Tag: arson

August 17th – Well, we’ve had a little rain (but not nearly enough) and something becomes clear: Grass fires are dramatic and worrying and do lots of damage, but as can be seen here on Chasewater Dam heath where there was a fire a month ago, it’s recovering well. The fire has cleared the scubas and fresh plants are shooting anew, and the area, although still scarred, is taking on a green appearance.

The grass fires are awful and so unnecessary, but nature clearly heals, and remarkably quickly too.

July 29th – There have been mercifully few grass fires around our area in this tinder-dry hot spell, which has surprised me. Kids and discarded cigarettes, not to mention the awful disposable barbecue fad, seem to be causing a rash of fires elsewhere as they sadly usually do; but near Brownhills we have so far been impacted only lightly it seems.

One such fire was here on the heath between the dam and bypass at Chasewater; an apparently large fire when reported, it seems that quite a small area has been affected.

Whilst this is a pain, unnecessary and a scourge, it’s not the end of the world: The heath will quickly recover and for a time, smaller species should enjoy a boom, and it’ll soon there will be little sign the fire happened.

Better it hadn’t happened at all, but still…

March 27th – Over at Bentley Bridge, near Darlaston Green, mixed feelings as the former Boat Inn pub is cleared for demolition.

Derelict for years, long-time site of a car wash, the building had been long since targeted by arsonists, flytippers and ne’er do wells. The Boat had outlived it’s useful life, and the last beer was supped here years ago. But it’s very sad to see a pub lost, and in an industrial area with loads of vacant land already, it’s hard to see what, if anything, might replace this building.

August 6th – Over on my main blog, I’ve been giving much thought lately to the vexed question of Walsall, it’s disappearing architectural heritage, and the spate of arson attacks that are robbing our borough of it’s finest jewels. On my way back from Darlaston this afternoon, I stopped to ponder this great gem, the Walsall Union Workhouse Guardian’s Office, currently evens at William Hill for not making it past autumn. A lovely building allowed to rot, uncared for, and marooned in the middle of a new development, in this case the rebuild of the Manor Hospital. Surely, some use could have been found for this grand place? When Lichfield built their new hospital, the old buildings in front were retained and used for psychiatric services. Walsall doesn’t seem to possess the same vision.
Not half a mile further on, there stands the other end of the scale. Perhaps not architecturally significant, but socially, very much so. The Orange Tree pub – closed for some years now – has suffered at least two mysterious fires and is utterly wrecked internally. This once-thriving community meeting place is now silenced, and lost, like so many others. It can only be a matter of time until it too is razed to the ground. But how many folk, I wonder, have noticed its eclectic mix of chimneypots?

Please join the discussion.

July 27th – This is the old Walkways youth centre in Littleton Street, Walsall. Standing near the access to the new Tesco superstore in Walsall, it’s now so out of place that one might think it had been beamed down from a spaceship. I have no idea what this building was originally, but it’s clearly old, and if studied closely, is actually rather handsome. Now on the market after abandonment by its last owners, Walsall Council, it’s being pitched as a ‘Development Opportunity’. In the local arson sweepstakes (this week seeing the loss of the BOAK building in Station Street). I reckon this sad, apparently doomed old building is probably on even odds with the former Workhouse Guardian’s Office in a similarly marooned position over at the Manor Hospital.

Find out how we can collectively make a difference. Join the conversation over on my main blog.

February 2nd – I’ve been gradually aware that the Town Wharf area of Walsall – formerly the industrial area around Marsh, Station, Charles and Bridgeman Streets, is gradually being gentrified. This is welcomed by many, but I’m apprehensive. There’s much history – and employment – in these backstreets, and I’m concerned at the loss of both heritage and trading space. Buildings like the former BOAC works may not be beautiful, but they’re architecturally and historically important, and currently empty, they seem to be quivering before the arsonist’s municipal zippo.

This chimney is a case in point – already in the shadow of the steelwork skeleton of yet another block of thrown-up apartments, it surely cannot be long before this major part of the Walsall skyline is itself carried to dust. This is a huge local landmark. There has to be a better way, surely.

December 6th – Another lost pub appears to be going down the dust pipe. Since proving itself just as readily combustible as other closed pubs locally, the Miners Arms at Rushall has sat forlorn, with scaffolding half erected around it. This once lively, popular boozer used to have great live music and a decent pint, but like so many, couldn’t make enough to survive. Closed for a good while, then subject to the inevitable arson attack, it now appears that the demolition crew has moved in. I’m sure another block of highly individual apartments awaits. 

July 22nd – How to get rid of a listed building. These masons are carefully removing examples of significant stonework from the Mellish Road Methodist Church, which was sadly damaged during the operation to fill limestone caverns under the Butts area of North Walsall 22 years ago. Never well built, it suffered from cheap, ambitious building techniques, common to many such churches. Having taken the substantial compensation, the original owners sold the church on to developers, whose attempts to do anything with the site were roundly rebuffed by he planning committees for 20 years. Finally, after vandalism, decay and a visit from the municipal arsonists, the church is being demolished, clearing the way for the owners to build whatever they want.

Oddly, Walsall Council paints this as some kind of triumph, when in reality it’s a sickening, depressing example of how commercial interests outflank attempts at development control. But it’s more than that – a decade ago, an application was made to turn the church into a community centre, which was declined, too. Had that been approved, these men wouldn’t be taking apart this sad, decaying building now.

July 21st – Walsall has plenty of abandoned buildings of historical interest. Sadly, our civic masters don’t have the best record of caring for them, and seem to have learned little about protecting heritage from developer’s aspirations over the years. The parish church, dramatically built atop a hill overlooking the town, has it’s aspect sullied by The Overstrand restaurant, built four decades ago, and is now similarly blighted by a hideous Asda shed carelessly permitted five years ago. We never learn.

A couple of weeks ago, town officials were having a ‘crisis meeting’ about the last remnants of the workhouse that stand unloved and derelict outside the new hospital. Once part of the old one, this dramatic building is empty and rotting. I can see why a crisis meeting might be be necessary, after all it’s a bugger when Victorian buildings unexpectedly materialise overnight.

Fear not though, as Walsall has it’s own way of dealing with it’s inconvenient past, often it gets burned to the ground. Trembling before the arsonist’s zippo are several inconveniently located old buildings including Lime House and the former Walkways community centre. The council is now applying to demolish Lime House, but overactive firebugs will probably beat the developer vandals to it.

Welcome to Walsall where our past makes fine fuel.

July 6th – 10 minutes after the storm, I was on my way again. I don’t know what this forlorn, decaying building was, but it looks like a mill of some kind. Like many industrial canal side buildings in Walsall, it’s original purpose seems to be lost. I’d like to see the edifice fixed up and used for something nicer. Buildings are like dogs – they don’t care if their owner is good or bad, just that they care for them.

At least this one hasn’t been burned down yet, the fate of many good building in the town.