'Unfailing effort and devotion': Tributes to founder of transport museum, who has died at 76
A well-known historian and author who founded a popular transport museum has died, aged 76.
Alec Brew, who founded the Tettenhall Transport Heritage Centre at the village's old railway station, has died after a short illness.
Mr Brew wrote more than 30 books on the technical achievements and historic buildings of Wolverhampton, the Black Country, Shropshire and Staffordshire. Among them were a book marking 300 years of Molineux, another about the airfields of Staffordshire, and more recently his book Wolverhampton Through Time, which featured 'then and now' pictures on how the city has changed.
He also wrote regular history features for the Express & Star and its sister paper, the Wolverhampton Chronicle, including the weekly Memory Lane column.
Mr Brew was also a founder member of the Boulton Paul Association, set up to celebrate Wolverhampton's aircraft heritage, and was well known for his history talks, heritage walks and canal tours.
Mr Brew's step-daughter Hannah Landman said that following his retirement Mr Brew dedicated his life to promoting the history of Wolverhampton and the surrounding areas.
Just three weeks before his death, Mr Brew was in Uganda searching for planes which had been lost beneath a lake.
In 2014 he began creating a museum in the former goods storage building at the old Tettenhall railway station.
