Postcards from Willenhall...

[dutchman]

There was a time when Willenhall was thought to be so picturesque that postcard views of it were being sold!

Willenhall Post Office on the corner of St James Lane and London Road:

The BBC-only TV aerials suggest the picture was taken some time between 1953 (Coronation year) and
1956 (the arrival of ITV). Both the post office and neighbouring cottage have since been demolished as
also has the church school building in the distance. Two cottages remain though and have been restored
to their original condition.

Taken a few years later a bit further along the London Road looking towards St James Lane:

ITV has arrived! The newsagents in the picture is now also the post office. Thanks to Malaka for explaining that the building to the right of it it was a corner shop when the picture was taken. Today it is the Marina Fish Bar.

Two views of what turned out to be one of the most ill-fated housing projects of all time:



This whole area has since been demolished and redeveloped. Will history repeat itself?

I think this picture was taken from the corner of Sunbury Road looking towards town:

This same view today would be obscured by bushes.

[rebbonk]

Willenhall is an area I know very little about. However, there is a thriving local history group.

http://www.virtualmuseum.co.uk/

[pollyanna]

Like you Rebbonk - Willenhall is an area I know nothing about - even tho I was born and bred in Coventry. It always had a bad reputation from what I remember.

Those early postcards were interesting Dutchy - I best it used to be a great community, and the fact they have a book published about the area confirms that.

Councils all around the country built blocks of flats as they did in Willenhall - only to have to pull them down years later.

[dutchman]

Looking at a post-war aerial photograph of Willenhall before the housing estate was constructed there appears to be a runway of some sort leading to Manor Farm which exactly follows the line on which Willenhall Precinct was later built. At 200 yards it's just long enough for something like a Lysander aircraft to take off from. The Lysander was used for clandestine operations during the war. This also suggest that Manor Farm itself was a headquarters for clandestine operations.

And get this, when a road was later built parallel to the precinct it was named Lysander Street!




A Westland Lysander