Article on Steelway by Prof. Carl Chinn - Express and Star

1. Did you know you can choose to have some NHS treatments
at Spire Little Aston Hospital, your local private hospital?
For more information ask your GP or call us:
0121 580 7119
www.spirehealthcare.com/littleaston
Little Aston Hall Drive, Sutton Coldfield, B74 3UP
0 cases of MRSA blood infections*•
a comfortable, quiet and•
relaxed atmosphere
100+ free parking spaces•
a 99% rating of excellent, very good•
or good by our patients
referring to data collected from January 2008 – August 2009*
With Choose and Book you have a choice of hospitals where you can receive
care funded by the NHS. One of these is Spire Little Aston Hospital with:
Rooms 8-12, 2nd Floor, Coleridge Chambers
177 Corporation Street, Birmingham B4 6RG
24 Hour Callout Telephone: 0121 535 0012
Regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority
ANNOUNCEMENT
Local Criminal Lawyer
Derek Larkin is Back!
Mary Monson Solicitors of Fleet Street, London and
Manchester, are delighted to announce the opening
of a new office in Birmingham, serving the
communities of Wolverhampton, Dudley, Mid Staffs,
Walsall and Sandwell and all the West Midlands.
Joining us as a key member of our Criminal Defence
Department is Derek Larkin, who has 37 years
experience in the legal profession, and is a West
Midlands man, born and bred. Derek is a former
President of The Institute of Legal Executives, and is
well known as a defence lawyer both locally and
nationally.
We wish to thank our past West Midlands clients for
the welcome we have received, and look forward to
meeting new clients and their families in the coming
years.
Mary Monson Solicitors, London, Manchester and
now Birmingham Corporation Street.
All Criminal Defence work undertaken - Police
Stations, Magistrates Court, Crown Court, Criminal
Law experience spanning five decades - fighting for
our clients.
MotoringExpress www.expressandstar.com
Hundreds of new & used cars, motorcycles, caravans & commercial vehicles every Friday.
Express & Star
For further information contact the Motoring
Manager on 01902 319620
A
fEW weeks ago, kenneth J
Wilmot, of Wolverhampton,
was reading the feature on
the “Stafford Road Sheds, in par-
ticular the poem to the memory of
John Cuss.
“I was amazed to realise that I knew
a lot more about him.
“Between family and friends he was
known as Jack. He was born in fair-
ford, Gloucestershire, on March 5,
1883, the youngest of seven children.
On May 28, 1898, he joined GWR serv-
ice as a call boy at Victoria Basin,
Wolverhampton. His starting wage
was 10 shillings per week.
“He remained as a call boy, receiving
annual increments of 1/-, until May
28, 1901, when he was appointed ‘man
porter’ at Halesowen, on 18/- per week,
but in July 1901 he removed to Can-
nock Road as ‘under shunter’, on £1
per week. Then, in July 1901, he
moved to Oxley as an under shunter on
£1 1s per week.
Allotment
“In June 1903 John became a ‘brake-
man’ and remained a brakeman until
1907, still receiving annual increments
of 1/- per week. He was then promoted
to goods guard, and again he received
1/- per week increment until 1910. In
that year his 1/- per week increment
was deferred for three months because
of absence through illness in 1909.
“He continued as a mainline guard
working long hours and ‘double
homers’ until 1923, when while he was
off work with a long bout of influenza
and pneumonia, he was appointed sta-
tion master of Dunstall Park. However,
as stated in the poem, he died on feb-
ruary 23, 1924.
“He had married Mary Ann flowers
in 1908 and rented a house in Dunstall
Avenue, where he tended a double al-
lotment plot producing fruit and veg
and, of course, caring for his two or
three hives of bees.
“Jack and Annie worked hard for
Bethesda Methodist Chapel in Water-
loo Road, and Jack was a bass soloist,
much in demand by choirs and for con-
certs in the Black Country area.
“They never had children of their
own, but in 1914 a five-year-old,
Lavinia Mary Cuss, the daughter of
Harry, Jack’s brother in fairford, ar-
rived for a week’s holiday, but never re-
turned. They brought up Mary as their
own, providing a far better upbringing
than she could possibly have had in
fairford.
“Lavinia Mary Cuss was my mother,
and in 1924, there really was a widow
left to face the world alone, and care
for Mary, then 14 years old. They
worked together, Annie as a ladies’
dressmaker and milliner on Stafford
Road near to five Ways, and Mary,
eventually working at Courtaulds.
“Together they kept the home until
June 1938 when Mary married ken-
neth William Wilmot of Red Cross
Street, and in June 1939, I was born.
“Like Jack, Annie was a very in-
volved and caring lady becoming the
Secretary of the Railway Widows
Benevolent fund, and during the late
1920s until 1933 she took classes at
Brickkiln Street Centre four evenings
of the week, for young boys 9-13 years
of age, catering for boxing, art, handi-
craft and fretwork.
“When she left, the boys presented
her with a bound autograph book con-
taining their signatures, some ad-
dresses and riddle or verse. Upon the
outbreak of the war she volunteered to
work in the Ministry of food Office in
Waterloo Road, monitoring ration
books and coupons presented by shop-
keepers ,and remained at the office
until the late 1950s.
“I hope these few facts will entertain
and jog someone else’s memory and
they may add to the history of GWR
Stafford Road Sheds or the Cuss family
in the early part of the 20th century.”
Express & Star, Thursday January 28, 201016
The Carl Chinn page
Black Country
Memories
Dr Carl Chinn
Face behind
on loss of a
The photo that drew Graham’s attention, of a stretcher being assessed for use
B
ACk in November,
Black Country
Memories featured
the history of the long-es-
tablished and important
Wolverhampton firm of
Steelway on the Bilston
Road.
This pioneering company
manufactured the Uk’s first
pedestrian safety barriers,
which were installed at the
busy junction of Prince’s
Square in July 1934.
They had been designed
after long and careful exper-
iments and with the assis-
tance of Mr Edwin Tilley,
the town’s chief constable,
and Mr HB Robinson, the
borough engineer and sur-
veyor.
The barriers stopped
pedestrians walking off a
blind corner into the path of
motorists and they quickly
gained attention elsewhere.
On March 19, 1935, Mr
Hore-Belisha, the Minister
of Transport whose name is
recalled in the Belisha bea-
con, inaugurated London’s
first pedestrian safety barri-
ers at Britannia Crossing,
Camden. They were also
supplied by Steelway.
After this launch, a second
installation was carried out
on March 22, 1935, at
Whitechapel Crossing for
the Metropolitan Borough of
Stepney.
Two years later the inno-
vative Wolverhampton com-
pany manufactured the
sockets and detachable up-
rights to form crowd control
barriers for the 1937 corona-
tion of king George VI –
parts of which were used
again for the coronation of
Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
A pioneering enterprise in
industrial metalwork access,
Steelway became well
known and highly regarded
for its flooring, ladders,
stairs, handrails, guardrails
and platforms.
Presented
During the Second World
War, it went over to war
work and was involved in
the manufacture of stretch-
ers for injured personnel.
One of the photographs used
in the article showed a metal
stretcher being presented to
the St John Ambulance
Brigade. This drew the at-
tention of Graham Speller.
Graham recognised “these
stretchers very clearly as
they had an interesting use
after the war years.
“My family is from South
East London and around the
Brockley and New Cross
area there are numerous
blocks of council flats and
maisonettes built in estates
separated from the rest of
the world by brick walls and
metal fences.
“The metal part of the
wall was made up of the
aforementioned stretchers
filling the gap between brick
pillars and on top of a low
brick wall.
“My dad, who used the
stretchers in his work dur-
ing the Blitz, pointed them
out to me as we made our
way between various homes
of our extended family.
“I now live in the West
Midlands but am quite cer-
tain that some of those
stretchers can still be seen
performing their original
task if you ever journey
through that part of the
world.”
A copy of Jack Cuss’s GWR serv-
ice showing his increments, per-
haps written in his own hand
Unlikely role played by
the Steelway stretchers