Pye Green

Pye Green is an English village on Cannock Chase in the south of Staffordshire standing nearly 800 feet above sea-level, literally overlooking Hednesford, Cannock, Walsall and much of the Black Country. Birmingham city centre can be clearly seen when the weather is good.

Pye Green is served by roads running from Hednesford to Stafford and from Chadsmoor to Slitting Mill and Etchinghill. The closest trunk roads are the A34 from Cannock to Stafford and the A460 from Cannock to Rugeley. Bus services are provided by Chaserider PyeGreen--Hednesford--Cannock--Pye Green and vice-versa, circular services 25/26 with a 15-or 30-minute frequency, Mon-Sat. The closest railway station is at Hednesford, which is on the Chase Line running from Rugeley Trent Valley to Birmingham New Street

The village has grown in the past 100 years, mainly though council and coal board housing; and latterly through private housing, mainly down the Pye Green Valley, which is the site of West Cannock pits nos. 1, 3 and 4. Today, therefore, the housing is mainly owner-occupied, with some private rentals and some council housing, being the remnants of the council housing which was not privately purchased by former tenants. The area also boasts nursery and primary schools, a community centre, several shops (butcher's, takeaways, general dealers and convenience stores), a funeral director's, and a pub. The nearest secondary schools are Staffordshire University Academy and Kingsmead School, Hednesford.

The pub is named after a former local farmer, his Pye Green Farm predating the first housing estate comprising Clarkes Avenue and Cotton Grove, erected before WWII. Prefabs were erected west of this estate just after WWII, and were replaced in the 1970s and 1980s. Council housing was developed east of this estate in the 1960s in conjunction with the coal board, bringing in an influx of mining families from Ayrshire, Northumberland and Durham, and South Wales to work in various pits in the Cannock Chase Coalfield. The land in the Pye Green Valley was developed in the 1980s onwards. This development has removed any green space gaps between Pye Green and Hednesford or Pye Green and Chadsmoor.

Pye Green climbs to a high point and, as a result of this, it hosts the local BT communications tower landmark (which can be seen from the nearby M6 motorway and the West Coast Main Line. The tower relays line-of-sight microwave communication links between equivalent towers at Sutton Common in Cheshire and in the centre of Birmingham, eventually down to London BT Tower. Near to the BT Tower is an older structure, the Green Pumping Station and Water Tower, which has operated since 1934.

Land to the west and north comprises what remains of The Chase, or Cannock Forest . Close by are the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and German Military Cemetery, and the ruined remains of Brindley Village and of RAF Hednesford. Other pieces of history include gallops for thoroughbreds dating from when Hednesford was a significant training centre, before and during the advent of coal mining; a mission church (St. Marks) and a chapel (top of Bradbury Lane) which were part of the extension of christian buildings into the area in the 1890s, and working men's clubs which went with mining. The chapel (which was later part of a club and turf accountants and then of a pub) overlooked a quarry which was subsequently used for landfill and is now a green space. The nearest working quarry is to the west, above Pottall Pool, the latter having once been a lido.

External links

• BT Transmitter