Bromsgrove

The first railway station in Bromsgrove was opened in 1840 by the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway (later Midland Railway); it was rebuilt in 1969. Planned for further south than the original, the new station was mooted in 2007, but following various planning, land contamination and financial difficulties work was not started until 2014, the station opening finally in 2016. The station name signs on the platforms have been given gold backgrounds in recognition of local para-olympian Lauren Rowles who, with Laurence Whiteley, won a gold medal in the trunk arms mixed double sculls at the 2016 Paralympics.

An array of square castellated yellow chimney pots.

Platform name sign honouring Lauren Rowles (see below). The first railway station in Bromsgrove was opened in 1840 by the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway (later Midland Railway); it was rebuilt in 1969. Planned for further south than the original, the new station was mooted in 2007, but following various planning, land contamination and financial difficulties work was not started until 2014, the station opening finally in 2016. The station name signs on the platforms have been given gold backgrounds in recognition of local para-olympian Lauren Rowles who, with Laurence Whiteley, won a gold medal in the trunk arms mixed double sculls at the 2016 Paralympics.

The Hunt Brothers established the Griffin Foundry in about 1886 in Oldbury. The foundry was demolished in 2003 and in 2016 plans were announced to build a retail park on the site.

Buried side by side, Thomas Scaife and Joseph Rutherford. Both engineers were on the footplate of a locomotive "Surprise" when its boiler blew up. Scaife died instantly, but Rutherford died the following day. The locomotive depicted is not the locomotive involved. The church of St John the Baptist dates from the 12th Century, but construction is chiefly from the 14th and 15th Centuries; it is another church on which the Victorian architect Gilbert Scott worked. In the churchyard is the base of an ancient preaching cross, and inside, the WW1 memorial bears int. al. the name of Captain Noel Chavasse, one of only three servicemen to earn two Victoria Crosses.

An ornate terracotta name plaque from 1897. GB was probably an affluent entrepreneur of the period.

The wall enclosing the Cottage Homes is capped with blue-black bricks some of which are stamped "Richard North/Stourbridge". I can find nothing on Richard North but if the wall is contemporary with the Cottage Homes (see adjacent photograph), the bricks will date from 1885.

Thomas White was a successful dyer, entrepreneur and generous public benefactor who endowed the Cottage Homes in 1885 for “decayed gentlewomen or other females of small pecuniary means of the age of sixty upwards. The personal income of each to be not less than twenty pounds and not more than thirty five pounds per annum”. Run by a trust today, they still provide independent living for ladies over the age of 60 who have a connection with Bromsgrove, in fourteen unfurnished flats.

The classicist and poet Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936) is best known for his work 'A Shropshire Lad'. He was born on the outskirts of Bromsgrove and died in Cambridge where he took up a professorship in 1911 until his death. His ashes are buried outside St Laurence's Church in Ludlow, Shropshire. This statue, by Kenneth Potts, was unveiled in 1985, funded by public subscription and commissioned by the Housman Trust.