Tag: derelict

June 21st – I passed through Snow Hill Station mid afternoon, and noticed a little bit of lost local history that I’d totally forgotten about – the old Snow Hill tram stop.

When the Midland Metro opened in the late 90s, it originally terminated here at one platform of Snow Hill Station. The stop was dark, dingy and low level, with a notoriously unreliable inexplicably single escalator and a dingy, horrible spiral staircase. It was not a great bit of urban design.

When the Metro line was extended around the City Centre to Stephenson Place, the line was diverted to the side of Snow Hill station and up around Colmore Circus, leaving the Snow Hill stop cut off and replaced by a better, street level station. The lines at the old stop are no longer connected to the main line, and the stop, abandoned, unserviced and closed is gladly being reclaimed by nature and slowly fading.

It’s amazing how quickly such things decay when unused.

May 20th – Another late afternoon ride on a bad stomach – but this time, an absolute blast. Out mid afternoon through Wall, Whittington, Harlaston, Clifton, Overseal, Woodville, Hartshorne, Foremark Reservior, then back via Bretby, Swadlincote, Burton and Catton. 

The derelict cooling towers still loom over the remarkable Willington landscape, including the fascinating undulations in the farmland around; those towers were supposed to be demolished a year ago, but remain, a monument to a lost temple of power, as the station they were part of was demolished two decades ago.

Drakelow at sunset was similarly desolate, with very little evidence except a forest of pylons to ever say it existed. It’s now site of a very large solar farm.

Another wonderful ride that actually made me feel better.

May 19th – At Pipe Ridware, the former St James church, closed in 1983 became the charming and well-loved Ridware Theatre for a further 20 years before finally shutting around 2015. This tiny performance space barely held 60 but put on some great shows.

Sad to see it closed and decaying. I hope a new use can be found for it.

May 13th – Found on the outskirts of Wigginton, a lone cottage, derelict, in the bounds of another, occupied property.

It looks like the remnant of a larger terrace, and also like someone might be planning to, or made a start on renovating it.

It’s some way from the lane, and has a really strong air about it that it might be horrified.

One for the found faces pile, that one. 

I do hope this place is one day a home again.

March 7th – Returning via Shenstone, in the new-found evening commute dusk, I noticed that the tiny, log abandoned bungalow at Owletts Farm on Lynn Lane is now visible, before another summer’s leaf growth conceals it once more.

I don’t know why this tiny house, like several in the area is being allowed to decay, as I’m sure that before the rot set in it would have been a nice home for someone.

It has been empty as long as I’ve been cycling these lanes – nearly 40 years now.

A sad little tragedy.

January 15th – I went to work. Really battled in. They sent me back home again, or rather, put my bike in a van and gave me the keys.

I’m not a malingerer. I don’t do time off sick. I feel unnatural, separated, spare and deceitful.

I went out for fresh air as dusk fell. The loop: Up past Silver Street on the canal, Catshill, Anchor Bridge, back through the centre. I nearly didn’t make it.

I noted that the waterside looked great in the half-light. Even the rotting, derelict husk of MacWarreners still had an air of dignity about it; like a ruined actor decaying in a faded, out of season end of the pier pub.

I think I know how it feels.

January 11th – Unusually, I came through the pedestrian centre of Darlaston today, and noted that the old Caldmore Accord Housing Association offices were now empty: this must surely have been a pub once, but I can’t find it on any old pub sites, so I’m a bit puzzled. The courtyard is lovely, and the Mindful Gifts shop next door is an Aladdin’s Cave.

I hope a use can be found for this lovely building.

January 9th – In Kings Hill, after many years of dereliction, I note someone has been working on the former Scott Arms pub. Like it’s namesake in Kingstanding, the once popular house had fallen out of favour and closed some time ago, becoming nothing more than a blot on a changing urban landscape.

This pub used to be rammed lunchtimes when there were big factories nearby – Servis and Exidoor to name but two; but in these days of workplace alcohol bans and with the workshops now housing, there was no business to keep this pub going.

I’d wager it’s future is probably flats, or as a house of multiple occupation, looking at the way the upstairs windows have been fitted. Whatever it is, I doubt the Scott Arms will ever serve ale again.

29th September – Near Walsall, my attention was snagged on a bright, sunny morning by a small family, apparently living in an open, junk-cluttered garage just off a main street. They seem healthy, happy and don’t look malnourished. Clearly wary of humans, but mum, who was attentive and nervous of me, stood her ground and watched her kittens closely.

A rare treat. I have passed this with the location to the Cats Protection branch as I strongly suspect these cats are feral.