September 22nd – Unusually, I had to visit Cradley on a work errand. I used to spend a huge amount of time in this busy little town, but haven’t been to visit in nearly a decade.
It changed, without me, as places do. Some familiar things remained – some shops, landmarks, factories – but there’s a shiny new bus station, lots of redevelopment an an interesting memorial to Mary MacArthur the trade unionist who fought so famously here.
The statues is by the same artist who made the Walsall Wood ones, and whilst the thought is there, it’s no Morris and it looks like money for old chain, if not rope. Oh well.
The High Street is suffering like they all are, but retains it’s quirkiness and frenetic air of business.
Around the corner, in Wood Lane, Griffin and Woodhouse still make chain to moor the world – some of it huge.
It felt sad to be back in a place I once haunted but now don’t really know at all well. Time moves on, with or without us.
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