We visited Willenhall and spoke to residents, traders and churchgoers about their town.
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00:00It's a beautiful day in Willanour and I'm here with the councillor team at local councillor and why do you enjoy your job here as a local councillor in Willanour?
00:12Honestly, so I've been a councillor now for three years and it's been such a brilliant experience.
00:18For me I always say it's the people that make this place and the community spirit in here is just immense.
00:24With Willanour people we've got our own strong sense of identity and our own heritage that we frequently like to champion and I like to champion at Walsall Council too to make sure that we're not the forgotten town.
00:37I think the people are brilliant and if you look at the buildings there's a lot of history and heritage embodied in Willanour.
00:44There's all sorts of stories that I could perhaps tell you about, about the clock, about the bell.
00:49So I've heard, there are rumours that there is actually a tunnel that leads to St Giles Church but I don't know how true that is so don't quote me on that one.
00:57But I was told growing up as well that there was a tron in there so if I was having naughty I was always fretted with a troll.
01:04A troll in the clock?
01:05Yeah, in the clock.
01:06The troll of Willanour.
01:08And how about the bell just behind us down the road and the oldest building in Willanour?
01:13Yes.
01:14So the bell survived the Great Fire in Willanour and Wendy Evans and her group are doing a fantastic job of maintaining the bell and making sure that it's there as a community asset so well done to Wendy.
01:25How's your stall here for?
01:27In Willanour about 15 years.
01:29And what have you enjoyed about having it right here in the heart of the town?
01:34Well Willanour's a very nice little town type of thing.
01:37The people are very very friendly and it's got good commuter links and it's just an all out nice place to trade.
01:43Do you look for yourself?
01:44I don't, no I'm just down the road at Kelly.
01:47Oh just down the road, ok.
01:48Yeah, so it's not too far away.
01:49Yeah, but you've enjoyed you know seeing, do you ever see like the same place as any regular?
01:54I do, build up a good relationship with customers, weekly, make a lot of friends type of thing, yeah.
01:59Work with a lot of nice colleagues as well, yeah.
02:01Yeah, also the other business people on this street, you've got a good kind of community.
02:06Good, good, good all round community with them, yes.
02:09Funny, thank you.
02:10What do you like about working here in the heart of Willanour?
02:12It's such a lovely little bakery as well.
02:14Yeah, this is a family run business.
02:16We have lots of customers who are dedicated to buying our stuff.
02:21We have the same people who order every single week.
02:24We have new people coming, we have people come from afar who travelling just to buy bread and cakes from us.
02:31It's a lovely business.
02:33And you get to meet lovely people.
02:35We do, we do.
02:37And we feel like we're welcomed as staff in the company as well.
02:43Yeah.
02:44How long have you worked for the company for?
02:45I've only worked here for six weeks.
02:47Six weeks?
02:48That's all.
02:49You already know it though.
02:50I really know.
02:51It's lovely.
02:52It's such fun.
02:53Yeah, I'm sure you do.
02:54And so, do you get some nice, do you have a nice community with the rest of the businesses
02:59around here or are you kind of...
03:00Yeah, yeah.
03:01They're all kind of close and yeah, if we need anything we can pop off the road or if
03:06we need chains we can pop off the road.
03:08It's just nice.
03:09I think it's where every church should be really, right in the heart of the community.
03:16As Christians we're sent here to love God with all our heart but also to love our neighbours
03:21and that for me is our community.
03:23So here at St Stephen's we really are right in the middle of Willan Hall.
03:27We cover the town centre too so we have lots of opportunities to reach out and serve the
03:31people who live around us which is great.
03:34So what kind of reaction do you see from your local community and do you put things on here
03:38and you get people visiting so what are some of the things that you do here?
03:41Yeah, so we have regular events.
03:43We're a very sociable bunch at St Stephen's so about every month we have something social
03:47going on.
03:48We have three very big fairs every year and we usually have special events too that are
03:54free to the community.
03:55So this year for instance we've got VE Day celebration coming up and so yeah, we love
04:01to open the doors to the community and welcome people to come whether they're of any faith
04:06or no faith at all.
04:07You know, people are welcome and we hope through our hospitality, through our welcome to show
04:12them something of God's love for them.
04:14Perfect, thank you.
04:15And just on a different note though, as a resident of Willan Hall, how do you enjoy it personally?
04:21Well I'm new to Willan Hall, I've only lived here for five years and certainly since I've
04:27been here, obviously we had Covid initially, but over recent years I've seen a real turning
04:33of the tide in Willan Hall actually.
04:34There's a lot of new developments started, we've got the train station on its way and I
04:39think there's a real sense of optimism that's starting to seep into Willan Hall.
04:43So it's a great place to live, very strong sense of community, typical black country town
04:48where people really belong and have a real sense of identity, so it's a good place to
04:53be.
04:54Brilliant, lovely talking to you.