The feel good factor generated by the Queen’s Jubilee has brought favourable comparison with the Coronation year of 1953 when there were street parties and a gathering of families and friends in the house of whoever had a black and white television, probably no larger than a 16” model, to celebrate the accession to the throne of Queen Elizabeth. My mother was one of ten children and so it was a large family gathering that gathered at the home of my Auntie Rachel and Uncle Bill Heritage at their home in Brook street, Wall Heath as they were the prod possessors of a television set.

I have to admit that as an eleven year old sports mad boy the attraction of a day off school to play fifteen a side games of cricket all day with my mates in the park in Albion Street meant that the Coronation came a poor second place.

During 1953 the field at the side of the Community Centre in Enville Road had been designated as a recreational site with a football pitch being provided. Strangely, and short-sightedly, at that time no swings, helter-skelter nor roundabout were located there although they had been provided many years previously in Albion Street. Several years later the play facilities were belatedly added.

Access to the Community Centre was via the drive in Enville Road and also via the car park of the Wall Heath Inn (always referred to by older inhabitants of the village as “The Top Pub”) in High Street. Double gates were provided by Brierley Hill Urban District Council, this being in the time before it was absorbed by Dudley, with ER on one gate and 1953 on the other. The gates were later moved, date unknown, and sited at the end of the path that forms the boundary between the “top Pub” and Wall Heath Service Station.

Gradually over the years the condition of the gates has deteriorated and they have reclined, unloved and uncared for incongruously bordered on one side by a litter bin and on the other side by a “dog poo bin”. Happily the gates did not fall prey to metal thieves and our local Councillors  Dave Tyler and Lyn Boleyn have arranged for them to be taken into care by Dudley MBC.

Terry Church