Tag: Lichfield

August 21st – The Mount, a handsome, old, recently renovated house stands at the brow of the hill in Lichfield where the Burton Old Road, Church Street and Trent Valley Roads meet. It’s a wonderful looking place, and has been lovingly restored. I noticed yesterday that the original access hatches still exist in the rear chimney. These blue cast-iron doors allow access to the flue for the sweep – a once common feature, yet few survive, let alone adjacent like this. The Mount was previously used by an organisation – I think the Scouts or sea cadets – and was empty for a long while. Excellent to see the place loved again.

August 17th – It was very grey and spotting with rain as the heavy wind blew me back up Shire Oak Hill later in the day. Oddly, the gates to Shire Oak Landfill – the former quarry at Sandhills – had been left open, and I took the opportunity to have a play with the zoom mode on the camera. The view from this spot is always great, although hard to capture in photos, but despite the grey murk of the day, the images weren’t too bad. Springhill, Hammerwich, Wall and Lichfield were all clearly visible. 

July 24th – It’s actually quite hard to get a good view from the top of Shire Oak Hill. All the best vistas are occluded, either by trees or houses. This one, however, isn’t too shabby. From the Chester Road entrance of the Shire Oak Quarry/Landfill, one can get respectable zoom shots on a clear day. Clicking on the above image to zoom will show that this was a very clear, haze-free evening, despite the low wind level. In the middleground is Lichfield Cathedral, the Old Lady of the Vale. Beyond and to her left, the huge silo of the Coors (formerly Bass) brewery in Burton can clearly be seen. To the right, the great hill of Swadlincote and Repton, and beyond, the disused cooling towers of Derbyshire’s otherwise demolished Willington Power Station. That’s a fine view.

June 13th – I’d been in Tyseley for a meeting, then hopped back up the Cross City Line to make an appointment in Lichfield. Cycling back, the weather, which had been pretty agreeable, turned quite grim and it started to rain. The countryside looked so green, and the views were unexpectedly cinematic with a sudden rain-haze softening outlines and changing the sky to darker and darker shades. Luckily, I got home before the heavens really opened. 

Can we please have a bit of summer? Just for a bit? 

June 9th – I never tire of the view from the canal at Newtown, near Brownhills. Overlooking   the rolling countrysde towards Hammerwich, the church and windmill there are not the only landmarks visible. If you stand in just the right spot, on a clear day, you can see the 3 spires of Lichfield Cathedral visible through the Crane Brook valley. Right now, it’s green and verdant; but this is a great view in all four seasons, constantly changing in character. One of the great unknown gems of Brownhills.

May 25th – Nipping down to the chip shop in Stonnall for a Friday treat, I took a loot at the early summer view towards Lichfield from Shire Oak. Beautiful as ever, the change in foliage and colours perfectly complimenting the elegant spires of the Old Lady of the Vale. I adore this view, and could study it for hours on end.

April 23rd – Whilst cycling home from Lichfield, I noticed that with the recent rain, everything looked that bit greener, that bit cleaner, that bit healthier. Slightly more alive. The Friary Gardens are often overlooked – poor relation to the Festival Gardens on the other side of the A51, sometimes I think I’m the only person to notice they exist. Today, they looked beautiful with a shock of purple lobelia flowering wonderfully at the edge of the steps. Soon, very soon, the greenery will be punctuated with vibrant splashes of colour. Bring. It. On.

April 20th – Again managing to miss the rain, a morning spent in Leicester meant calling in for some shopping on the way home. Heading off the Walsall Road at Leomansley through the new estate on the southern fringe of Lichfield, I was struck, as I always am, by how close and claustrophobic this development is. Consisting of surprisingly large houses interspersed with flats and starter homes, the buildings are drab, square boxes with tiny gardens. Crammed shoulder to shoulder, the sunlight comes through here only in patches, and the sky is a long way up. Odd then, that in the middle, a brook that always flowed here was expanded into a kind of green lung, a ribbon of grass, small trees and water, meandering through the fake Georgian architectural hubris like an unwanted puddle of oil in an otherwise clinically clean factory floor. This place is soulless.

April 9th – Now, here’s a thing. This lost lane used to cut off the junction between the B5014 Lichfield Road and A515 Tewnalls Lane at Seedy Mill, just north of Lichfield. It offered a short-cut alternative for cyclists and walkers who didn’t fancy the busy junction of two main roads. I’m not sure it ever had a name, but it was cut off and abandoned when the railway that passes through here was expanded to 4 tracks wide towards the end of the last decade. The junctions at either end may have gone, but the metalled road surface remains under a layer of thick moss and weed, as nature slowly claws itself back. You can still walk and cycle it, but from the A515 end, it’s a bit of a scramble up the bank. I think I must be the only person who still uses it.