Pye Green

Pye Green has changed little over the centuries which conversely has made definition difficult. One possible explanation is saxon pie, nothing to do with cookery but meaning gnats, here in the sense 'the green where gnats abound'. [Staffordshire Place-Names by Anthony Poulton-Smith]

There are large Council housing estates, some dating from before 1939, at Pye Green and Green Heath. At Pye Green there are also prefabricated bungalows and a caravan site. History of Cannock.

BT Tower is a telecommunication tower built of reinforced concrete. Standing in Cannock Chase it is one of the few telecommunication towers in the United Kingdom built of reinforced concrete. Pye Green was constructed as part of the British Cold War ‘Backbone’ radio communications network. Its combination of elevation and height give it line-of-sight to the British Telecom Tower, Birmingham. Wikipedia.

Pye Green concrete water tower, sixty five feet high, stands a prominent landmark nearly 800 feet above sea level and a stone's throw from Pye Green village on the edge of Cannock Chase. The site was purchased from Charles Phillip of Huntington Farm in 1935. The tower, constructed at a cost of £4,202, was erected to improve the supply to the high level area to the north west of Hednesford. It has a capacity of 60,000 gallons, the diameter of the tank being thirty two feet and the maximum depth of water eleven feet nine inches. Pye Green Tower is filled by re-pumping at the Pye Green Pumping Station from the Gentleshaw system. As the tower was in a mining area, the possibility of subsidence was kept in view, and there was several features in the design to detect this. The columns rested freely on exposed bases which formed part of a strongly constructed foundation, and in the event of the tower subsiding unevenly, three recesses were provided, distributed at equal intervals round the base of the screen wall, where jacks could be fixed and operated to restore the tower to a vertical position. A plumb bob device was fitted in the tower to record any movement from the vertical. The construction of the tower was carried out by Messrs. Gray's Ferro Concrete Company Ltd.

A local resident wrote to the Engineer in 1936; "I have greatly admired the design of this structure which is certainly the finest example of utility construction that I have so far seen. I am sure that the S.S.W.W. must have the thanks of all Chase lovers for the artistic merit of a work which could so easily have been an eyesore. As a lover of the Chase I feel the view from the top of this tower must be superb and as an engineer I am intrigued as to its internal arrangements". South Staffordshire Water Archives

Are you related to a person who attended to Freda's grave, or have a connection with the New Zealand 5th (Reserve) Battalion?

Did you or one of your ancestors train at RAF Hednesford Training Camp? If so, you might find a photograph of yourself or an ancestor here

Walk Pye Green and see and learn of it's three memorials

Walk Pye Green and learn about it's war trail