December 14th – Gosh, that was a shock.
I was heading for home early, but it was cold, so very cold and sharp. I looked at the GPS for the temperature – -2.7C at 6:45pm. It felt enough to freeze the bollocks from off a fox.
It looks like winter has arrived, my friends…
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#365daysofbiking That sinking feeling:
December 13th – Struggling up the Black Cock Bridge due to tiredness and another late night at work, my phone rang and I stopped to answer by the junction with Hall Lane.
This little, discrete hamlet was years ago called Bullings Heath and sitting in the lee of the bridge flank, there are many legends about the subsidence here caused by minewovrkings below.
Whilst there was sinking, it wasn’t a bad as purported, and these things generally never are, but legends persist and they suggest the houses on the left were once level with the canal.
Tonight, Bullings Heath nestled in the darkness, and was keeping it’s secrets to itself, and looking for all the world like a somnambulant, rural hamlet.
A historic conundrum.
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#365daysofbiking The Crossing:
December 13th – A bright, glass hard, cold day saw me in Telford mid-morning, and in the week or two I haven’t been here, the new footbridge has opened.
Man, is it a curate’s egg.
First thing is, someone clearly booked the possessions and plant to remove the old bridge for a fixed date, and the new one had to open. Regardless. So it’s not in even a nearly finished state. Brick cladding is still being laid. The access ramp to the cycleway on the Priorslee side is still being built. Bits of it haven’t been surfaced properly or at all. Workmen still mingle with commuters. It’s a bloody mess if I’m honest.
The bridge itself is an interesting, open construction that’s light and airy. It makes the journey between platforms one hell of a lot shorter. The lifts are welcome. It feels stable and the thing seems to be a nice, rigid design.
But there’s a huge, massive, glaring issue.
There is no ramp access to the Shrewsbury side of the station. So wheelies and those not able to use steps are confined to the lift. If that isn’t working, someone alighting here from Brum or Wolves will be stranded on a platform next to a 6 lane road with no means to cross it. There is no simple way around.
I can’t overstate how bad this is if it’s the final design.
If the bridge does not eventually provide ramp access to the Shrewsbury platform, then it will have failed in its primary objective – to make life easier for those that found the old ramp too steep. The designers will have spent 10 million quid making the use of this station for those with limited mobility much more of a gamble.
I hope I’m wrong and a ramp is sorted. If not, the council and Network Rail really need to rethink this urgently.
The bridge is nice, but too reliant on lifts, and at the moment is very much unfinished. Open too soon, and at the moment, looking critically flawed.
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#365daysofbiking Solid air:
December 11th – Heading back to work after an errand into Walsall at lunchtime, the air was misty, smoggy and heavy and caught the weak sunlight in an unusual way.
I could feel the exhaust fumes trapped low to the ground, but the effect was quite beautiful.
Sad to see the old Workhouse Guardian’s Office, listed but still rotting and vacant, marooned before the monolithic Walsall Manor Hospital.
As far as I know its the only part of the Victorian municipal workhouse in Walsall to survive, and is a remarkable building. Cruelly stranded and ignored by the hospital redevelopment, it sits forlorn an lost, waiting for a use to emerge.
Even down on it’s uppers, it’s a gorgeous building still.
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#365daysofbiking Gifted:
December 6h – Every year for the last decade or so, Walsall Wood Councillors (currently messers Harris, Sears and Clarke) have dug deep in their own pockets and clubbed together to fund the Christmas Tree in Walsall Wood, and I was pleased to note tonight that the tradition continues.
Walsall Wood has a lovely tree this year, and it does look most excellent.
I am miles away from the donors politically, but I must compliment them ion their annual act of generosity.
Thanks you, and do have a very merry Christmas!
#365daysofbiking Not forgotten:
December 6th – In an otherwise unremarkable, workaday wall on a main road in Place, Walsall, one of the UK’s many hundreds of industrial memorials to the lost employees in the Great War.
The fourteen lost souls listed on the memorial worked for the Cyclops Foundry which was near where the plaque is now, and has long since passed into history – but the original memorial was saved and restored by the NHS, who operate Walsall Manor Hospital, opposite, not once, but twice: They refurbished the memorial in 1989, and replaced it totally in 2002.
I’m glad it survived and still stands today, bearing witness to those lives lost, and it’s good to see that 100 years on, people still place crosses here to remember them.
#365daysofbiking Way over the top:
December 5th – A bit further towards home, the lavishly ostentatious nature of Shelfield’s (presumably civic) Christmas lights amazes and delights, as ever.
I have no idea who or why someone chucks a short string of colour-change lights over one single tree on the Four Crosses Road open space every year. It’s one tree in maybe 10. Seemingly random, this minimal festivity always amuses me.
Merry Christmas – but don’t get too excited, kids!
#365daysofbiking A beacon in the darkness:
December 5th – Heading back from work late, and I had to answer a call in Sheffield. I looked up and found I’d pulled over opposite the service station on the border of Sheffield and Riushall.
This is a surprisingly tough hill when you’re tired, and the lights of this outlet draw you toward them, and home.
I’ve always been interested in how filling stations seem like beacons in the darkness.
#365daysofbiking The writing is on the wall:
December 4th – Oh dear.
If you’re patriotic and love the country please do try not to defile it for others – and if you really can’t resist, please do check the spelling first if unsure.
Bloody idiots.
#365daysofbiking Time’s Arrow:
December 4th – Once again in Redditch, I passed through Arrow Valley Park on a grey, unclear and cold afternoon.
It was interesting to note the final vestiges of colour on the trees around the lake, and I was intrigued by the sailing club, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen a boat on the water here. I guess I just pass by at the wrong time – the club itself looks like a lovely facility.
The lake itself is also home to a remarkably large variety of waterfowl, presumably,y enjoying the peace undisturbed…
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