Author: BrownhillsBob

I told the truth - but told it bent. Wandering around bemused and ranty since 2007.

January 23rd – I also noticed that the piece of street-art under the reservoir place bridge has been completed. It’s quite impressive – there’s real skill and artistic ability there, and I love the way it adds interest and colour to an otherwise dark corner. The artist is called Apps, and @dhintheman on twitter found his youtube channel. You can see his self-made film there, together with other films of his derring do. Apps, I salute you.

January 23rd – Heading to Darlaston today, I ducked onto the canal as usual. I noted that the algae bloom that I speculated would be killed off by the cold spell was still apparently in rude health… last week, this spot was iced over. Today, the gloop is as thick and green as ever. It does move around, though. On windy days it disperses to little clumps at the banks and reed-beds. When conditions are more still, it regroups. Oddly hardy stuff, it would appear. Still none the wiser as to what it actually is. 

January 22nd – Tesco may not care much for Brownhills, but it has us in a stranglehold. The same company that operate our scruffy, down at heel supermarket are also one of the town’s biggest employers. Tesco own the One Stop group, operators of small community stores, which they bought up from T&S Stores a decade ago. Large numbers of folk are employed at the warehouse here, and there’s a constant flow of traffic and wagons into and out of the site. Tonight, it seemed quiet, but I could hear engines revving somewhere in the distance.

In Brownhills Tesco will get you, one way or another.

January 22nd – Still forlorn, abandoned and decaying to dust is The Rising Sun, at Brownhills West. One of Brownhills’ oldest pubs, it’s sad to see this place slide away. It doesn’t even appear to be for sale. Survivor of several arson and vandal attacks, the building clearly has some pride left. Can nobody be found to do something – anything – with it?

We’re gradually losing our history and culture, and it breaks my heart.

January 22nd – A bit of a lost weekend, cycling wise; the old health has been a bit up and down, but other commitments and general recuperation were the order of what proved to be a rather intemperate few days, weather-wise. The daylight hours today were beset with an evil wind, and so I slipped out at sunset and chose to throw the bike around the rough stuff on Brownhills Common. No deer today, sadly, but I did disturb a couple of badgers near Engine Lane. The sunset over Wyrley Common was quite remarkable tonight. 

January 21st – This is intriguing and good news. This new factory has been built from scratch on the Clayhanger/Walsall Wood border at Maybrook Road. This company have decided to move here from up north, creating real engineering jobs and bringing its business into the area. What fascinates me is that the occupiers have been moving in for ages now – loads of cranes and lifting equipment here every weekend. I don’t know what they’re doing here, but there must be a lot of heavy gear involved.

January 21st – Another day of challenging weather. Showers, wind, bluster. Just as well I had stuff to do in the daytime and wasn’t feeling that a cycling opportunity was lost because of my other commitments. Spinning out for a lazy bimble round at 6pm, I spun up through Clayhanger, and thought how dark and quiet the village looked so early on a Saturday night. Clayhanger has always had a slightly Midwich-ish, cutoff air about it, being a wee island in the middle of urban greenspace, but tonight it felt quite distinct. Odd.

January 20th – Like most folk in Brownhills, I use the local Tesco from time to time. I hate doing it, but there are few easy alternatives. The store has no cycle provision whatsoever. It is housed in one of the grimmest 80’s sheds I’ve ever come across, with no natural light. It’s impression is tatty, untidy and gives the feeling of careless grubbiness which makes products you buy there feel secondhand and mauled. It is, however, usually rammed with people, and this Friday was no exception.

Tesco promise to change all this – we are, we are assured, soon to get a new Tesco, built on the site of Brownhills’ now derelict shopping precinct. However, having prevaricated for years, and clearly getting a good return out of the old store, one can but wonder if the retail behemoth will not bother now their share price and profits have taken a pounding. A new CHP power plant was recently installed on the roof, and the toilets have just been refurbished. A company as sharp as this don’t throw money at buildings they plan to demolish.

Tesco destroyed this town. It could at least look like it cares for us.

January 20th – Pottering around Brownhills, getting some shopping in and running errands on a wet Friday night, I wanted some night pictures, and oddly, headed for the canal. These flats near Cooper’s Bridge on the Watermead, looked warm and homely in the blackness. I’ve always been fascinated by the chutzpah of the developers of the Watermead. Built on what was a meadow around a decade ago, all the roads are named after varieties of birdlife eradicated from the area by its construction. Heron Close. Curlew Drive. Moorhen Close my bloody arse…