Thursday 19 April 2012

The man that was Fluepot, a local legend.

 Brownhills once had a few characters worthy of a small slice of infamy.
Though their happenings probably were not note worthy on a daily basis, they were on an accumulation basis.
One such character went by the name of Fluepot, real name Peter Cooper. Now i am not an expert on the goings on of Fluey, but have worked with him and heard many a tale which i believe are true.....well to some extent anyway.

One such tale came about just after the end of the Falklands war. There was a glut of work on the island for civil engineers, which Fluey purported to be. This was a highly paid job in a land far away from home. Now legend has it that Fluey was amongst the first batch of civil engineers to land on the island. They were billeted in army type barracks, and had full access to military facilities i.e the Naafi and bar etc. Now Fluepot enjoyed a drink to say the least. In fact i would say he spent at least half of his waking hours intoxicated. If he had money in his pocket he would be found in a public house somewhere in the Brownhills area. Not long into Fluepot's stay on the Falklands he had become very familiar with the local ale. Fluey did not know the meaning of "had enough" and almost always drank himself into a coma (cash allowing). On one such occasion, he managed to soil his bed with both number 1 and 2! This had followed a couple of bed wetting episodes which had been noted. Any way this angered the contractors so much that they forcibly removed Fluey from the island and sent him on his way back to England.

The legend being that, Fluepot, aka Peter Cooper was the first person to be forcibly removed from the Falklands islands after the Argentinian army were removed.

Fluey was a regular in the old Anchor pub when it stood at the side of the bridge. He would pick his wages up on a Friday and from that point on it was a full on onslaught against his liver. My uncle Martin said that one day as Fluey stood at the bar he managed to let all of his bodily fluids go while trying to Fart (gross i know)! Anyway that led to him being bared for a while.
Photo thanks to Brownhills Bob.

One of my last memories of Fluepot was my wife and me sitting in our car at the bottom of the high street outside the old swinging fish chippy. I could see Fluey heading towards us, it looked like he had been to Mario's as he had a large fish and chip wrapper in his hand. He was on the three steps forward and one back routine when he unfurled a large piece of cod. I said to my wife "look, i bet he drops that". True to form, he picked up the fish (by the tail), the fish began to bend away from his mouth, the more he lent forward the more it bent until it snapped and hit the floor!! I knew he would do this, he bent over picked it up and flicked the gravel from it and, yep...he carried on eating it.
Anyone who has phots of the old Anchor or Fluepot, if you send them to me i will scan them and get them back to you.

Fluey, to you i doff my cap R.I.P.

5 comments:

  1. Thanks to my old mate Lee fisher who pointed out a few facts about Fluey.
    "Flue went to the Falklands after the war and had been to Glastonbury and could name every cathedral in England and I had the pleasure if goin ti many if a folk do with him"
    its gems of information like this that bring life to a character.

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  2. Lee has sent me one Flueys snippets of wisdom, so sit back for Fluepot's fable part 1.
    "One storey the flue told me was about a swift just left the nest flew round the farm yard hit wall and fell in some hoss shit and the more it moved deeper it sank ,then out the blue some 1 dug him out ! It was the farm cat ! So not always the 1 who gets you out the shit is ya friend"
    Cheers Lee, i hope to get some more details on Fluepot printed up, so i will catch up with you soon.

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  3. err. i dont know were to start on this topic.

    i shall now monitor this with intrepidation.

    I AM FLUE'S SON. adopted from his first marriage.

    i was never allowed to contact him, as i believe neither was he i found out in recent years.

    i am glad to hear he is a person of some character, as i knew i got it from somewhere !!! albeit not too the constant excess extent.or uncontrolled movements.
    ..althought ,if its on. it is "full on"...
    no "just the one, here"...

    i have always craved to meet him him and when i found out he was not allowed, (not in a sinister way) and searched for him.
    i find it was too late. sad i know. so this was a real nice thing to read.
    i would appreciate anyone who knows the immediate family i would love to get intouch...

    thanks in advance
    STEPHEN. barchill.is@hotmail.com

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  4. Hi Stephen, nice to hear from you. i am working on getting some photos from people who moved in the same circles as Fluey. Watch this space for developments. there will i have no doubt be more tales of his adventures.
    I hope you don't mind me trying to put into words your dad's adventures. I am not great at it but think that these folk need to be remembered.

    T O D F

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your kind acknowledgments,
      i have no problems with this whatsoever on any level, i have no issues, with "the scenario", as i was fully aware from a child, the only thing is, its disappointing we never got to have a beer or 10 together, but i guess by the stories ive heard over the years,although i have only just pieced together it was my ol man they were talking about.the falklands saga was one of them, it might of been a little well, x flue by 2 and some !!! i keep my bed and undergarments dry tho... but there is usually a good time had by all around when i am "on one" .
      iam not sure how well you knew fluey, but a pal from my adventures in spain, a guy called Billy Timms, new him well,it seems (major piss head too) and told me many a story,from the civil sites they worked on an drnking sessions in the "hills" and the mischeivious adventures .. etc. but ive only just recently found my dads name was flu. alas billy passed from a bump on the head after a "normal" session in a bar. (not mine) again sounds like in the same mould.
      its a shame i cant tell him, so i can not fit the pieces in with him.he would crack up knowing who i was. again he was a life's character too, so your posts are a nice to fill the picture in. and compare, as my lifes adventures have a tale someone i hope will tell one day . its quite uncanny really. i always wondered where my "full throttle" gene came from, as the rest of my family are quite sedate to put it mildly, so i guess that "life in the eye" was quite alien to them. no wonder they kept us appart, makes sense now. ha ha .... all good tho. i would like to meet up with some of his family , someday. over a coffee ! lol im sensible in my old age now. if you could pass over my details to them or somthing or mail me theirs it would be nice. appart from that to all who read this blogg....

      your alive !!, the rest is a bonus. love life and all it gives you. be nice and smile. god bless.

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