THE BLOXIDGE TALLYGRAPH

At Bloxwich in August on the second day,
The 56th gala came down the way.
Walsall mayor, Tom Ansell opened the score,
With music, stunts and fun galore.

Renaissance of  the wakes gone by,
When quack doctors gave you a pill to try.
‘Way to good health’ punters took their chance!
No Electric Palace girls to put on a dance.

Once there were clowns who put on a play,
Now face-painted kids steal the day.
There were heroes and villains, even Indiana Jones,
Batman and Wonder Woman leaped to the tones.



Pretty Samantha is our queen, we will meet,
With Charlotte, Lindy and little Saffron so sweet.
People on floats, the scouts walk from the back,
The Walsall Coronets march in red and in black.

The old wake was perceived on the fine Green,
But the Methodists and schoolmaster weren’t so keen!
All the noise and commotion gave them strife,
To such an extent it affected their life!



Pat Collins fair, flying cars, bumps and wheels,
Along to George V and kick off them heels.
Stannage wowed the crowd in stunts of death,
All the onlookers could not hold their breath!

Ken Worley, he said; “the best ever yet,”
Sunshine filled skies, no one got wet.
Five thousand came, Titan the robot to cheer,
So ended Bloxwich Carnival for another year.

All Great Bloxwich folk are ‘Forreners’ true.
Intermediate people are there also too.
The ‘Burrowmen’ they would not give,
To the Walsall Foreign, where they live.

Walsall Boroughs had much their own way,
And the Foreigners didn’t have much to say.
In 1752, the change that pulled them down:-
Was when Samuel and John took off the crown.

Then everyone’s feelings came to a head,
Samuel Wilks and John Whitehouse said;
“As overseers, we’ll retire, can do no more,”
That was a blow for the Forreners poor.

No one in Walsall appointed a second look,
So Samuel refused to give them his book.
For he knew full well that he was right,
And so put up a most noble fight.

In a prison cell, time after time,
To fight for justice was the crime!
Soon independence came at hand,
Served by the people from his own land.

It was in the late autumn of fifty-three,
The Bench declared a new oversee’.
Valiant Samuel Wilks, hero of the hour,
Did contend for the Forrener’s power.