CODSALL'S OLD BUILDINGS
There were two thatched cottages in Codsall. There was one next to the Church which belonged to Bedwards. It is still there, but the thatch has been removed. There was another called the Old Bank Cottage, almost opposite the road into the Moatbrook
Estate. There was a half-timbered cottage on the roadside towards the launderette and near to it was Mr Beardmore's old storehouse, where he kept decorating equipment for his business as a painter and decorator.
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 cobbler'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.
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