Tag: Jabez Cliff

August 16th – About the only positive thing to come from the fire at the former Jabez Cliff factory in Walsall was that the traffic was static as I headed into Walsall at 8:00am next morning, due to the Ring Road west being shut on safety grounds. This pretty much gridlocked the traffic fright back to Rushall, which allowed me to skip past it all the way into Walsall. Having the ring road to myself for the first couple of legs was fun, too.

August 16th – When I made my predictions last month for the next historically significant Walsall building to die tragically in a fire, I forgot about the former Jabez Cliff works. A beautiful victorian building, left to decay with lax security. It had become a magnet for vagrants and junkies, so I guess it was only a matter of time. Yesterday, it was pretty much gutted in a very large fire, the extent of which was clear as I passed this morning. By my return this evening, the beautiful frontage had been demolished. Still, it’ll be much easier to build new stuff on the site now that the troublesome old pile is gone… and with it, yet more of our precious heritage.

Why does nobody in power at Walsall care enough to stop this happening?