August 1930

FILM HOAX

In August 1930, residents of Lower Gornal were aware of a Gainsborough film about life in a mining community and scenes to be shot in the area.
Some residents received letters reputedly from "Elstree Talking Pictures Ltd.", and stated that the film company were looking for 100 extras -miners and their wives - to appear in the film, and extras would be selected at an open space the next night somewhere just outside of Gornal.
Disappointment followed for the hundreds who had gathered only to find this was a hoax. Gainsborough later denied having anything to do with the letter and dismissed it as a cruel and misguided joke.
Some mining scenes for the subsequent film "The Stronger Sex" were filmed at Baggeridge, with the Earl's co-operation.
The film starring Colin Clive, Adrianne Allen and Gordon Harker was released in 1931, the drama centres on a man who rescues his wife's lover during a disaster at a coal mine.

24th January, 1939

VILLAGERS WARNED
Penalty for Brewing Without a Licence.

The mining village of Gornal, Staffordshire, famous for the barrel of genuine home-brewed beer which is to be found in virtually every house, must either pay up or lose its centuries-old reputation, for the Excise authorities have learned that many of the villagers are flouting the licensing laws by brewing without a licence.
Last October, after one prosecution for illegal brewing, 79 of the villagers took out brewing licences for the first time. To-day, one of those who neglected the warning, Mrs V. M. Taylor, of valley Road, wife of an unemployed miner, was at Sedgley Police Court ordered to pay £10 5s. for an illicit five-gallon brew.
"I am not the only one. If you go to the village you will find a lot more," she complained.
Mr. D. J. Willson, who prosecuted, agreed that the authorities were aware that a very large amount of illegal brewing was going on in Gornal, and said it was only on rare occasions that evidence could be obtained.
"The seventy-nine new licences within a few days of the last prosecution may have been a coincidence, but we ask for a penalty which will persuade others in Gornal who are brewing without a licence that it is a game which is not worthwhile," he said.

10th July, 1942

1942

BUDDING FILM STAR

   JOHANNE Baker, a Gornal Wood girl, who was recently recruited for a Ministry of Information film as a result of her singing and dancing at a Dutch army camp concert, is making an appearance with Stan Fielding and his band in a variety show at the Olton Cinema to-night in aid of the R.A.F. Benevolent Fund.

    Miss Baker who is 19 and works as a book-keeper in Wolverhampton, studied dramatic art in Birmingham and won the Meggie Albanesi Scholarship. She is hopeful that she may be able to do more film work--and thus follow in the footsteps of Madeleine Carroll, who was also a Black Country Girl.