Darlaston – Page 53 – BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking

August 16th – Darlaston has some fantastic architecture. This industrial town between Wednesbury, Willenhall and Walsall was built in the heat of the industrial revolution on it’s drop forging and fastener trades. Both have now all but gone, with huge swathes of wasteland left behind, but hidden in nondescript rows of terraces and in quiet suburban streets are examples of buildings so wonderful they’d grace the likes of Cheltenham. This fine example is on the Walsall Road, just outside the town centre. I just love the circular tower and complex roofline. The ornamentation in the stonework is also gorgeous.

July 21st – Saint Andrew’s Methodist Church in Kings Hill, Darlaston is a sad sight. An interesting edifice, built out of very red, red brick, it seems derelict and abandoned. Let’s hope it doesn’t befall the same fate as the Mellish Road methodist church in Walsall, currently being demolished after a 20 year abandonment. I wonder who owns it and way may lie in store. I fear for old buildings in our area, we seem so negligent with our architectural heritage.

June 11th – Returning home from a day at work in the Black Country, I hopped onto the canal at Great Bridge and headed north through Darlaston and on to Walsall. I’ve passed this bridge at Moxley for years, but never actually studied it before. Is the bridge there for the pipe, or did the pipeline engineers just take advantage of it? Quite the most bizarre pipeline crossing I’ve ever seen… and the tree at the far end seems determined to cause a parting of the ways. Most odd.

June 30th – Thursday took me into the Black Country. Returning via King’s Hill Park, making a call at the hated PC World in Axletree Way, I took a spin down Franchise Street. I noticed that the view from the town end was wonderful, across rooftops to St. Matthews, Walsall and beyond to Paddock. Tameway Tower is also prominent. The sixties were cruel to Walsall, very cruel indeed.

June 20th – As the summer progresses, the flowers change. I notice in the last week or so more and more wild roses seem to be in bloom. The delightful cerise blooms were growing amongst the reeds and long grass at the side of the canal near Bentley Bridge, Darlaston.

June 6th – Heading into Darlaston on the canal near Bentley Bridge, I saw these guys (there are actually two on the boat) doing sterling work fishing litter and junk from the waterway. People don’t realise there are regular rubbish sweeps like this going on, and the guys doing this work – hard, messy, often rather unpleasant – deserve much more credit than they get.

The whole waterway from Walsall to Darlaston is currently alive and dense with water lillies. This is clearly due to careful care from guys like these. Gentlemen, I salute you.

May 25th – returning with the wind behind me, I came through King’s Hill Park, to call in at PC World on my way back home. King’s Hill Park was lovely, hilly and surprisingly secluded.

PC World, as usual, was dismal, overpriced and annoying. ‘Twas ever thus.

May 23rd – I don’t know how long the railings have been alongside this walkway through the centre of Darlaston, but certainly long enough to be subsumed by the adjacent tree. I only noticed this today – it doesn’t matter where and how, nature will always find a way to remind us it’s in charge.

May 23rd – A dismal, dark, windblown day. Nearly an hour to get into Darlaston due to the relentless headwind. At Station Street, the former GKN works (now Caparo) loomed ominously over the town. There have been better cycling days. At least the rain held off until the wind was behind me.

May 12th – Still just managing to avoid the rain. Here at Bentley Bridge, near Darlaston Green, beautiful foliage and a placid canal mixes with post industrial dereliction and heaps of scrap at Haniel Metals. Welcome to the darkest, deepest Black Country.