I have lived in Heath Hayes all my life. I am now 63. I was born in Piggot Street, Wimblebury and remember my auntie having a horse and cart, while we had pigs at the bottom of our garden. The houses in Piggot Street were all old Coal Board Homes and when they were knocked down after we moved, the name of the Street was then changed, while The Lamb and Flag, as then, is still there now, with a name change.
We moved to Heath Hayes Village in Stafford Street when I was 4 years of age, bought my first house in Stafford Street then moved into Bank Street in 1976 and still live in the same house now. Looking at the photo’s of Wimblebury Road school, I can see myself on two of them and many faces I can remember, including my two cousins.
I remember playing as a child up on the field, at the top of Bank Street and Stafford Street, in a house that was knocked down at that time but is now a football field. At the bottom of the field there was a brook where we used to catch stickle back fish, frogs and beetles. This brook ran from a reservoir located where the old Heath Hayes Coal mining pit used to be. Where I live now, Bank Street there used to be a small grocery shop attached to other terraced houses. Just up from our house used to be Fairfields electrical shop, I think it was. In Stafford Street used to be two more small shops, opposite each other, Mercotts and the name of the opposite shop slips my mind at the moment, then just below in Stafford Street there used to be Perkin’s bike shop.
Looking at these photo’s brings back many memories and than you for sharing these.