Tag: derelict

May 18th – Derelict, abandoned and crumbling for as long as I’ve been cycling, Keeper’s Cottage on Footherley Lane refuses to actually fall down. I first explored the shell of this building in 1982, and it has remained, unloved, ever since. It’s not the only derelict home in the area – there’s a boarded up bungalow on Lynn Lane and a row of similar terraced cottages in Footherley itself. All have been 3 decades empty. This is criminal. One assumes the same owner is responsible for all three.

May 14th – A hop out to get some essentials saw me caught in a downpour. Mooching around the canal, I noticed that the remainder of the old railway bridge at the canalside on Clayhanger Common was slowly being reclaimed by nature. Nothing more than the steady hydraulic pressure of organic growth is splitting apart the brickwork and reminding us that nature is really in charge, and it’s got all the time in the world.

May 6th – A late trundle into Lichfield to get some shopping done. At the northern edge of Springhill, on the A461 Lichfield Road, Ivy House Farm lies semi-derelict.

The tumbledown farmhouse, seemingly already partially truncated at some point in it’s life, is currently up for auction, presumably marked as ’…some renovation required’. There is a second derelict cottage over the fields near the tollroad behind. A interesting mystery. 

April 29th – A return along the canal prompted me to photograph this fine piece of history. One of only two listed structures in Brownhills, it used to carry the South Staffordshire Railway over the Wyrley and Essington Canal. It’s now slowly decaying, with large holes in the bridge deck and the metalwork corroding steadily. 

Sadly, nobody seems to want to take responsibility for this unloved bridge. It’s a shame, because I think it’s a fine example of victorian utilitarian architecture – simple blue brick, lightly decorated, totally functional.