September 16th – Silver Waters (oh lord, that’s a preposterous name) is coming on apace. Most of the foundations have now been laid, and a show home has positively sprung up on the patch of wasteland off Silver Street, Brownhills. Fortunately, the doom-mongers predictions about the diggers finding the remains of the swine disease/foot and mouth cull from Swingbridge Farm in the 1960s have been unfounded (not surprising, really, as the pits for that were dug adjacent to the farm and are now lying beneath public open space).

I must say, those are massive drains, there. They seem a bit excessive for a relatively small number of dwellings. Wonder what the reason for that is?

September 16th – I had a long ride planned today, but grim weather (my, it really was grey and windy, not what I’d hoped at all) and other jobs meant I didn’t get out until late in the afternoon. I spun around Brownhills and up over the common. I noticed this interesting repurposed building a couple of days ago, and haven’t had time to look into it. In School Avenue, there’s a converted chapel, called the Old Gospel Hall. Clearly now a house, I had no idea it was there. A nice looking building, it must be a remnant of old Brownhills. Must make some enquires.

September 15th – I noticed that in the fields between the A5 and the canal, the farmer was baling mown hay this evening. The device behind the tractor rakes up the sun-dried grass, rolls it into mat-like clumps, before compression and baling with twine. Completed bales are ejected back onto the pasture. Unlike straw, which has no nutritional or economic value to speak of, hay is a valuable commodity as it retains the goodness of grass, and becomes expensive during a bad winter.

Hay making is one of the great traditions of the rural summer, and speaks of provision and preparation, as well as the rotation of the season’s wheel. What better place to do it that in pasture in the evening sunshine?

September 15th – On this site in Short Street, Brownhills, stood St. James old people’s home, a modern facility built in the 1970s to serve the town. Local authority owned, it was well loved. Since the huge cuts in social care, the desire to offload the expensive care of the vulnerable has led to outsourcing. All such residential homes were closed in Walsall, some care transferred to the private sector and some to a new building run by Housing 21 at Anchor Bridge, called Knaves Court. The creation of Knaves Court is a wonderful thing, but had St. James been kept, we would have been able to care for more vulnerable folk, not less as is now the case. All such homes that were closed were demolished very quickly, presumably to prevent a reversal of policy.

The land once busy, now lies derelict and unloved.

A little known scandal. 

madoldbaggage:

Riding back from Chasewater this afternoon along side the canal in Brownhills and I suddenly felt in unfamiliar territory. Everything was wide open and I felt as though I had never ridden along there before. I realised that a good three feet had been taken off the tops of the hawthorn hedgerow and I could see the vista beyond and what a lovely vista it is too. I’m a bit short so I’ve never seen over the top before!

It was a lovely ride today, I was achieving zen on the bike when two things happened. The one I will not mention but the other was a car driver who despite being a long way behind me and seeing me towards the middle of the road and indicating that I was turning right, decided to speed up like a boy-racer and then overtake me. My language was not of a zen-like quality! The bad behaviour of car drivers towards cyclists never ceases to amaze me. I’m very cautious and careful on the roads, I don’t like being on them and incidents like this scare me. Perhaps that’s why they do it.

September 14th – I hauled myself up from Lichfield slowly, fully loaded with shopping, against a horrid wind and with little energy. I was feeling grim, and Muckley Corner at rush hour is no place for old men. Having traversed it, I pulled over on the far side of the junction and took a look at the old Muckley Corner Pub/Cornerhouse Hotel. It’s been beautifully converted into dwellings – it’s clear now that there will be no form of commercial afterlife for this pub. In a way, it’s all gone full circle, as originally, the building was a corner pub and associated terraced houses. 

A number of folk have pointed out the attention to detail in the reuse of the decorative coping tiles, ridge pieces and finials. They look wonderful. Shame about the chimneys, though…

September 15th – Just on the canal at Newtown, Brownhills, I was held up by a loiterer on the towpath. I don’t know this wee cat’s name, but she was every but the star, rolling over for tickles, unselfconsciously pouncing on bugs in the grass and looking longingly at the ducks. I don’t think she’s very old, but she’s a lovely little thing.

I know regular readers @The Stymaster and Peter Cutler will enjoy this one.