Ronnie Wootton was a stalwart of the architectural salvage and reclaimed building material trade from the 1980s, prior to which he was a producer of period lanterns for lamposts and other hardware. I wrote a short biography of him in 1998 (see below). I first met him in the 1980s when buying reclaimed setts and timber flooring for our salvage yard in Bath. He roved around in a battered pickup, moving stuff from the north to contacts in the south when demand was high - driven by discerning London clientele, and demand was virtually non-existent during the demolitions in industrial regions of central Scotland down to central England. 

Ronnie was born in 1935 in Sedgley, the heart of the Black Country, and he knew from personal experience and fromfamily reminiscences about its industrial heritage, the manufacturing and the people which he cared about. He visited a large number, and noticed the decline of well-established good quality homeware and building ironmongery. Latterly, he joined making replica panel doors from reclaimed wood and a range of traditional iron and brass door furniture. He was often seen at trade gatherings at Salvo Fairs at Knebworth. He was friendly with most of the trade including the late Drummond Shaw, Andy and Viv Newton, Peter Watson, Dick Goodman and John Hogan, and was last at Ripley attending a small trade commemorative meal after Drummond's funeral in 2023.

Ronnie Wootton died on 28th October 2024. The funeral was arranged by Tracey, Ronnie’s niece, with kind help from Simon Kirby. His coffin will be draped with a Union Flag and topped by his beret.

The funeral was held on 5th December at Gornal Wood Crematorium followed by a wake at Sedgley Working Men’s Club.

Angela Shaw wrote:

It was heartening to see the Salvo community come together to bid Ronnie Wootton a fond farewell.  They came from far and wide to celebrate the life of a remarkable and much-loved character who, had travelled between them bringing architectural salvage items, drinking cups of tea and regaling them with stories and good cheer. Ronald Joseph Wootton, born 15th December 1936 was so proud of the Black Country (being the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution as he liked to remind us) and his Wolverhampton roots.  He was knowledgeable, resourceful and highly entertaining, a loyal friend and extremely fond of his family.  Ronnie’s niece Tracey and her partner Wayne arranged a beautiful service of poetry and music recalling Ronnie’s 87 years, ending appropriately with My Way by Frank Sinatra.  As a final tribute, a pair of white doves were released, freeing Ronnie’s spirit from the earthly plane.

Glasses were raised to Ronnie at the Sedgley Working Men’s Club and tales of adventures with ‘The Duke of Marlborough’ were swapped over sandwiches and cake.  He had been a wonderful storyteller in his lifetime, with an incredible capacity to recite poetry, remember historical battle dates, speak in German and Russian, and make people laugh.  He had the ability to make one feel singled out for special attention and care. What was revealed at the wake was the love people had for him and his kindness and generosity to others. 

Special thanks are due to Simon Kirby and Rosie (Drummond Shaw’s wife) who assisted Tracey and her family with the funeral arrangements and generally with moral support. As a final tribute, some of the Salvo community had dinner together, during which both Ronnie and Drummond were remembered on account of their special friendship. 

I was happy to bring my own memories of Ronnie, who stayed with our family many times over the years on the Hog’s Back, and to share messages from others who knew Ronnie from Drummonds.

Guy Farley recalled: “He had a big heart Ronnie and my God he could make me laugh.  I used to love hearing his stories and he had so many of them.  He will forever be in our memories”.

Here is a potted biography, written in SalvoNEWS in 1998: "YAUM been very helpful, wench," he said to the female caretaker of Queen Victoria School in Bilston Street. "There have been five generations of Wottons educated at this school." Sedgley is the Black Country. Formerly a village, by 1844it comprised a manor of nine surrounding towns stretching from Baggeridge to Brierley, brickmaking to iron founding. Ronnie's maternal great grandfather was a supplier of clay for firebrick, another was the strongest man in Sedgley, whilehis own childhood was dominated by the war, and his father who worked in an iron foundry, occasionally helped during holidays by the young RW.  "It was Dante's inferno in there. Men sweated buckets, and then more." On Sedgley Beaconhe points out the spot where he sheltered, from a string of bombs with his mother while out walking when he was a kid.To him, like yesterday. And he still remembers the hunger of the war years, and an American army food parcel one Christmas. 

He joined the 13th & 18th Queen Mary’s Own Hussars and became Trooper Wootton, 23141949, to do his national service, which took him abroad to Germany, and other places. After national service he began, in the early sixties, a business making reproduction cast iron lamp posts and copper lantern tops. He built it up from scratch until he owned his own foundry, but eventually it all went wrong when a customer defaulted on his largest consignment to the Middle East which wiped him out and he became a recluse. Incidentally, he has recently started making reproductions again, exclusively for some of the top architectural antiques businesses, but we cannot say what—it's a secret. Gradually he got back into working again, this time dealing in antiques, including ornamental architectural and garden items. Eventuallyhis contacts within the Midlands demolition world meant that he was also middling large quantities of setts, timber flooring and other reclaimed materials to the southern trade as well as the occasional container of antique ironwork to places like Chicago, again for trade clients.

Nowadays his indefatigable presence could be seen anywhere from Ireland and Scotland to California or Munich, but thebackbone of his business activity remains servicing the reclaimed materials needs of some of the major southern English architectural businesses to whom, once a working relationship has been established, he has remained incredibly loyal. He doesn't believe in paperwork, has no contact phone number or mobile (well, not recently, anyway—he threw the last one away on the M6), and like many Midlands dealers he has a disparaging opinion of networking information through Salvo (once we know about something it's too late to go to "the source of the Nile") although he admits that he likes reading SalvoNEWS.

His phone book is a well-thumbed dog-eared number, where all the numbers have been inserted in a completely random order, but flipping through to find a number gives him immense pleasure. He enjoys visiting his local, The Beacon Hotel, although he does not drink much these days,  mercifully untouched (in 1998) since his childhood where his Dad used to go for a pint, with an award-winning home brewery attached, and a landlord who used to be in his class at school. Even the lino must date from 1910.

What else? Oh yes, if you ever want to hear poetry, especially Robert Service The Highwayman—When the moon was a ghostly galleon tossed among stormy seas … or German lullabies, or tales of military derring-do, then Ronnie may oblige—if he likes you.

The world's earliest nailmaking machinery was, according to Ronnie, installed in Sedgley, no doubt as a discouragement to strikers. The last handworking nailmaker ceased production around 1920. One nailmaking company still exists inh the area, called the Crown Nail Co in Commercial Road, Wolverhampton [still making nails, but now near Oxford].

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From SalvoNEWS 170, Monday 3 August 1998

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More trade contributions to this online book of remembrance are welcome:-

I remember Ronnie as one who quoted poetry from memory,  always ready with an amusing story mixing entertainment with business a pleasure of a man and extraordinary ambassador from the Black Country. I’m thankful to Drummondwithout whom I would never have met him - I know D was very fond of him too. I’ll never forget him. David Cox, former manager at Drummond's Architectural

What a star. How on earth did he manage to live that long!!!!! Ruby Hazael, former partner Salvo