News Headlines


Thomas Jones Snr on the left.

Men who made chain by the mile

CHAINMAKING has been featuring much in our columns of late, with this month marking as it does the centenary of the Women Chainmakers' Strike. The photograph here is another which highlights this old

Shakespeare lady of steel

Mary Ann Shakespeare

The surname of The Bard is quite common in the Black Country, and maybe some of todayʼs Shakespeares can claim a clannish connection to the great man — not that a steely matriarch such as Mary

The SS Airline versus a steam locomotive

The SS Airline

ALAN Bickley, chair of the Black Country Memories Club in Bilston, was excited by the photograph of the car that graced the front page of edition 938, and as a result he has sent us both pictures and

A day to remember at Portobello

Celebrations at the Drop In

IT WAS A DAY to remember at Portobello Methodist Church last Wednesday, the first day of September, when the Reverend Linda Williams hosted a four course lunch celebrating the 20th anniversary of the

A family affair at Smethwick in the Fifties

The Leighton family.

KEEN family researcher Rob Griffin of Halesowen has written in to tell us about a breakthrough that he has made in his ancestral delvings recently" "Looking back into family history proves a sometimes

Ocker Hill class photo of sixty years vintage

The class of 1950

BUGLE subscriber Mrs Jean Langford (nee Bennett) of Corrie, Kitwalls Lane, Milford on Sea, Lymington, Hants, was interested to read about her old Tipton school in a recent edition, and submits a class

A Walsall Scout Trip Remembered in Venezia

The troop on camp.

MICHAEL Abutt writes from Venezia in Italy... "In your pages you often print photographs of Boy Scouts at camp in the days when everyone seemed to be in the movement or in the Sea Scouts or the Air









National News

JLS condom range has sex factor

JLS condom range has sex factor

From X Factor to extra safe - the lads from JLS are urging Everybody in Love to keep it covered.

Policing Pope visit may cost £1.5m

Policing Pope visit may cost £1.5m

The cost of policing the Pope's visit to Britain could reach £1.5 million, police chiefs have said.

New death linked to Legionnaires'

New death linked to Legionnaires'

A second pensioner has died of suspected Legionnaires' disease, health officials have confirmed.

Lansley denies NHS Direct closure

Lansley denies NHS Direct closure

The Health Secretary has been accused of a climbdown over plans to scrap NHS Direct.