A friendly place steeped on history and tradition- The Express & Star visits Wordsley

Express & Star

As part of Love your Neighbourhood, the Express & Star spoke to people in Wordsley about the place they live.

Transcript

00:00pressandstarve.com a beautiful june afternoon here in wordsley for love your neighborhood

00:08we're going to find out what makes wordsley tick we're in the shadow of the starbridge glass museum

00:14which we're going to take a look inside a lot of history here alongside the starbridge canal

00:20as well but we're going to talk to people and find out what they like about living in wordsley

00:26we're in the bird in hand in wordsley bobs behind the bar on a beautiful monday afternoon quite a few

00:33in the uh the beer garden as well but you were telling me about the wordsley waterfall we're

00:39going to take a walk down the canal you're down the canal as far as the fishery which is on the

00:47right hand side and just before that is the wordsley waterfall as they call it what is the wordsley

00:54waterfall for people who don't know basically it's the stella the river stella which is bound

01:03winds its way around wordsley and then it's joins back by the canal to stamberman or just past stamberman

01:14it is lovely around here though for walks and uh it's lovely for walks the canal walk to starbridge

01:20along the from wordsley to starbridge it's a lovely flat walk for people who like a walk and have hills

01:28and you were saying you've lived here most of your life if not all your life

01:34so you know a bit about the history you like the old photographs as well don't you i love i love old

01:40photos of wordsley brinehill the dudley area and i've got loads on my phone and people say show us

01:48the photos you know but yeah wordsley bloke yeah and you must have got to know how long you worked here

01:58so a lot of the regulars to become friends i imagine we've lost a lot of regulars a lot of old

02:12old customers that used upon the same as me they've still got quite a few old customers that are still

02:20the side of me that uh well not so old but yeah they're still genuine customers that have used the

02:28pub for like so many a lot of years well thanks for talking to us bob let's speak to one of the regulars

02:35pete how are you pete yeah you because you've moved about a little bit housewise but you've always

02:52been in wordsley area haven't you what else do you like about living in the wordsley area do you like

03:13the walking do you get out and about i'll get out when i can like i mean yeah

03:18yeah

03:22like i wouldn't get into the pub since then

03:26and um

03:28so we don't go over there

03:38that's okay

03:40so you like to get out and about especially when it's sunny i guess

03:55all right then good good to see you pete thanks for talking to us and we're here with elliott and

04:01bethany in the starbridge glass museum now elliott you were born and we born and bred here you're

04:08certainly from here originally yeah yeah so i was uh born in wolverhampton and my family a lot of my

04:14family is still around there but i studied glass in the black country in dudley college and then in

04:20wolverhampton university and i used to work at the red house co which is just across the road

04:24um demonstrating to the public on weekends yeah i know you two met through a shared love of glass

04:33blowing and that tell us a little bit about that yeah i mean we we actually blew in the cone together

04:40together didn't we oh we did yeah yeah and in the early days before we yeah before we got together

04:46and uh yeah it's just such a beautiful place it's got so much history here so we had to

04:52we had to do full circle yeah yeah but you have to travel a lot as a glassblower you know so we ended

04:57up moving our studio down to london and then we were in hartford for about five years i was in london

05:03for about nine years in total and then we moved back to the midlands three years ago so it has yeah

05:08it's really come full circle yeah yeah what do you like both about living in in wordsley

05:14well i think working here i mean as people who live and breathe glass it's like it's the only place

05:20to be sensibly really yeah there's a good community of glassblowers a good community of support and

05:28another thing when we're working in the studio we get people come with stories from their own families

05:32exactly yeah it was such a big employer around here that you know we still meet um old gaffers from

05:37the studio from the factories when they were open so yeah it's amazing steward crystal wasn't it i

05:42think as well my uh my landlord worked there as well he told me as i went out so exactly yeah so

05:48many people so it is great to have that connection you know with that amount of history even though

05:52we're contemporary makers and we work in a very different way it's great to have that sort of solid

05:57historical foundation you know and now you're here we've got to get a plug in for you the exhibition

06:02that's coming in because the the glass museum is closed today but it gives you a chance to set up

06:08your strike a match exhibition that's coming up you've been a lot of hard work hasn't it

06:14we've been carting uh plimps and big glass pieces up and down the stairs for the past few hours so

06:20yeah we're a little bit worse for wear but yeah the exhibition's opening on saturday uh saturday the

06:2621st 21st yeah and it's a free opening for people to come and see and have a chat with us and see

06:32the work and it's um open until november yeah so it's a long it's a good amount of time that the

06:38show's open for as well so lots of chance to see it and the museum's got a great collection anyway so

06:43yeah yeah we've got a variation of our own works collaboration works things that we've worked on

06:48together yeah so yeah it's going to be great to see it come together this week you could say it's

06:54a match made in wordsley or almost you might not have met there but you are there now thanks

07:03not yet no thanks for talking to us welcome and we're here with uh terry hartill who uh we've featured

07:11a few times in the uh express and star and the express and star.com with your uh cake making

07:18as well you've been on the great british bake-off i believe yes i was on the uh great british bake-off

07:23in 2017 um got ripped to round six had some unfortunate bakes i have to say that i'm my um

07:36yeah my expectations of what i could do in the tent and what i could do in the tent were two different

07:41things really i can make them here in the kitchen but no and we had glorious sun that year

07:47so a lot of the well the first bakes the first three bakes all involved chocolate which is not

07:53a good mix 70 degrees in the tent and chocolate but i was at 35 inches and i made a uh one of the bakes

08:04was an eiffel tower and the the steel structure of the eiffel tower was all chocolate 30 degree little

08:10fine chocolate bars so great made it all up got it in the fridge froze lovely like the tower brought it

08:16out onto the table and within three minutes it was looked like a mess a nuclear meltdown yeah

08:26but at the moment you're concentrating on this uh beautiful car this uh mg and renovating this

08:33the lovely property that you live at as well so you're always a busy man aren't you yes i've got

08:38multiple um interests more than yeah more than i'd like to own up to always fill my time on yeah never

08:48never one for getting bored there's always something to do i've been working on this weekend

08:55forecast for the weather's good time to get your top up and get out how long have you owned the car

09:00uh 12 years or so and she wasn't in bad condition when i got her but i've added lots of little bits

09:09really nice things um not all standard to the model but aftermarket availability such as your fly screen so

09:21if i do a bit of hill climbing um which is just racing up here as fast as you can get there i drop the

09:27screen down and just use the fly shutters i don't know if it streamlines it any much but it feels

09:32better that way you know and i can put on the flying helmet and goggles it looks better oh careful

09:39i'm an odd sword yeah but um of course it's all done here in uh wordsley and uh as we've seen

09:46think about wordsley and its surrounding areas you can get engineering wires you can get anything you

09:52want and there are so many people out here with a knowledge um if you don't know it they'll know

10:00somebody who does or they do and i've had so much help from little engineering companies you know just

10:06off brettle lane there's two fantastic guys up there i can drop in and have something just turned up or

10:12you know even if you've got a bolt that's kind of seized up can't not working want a new one making

10:18re-chroming anything you can get it done around here so it's a fantastic place for yeah getting anything

10:25from whether it's engineering side even the materials and spoons upholstery companies everything i don't

10:38think i've ever been stuck funny story i've also got a little brewery and um it's a three-barrel system

10:46it's a small commercial brewery on a small scale i needed to make a glass side glass a little brewery so

10:55i get on the internet find out where i can get this citrus glass from and it's a company in germany so i

11:01contact this company in germany and then they contact me back and they say where are you and i tell them

11:06and they said we actually buy our glass and it's 300 meters down the road so i could have bought it

11:14from them or they gave me the address down there and i literally walked and got this glass that

11:20otherwise was only available in germany so yeah everything and as i be having it were the glass

11:27center of the world wasn't it one point brilliant it is and the people i've got to say the people in

11:33wordsley i was born and raised in one but my wife was born and raised here i never visited moving to

11:42wordsley but her family were here and um she wanted to come back this house became available it wasn't in

11:49the best of states but we've done a lot of work on it and um i wouldn't swap it from day one there isn't

11:57anything somebody to help you with or find or do or they just i've been out here since september

12:06most days working on this working i made all the railings i've made and i've been working on the

12:12driver and i must spend four hours working four hours talking because everybody stops talks to you

12:21about it ask you about people i haven't known before make a comment ask about something even

12:27like if the car's parked out here yeah um they'll ask about it the kids stopped from school they'll

12:32apply you know you know sit and press the horn and it's it's it's just a really friendly place

12:41you still get us about the cakes i think about the cakes yes indeed and i still make cakes in fact two

12:47doors down i'm making the girl's wedding cake um and uh yeah i've still sort of in demand cake wise

12:56my neighbors still get the cakes when i do the various little zoom shows now we tend to do a lot of

13:05people bake along i can't even though i've eaten an awful lot and i'm a lot bigger than i was when i was on

13:12bake off um i can't eat it all so yes we should have given you more notice we could have maybe

13:21had a piece of cake never mind i can do without it yeah next time definitely yeah great to talk to

13:32you here in sunny wordsley on a monday afternoon it is a lovely sunny wordsley and the sun does shine

13:38on wordsley a lot i've got to say i think i started doing this build in september and i've been

13:46absolutely blessed with the weather even though you know we we had a sort of a wettish winter but

13:53there were so many periods of decent weather that i've been able to get on with a lot of stuff

13:57um well we'll let you get on this afternoon and thanks for talking to us oh you're very welcome

14:03thank you

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