I mentioned my assessment of Sandfields that there will be people alive today who worked for or who had parents or grandparents who worked at Sandfields.

Today Kevin Carpenter has been in touch and kindly sent me a photograph taken c1936-7 showing his grandfather Harry Paragnell who worked at Sandfields as an engine man.

Kevin has sent me documentation showing that Harry was engaged by South Staffordshire Water on 12 February 1913 at Pipe Hill and then moved to Sandfields on 12 February 1914. The documents also show that Harry lived in Waterworks Cottages in Chesterfield Road in 1923.

Does anyone recognise anyone else in the photo?

For anyone who is interested, Brian J. Williams and Johann Van Leerzem wrote ‘A History of South Staffordshire Waterworks 1853 – 1989’.

A really interesting read, and a credit to them both for the amount of detail.