Author: BrownhillsBob

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

May 31st – The weather really settled down today, and summer is definitely on the return. The air was chilly at 6:30AM in Four Oaks, but the light was gorgeous and the wind had died right down. I stopped to admire the architecture of this house in Lichfield Road, which I’ve passed many times. Is this stunning, or what?

May 30th – Rabbits don’t do clever, but this one at Farewell, Staffordshire was quite unique. Taking a suicide run out of the hedge on the left, he doubled back when he realised the danger and ran straight ahead, in the same direction as me, for about a quarter of a mile. The camera loses him for a bit, before I catch him up again and he jumps into the hedge. Never seen that before.

The video quality is quite poor. I’ve had to zoom in quite a bit, and you may need to turn the quality setting up on youtube.

May 30th – As the weather broke, and the rain began to ease, I headed out for Cannock Chase. Crossing the common, then up through Norton, Heath hayes and Hednesford, I stopped to note this poor, unloved old pub. For students of mining subsidence, this is quite a good one, and there are’t many straight edges to the building. 

Another victim of corrosive social change.

May 29th – in the seemingly unnamed, orphaned strip of woodland that lies wedged between the River Tame and the canal just north of Hopwas Wood Bridge, the largely disused southern driveway to Tamhorn Park provides a nice green route for walkers and cyclists. Vehicles used to come through here, but not for a few years and the wrought iron gates remain locked, rusting and blocking the track to most motorised traffic. This fallen branch – surely snapped by the weight of the parasitic creepers bound around it – now provides an additional obstacle. 

The cyclists and walkers, however, just wore a path around it…

May 29th – I wondered how they replaced high-voltage lines with minimal disruption, one look at the pylons near Stockfields, between Hints and Canwell, answered my question.

I pointed out a couple of weeks ago that this transmission line was undergoing maintenance, and I noted today that there are now pulleys fitted under the insulators on the cable hangers. Presumably, the old line will be attached to the new and pulled through by a power winch. Slow, but steady. I’d love to see that in action.

May 28th – Pottering around Chasewater, from Pool Road, I noticed deer over by the old spoil heap to the rear of the disused Highfield Farm. They were too far away to get a decent picture, so I entered the park, crossed back over the toll road via the footbridge and hopped onto the old railway line at the back of Poole Crescent. I came face to face with the group of red deer – two hinds and two young stags, with antlers still in velvet – just by the marsh at the corner of the heap. 

The were skittish, but curious, and we faced each other down at a distance of 50 yards or so for a good 10 minutes before I spooked them, and they ran off toward the thickets at the edge of the field. A wonderful sight, still shocking to me.

May 28th – It’s good to see a narrowboat using the moorings at Brownhills – you don’t see that too often. This one has been here for a few days now, and it’s bringing a splash of real colour to the canalside. 

I noted today that all the market stalls have been removed from the marketplace, and the market seemed to be closed. Another failure?

May 27th – Riding home along the canal, I noticed that in the field behind Sandfields, in the land between the Canal and the old Watling Street, there were some ewes with quite late lambs. They looked happy and well cared for, not noticed them before. It’s unusual to see livestock in the fields around Brownhills, so this is quite a novel sight. I’ve no idea who they belong to.