HE TRIED TO BEAUTIFY THE BLACK COUNTRY
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By John Clews
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Public conscience seems to stir itself at recurring intervals. At the present time we are being reminded of our wasted acres, wasted due to industrial spoilage. We have been given graphic descriptions of the reafforestation of slag-heaps and spoil-banks in the South Wales coalfield, while nearer home glowing pictures are being painted of the future of our own old and disused "bonks." This is all very fine, but nothing new. Reafforestation in the Black Country goes back a good 60 or 70 years, while in 1903 was first mooted the idea of collective action, which emerged as the Midland Reafforestation Association, under the presidency of Sir Oliver Lodge.

The man behind this in the Black Country is now virtually forgotten outside a small circle. "Hackwood" is not an uncommon name in the Black Country, but few remember Frederick William Hackwood, in his time one of the truest sons not only of the Black Country but of Staffordshire as a whole. He was a schoolmaster, social reformer, sportsman, leader in town affairs, prolific writer, and above all, an unchallenged historian of the Black Country.

School-teacher

Hackwood was born on April 18, 1851 in Wednesbury. His family came originally from Stoke-on-Trent and one branch was associated with the Wedgewood firm of pottery-makers. His boyhood was passed in a Black Country which was at the height of its prosperity and the turbulence that went with it. In 1870 he went to Saltley Training College and in 1872 he began his life-long job as a school-teacher.

In view of his prolific writings later in life, it is surprising that a further decade had to pass before his first book appeared in 1883. Forbiddingly titled "Notes of Lessons on Moral Subjects" it was, in fact, a best seller of its kind. It was used in Sunday schools throughout the country and even more so in Canada and Australia. For many years after he was dubbed "Bible" Hackwood,  because of this book.

Apart from his superficial likeness to Shakespeare, Hackwood had few vanities. He was described by an old friend as "a stockily built man, with kindly eyes twinkling behind strong glasses, a book or paper tucked under his arm as he walked along, smiling to himself."

He sported the heavy moustaches of his day, and his later trim Vandyck beard gave him his Shakespearean appearance. He was a sportsman in the organisational sense and introduced soccer to the Black Country when he formed the Wednesbury Strollers in 1874.

First J.P.

Hackwood was always conscious of the town as a municipality and his agitation was largely responsible for the charter of incorporation in 1884. He was the town's first J.P. and for a time a councillor. He was a Liberal politically, and one can read between the lines of his writings that he was in constant feud with the most powerful figure in the town, Richard Williams.

Richard Williams for years was chairman of the local board, followed by more years as the mayor of Wednesbury after the charter was granted. Because he decided a certain plot of land was cheaper, the town hall was built in a relatively isolated spot on the Holyhead-road instead of centrally in the market-place, as was originally intended.

Partly to try to break this one-man control, Hackwood organised the White Horse Fraternity. This was an informal group of the young bloods of the town, which by no coincidence at all was largely the same as the football team. It used to meet regularly in the White Horse Hotel in Wednesbury. It was a very exclusive smoke room brotherhood, which began as a social gathering but soon developed into a powerful informal pressure-group, discussing and acting on the town's affairs in all seriousness.

Mocked

It mocked in every detail the meetings of the local board and later the borough council. When the town adopted a coat-of-arms and the motto : "Arte Marte, Vigore," the fraternity promptly produced a neat skit on the arms with a centre-piece of champagne bottles and glasses, surmounting the motto: "Mirth, Martel, Sillitoe" (Sillitoe was the licensee of the White Horse).

The admittedly rather hideous terra-cotta fronted art gallery was the result of Hackwood's work through the fraternity to get a culture centre for Wednesbury.

The appearance of the Black Country was a sore spot with Hackwood. It was because of this that he agitated for some kind of reafforestation scheme. In the 1880's Richard Williams was touting round the site of a disused, flooded mine belonging to his firm as a possible housing estate. He found no buyers, the ground being so damp. Instead Hackwood persuaded him to present it to the town for conversion into a public park. Brunswick Park, as it became, was opened in 1887 and aroused great interest as the first attempt in the Black Country, at reclaiming old pit workings. The success of Hackwood's scheme can be seen today in one of the prettiest parks in the district, complete with formal flower beds, trees and the right degree of wilderness for cowboys-and-Indians. The former pitbank, known as the Mound, is an ideal vantage point, and its top is now to be converted into a sports arena.

Wildfire

Ironically, it was another Black Country heritage which drove Hackwood away from the town - an outbreak of wildfire, which came from spontaneous combustion in the disused pits. Hackwood lived in Comberford Cottage, not far from the White Horse Hotel and behind the old Mounts Colliery. One day in 1898 a wildfire suddenly broke out in the workings, quickly spread underground and one morning the back of Hackwood's house collapsed. He moved to the first available alternative, which was in Handsworth, and later went to Perry Barr, where he lived till he retired to the outer London suburb of Balham.

By the time of his move he was middle-aged, but he settled down to write 30 more books and to ferret out all that he could find on Black Country lore and life. He retired officially in 1915 and died on December 11, (sic.) 1926. Since his day hardly anything has been done to carry on his historical work. In these modern times his like has virtually died out.

About 1955, the official Victoria County History of England is due to turn its attention to South Staffordshire. It is almost entirely due to the loving researches of Hackwood over a period of 50 years that there will in fact be so much information available when it is needed.