November 5th – It was very cold compared to recent weeks (although merely normal for the time of year) and overnight rain had drenched the landscape. But the light was good, the sun was out so nothing for it but to head up to Cannock Chase.
The forest is at it’s absolute best right now. Get your boots on and get up there, people.
November 4th – As is traditional on a weekend where bonfire night falls on a Sunday, the annual firework binge took place on Saturday. But as I crossed the motorway bridge on Mill Lane in Great Wyrley, I decided to experiment with long exposure photography, having totally forgotten the firework display about to take place.
This is an otherwise unremarkable spot in a semi-urban, inhuman scale landscape, which at night, comes alive. This evening, my companion and I found it very special indeed.
November 4th – On an errand to Great Wyrley and Cannock, I took the backlanes to avoid the madness of Churchbridge. Across the grubby, semi-urban fields of Little Wyley, buzzards settled in trees and on wires and not a soul around to witness the most red, beautiful sunsets.
An unexpected moment of great beauty.
November 3rd – Of course, if you’re heading towards Priorslee, Stafford Park or Hortonwood it’s always a fair old uphill, that does thankfully break under the motorway bridge. But it’s a pleasure to ride, even on a dull autumn morning. The colours and beauty of an otherwise unremarkable urban cycleway are a joy to behold.
November 3rd – After a spring and summer of waiting for something to start, the 80s footbridge that links to two sides of Telford Station with the nearby retail park and town centre is finally being removed and replaced.
Some details seem off. There’s always been a ramp down to access the Staples store over the road, but now that will not apparently exist and a pedestrian crossing has been installed over the slip road. I’m also concerned about the ramp arrangement on the Shrewsbury-bound side of the station.
It has to be said though, replacement is desperately needed. The bridge, although appearing disabled-friendly is not; there are no braked in the inclines and negotiating it in a hand-propelled chair requires strength and skill.
The bridge supports have now been fenced off and it’ll be interesting to see how this project develops.
November 2nd – Further on my way to work, I caught something out of the corner of my eye n a patch of roadside verge grass. On the neatly mown turf were lots of one of my favourite toadstools – the delicate and very short lived Japanese Parasol. With a delicate crinkled cap no larger than a two pound coin and a very slight stature, these pretty little fungi will be gone without trace within a day.
These are a wonderfully fragile, transient beauty and I’m so glad to have seen them this year.
November 2nd – Despite the gloom and cooling weather, there are still patches of colour to be found. On a dew-dampened canal towpath as dawn swelled over the Black Country, the clover still looks perfect in purple.
The dark, cold months are about finding joy where you can…
November 1st – Also growing well by the cycleways and roadsides of Telford is a surprisingly copious crop of puffball fungus.
Still young enough to be tasty, I made a mental note passing in a hurry, to on my return pull out my bag and gather some for tea.
Not everything about autumn is sad!
October 31st – Lunchtime, and recrossing Kings Hill to the retail park I stopped and reflected on the change here, and then noted that whilst change is good, it’s also good that some things are apparently changeless – like the twin sisters, the two churches that top the hill in the centre of Wednesbury.
I love this view, now going golden in the shortening autumn days, it looks stunning particularly in the sun, but is still remarkable even on this grey, textureless day.
They saw the factories beneath them come and go – lesser, but more dramatic temples to hot metal, oil and graft, and they now witness silently the march of the warehouse, distribution centre and retail park.
I have a feeling they’ll be seeing those out too.
October 31st – Passing down the Darlaston Road to Wednesbury over Kings Hill, you realise that the area is changing. While it’s still very industrial, a couple of the old, large factories here have been replaced by new build housing.
The old Exidoor factory that made panic bolts was lost to apartments some years ago, and over the last couple of years, a pleasant enough, but unremarkable estate has grown on the site of the former Servis domestic appliance factory pretty much next door.
Servis was a household name, started by nearby power press manufacturer Wilkins and Mitchell who are also now gone; they made passable washing machines and the like which were functional, and often very innovative (The Servis Quartz was the first ever electronically controlled automatic washing machine) but suffered from poor quality and reliability.
Gradually outsold and outclassed by competitors due to the traditional British twin failures of lack of investment and corner cutting, Servis fell from UK ownership to various international owners before finally collapsing.
The works, which once even had it’s own brass band, fell silent, was demolished, the ground reclaimed, and now houses sprout from where the ground once shook under the blow of heavy presses.
Such is the story across modern Britain. We are in the middle of great change.
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