December 17th – Returning home through a darkened, very wet Brownhills. A generator was quietly ticking over by the waterside, and there was the clatter of Tesco unloading, and the distant windy sweep of the odd car on the High Street, but little other evidence of humans.
Brownhills looked somnambulant, peaceful and homely, and it was good to see.
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December 16th – Delivering Christmas cards in Chasetown, the light rain turned to a downpour, and although the Headquarters of Chasetown Civil Engineering and the nearby pub The Uxbridge looked beautiful with their lights reflected on wet tarmac, the rain had me low.
I tried long exposure photography on the Chasetown Bypass footbridge, but the weather was determined to wreck my plans.
I returned home wet, cold and despondent. This time last year, I think we had snow. Which at least is fun.
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#365daysofbiking That sinking feeling:
December 13th – Struggling up the Black Cock Bridge due to tiredness and another late night at work, my phone rang and I stopped to answer by the junction with Hall Lane.
This little, discrete hamlet was years ago called Bullings Heath and sitting in the lee of the bridge flank, there are many legends about the subsidence here caused by minewovrkings below.
Whilst there was sinking, it wasn’t a bad as purported, and these things generally never are, but legends persist and they suggest the houses on the left were once level with the canal.
Tonight, Bullings Heath nestled in the darkness, and was keeping it’s secrets to itself, and looking for all the world like a somnambulant, rural hamlet.
A historic conundrum.
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#365daysofbiking The Crossing:
December 13th – A bright, glass hard, cold day saw me in Telford mid-morning, and in the week or two I haven’t been here, the new footbridge has opened.
Man, is it a curate’s egg.
First thing is, someone clearly booked the possessions and plant to remove the old bridge for a fixed date, and the new one had to open. Regardless. So it’s not in even a nearly finished state. Brick cladding is still being laid. The access ramp to the cycleway on the Priorslee side is still being built. Bits of it haven’t been surfaced properly or at all. Workmen still mingle with commuters. It’s a bloody mess if I’m honest.
The bridge itself is an interesting, open construction that’s light and airy. It makes the journey between platforms one hell of a lot shorter. The lifts are welcome. It feels stable and the thing seems to be a nice, rigid design.
But there’s a huge, massive, glaring issue.
There is no ramp access to the Shrewsbury side of the station. So wheelies and those not able to use steps are confined to the lift. If that isn’t working, someone alighting here from Brum or Wolves will be stranded on a platform next to a 6 lane road with no means to cross it. There is no simple way around.
I can’t overstate how bad this is if it’s the final design.
If the bridge does not eventually provide ramp access to the Shrewsbury platform, then it will have failed in its primary objective – to make life easier for those that found the old ramp too steep. The designers will have spent 10 million quid making the use of this station for those with limited mobility much more of a gamble.
I hope I’m wrong and a ramp is sorted. If not, the council and Network Rail really need to rethink this urgently.
The bridge is nice, but too reliant on lifts, and at the moment is very much unfinished. Open too soon, and at the moment, looking critically flawed.
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#365daysofbiking Solid air:
December 11th – Heading back to work after an errand into Walsall at lunchtime, the air was misty, smoggy and heavy and caught the weak sunlight in an unusual way.
I could feel the exhaust fumes trapped low to the ground, but the effect was quite beautiful.
Sad to see the old Workhouse Guardian’s Office, listed but still rotting and vacant, marooned before the monolithic Walsall Manor Hospital.
As far as I know its the only part of the Victorian municipal workhouse in Walsall to survive, and is a remarkable building. Cruelly stranded and ignored by the hospital redevelopment, it sits forlorn an lost, waiting for a use to emerge.
Even down on it’s uppers, it’s a gorgeous building still.
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#365daysofbiking Darkness my old friend:
December 8th – Speeding around a wet, sleepy Brownhills is always strange. I feel almost invisible. Rolling up the canal to Pelsall was lovely, but very soggy.
I love the lights of the Watermead Estate at night, and the effect they have on what would otherwise be an utterly dark canal.
Sometimes the darkness isn’t so bad. I’d always rather be riding in the light of a beautiful spring or summer, but as Judy Collins put it ‘Sometimes the darkness is your friend.’
#365daysofbiking Canal dreams:
December 7th – After a long day at work carrying out boring tasks, I left collecting a pal on the way. We popped in passing to Walsall’s Town Wharf, as the Arboretum I was aiming for actually had an event ongoing.
Town Wharf and the waterside here are gorgeous at night. Finally reaching potential after near enough two decades, this place has taken a long, long time for regeneration to happen, but it looks wonderful in the shadow of Walsall’s remarkable New Art Gallery.
Sadly, the state of retail being what it is, the centre of Walsall only 100 or so yards away, remains depressed.
But here at leat, developer dreams seem to be coming to fruition.
#365daysofbiking A beacon in the darkness:
December 5th – Heading back from work late, and I had to answer a call in Sheffield. I looked up and found I’d pulled over opposite the service station on the border of Sheffield and Riushall.
This is a surprisingly tough hill when you’re tired, and the lights of this outlet draw you toward them, and home.
I’ve always been interested in how filling stations seem like beacons in the darkness.
#365daysofbiking A new muse:
November 30th – Passing Walsall Arboreetum on the way home I noticed that it was open – so I popped in for some night photos.
Sadly, they didn’t work out too well, but it turns out that Walsall’s premier park is now open every evening, and it looks like I have a new muse.
I will return.
#365daysofbiking Into the madness:
November 28th – Telford, that evening, viewed from the Euston Way.
Telford looks best at night. The station is crowded due to a cancelled train. The train I’m expecting is late. This is not going to be fun.
The lights, the steel and glass, the pretentions to being internationalist, commercial, vital and a centre for financial business work best at night.
In reality, Telford is an industrial and commercial sprawl, but it ain’t all that.
But it could have been a contender.
Oh well, into the madness…
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 