Story behind the famous Hanson's Bridge – or should it be Don Everall Bridge?
The removal of 'Hanson's Bridge' across the Birmingham New Road at Dudley this weekend represents the passing of a familiar landmark.
But while it is known as Hanson's Bridge today, people of a certain age will probably better remember it as 'Don Everall's Bridge', from the time when it carried advertising for the pioneering Wolverhampton-based travel business.
The original bridge was built in 1849 for the South Staffordshire Railway as part of a new line from Burton-upon-Trent, through Lichfield, to Dudley. The Wednesbury-Dudley stretch of the line will now be used by the West Midland Metro tramline, with the bridge set to be removed this weekend.
The present advert for Hanson's Mild Ale dates back about 30 years, replacing an earlier – and far more interesting – advertisement for the brewery featuring a mural of a chainmaker, and the slogan 'no mod cons'.
Going from memory, the older Hanson's mural was painted on the the bridge about 1987, replacing the familiar royal blue advert for Don Everall Transglobe.
Back in the 1960s and 70s, Don Everall had the local travel industry pretty much sewn up. The company, which began when Don and his brother Cliff bought Wolverhampton's first motor coach in 1926, grew into a firm of travel agents which proliferated across the West Midlands.
