Tag: mystery

July 30th – Passing through leafy, upmarket Mill Green on the way to work, I noted that the large abandoned house on the corner of Forge Lane looks to have reached the end of the line. Abandoned for years, I never found out how a very large, modern family home on the outskirts of Little Aston comes to fall derelict, and I now doubt I ever will, but the property was for sale for ages and was finally procured by developers a year ago.

Since then the surrounding scrub has been cleared, and a small bungalow built in the back garden. In the last couple of days, a large excavator has appeared which I suspect may demolish the house.

It’s nice to see something being developed on such an abandoned site, but one does wonder what happened.

A mystery.

June 30th – There’s a Matt Smith fan in Darlaston – what else can explain the stencils of his face as Doctor Who stencilled around about?

This is one I only discovered by chance, just on the wall by the steps to the canal from the Willenhall Road Bridge at Darlaston Green.

It’s not Banksy, but it’s well thought out and executed.

May 23rd – Here’s an odd one. Half way up the hill, on the steep, long climb out of the manifold valley to Throwley, there’s a sheep trough on Farewell Lane. It’s a good kilometre in either direction to the nearest dwelling, and this is remote, wind-blown country. 

I stopped to lean my bike up against the trough while I got something to eat and admire the view. In it’s depths, I noticed something orange: a 6 inch long, healthy looking goldfish.

People have suggested it is put there by farmers to eat the eggs of some animal parasite – but I have no idea. It’s a very odd place to dump a fish, but I suppose it’s egg could have been transported from another pond on the feet of some bird.

A real oddity. Suggestions welcome.

March 31st – At Clayhanger Bridge on the canal near Brownhills, there’s a sluice that allows the waterway to be drained into local sewers if necessary. I noticed today that it had temporary fencing around it, and that micropiles – stainless steel rods inside sleeve tubes and packed out with expanding foam – had been fitted around the sluice and along the adjoining canal bank.

This is clearly a stabilisation job, and I’m intrigued as there’s not real outward sign of such a thing being necessary – except for the fact that I suspect the bank and culvert may be subject to destructive erosion if used, which these piles may relieve.

The tops currently stood proud will be chopped off at ground level later.

Meanwhile, closer to Catshill Junction, the embankment has been falling away into the canal for over a year, and nothing has been done despite drawing it to the attention of the Canal & River Trust.

Most peculiar.

March 24th – The plague of pink postboxes has spread to Wednesbury!

Fear not, people: there’s been a buzz on social media about these (and a surprising amount of people have asked me) over the past few weeks. The postboxes are pink because they’re being repainted, and the pink is an undercoat for the more traditional pillar-box red they normally wear.

Pink sort of does suit them, though…

February 18th – A sweet and sad little mystery in Kings Hill Park, Darlaston, I noticed whilst taking a shortcut back from Wednesbury. A young sapling, not long planted in the corner of the park. Surrounded by daffodils getting ready to bloom, a unattributed heart-shaped wreath, and a single red rose. 

A valentines verse, and the date 14th February 1991. 

I have no idea. But it caught me unawares on a sunny, springlike morning. Sad, and yet so sweet.

February 12th – Just a stones throw away in the wonderfully named Crescent Road, this odd… garage? Stable? Workshop? 

In similar red terracotta bricks, this crumbling edifice sits between the back of the Town Hall (itself a work of gorgeous red brick Franco-Gothic Victoriana) and the similarly grand Police Station. I never noticed this before, yet I pass it loads. I looks like a workshop or garage, I’m thinking possibly for a fire engine or similar. Anyone know what the roundel represents or signifies?

Sadly, the structure appears to be failing, and I don’t think those doors have been opened in a goodly while. I hope this is saved; it may be a lowly sibling of the grand architectural statements around, but in its own way a diminutive delight.