Steelway Article E & S 28.01.10 Carl Chinn

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AfEW weeks ago, kenneth JWilmot, of Wolverhampton,was reading the feature on

the “Stafford Road Sheds, in par-ticular the poem to the memory ofJohn Cuss.

“I was amazed to realise that I knewa lot more about him.

“Between family and friends he wasknown 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 wagewas 10 shillings per week.

“He remained as a call boy, receivingannual increments of 1/-, until May28, 1901, when he was appointed ‘manporter’ at Halesowen, on 18/- per week,but in July 1901 he removed to Can-nock Road as ‘under shunter’, on £1per week. Then, in July 1901, hemoved to Oxley as an under shunter on£1 1s per week.

Allotment“In June 1903 John became a ‘brake-

man’ and remained a brakeman until1907, still receiving annual incrementsof 1/- per week. He was then promotedto goods guard, and again he received1/- per week increment until 1910. Inthat year his 1/- per week incrementwas deferred for three months becauseof absence through illness in 1909.

“He continued as a mainline guardworking long hours and ‘doublehomers’ until 1923, when while he wasoff work with a long bout of influenzaand 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 flowersin 1908 and rented a house in DunstallAvenue, where he tended a double al-lotment plot producing fruit and vegand, of course, caring for his two orthree hives of bees.

“Jack and Annie worked hard forBethesda 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 theirown, but in 1914 a five-year-old,Lavinia Mary Cuss, the daughter ofHarry, Jack’s brother in fairford, ar-rived for a week’s holiday, but never re-turned. They brought up Mary as theirown, providing a far better upbringing

than she could possibly have had infairford.

“Lavinia Mary Cuss was my mother,and in 1924, there really was a widowleft to face the world alone, and carefor Mary, then 14 years old. Theyworked together, Annie as a ladies’dressmaker and milliner on StaffordRoad near to five Ways, and Mary,eventually working at Courtaulds.

“Together they kept the home untilJune 1938 when Mary married ken-neth William Wilmot of Red CrossStreet, and in June 1939, I was born.

“Like Jack, Annie was a very in-volved and caring lady becoming theSecretary of the Railway WidowsBenevolent fund, and during the late1920s until 1933 she took classes atBrickkiln Street Centre four eveningsof the week, for young boys 9-13 yearsof age, catering for boxing, art, handi-craft and fretwork.

“When she left, the boys presentedher with a bound autograph book con-taining their signatures, some ad-dresses and riddle or verse. Upon theoutbreak of the war she volunteered towork in the Ministry of food Office inWaterloo Road, monitoring rationbooks and coupons presented by shop-keepers ,and remained at the officeuntil the late 1950s.

“I hope these few facts will entertainand jog someone else’s memory andthey may add to the history of GWRStafford Road Sheds or the Cuss familyin the early part of the 20th century.”

Express & Star, Thursday January 28, 201016

The Carl Chinn page

Black CountryMemoriesDr Carl Chinn

Face behind

on loss of a

The photo that drew Graham’s attention, of a stretcher being assessed for use

BACk in November,Black CountryMemories featured

the history of the long-es-tablished and importantWolverhampton firm ofSteelway on the BilstonRoad.

This pioneering companymanufactured the Uk’s firstpedestrian safety barriers,which were installed at thebusy junction of Prince’sSquare in July 1934.

They had been designedafter long and careful exper-iments and with the assis-tance of Mr Edwin Tilley,the town’s chief constable,and Mr HB Robinson, theborough engineer and sur-veyor.

The barriers stoppedpedestrians walking off ablind corner into the path ofmotorists and they quicklygained attention elsewhere.On March 19, 1935, MrHore-Belisha, the Ministerof Transport whose name isrecalled in the Belisha bea-con, inaugurated London’sfirst pedestrian safety barri-ers at Britannia Crossing,Camden. They were alsosupplied by Steelway.

After this launch, a secondinstallation was carried outon March 22, 1935, atWhitechapel Crossing forthe Metropolitan Borough ofStepney.

Two years later the inno-vative Wolverhampton com-pany manufactured thesockets and detachable up-rights to form crowd controlbarriers for the 1937 corona-tion of king George VI –parts of which were usedagain for the coronation of

Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. A pioneering enterprise in

industrial metalwork access,Steelway became wellknown and highly regardedfor its flooring, ladders,stairs, handrails, guardrailsand platforms.

PresentedDuring the Second World

War, it went over to warwork and was involved inthe manufacture of stretch-ers for injured personnel.One of the photographs usedin the article showed a metalstretcher being presented to

the St John AmbulanceBrigade. This drew the at-tention of Graham Speller.

Graham recognised “thesestretchers very clearly asthey had an interesting useafter the war years.

“My family is from SouthEast London and around theBrockley and New Crossarea there are numerousblocks of council flats andmaisonettes built in estatesseparated from the rest ofthe world by brick walls andmetal fences.

“The metal part of thewall was made up of the

aforementioned stretchersfilling the gap between brickpillars and on top of a lowbrick wall.

“My dad, who used thestretchers in his work dur-ing the Blitz, pointed themout to me as we made ourway between various homesof our extended family.

“I now live in the WestMidlands but am quite cer-tain that some of thosestretchers can still be seenperforming their originaltask if you ever journeythrough that part of theworld.”

A copy of Jack Cuss’s GWR serv-ice showing his increments, per-

haps written in his own hand

Unlikely role played bythe Steelway stretchers