Tag: interesting architecture

August 31st – I rode out via Canwell and Middleton to Middleton Hall for a cup of tea and cake, all the while in steady rain. I nipped down to Bodymoor Heath, onto the canal and up to Fazeley Junction. Back along the old A5 to Weeford, then home via Shenstone.

It was warm enough, and there wasn’t much in the way of wind. The roads were quiet and the riding fast; but it was very, very grey and very, very wet. The countryside dripped silently little droplets of grey summer sadness.

As ever on grey days, there was fun and beauty to be found; the architecture of the canals – not just the bold redbrick house, but the small lock-keeper’s hut with the chimney for a stove (how cosy must that have been in winter?); the Kingsbury lock flight and greenery of the canalside reed bed. Fungus is growing well in the damp, and those polypores were huge. 

Middleton Hall was as stunning as ever.

I just loved the hound tied up outside the cafe. He had an endearing way of looking at you with his head to one side. He was muddy and wet and had clearly been having lots of fun.

The red and orange spiny, furry growth on the rose stem that looks like a ball of thread? That’s a robins pincushion or Diplolepis rosea – a gall formed, like the oak galls by a wasp. 

I asked a few weeks ago why only the oak is bothered by wasp galls; it’s not only the oak, but mostly. Lime trees, conifers and roses suffer too. Here, a wasp lays 60 or so eggs in a tiny, developing leaf bud, surrounded in a chemical which causes the plant to mutate and grow this furry aberration, which is internally quite solid with cavities for the larva to hatch and feed.

Nature is quite horrific in it’s fascination sometimes. Find out more about this curious parasite here.

June 29th – Passing through New Street Station early on a sunny, bright morning. The skyline looked as busy as ever with clashing architectures, wires, antenna and other urban structures. And in the middle, the buddleia growing from the signalling cable raceway on the Hill Street Bridge was flourishing, seemingly unhindered and unnoticed.

June 14th – I wanted to visit Newborough to see that elegant, French-inspired Church I’d photographed across the valley the week before. This time, I went from Lichfield, up the east side of the Trent to Walton, over to Barton, and on to Tutbury. From there, Fauld, Draycott and Newborough, before returning via Far Hoar Cross, Woodmill, Yoxall and Lichfield. About 55 miles in all.

There was a punishing headwind on the way to Tutbury, but having the wind behind me on the way back was a boon. 

The church with that remarkable needle spire – All Saints – was by Oldrid Scott in 1901, and stands on the site of an old pub. It’s a remarkable building. Striking, imposing, and probably the most expressive of Scott’s churches.

It’s nice to see that Newborough – in the floor of a beautiful, quiet valley – is still busy enough to retain a pub and tea shop. It’s a lovely, virtually unknown village.

Stafforshire is a remarkable county.

June 7th – I also called at the Church of St John, MArchington Woodlands, at a place called Woodroffes. It’s a gorgeous church clinging to a hillside in the middle of nowhere. It overlooks the Dove Valley and is the most beautiful, peaceful spot. 

The meadows were dappled yellow with buttercups, the church was bright in the sunlight, and a distant cricket pitch dozed in the warm afternoon.

It doesn’t get much more English than this.

June 7th – I went to the steam fair at Draycott, and came back through Marchington, over Marchington Cliff and back through the Needwood Valley.

I’ve never noticed Marchington Church before – it’s very curious. It looks old, with curious, almost Eastern European influences; maybe even a little bit industrial.

What really struck me was the unusual war memorial over the doorway.

May 20th – I had reservations about the fate of the Kings Hill Methodist Church, next to the park at Kings Hill, Darlaston – but it looks like they were needless.

The former church, having closed several years ago, was sold to a developer, and planning approval sought to convert it into flats. I was expecting some horrid rush job, but it’s been taking a long time, and seems to be very thorough. As I passed today, the roof was in the process of being relaid using the same tiles. That’s a big roof and can’t be cheap.

it’s nice to see such a curious and historic building getting some love after so many years empty.

April 29th – I crossed Kings Hill Park on my way back from a trip to the retail park at Junction 9, and caught sight of the two sisters of Wednesbury, looking gorgeous in the sunlit, clear air. Both are beautiful – a landmark for miles, I adore Church Hill in Wednesbury and love to see it on the skyline.

I make no apologies for featuring this beautiful view again…

April 10th – Passing the huge shopping complex at Merry Hill today, I realised a few things. Firstly, that although it was sold as regeneration – it was built on the site of the Round Oak Steelworks in the late 1980s – it hasn’t regenerated the area around it at all, large tracts of which are still waste and derelict. Secondly, it’s looking just a shade dated and tatty these days – but no less busy.

Thirdly, the ill-fated monorail that linked this place to the Waterfront – taken out after six years of unreliability and trouble – still has a ghost presence. Just above M&S, the black oblong prism is a former monorail station.

Oh, brave new world. What went so wrong?

March 29th – The start of British Summertime, and out of the darkness for another year, but it didn’t feel like it. It was very windy and wet for much of the day, and it wasn’t very warm either. Sneaking out in a break in the rain mid afternoon, I was buffeted around Brownhills which was largely grey and uninspiring.

I did notice that the new flats at the former Wessex Close site were now complete, and looking good. I like them – a huge improvement on what was there before. We need more of this.