Tag: Ford Brook

January 17th – Rotate ninety degrees sunwise from the bell tower, and there’s Darwall Street in a precious golden hour. This is the risibly named ‘Civic Quarter’ which, as home to several large bars, is more properly thought of as the centre for Walsall’s night time economy. 

Ignoring the odd aberration, most buildings here are historic and repurposed; an old cinema – The Imperial – is now a pub, as is the former Registry Office. Walsall swapped certificate and celluloid for a pie and a pint.

Apart from the jarring paving and hideous street lights, this is a nice spot, with plenty of history and physical geography not too far away.

Behind the buildings on the left, the Ford Brook leaves cover and skulks through town in the open for a short while, often stinking the place out. It’s a major tributary of the Tame, and will never lead to Walsall threatening the tourist trade of Bourton on the Water.

It’s not a bad town, really. Just badly misunderstood. Sadly, most grievously by many who live here.

November 25th – following the heavy rains of the previous week, and in particular the day before, there was lots of local flooding. One interesting flood was on Clayhager Common, but I doubt many observing it would spot the significance. The lower meadow, bordered by the canal and old railway embankment was swamped with water from the canal overflow, which was either blocked, or beyond capacity. The resultant deluge was forming a pool on this, the lowest part of the common. This pool, very slowly, was draining into the Ford Brook. It may well take a few days, but gradually, the waters will recede in a controlled manner. Years ago, this would have flooded the village, but careful and clever environmental design built the lower meadow as a bund for just this purpose. The Ford Brook itself was healthy, but not high and around Clayhanger, the roads were generally clear. 

While about around the common, I noted the gate from the Clayhanger Village entrance had been forced open, it’s lock cut off. Looks like a call to the rangers might be an idea…

January 17th – Enjoying the ride to work today, I took a spin up National Cycle Route 5 from Station Road in Coalpool up to the Butts, in Walsall. This great cycleway runs mostly beside the Ford Brook, today flowing rather impressively. After passing under Walsall and picking up some tributaries on the way, the brook becomes the River Tame. Where the flow dives under Mill Lane, there’s a debris filter installed by the Environment Agency. Both they and the National Rivers Authority, their predecessors, have done much to clean up this formerly massively polluted waterway, not just here, but further south. I don’t know why, but I always find structures like this vaguely intimidating and unsettling. 

June 11th – Near national cycle route 5, as it leaves north Walsall at the former level crossing in Station Street, there is a second kissing gate near the pedestrian crossing. If one takes a short walk through the trees here, there’s a very unusual feature of hydrological engineering. The Ford Brook – rising in Clayhanger – meanders down the Goscote Valley being bulked by various water reclamation works and land drains on the way. Here, the main stream does an elaborate, snaking dance with a tributary source and they actually cross. This man-made bridge is also an overflow; in years past the upper deck rarely overflowed into the lower channel, but it does so constantly now. Many people think this is a weir, but if you study closely it’s double sided and the lower channel flows right underneath. I’d love to know why this exists and who built it. 

A real curiosity. Am I the only person who puzzles over these things?