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Originally the Methodist Chapel started there, but this was before my time. It was a two-storey building with double doors. Later on the scouts took it over, but when the war started they disbanded and it was empty for a while. There was a room built on the side and this was the cob-bler's shop. For a long time this was where people took their shoes to be mended. In the front was a wooden counter and the cobbler sat in the back with his last, mending the shoes.
    Next to the cobbler's was Blanton's Tea Rooms for which they had a big hut at the back of the grocer's shop. People who came out to Codsall for the day would have a cup of tea here. At the side was a public right of way up to the Church. It went past Vaughan's buildings, which are still there in amongst the new houses on the other side of the bypass. They are tall, red-brick houses. Then it came out on Warner's Field and from there it went into Drury Lane and up to the Church.
    Warner's House was on the other side of Church Road. It was a nice-looking Georgian house. It had a lovely big yew hedge in front of it and from their front gate you crossed over to a field gate. This led into Warner's Field, which was often used for outdoor village celebrations such as Armistice Day. On the left of the gate, in the corner of the field, was their vegetable garden. Further down the road was the Smithy and up the hill were little cottages.
    If you went up Church Road and passed Drury Lane you came to the Co-op. Opposite the Co-op was Ward's, the Off-Licence. On the left-hand side of Church Road was a small butcher's shop, belonging to one of Mr Alcock's two sons. Arthur was the coal merchant and another son Dick, owned the shop. Later it became a fish shop owned by Mr Fisher. He would go round the district with a flat open-topped cart, sitting on the back with his boxes of fish.
    Mr Alcock lived in a cottage in the Square (where they have recently been landscaping). The cottage entrances were below street level and there was a cast-iron bar fence. The Alcocks lived there until they moved out to a house in Whitehouse Lane, Codsall Wood. Mr Alcock had a covered cart and both he and Mr Brindley would take 'pots' of damsons into the market in Wolverhampton.
The pots were wicker baskets which held about 40lbs of fruit. The pots would be dropped off at your house and collected when full. Apples were sent to market in a similar way. The milk would be taken to the station in the churns. I often had a lift down to the station in the wagon carrying the churns from Woodhall Farm, which was farmed by the Hammonds in those days. I used to come back from Wolverhampton on the 4 o'clock milk train. It had a coach on the back for a few passengers, mainly schoolchildren, and about six covered wagons to carry milk churns. The churns were tapered at the top and each held 17 gallons.
   After 1924 I went to school in Wolverhampton to the Girls' High School. In the morning I caught the 8.5 train to town and returned on the milk train. I walked from home, leaving at 7.40am and getting back there about 5pm. There was very little traffic and very few cars. Most people I saw going to work in Codsall used a bicycle. Harry Wilkes ran Roseville Dairy. He was a very large gentleman. Each morning I would see him taking down the shutters on York's shop. This was a very cluttered shop. There was a story about someone wanting something on a high shelf and Mr York said: "If you come back next week I'll have the steps out."
    In those days there was still a wall around the Bull Inn. After the First World War a lot of families from Darlaston, Bilston and the Black Country came to live in Codsall. Some would have been people who had made their money from war contracts. In between the wars Mr Brotherton began to build houses in Chapel Lane and Broadway. Some houses down Elliotts Lane were built between the wars, others are post-war. There were of course the big houses in Codsall. Flemmyng House was owned by the Twentymans. The Mount - that belonged to a Loveridge, and another Loveridge, (presumably a brother), had the Grange in Bilbrook. I think they were ironfounders.
    Off the Square in Station Road was the Codsall Supply Company. The proprietor, Mr H A Jones, occupied an old white house, now demolished. The site is now a car park. They ran a corn merchants business and there was a field at the back. As you went in there were all sorts of storage