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"Hannah Johnson Cox... astounded the Officer on duty, PC Bailey, by confessing to him that she had just pushed her two infant daughters into the canal, at the tunnel." From The Coseley Tunnel Tragedy. In A Pocketful of Memories - Coseley, RAYMOND SMOUT indeed describes the Coseley of his youth. But first he takes the reader through his ‘unofficial history’; he charts its beginnings in the ancient Manor of Sedgley, the immense changes brought about by the industrial revolution, its heyday when it was governed by its own Urban District Council, and its eventual demise as Coseley was lost in urban reconfiguration to three different towns. Raymond’s great grandfather was a founding member of Coseley UDC and it is a story he tells with pride, interspersing the history with anecdotes of people and events. Read about the wakes and of byegone pubs, of Dr Baker the local philanthropist, of Hannah Johnson Cox and the tragic Coseley Tunnel murder, of the 1912 coal strike and the building of the Brummagem New Road.…across which Coseley still stands. A POCKETFUL OF MEMORIES - COSELEY reminds how it got there. Royalties from this book are being donated to Rowans Hospice, Waterlooville.

Raymond Smout, follows on where he left off in his book about Coseley and describes his childhood in the district of Roseville. From his early years when there was a war on to the 1950s he portrays school and leisure, transport, health and local charaters.  It is a very different world from today not only in amenities but also in attitudes.  Raymond contrasts these with pithy humour to add another valuable title to the series and paint a picture of where we have come from. Royalties from this book are being donated to Rowans Hospice, Waterlooville.