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Clockfields Drive, BRIERLEY HILL, DY5 3FB

The view from the junction with Hawbush Road.

Heading towards Brierley Hill. Viewed in drizzle.

Brettell Lane is here part of the A461 road. The road coming in from the left is Harrison Road. The house on the right is on Dennis Hall Road.

These are two lockup shop units, with separate residential accommodation above. No. 444 on the left was occupied by Walker Family Butchers but they have gone, and it is currently to let. On the right is no. 445, occupied by Cuts Above, a unisex hairdressers.

This side of the sign apparently shows the ghost of the tramp who died on the pub's doorstep long ago. You may not be able to make out the ghost, but that's the thing with ghosts, sometimes you see them, sometimes you don't. Image Image

This pub used to be the Dudley Arms but in 1977 it changed its name to the present one. The name relates to an incident earlier in the 20th century when a tramp was turned away from the pub on a winter's night, after asking for shelter. He stayed on the doorstep and his frozen body was found the next morning. Quite why the pub wanted to "celebrate" this sad event by renaming itself in relation to the event is rather a mystery, except perhaps that at the time there was a fad for giving pubs unusual names and discarding ancient ones in the process. Why the poor man also got labelled a rascal is also unknown, but to anyone reading this in the distant future, it will tell you something about our society. The side of the sign shown in this photograph shows the tramp being turned away. Unusually the sign has different designs on the two sides. The other shows the tramp's ghost as quite understandably he has come back to haunt the place - poetic justice one might say. Image Image

An old pub on the corner of Collis Street and Brettell Lane. It normally has five real ales available. Until 1977 it was known as the Dudley Arms and can be found under that name in the 1901 Census. The pub has an unusual sign, with different designs on the two sides:- Image; Image Update: The pub is now run by Black Country Ales as a real ale (& cider) pub. See:- Image.

Cullis Street photographed from its junction with Brettell Lane, on a dull afternoon with heavy rain. On the immediare right is The Starving Rascal, a public house. Further down Cullis Street, on the right, is another well known public house, The Robin Hood.

Old public house on the corner of Brettell Lane and Cullis Street. It is now one of the chain of real ale (& cider) public houses run by Black Country Ales. When photographed in June 2012 it was run by Enterprise Inns. See:- Image Image Image