was Walters' lock manufacturers. The lady on the right of the photograph is about to cross Wadhams Hill and pass the Molineux Hotel on her left.