BrownhillsBob

December 2nd – Coming up from Caldmore (‘Karma’ to locals), passing over Church Hill in Walsall at 6pm, I couldn’t resist a few night shots around the church. The view of Paddock, is one I’ve found fascinating for years, particularly at night. Just about the last large concentration of tower blocks in Walsall, oddly they survived whilst others were demolished. The church and grounds are wonderfully atmospheric at night and offer great views of the marketplace and beyond to the north, and the Ditch area and Ablewell Street to the east. A century ago I’d have been overlooking a heaving, densely packed slum. How times change.

December 2nd – The Butts is a very old area of Walsall. Once the centre of the limestone mining industry, the ground beneath is riddled with now filled caverns. Here, streets of dense terraces and closely parked cars make for a great community feel and permanent air of business. I love to cycle through here; the sounds of music, chatter, aromas of cooking and people bustling with their daily routine all clash wonderfully. All this combines with a lovely, old town architecture. A great place.

December 1st – One of the nicest things about winter and the defoliation of the trees is that it opens up views that in summer’s cauldron are concealed from view. Darlaston Church – normally hidden by the surrounding trees – is usually impossible to photograph. This is a shame, as St. Lawrence’s is a gorgeous example of the south Staffordshire sandstone epoch, with commanding, elegant spire and intricate clock. But please don’t cut back the trees, I love those, too…

December 1st -Darlaston is full of odd little corners. Often architecturally stunning, as I’ve previously noted, this villagey little Black Country town is also peppered with delightful green spaces of various sizes. The site of the former railway station, close to the centre of town, is now known as Victoria Park, and still maintains the profile of a cutting.This wonderful stretch of greenery is a quiet spot crossed by a lovely wooden bridge. The walkway beneath also extends under the busy Walsall Road, providing a safe underpass for pedestrians.

November 30th – Whilst sat waiting at the lights on the junction of Wednesbury Road and Corporation Street in Walsall yesterday, I noticed something I’d not really absorbed before – it’s evident just why this road was called Wednesbury Road. The twin church towers of the hilltop town are clearly visible in the distance. I must have come this way hundred of times but never noticed before. The Black Country is a whole lot more interconnected than we often think.

November 30th – The Spring Cottage, once a lively, if rather rough pub sat on a major junction in the middle of Shelfield, is undergoing conversion into a Co-op store. Nearly complete now, it looks like only the car park resurfacing needs to be completed. I’m pleased to say that although the building is of no historical merit, efforts have been made to preserve it’s features as a prominent landmark. The wood and plaster cladding has been carefully restored, and the shopfront installed sympathetically to the nature of the building.

It’s nice to see such a prominent, once-derelict landmark get a new lease of life – and the Co-op stores aren’t bad at all. I wish the owners well.

November 29th – Walsall is an odd place architecturally. I love The Crossing at St. Paul’s – the former church cum shopping centre, and the wee piazza outside it where the Christmas tree sits. I don’t mind the bus station – at night, you can see what the architect was getting at. It’s all beautifully lit up… but the paving, the mixture of slate and pale grey granite composite blocks, arranged into stripes, to me at least is horrid. Further into what’s now known as ‘The Civic Quarter’ – ‘We ay pretentious, we’m not’ – there are the most horrid street lighting columns I have ever seen. I think the street furniture and paving – which clash, eye-jarringly – were purchased and some kind of urban designers fire sale. Walsall, on a civic level, does this sort of thing with alarming regularity. Weird.

November 29th – hopefully, I’ve finished with the train commuting for a while and am now working in the Black Country for a few weeks… I miss these commutes. Today though, was hell. I was headed due southwest into a very strong, insistent headwind. It took 65 minutes to do a journey that usually takes only 45. I was fully loaded, and at full tilt downhill under Navvie’s Bridge on the A461 Lichfield Road I was topping a heady 8.5 mph. The weather was grim and overcast, but the rain didn’t arrive until mid afternoon. Setting out home after the rains, the sunset was incredible but very, very short. Here near Wednesbury, the light glistened off the wet roads and made everything precious.

November 28th – Christmas is bearing down upon us. Last week, I recorded the unlit Christmas tree, ready to be decorated in St John’s churchyard, Walsall Wood; a week later there are lights in the tree and wrapped round the lampposts down the high street. It’s not the fast return of Christmas that bothers me, it’s the increasingly short gaps between them that bothers me. Humbug.

November 28th – A day in Leicester again, so I shot down to Lichfield Trent Valley before dawn. Dawn itself came just before Nuneaton, where I change trains. From the platform, the railway and it’s peculiarly universal vanishing points made for in interesting view in the golden morning sunlight. Sometimes, the oddest things can be precious.