Chris Egginton’s pictures of Sedgley Bull Ring

Chris Egginton’s family ran Egginton’s pharmacists in the Bull Ring

Sedgley from around the turn of the last century until the 1970s.

Beginning as a dispensing chemist, the business later expanded,

latterly becoming a local department store - at one stage it even

boasted a coffee lounge.

Martin Jones, organiser of Sedgley’s Diamond 60 exhibition with Chris Egginton, holding Ron

Baker’s drawing of the Egginton store in the Bull Ring as it might have appeared around 1900.

Chris:

As a young man my father served in the First World War in the South Staffordshire

Signallers. He was badly wounded by shrapnel from a shell, which took his eye,

nose and the whole of one side of his face clean off and left his skull open to the

elements. Surgeons on the battlefield did a temporary job in patching him up, after

which he was sent back to the UK to recover and where he underwent

reconstructive surgery.

I was born in 1931 at 4 Green Leas in Sedgley, which was down at the bottom of the

hill going towards Wolverhampton – the last turn on the left before you get to the

Beacon Centre. I went to St Chad’s in Sedgley and from there to Dudley Grammar

School. My brother also went to Dudley Grammar School – he was the brainy one

and he became an anaesthetist! He went to Sheffield, then to Queen Elizabeth

Medical Centre in Nottingham where he worked until he retired. He now lives in

West Bridgford.

I went into a different line of business – engineering. I worked at the old Talbot-

Stead place opposite Dudley Guest Hospital, next to the Sea Scouts (towards the

lights on the opposite side of the road to the hospital). It was called TR Stainless,

and made articles for the milk and food industry.

Eggintons in Lower Gornal

My father bought the above buildings in Lower Gornal – I did have a photo of his old

Ford Model T car parked in between the stock room and the shop. He opened Lower

Gornal as a branch, and he also had one in Upper Gornal. The Lower Gornal branch

is still going strong and is run by my sister’s son, Julian Cloford. The branch in Upper

Gornal was in the precinct (opposite St Peter’s Church) - the pharmacy continues

there today but under different ownership.

My father retired when he was around 68. I’m not a pharmacist – it was my eldest

sister Christine (now Christine Cloford) who took over when my father retired. She

ran it for a while, but unfortunately it wasn’t profitable. After my sister ceased trading

in the Bull Ring, the site was eventually sold and the premises demolished for

redevelopment.

While he was running the business in the Bull Ring, my father was a keen

photographer, taking and developing his own images. He took many of the Bull Ring

from the high balcony at the side of the shop as well as at ground level, providing an

intriguing insight into the development of the village in the 20th century.

Images of Sedgley in the 20th century

Ron Baker’s drawing of Egginton’s in the Bull Ring as it might have appeared at the turn of the last

century. Here it’s called ‘Sedgley Drug Stores - JT Egginton’ indicating its main business was as a

pharmacy. Where Oliver Twist hair studio now is, is located Sedgley Cooperative store.

The Eggintons in Edwardian days

Two photos of the Egginton family probably taken around the same time in Edwardian days

(judging by their dress). The first shot appears to have been taken in Jukes Meadow off the

Northway, with All Saints’ church in the background.

Christopher’s father in the Egginton premises, date unknown, possibly 1920s. Note the adverts for

Tower Tea, Dr Tibbles Cocoa and Cadbury’s Chocolate, indicating that even then it doubled as a

grocer’s shop and pharmacy.

Mr Egginton with his children Christopher (and Christine?), probably taken in the 1930s

A tram in the 20s/30s, probably taken in the Bull Ring (the building behind resembles the Red Lion

frontage).

What appears to be some form of boiler passing through the Bull Ring in Sedgley, manufactured

by John Thompson of Wolverhampton, an illustrious Wolverhampton engineering company. A

history of the Thompson company can be found here

Work being carried out on on a lampost in the Bull Ring. In the background are Carmi Fox’s

butchers (single storey building) and Major Hilton’s house (far right).

A photo taken from Egginton’s looking south along Dudley Street, date unknown. ‘Charlie

Cartwright’s’ newsagents is in the foreground. The sign on the wall reads ‘Herald Office’ – could it

have been a sub-office of the Dudley Herald?

Chris Egginton in his Lagonda V-12 drophead coupe in the 1950s. According to Google this model

first appeared in 1939.

A photo of ‘JT Egginton and Son’, probably from the 1950s, going by the trolleybus lines in the top

of the picture. At this time the premises next door seem to be separately owned.

Eggintons in the 1960s, selling cigarettes and cosmetics according to the signs. By this time

Eggintons had expanded into the premises on the right.

By contrast here is Eggintons in around 1970 after the trolleybus lines have been removed.

Ironically, Tipton and Coseley Building Society (on the left) is located opposite where they are

today. The Bull Ring island has begun to resemble what it looks like today (2012).