October 10th – by the time I reached the top of Shire Oak Hill, dusk had fallen and the lights were coming on. This was dismal, I loathe and detest the enforced loss of light. Yet, even so, balancing the camera on the quarry gates and taking a timed shot of the view to Lichfield made for a wistful, evocative view of the Old Lady of the Vale. I will get used to it, but for a few days at least, I will mourn the coming darkness. Was it really summer a week ago?
October 10th – a bit of a grim landmark – this is my first normal-time homebound commute of the season on which I needed lights. A depressing milestone indeed. It seemed fitting, therefore, to feature this odd, unsettling landmark. I’ve been passing this derelict, abandoned and decaying house for several years. Situated in the plush, posh hamlet of Mill Green near Little Aston, it’s a huge house that would, at one time, have been worth at least £500,000. It’s rotting away, unloved and not evidently for sale. I have no idea how it came to be in this state – you surely can’t just forget or abandon a house of this value – yet someone has. This former home, between other, occupied houses of a similar value has lain like this for years. Does anyone know the story?
October 9th – On the other side of the road, on the village side of what would have been the old railway embankment – lies this pond. This is the last vestige of Clayhanger Common’s brownfield past. This pond – now used as a settlement pond for land drainage before it weirs into the Ford Brook – is marked on maps as easy as 1884, and used to lie at the foot of the railway embankment, now long since gone. This limpid, placid pond is testament to a successful land reclamation. The clear waters of today would once have been brackish, polluted and full of refuse.
October 9th – Today was one of those headache-grey autumnal Sundays when evening falls quickly and everything seems kind of dead. I hate days like this. Escaping at 5pm, I took a spin around the common in Brownhills in a desperate attempt to brighten my mood. On Friday, I’d commented that the water level in the new pool in Clayhanger was very low, and that perhaps it was low enough for the stepping stones – laid to reach the central island when the pond was created in 1986 – to be usable again. A tootle round the pond confirmed this to be the case. The stones were laid out of large lumps of masonry the workers had to hand – mostly coping stones from the parapet of the old railway bridge that used to cross the canal nearby. Others lie dotted about in the undergrowth.
October 8th – It seems to be a good year for fly agaric, the classic fairytale toadstool. They grow near birches and I’m usually lucky to see a handful or so – this year they’re all over the place. These excellent specimens were spotted on the heathland near the spillway at Chasewater, between the canal and the dam road. Considered toxic, and used as a hallucinogen in some cultures, these bright fungi have an otherworldly aurra, even odder when you consider that the white spots drop off as they age. Nature: always doing stuff just to get attention.
October 8th – Chasewater. It’s all a bit sad. Yesterday, there was a media binge by Staffordshire and Lichfield Councils, who have been working on repairing the 212 year old dam at the currently drained reservoir. Celebrations were afoot because, apparently, the ‘plug’ was going back in and the reservoir would now be allowed to refill naturally. Sadly, the weather has to do the rest and we’re in the driest of dry seasons. The tone of the press releases and media focus was such that whilst stood photographing the unfinished works, several people came up to me and expressed their dismay at the clearly unfinished works. They thought the dam was repaired and the lake full again, which is very far from the truth.
As these images show, although the work on the outlet culvert is now complete, the dam bridge, spillway and other works are still to be finished.
The old outlet culvert is now chambered, and had been built up behind the sectional piling that made up the cofferdam. Slowly, it’s filling up with water.Those square section pipes are what, at the moment, passes for the old bridge, and the dam road is still closed off and impassible. Work here will continue for some months, and a large part of the park will remain inaccessible.
I have real concern for the clubs and businesses that rely on Chasewater for their livelihood. This situation has gone on too long.
October 7th – After the dry summer, lots of bodies of water locally seem to be very low. Last week,end, I noticed Blithfield reservoir was a good few metres short of it’s usual level, and today, I noticed that the new pool near Clayhanger was low, too. When this pond was created25 years ago, there were stepping stones to a central island, which later became submerged. I wonder if the water level will get low enough to expose them again?
October 7th – Sure enough, five minutes later I was pottering through Highgate to Six Ways. I love this bit of Walsall: Victorian foursquare townhouses, tree-lined streets, wedged in between the Birmingham Road and edgier Caldmore. The sun was out and the sun is always kind to these old, old streets. Forgetting the asphalt and cars, I should think they’ve change little in the last hundred years.
October 7th – A very changeable day. If you didn’t like the weather, all that was needed was to wait five minutes. Sun, wind, rain, had it all… here in Caldmore, Walsall, I’d stopped at a sweet centre to buy indian snacks. Just as I ducked into the store, the heavens opened. When I came out, I munched a samosa and watched the rain from under the canopy… in a couple of minutes, the sun was bright and warm again. I love Caldmore.
October 6th – Walsall was eerily quiet. I’ve spotted lots of potential night shots around here – I’ll need them for when the nights close in and I’m coming home in the dark. This is the only bit of Walsall’s risibly named ‘Civic Quarter’ I like; the Crossing at St Paul’s – a former church transformed into a shopping and faith centre. I like the square in front and the view of The Imperial – itself a former cinema turned into a pub. I like this square – such a shame that the Leicester Street area looks like an uncoordinated architectural mess.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 