Tag: decay

February 16th – Corporation Street Cemetery in Walsall – wedged into the hinterland separating Pleck, Caldmore and the town centre could be a little green hillside oasis – it could be, but it’s not; it’s green alright, but a neglected, shabby green in a state somewhere between being maintained and being forgotten. In the daytimes it’s eerily lonely, and the only people you see here are the displaced and spaced. 

Sister Dora, that wonderful adopted mother of Walsall is interred here in a humble grave, which despite it’s minor nature still manages to be embarrassingly neglected. 

There are fine views to be had here, but the vandalism, decay and shameful decay make this a rather unpleasant place. We really owe those who rest here better.

January 1st – This is… extraordinary. I came upon it out of pure, unbridled nosiness.

As you travel down the Chester Road from Shire Oak towards Stonnall, just within the boundary of Fishpond Wood and the old quarry, there’s a gated track.  

As a kid, I was told there were cottages down there. Having seen a building on Google Earth, and occasionally seeing people pull out of the driveway, I paid it no mind.

But in recent weeks, there has been a pile of flytipped refuse in the track gateway, containing structural asbestos. I was wondering how the people here were accessing their house and if it was still lived in – I could vaguely remember seeing bins out for collection here, but not for a good while.

Passing the drive, I took a dive down there on my bike. It’s long, downhill, maybe ⅓ mile. With a large, derelict house at the end. A house once worth over half a million pounds.

It has clearly only been vacated in recent years, and is a rambling, oddly extended place with a wish-mash of extensions and levels, with one of the most bizarre fireplace arrangements i’ve ever seen. in it’s day it was clearly some place, but not now. Now, just vandalism, decay and eerie loneliness.

It turns out from subsequent research the place is owned by a developer, after the elderly couple who lived here vacated the place. Permission has been granted since 2013 to replace it with a large, new family home. 

You can read about this, and some of the backstory in this Design & Access statement from the Lichfield Planning Department here.

Right now, it’s clearly a vandal magnet, and a target for flytippers. 

A very curious thing indeed.

December 15th – I spotted these odd remnants of toadstools on a damp grass verge near the canal at Walsall. I can’t recognise the original fungus, and they seem to  be decaying in an almost skeletal manner. I’m fascinated by the way they seem to be reducing to the structure of their gills.

Fungi are endlessly captivating.

July 20th – A very dull day, and I was caught in the rain twice. Still, the rain was warm and the atmosphere hot and humid so it was quite pleasant when I was;t riding into it.

I notice in the last few weeks the buddleia has burst into flower. Known as the butterfly busy, the copious purple blooms are a boon for lepidoptera and other bugs, but due to the remarkable tenacity of the shrub, I’ll always view it as a the  harbinger of urban decay. Wherever there is dereliction, neglect or abandonment, Buddleia takes a hold, be it disused factories, rail lines or in issues in masonry. As it grows, it will pull brickwork apart and swamp all beneath it.

A remarkable plant.

February 5th – In the backstreets of industrial Darlaston, part of the former Guest, Keene and Nettlefolds works: Salisbury House. Half derelict now, decaying ungracefully, a red terracotta brick edifice in mock victorian gothic complete with bay windows and cornices. The saddest part is that it’s almost impossible to get a good photographic angle on it.

This is a remarkable building – rather ugly, but beautifully executed; it has a proud heritage and it’s sad to see it carried to dust like this.

I think the internal light fittings are probably collectors items, and that lost football must have been frustrating for the poor kids that kicked it up there…

January 6th – I’d not noticed this before. On the canal near Darlaston, a high factory wall, and by some twist of nature, soot and the wind, a pair of buddleia plants, slowly and tenaciously taking the brickwork part by the action of gentle and sustained hydraulic pressure alone.

Although it’s destructive, I love to see this; nature reclaiming the constructed. It’s nice to see nature winning occasionally.

October 8th – I noted today as I passed that the Wheel Inn is still derelict, and slowly rotting away. I had thought the former pub – or at least, the land it stands on – may be in for a renaissance a year or so ago, when the new gates  went up beside it, and some attempt was made to clear the yard. Sadly, this has not been the case, and the building remains forlorn, unloved and an eyesore.

I wish whoever owns this once fine boozer would take responsibility and either demolish or renovate it. It stands on Lindon Road, a grim welcome to Brownhills for any arriving traveller. I wish the owners could be forced to clean it up.

October 2nd – I know I keep banging on about this, but it’s on my mind and I’m seething about it.

This is the original Oak Park in Walsall Wood, on the south east side of the 1970s leisure centre bearing the same name. This park was for decades – and in my living memory – a neat little park with flowerbeds, tennis courts, public bowling green and paved paths. I think there was even a putting green. It stands on land held in charitable trust to be used for the enjoyment of the local residents, created to give miners and their families a lovely open space to take the air and enjoy the greenery.

On this basis, the popular and well-used leisure centre overlooking it was built, and the faithful flock to nearby Walsall Wood FC on match days. Sadly, Walsall Council who are charged with the upkeep of the park have let it slide into decay and ruin.

The flowerbeds are overgrown, the public bowling green floods every winter. Tennis courts locked out of use, the surfaces being reclaimed by weeds. The one manicured trees are overgrown. Walsall Council doesn’t care for this once lovely amenity and would rather we all forget it exists.

To me, this is sticking two fingers up to the memory of those for whom it was created. 

Shame on these who would neglect our civic heritage.

August 7th – There is a destructive force in our midst, reducing brickwork to rubble and invading any scrap of greenspace. Alien? Hardly. It’s buddleia  – an invasive shrub that infests the hinterlands, margins and rooftops of urban areas. Able to grow in the most precarious of situations, an accumulation of soot and grime in a brickwork fissure is all it takes to grow. Once taken hold, it’s very hard to eradicate, and the power of the roots to split apart man-made masonry cannot be overestimated.

This time of year, it’s in full, glorious purple flower. A joy to behold, unlike the damage it causes. 

August 4th – 3 former rail bridges in Brownhills, from 3 separate railway lines, all three suffering with age and the destructive tenacity of nature. The lone arch at the top corner of Clayhanger Common is slowly being pushed apart by shrubs and weeds, and is in what must be the final stages of natural reclamation. The Slough bridge, over the canal near Coppice Side, now serves as a pedestrian and cycleway over the Wyrley and Essington for National Cycle Route 54, but the familiar blue Freakley bricks are being pried apart here too by gentle, instant hydraulic pressure.

The third bridge is arguably the most interesting. One of only two listed buildings in the town, it is considered of rare enough design to be worth preserving, although it too is suffering the ravages of lack of care. As if to compound the misery, It has recently had a new nameplate installed, which reads ‘Pelsall Old Railway Bridge’.

This isn’t Pelsall, you muppets.