This week we are back in Great Wyrley on Hazel Lane. L&S was just one of the many companies that worked on the Old Colliery site. There was a shared sense of community on there, and work often flowed between the business as one companies services would fill another's needs. This sense of community still exists for L&S. You will never be put through to a recorded line, if you call or message our team you will always be speaking direct to a person who will be more then happy to help.

The Lamp House on Hazel Lane housed a few different enterprises, each with a different skill set and service.

1. The first a man I recall was a Mr. Malcolm 'Mac' Mosedale, he was a Motor Engineer who's speciality was working with Jaguar cars, learning his trade at Atwoods in Walsall. He was always busy with customers, having several cars at a time during busy periods. I noticed after a while that every time a customer dropped their car off he would lift the bonnet before doing anything else, if he had eight cars all the bonnets would be open. He would often service our vans and pick ups and was a great help to the business.
2. There was also a car accident, repair and respray shop where other garages would bring in their repairs.

3. A printing firm/works which was ran by the site owner Ivy's sons Nigel and Colin. The business was quite successful with several businesses using them to print invoices and sales notices as well as promotional work. They did a lot of printing for us in our early days, and if I remember correctly they were in charge of printing our first catalogues.
4. On the site was also B.W Plastics, a plastic moulding company.
5. A steel gate manufacturer, who specialised in the making of farm gates and other various fabrications for farms.
6. Ace Wood Turners & Machinists Ltd, a company who produced wood turned items. We would buy the handles for our semi rotary pumps from them.

As mentioned earlier the Old Colliery became a small community for the businesses on site. The owner Ivy did not shy away from this atmosphere. One of the occasions this community came together to celebrate was bonfire night! Ivy would go all out to make the occasion special for all the customers, tenants and the locals. The night was filled with a fireworks display, and a large bonfire that was so big it would continue to smoulder for weeks after. A site that would not be seen today. Ivy would also provide a fantastic buffet for everyone, memories were made from a very good evening.

If you were to visit the site today you wouldn't be able to imagine the atmosphere and the upkeep of the site. Ivy and her sons were proud of their site on Hazel Lane and worked hard to maintain it and keep it tidy. Colin would drive around on his sit in mower to keep all the grass and lawn areas in check. Sue a young girl who helped Ivy would look after the flowers, pots and hanging baskets to make the site look nice, and it did.

The final local I would like to mention is the Post Master at the Great Wyrley Post Office. Back in the day at the beginning of our journey I would take our orders, about 20 parcels a day, to the local post office every late afternoon. As you can imagine this was time consuming especially when there was only a few of us working! This was until the Post Master offered to send the Post Office van to collect the parcels, an offer that wasn't given to every business and we were very lucky and grateful for it. We would then go on to open up an official account with the Post Office that still stands today.

As we got busier our work shop slowly became more and more crowded. To the point where every morning we would have to take some of our machines and equipment outside, by forklift, to be able to move and work around inside! When you have a large order to fill this is the last thing you want to be doing with your time. Can you feel another move coming on?