Smoking out details to solve pipeworks mystery
We asked readers to pipe up if they had more information about this photo taken in Bridgnorth, and happily Theresa Brunner has done
It is a photo from the collection of the late Walter Rutter, of Bridgnorth, and Mr Rutter wrote an indication on his slide that it is houses being demolished at a clay pipe factory at Banks Corner, a location which is unfamiliar today.
The picture has consequently caused a bit of headscratching about what it shows and where.
Rex Key of Broseley Pipe Works had been trying to find out more but said the details are sketchy.
"The Southorn pipeworks was at 1 Pound Street, also known as Squirrel Bank, so I assume Banks Corner means Squirrel Bank," he said.
However Theresa has emailed us to shed new light on things including pinpointing the location.
"To avoid further confusion with regard to your photo and article, I live at No.1 Pound Street, which is on the opposite side of the street from your photo, and was built in 1852. And has never been used for making pipes!" she said.
"The pipeworks on the Pound Street/Whitburn Street curve were in use I think in the 17th and 18th centuries, and after being demolished were replaced by the buildings on the photo, continuing the row of medieval cottages further down the street.
"One of these cottages was apparently a public house, and two of those remaining cottages are actually listed.
"I was told by the late great Mr Gerard Winwood that one of the demolished houses was a sweetshop which he happily frequented, and I think a larger building fronting Whitburn Street became a warehouse, maybe a grocer's.
"The late Miss Joan Higgins described how she watched sheep being driven up Pound Street from the railway to the auction yard at Smithfield.
"There were trees and bushes on the site, much needed on this now busy heavily polluted junction.
"However the whole site was demolished for totally out of keeping and still unfinished housing about six years ago, and the underlying pipeworks were investigated by the Shropshire Archaeology Department at that time, and the original furnace discovered.
"I assume Pound Street is called that because the town pound - or maybe one of them - was here, under the Castle Wall near one of the town gates.
"There was no street sign here at all when my family moved here in the 1980s. We had to approach the council, which is perhaps why it is known as Squirrel Bank, after the Squirrel pub which used to stand where Squirrel Court stands now.
"This is likely to be one of many responses you get - but be assured, I live at No.1!"
