Tag: miner

January 30th – I was out at work early, and left early afternoon. I had stuff to do in Burntwood, and cycled through a very, very wet Chasewater to get there. The day was grey, colourless and even when not really raining, a mist hung drenchingly heavy in the air. Riding wasn’t too bad, though, and on my way I stopped at the ATM at Sankey’s Corner. I noted Scamp, the Burntwood Mining Memorial, which I like more and more each time I see it. I like this one particularly because it was a local project, by a local artist, and it clearly doesn’t seek to glorify or gloss over the past.

Meanwhile, over the road, Burntwood Library. It’s a great facility, built new in the 1980s, and known locally for years as ‘The two tits’. I’ve always liked the place…

December 31st – I had to pop out to the cashpoint, so took in a loop of Brownhills. It was very quiet, little traffic was disturbing the night. It was calm and the three-faced liar – the Council House Clock – told the right time.

I looked at Morris, welcoming in the traditional Brownhills way, arms and heart open, but with a weapon to hand, just in case. He seemed appropriately optimistic.

Even the canal looked oddly festive.

Like Morris, I welcome the new year of 2014 openly. Happy new year to all readers, all of you who I know follow my journeys. May the new year bring peace and happiness to you all.

November 15th – It had been a long day, the energy was low, and I didn’t have much time. I spun up the High Street at teatime and rode the backstreets for a bit. Returning, I looked at something thats so familiar, I rarely pay it much attention: Morris, the Brownhills Miner. Much as I feel uncomfortable with the extravagance in a faltering town, I do love him. John McKenna’s work in drafting all those fragments, then welding them together in a finite-element model like this is stunning, and always has been. So much better than the laser cut by numbers tat in Walsall Wood, this took a really skilled artist a huge amount of time to design, facilitate and build. I just wish the blue lights didn’t make it look so cheap.

Morris is such an obvious and cliched subject, I’ve only rarely featured him here, but it’s worth it, once in a while, just to share him. The politics and cost aside, it’s a terrific thing.

February 24 – Flowers have again appeared on the miner railings in Brownhills, and I have no idea why. There is no note. They are attached firmly with cable ties, and there are three separate bunches, bundled together. I can’t think of any fatalities here. The wreaths tied here at Christmas were soon cut down and taken away, which I though was rather sad.

Does anyone have any idea what this is all about?

31st December – A few folk have noticed these two wreaths tied to the central barrier on the Miner Island in Brownhills. Fellow local blogger Warren Parry asked about them yesterday, and I said I’d check them out. Passing today, they appear to have no labels. I have no idea what they’re relating to. 

Can anyone help? A small, sad mystery. 

November 10th – I have an odd relationship with Morris, the Brownhills Miner. I like the sculpture,  he’s well-loved, and I really appreciate the work that’s gone into making him. But when it comes down to it, it’s a 10 metre stainless steel miner, lit by blue LED lights. Pretty, but also pretty ineffective. Morris didn’t bring regeneration, or prosperity. He doesn’t symbolise a rebirth or recovery. He just stands, back to the town, holding a lamp out to see if anything better is coming, all the while reminding us of what was lost.

That’s the thing about civic pride, statuary and economics. It’s best done when you’ve fixed the other stuff. It’s not a cure all.

August 7th – I noted today with some sadness that the horse chestnut trees in St. Johns Hill in Shenstone, and the ones forming the avenue and hedges along Hollyhill Lane towards Footherley were badly affected this year by the leaf miner moth. The tree survives this new pest, but starts to look sick around late summer, and drops it’s leaves early. It’s thought to affect the conker yeild, although there’s no conclusive proof of this yet. First observed in Wimbledon, London, in 2002, this pest has spread like wildfire, and as yet, there’s no sign of a solution. Very sad. 

December 17th – A day infused with pre-Christmas rush. I finally got out on my bike at teatime, and took a spin around a very wet Brownhills. The roads glistened and it felt quite Christmassy. Morris Miner, when viewed from the Lichfield Road, always looks to me as if he’s expressing contempt towards the town. Still not absolutely sure they erected him the right way around… the blue lighting cheapens him, too. Shame they couldn’t have lit his lamp, like the residents requested. 

Decmber 3rd – Brownhills no longer gets a Christmas tree. All that happens in these straitened times is that workmen hang lights of the trees next to Morris, the metal miner on the central island. Morris is lit up in blue at night, which I’ve always thought to be horrid. The tree-lights are also blue and make the whole ensemble look like a cheap decoration. At lest things look a bit more festive up on the High Street.

September 15th – Returning to Brownhills late in the evening, I thought I’d practise a bit of night photography. With the dark nights coming, there will be lots more of this. 

I, like most of Brownhills, like Morris, the Brownhills Miner. I don’t think he was money well spent, and he’s done bugger all for the town except inflate a few egos, but he is an ingenious, clever sculpture. Shame about the hard hat, though – he wouldn’t have been wearing one in the time that Brownhills was mining, and that pick doesn’t look like any I’ve ever seen. The curious decision to illuminate him with gimcrack blue LED lights was also peculiar; it makes Morris look like a cheap Christmas decoration. Still, he compliments the lights on the hatchbacks cruising the High Street at that time of night.