Tag: interesting architecture

December 31st – I’m concerned about the fate of the sculpture at Catshill Junction in Brownhills. Since the new housing development started, due to lack of access, it has become increasingly overgrown. I’m worried it might be lost completely, and fear that Walsall Housing Group have made no provision for it in the plans for the new build.

On the subject of which, it’s very early days yet but I’m finding the building flat and characterless at the moment. Any new homes here are good; the land has been dormant and unused for a decade – but I do hope this currently somewhat bland construction develops some character as it’s topped out…

December 22nd – A day at work in Darlaston, then nipping into Brum on an errand. New Street Station is mad at this time of year, and the lousy revamp is crippling passenger flows. Stood at the end of the platform for blessed space waiting for the train to be made available, I took a couple of shots. I love the differing lights here, the colours, surfaces, angles and textures.

I guess most folk would dismiss it as ugly, but I think it’s curiously beautiful.

December 21st – I was spinning up to Walsall Wood to make a quick delivery, and I realised there was a carol concert happening at St. John’s church, and it was lit up. 

It looked and sounded very Christmassy. 

Sadly, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get a decent night shot of this humble but handsome church without that bloody streetlight spoiling it. Just can’t get a good angle.

December 20th – Today, today was great. I had a Christmas errand to run near Rugeley, and heard there was a farmer’s market on. I’ve never really had a good look around the town, and I have to say I was impressed. This former mining community serves a very wide area, and so maintains a good selection of shops, a couple of indoor markets, and the produce market itself was brilliant. 

I’d not realised how good the architecture was in the town centre, either; I must go back when it’s quieter and have a good mooch around.

The huge inflatable Father Christmas by the sports club is brilliant, too, and can be seen from a long distance.

I returned with all manner of Christmas treats.

That wee dog in the indoor market stole my heart – such big, sad eyes!

December 17th – At Kings Hill, passing through on an errand, I noticed the former Kings Hill Methodist Church seems to finally be in the process of conversion to flats. Permission has been outstanding for a while, and the grounds around have been cleared and I’ve noticed workers coming and going for a couple of weeks.

In the morning sun, it looked handsome, and I’m glad it’s being repurposed, rather than lost. 

December 8th – I noticed it particularly in Victoria Park, Darlaston; this was now a winter place, and the low sun was doing it justice. It was only morning, but looked almost like the golden hour. Days like this, the light is like honey all day. 

This sun, the weak but beautiful one we’re blessed with for the shortest days of winter, lights the red, red terracotta of the Black Country wonderfully, and there’s no better place to enjoy it than Darlaston.

December 4th – Tough day, so on the way home I hopped over Chasewater for some pictures in the dark. I really like Chasewater like this; when it’s dark in winter and there’s nobody around. The night was still, and the air cold. Waterfowl were gathered on the wake-line mast anchors, roosting out of reach of foxes, and gulls bobbed lightly on the mirror-like water.

There wasn’t a soul around.

Just what I needed to settle my troubled mind.

December 1st – Another piece of architecture that’s bothering me is the old Three Crowns in King’s Hill, Darlaston; another one I pass frequently, for years it was being used by a jig and inspection company, but now seems to be empty. It;s a genuinely lovely building, which underneath the fake timbers and facing really deserves a better future than dereliction and eventual loss.

The trouble is, who would take on such a building?

I feel sad about this one every time I see it. I hope it gets saved.

December 1st – I keep passing this, and often wait at the lights looking at it – and every time I do it irritates the hell out of me.

On the Pleck Road junction in Walsall, where it meets Ida Road and Rollingmill Street, there is a new build block of apartments. Blessed with an aesthetic only a mother could love, it’s not the physical ugliness that bothers me – but the finish of the woodwork, external plumbing and hardstandings.

If this is what the outside quality is like, one can only wonder about the inside…

20th November – Still clinging on, and looking handsome despite the decay, the mellow, early winter sunshine lit up the Workhouse Guardian’s Office beautifully. Derelict for some years, this listed building is marooned in front of the new Manor Hospital on Pleck Road in Walsall. 

I wish someone would find a suitable use and rejuvenate this lovely edifice; every detail of it is gorgeous from the stained glass windows to the beautifully ornate finial and weathervane. But such old buildings are expensive to renovate and convert, and in such an unusual physical position uses must be very limited indeed.

In the meantime, this Victorian wonder is being gently carried to dust, Havershambling away unloved, except by the few who see it’s beauty. I pray the arsonists don’t spot it.