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Some
Interesting Projects
by Bev Parker
W Hayden & Son Limited, based in
Webb Street, Coseley, provide a wide range of services
including demolition, earthmoving, site clearance,
contaminated waste
disposal and lorry and truck hire. The
business was founded by William Hayden in the early
1950s and became a limited company in 1953. The firm has
been involved in many local projects including the ones
displayed here. The photographs are courtesy of Andy
Hayden.
The
demolition of buildings at Lower Walsall Street Works,
Wolverhampton, in
the 1980s
The
site was occupied by the northern part of Shrubbery
Ironworks until 1912 when it was acquired by the Briton
Motor Company (1912) Limited. The old ironworks were
demolished and Lower Walsall Street Works opened in
1913, for the manufacture of Briton cars. The buildings in the photographs
were Briton’s body shop, paint shop and varnish
shop.
In December 1921 Briton went into
liquidation and the factory buildings and contents were
sold at auction on 15th February, 1922. The site was
purchased by A. J. Stevens & Company (1914) Limited (A.J.S.)
for £7,000. In the factory, A.J.S. manufactured
motorcycle sidecars, wireless receivers, car bodies,
commercial vehicle chassis and coaches. On 2nd
October, 1931, A.J.S. went into liquidation and on 25th
January, 1932 the factory was sold to Ever Ready for
£12,750. It became known as ‘Canal Works’ and was used
for the manufacture of torches and torch bulbs.
The
factory closed in the early 1990s and was sold to BRM
Packaging Limited. It is now an industrial estate.
Stabilising Lichfield Street in
Wolverhampton
In the
late 1980s, the section of Lichfield Street between
Princes Square and Victoria Square began to subside. The
road was closed and a lot of earth had to be removed
before the area was stabilised and in-filled with
rubble, coarse stones and gravel.
Lichfield Street was originally a narrow street that ran
from the eastern end of Queen Square to Wulfruna Street
via Lichfield Passage. The street was widened,
straightened and extended to Victoria Square after the
older properties were demolished under the terms of the Artisan’s Dwelling Act of 1875. In the
early 1880s the old half-timbered buildings disappeared
and the modern street was built.
One
casualty was a narrow street called New Street, that
went from
Princess Street, where the old post office now stands,
towards the Chubb Building, ending roughly where Fryer
Street is today. It was a narrow street that began
beside the Blue Coat School that was on the corner of
Princess Street (previously Little Berry Street), as can
be seen on the map below. It is possible that no
photographs or illustrations of the street itself exist,
other than at its junction with Little Berry Street.
From the 1842 tithe map with modern Lichfield Street
marked in red.
The
street ran diagonally across modern Lichfield Street.
Some of the remains of the old buildings that stood
there were uncovered during the stabilising work in
Lichfield Street. They can be seen in some of the
photographs below.
In the background is the empty
Co-op department store that had recently closed. It
officially opened on Saturday 22nd August,
1931 in a new building called Unity House.
Items on sale included clothing, footwear,
drapery, electrical goods, furniture,
confectionary, and tobacco. The store traded
for over fifty years and closed on 11th
July, 1987. |
Demolition of St Joseph’s School in Adelaide Street, off
Steelhouse Lane, Wolverhampton
The school opened in
November 1868 and was extended in 1914. In 1934 it
became a senior boys school and in 1945 a boys secondary modern school. In
September 1971 the school combined with St Patrick’s
Girls Secondary School to form St Edmund’s RC
(Comprehensive) School.
Work
in Goodyear's Factory
Haydens removed a line of Banbury internal mixers, which were
used for mixing tyre compounds at Goodyear’s factory in
Wolverhampton. They were removed in the late 1990s.
Removing Graves from
St. George's Graveyard, Wolverhampton
In 1981 some of the graves in St.
George's graveyard were removed in readiness for the
building of Ring Road St Georges, which was built across
part of the site. The remains were removed by Haydens
and reburied at Bushbury Crematorium, where a plaque
marking the site reads: "St. George's Churchyard
November 1981. To the rear of this memorial lie the
remains exhumed during the construction of the ring
road". The majority of the remains in St. George's
Graveyard were removed in 1986 before reburial at Heath
Town, after which the Sainsbury's store and car park
were built.
Demolition of part of
the Vono works at Tipton
The Vono Company, which was once
Tipton's largest employer, was founded in 1896. The
factory, called Hope Works, was in Sedgley Road East,
Dudley Port, where the Vaughan Trading Estate is today.
The firm manufactured mattresses and bedstead fittings,
and became Duport (derived from Dudley Port) in 1956.
Duport was an
industrial holding company which sold the bed
making part of the business to Airsprung of Trowbridge
in 1982. In the 1980s, Haydens demolished part of the
factory.
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