Tag: Little

#365daysofbiking Lost lanes

August 4th – A lane I’d not really ever registered the existence of disappeared a while ago, without me being aware. This is unusual, as I’m normally fascinated by these things.

School Lane, Little Wyrley was a quiet, winding, lightly used lane with no dwellings between the A5 Watling Street and Gorsey Lane. This whole area of scrubby, grubby not-quite countryside between Brownhills and Great Wyrley is plagued with fly tipping and other antisocial behaviour, but School Lane was particularly badly affected.

Having endured enough, in 2016 [Edit – It’s been closed much longer than this, from at least 2009 – Bob], Cannock Chase Council decided the best way to stop the problem was to gate the lane. Permanently.

This completely passed me by at the time, and I only noticed when it was mentioned in passing a few months ago on social media, so I made a mental note to ride it while I still could. As you can see, nature is now taking over and it’s an odd, but peaceful and wonderfully pollution-free byway disappearing slowly back into the landscape.

Like Dark Lane near Longdon, lost lanes intrigue me no end.

I’m glad I checked this out.

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#365daysofbiking Beautifully forged

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January 21st – Heading out for a meeting in Birmingham, I had a little extra time in the morning, so I rode to the station via the backlanes – taking me past Little Aston Forge.

The precarious hairpin bend and hump bridge here are a remarkable feature of the lane, and I’m surprised there are not more accidents.

The cottage and countryside here are beautiful though, I must say.

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February 8th – I’ve not ridden through Little Aston Forge for ages – and this curious hairpin over the Footherley Brook on the plain between Stonnall and Little Aston hasn’t changed a bit.

The brook still flows noisily, and those cottages still sit at an oblique, alarming angle to the lane on a series of nail-biting bends around them and over the hump bridge. 

This is aways a good spot for early spring flowers in the hedgerows of the copse-lined lane, and this evening didn’t disappoint – just as the light was dying, a beautiful patch of wild snowdrops to compliment a pretty decent sunset.

Must start coming this way more often again.

November 26th – Another day of beautiful light, but cold. Probably not cold for the time of year, but after recent mild weeks it seems to be positively arctic. 

I’d been doing a lot of mechanical work on the bike in recent days, and needed to test it with a shortish run with plenty of good hill action, so I went out early afternoon, over to Shenstone, Weeford, Hints, Hopwas, up the canal to Hademore and back in darkness through Wall and Chesterfield.

I took time to study the churches at Shenstone, Weeford and Hopwas – from the hideous but triumphant Gothic of Shenstone, to the farmhouse twee of Hopwas, all three are classics. All within a short distance.

Staffordshire is unusually blessed with a stunning and varied ecclesiastical architectural tradition.

May 1st – Today, I did something I’d been meaning to do for years – I paid a visit to Balleny Green, a little-known narrow gauge railway layout run by Sutton Coldfield Model Engineering Society at Little Hay, between Lichfield and Sutton Coldfield.

I’ve known this place was here for years, but never caught it open. This time, I made a concerted effort to find out when it was a ‘steam up day’ and popped in.

This was just so English. No entry fee. No charges to ride. Just a bunch of people sharing their love of a fascinating, beautifully engineered hobby in the middle of rolling countryside in gorgeous grounds.

There is a long layout consisting of several tracks – including a miniature one – but on the larger one, which interestingly is dual gauge – passengers sit in or on carriages and are conveyed by small locomotives – today one steam, one electric – through tunnels, over junctions, level crossings, past ponds, signals, signal boxes. It’s gorgeous.

The whole thing is clearly a labour of love.

There were no other attractions, and none were needed: tea and biscuits, and a tin for donations to cover running costs.

All right here on the doorstep, and few know about it. A wonderful thing.

Find out more about Balleny Green at their website here. I’d like to thank the members for a beautiful, life-affirming thing.

September 25th – From Tixall, a stop for tea and cake, and then back home along the canal from there to Handsacre – a fair trip. This stretch, which runs limpid at the rear of the Shugborough estate and shadows the Trent for much of the way is captivating and tranquil. Even as it passes Colwich and the busy rail junction there it seems miles from anywhere.

All the time I was in a gorgeous, but chilly golden hour. 

A wonderful ride that perked up a dreadful day no end.

November 6th – Fed up of the traffic, I hopped onto the canal through Walsall on the way to work, and was pleased to note litter pickers at work on the canal. People often erroneously think the council is response for the state of the canals – they aren’t, it’s the Canal and River Trust who get that gig. Today, a couple of chaps were collecting rubbish into bags and small piles, which were awaiting a crew on a boat who pick it up later. 

It’s only a small crew, but they work hard and have a lot of miles to cover. I salute them for doing what must be a fairly unpleasant job in all weathers.

In the meantime, canal users could always meet them halfway and stop littering…

Thanks, folks. Top work.

January 6th – It was a beautiful morning, but with a heavy, harsh southwesterly wind. It took me longer than usual to cycle to the station, and I ducked through the backlanes to get there, the high hedges offering some shelter. 

As far as the wind would allow, the air was soft and very slightly misty, and it made the countryside of South Staffordshire look beautiful in the watery sunlight.

I saw these trees in Forge Lane and recalled Joni Mitchell’s line ‘Trees are shivering in a naked row’.

Here’s to less aggressive weather for a while…

October 7th – up on Cannock Chase for the first decent ride in a while. Due to bad weather and work commitments, I haven’t got out so much this year, which saddens me. But this was worth waiting for. There’s a bigger post from this journey over on my main blog – but the Chase, together with Shugborough and it’s environs, were just pulling on their golden autumn jackets. Superb. I must redouble my resolve to get out more…