Coalway Road, Wolverhampton, 1940s
Coalway Road, Warstones, Wolverhampton in the immediate post-war period. The postcard classes this area to the Southwest of the town as being Pennfields, but the area is known as Warstones. From 1946, the nearby Warstones Estate was still under construction, an over-spill housing estate which featured a large number of prefabricated housing, most of which still stands to this day.
The traffic roundabout in this picture is sometimes referred to locally as the Spanish Guitar Island, simply because it is Guitar-shaped. The over-engineered ‘keep left’ traffic bollards mounted on to it are typical of the period, and it’s a great shame that they don't still exist. The street lighting just discernable in Coalway Road employed open-directional lanterns, with mirrored reflectors and tungsten bulbs, which were used extensively around the area.
Trolley bus wires are quite visible in this shot. This was the terminal point of the No32 trolleybus route, which ran from Chubb Street in the town centre out to this traffic roundabout. The terminal point was destinated as ‘Oxbarn Avenue’ on the trolleybus destination blinds, Oxbarn Avenue being the road that intersected Coalway Road at this point. Trolleybus operation began on this route in 1934, and ended in January 1961, and was the first trolleybus route to be abandoned in the town.
You'll see that the two trolleybus running wires are quite close together; in fact they're 18" apart, which was the pre-war standard. However, from 1948 onwards, the entire system was re-wired to a standard 2ft gauge, under the supervision of engineer Eric Ball. Also worthy of note, is how the trolleybys wires encircle the roundabout quite closely, this was done deliberately, so that the trolley-booms were on the inside of the buses turning circle. This meant that there was much less of a chance of them de-wiring and flying-outward if they became detached from the wires.
The scene today:
maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Oxbarn+Ave,+Wolverhampton,+West+...
Coalway Road, Wolverhampton, 1940s
Coalway Road, Warstones, Wolverhampton in the immediate post-war period. The postcard classes this area to the Southwest of the town as being Pennfields, but the area is known as Warstones. From 1946, the nearby Warstones Estate was still under construction, an over-spill housing estate which featured a large number of prefabricated housing, most of which still stands to this day.
The traffic roundabout in this picture is sometimes referred to locally as the Spanish Guitar Island, simply because it is Guitar-shaped. The over-engineered ‘keep left’ traffic bollards mounted on to it are typical of the period, and it’s a great shame that they don't still exist. The street lighting just discernable in Coalway Road employed open-directional lanterns, with mirrored reflectors and tungsten bulbs, which were used extensively around the area.
Trolley bus wires are quite visible in this shot. This was the terminal point of the No32 trolleybus route, which ran from Chubb Street in the town centre out to this traffic roundabout. The terminal point was destinated as ‘Oxbarn Avenue’ on the trolleybus destination blinds, Oxbarn Avenue being the road that intersected Coalway Road at this point. Trolleybus operation began on this route in 1934, and ended in January 1961, and was the first trolleybus route to be abandoned in the town.
You'll see that the two trolleybus running wires are quite close together; in fact they're 18" apart, which was the pre-war standard. However, from 1948 onwards, the entire system was re-wired to a standard 2ft gauge, under the supervision of engineer Eric Ball. Also worthy of note, is how the trolleybys wires encircle the roundabout quite closely, this was done deliberately, so that the trolley-booms were on the inside of the buses turning circle. This meant that there was much less of a chance of them de-wiring and flying-outward if they became detached from the wires.
The scene today:
maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Oxbarn+Ave,+Wolverhampton,+West+...