JAMES Morgan from Lower Whittingham, near Kinver, took a shine to an article entitled ‘A desirable and commodious dwelling house’ that was published in Bugle 938, and has been kind enough to furnish us with the following details. He writes: “I refer to your article relating to the sale by auction in 1857 at The Fish Inn at Amblecote, of various properties in Coalbournbrook, Amblecote. I can confirm that the assumption made that the dwellings in question lay on the right-hand side of the main Stourbridge to Wolverhampton road is accurate.
I have in my possession the tithe redemption map of 1839, and the Hampton family are shown as the owners of the property No. 17. The five cottages up for auction that were included in Lot 2 are numbered No. 19, and Lot 3 is, I’m pretty sure, shown on the map as No 22.
“The Hampton family were quite active entrepreneurs in the Amblecote area in the first half of the nineteenth century, achieving varying degrees of success. In 1809 Hill Waldron Littlewood and Hampton were producing glass bottles at Coalbournbrook, but the partners had interests outside the glass industry including banking, clay mining, brick making, and metal working. By 1818 the firm had become Hill Hampton Harrison and Wheeley, and by 1829 Hill Hampton and Co. making fire bricks. Charles Hampton died in 1856, a year before the auction, by which time Joseph Webb had taken over the glass works.
“It is interesting to note that the 1839 tithe redemption map shows a sizeable pool, which is marked up as No. 15, immediately adjoining the Hamptons’ abode.
This was undoubtedly fed by the Coalbourn brook and must have been a major feature of the locality. By 1882 there is no trace of it and the land had been drained and developed. No. 64 at the bottom of the map is the location of The Fish Inn.
Redeveloped “The properties that were included in the auction in 1857 remained huddled at the side of the turnpike road until the area was completely redeveloped in the 1950s. The three storey flats erected on the site form Piper Place, named after Harold Piper who joined Amblecote District Council in 1906 as Inspector of Nuisances and Rate Collector. In 1914 he was appointed surveyor, and in 1943 Clerk to the Council.
He retired in February 1958 and died eight months later aged eighty, thus giving the smallest urban district council in England no less than 52 years service. Piper invariably dressed in plus fours and tweeds and was rarely seen without his cap.”
