Tag: New Build

October 31st – Passing down the Darlaston Road to Wednesbury over Kings Hill, you realise that the area is changing. While it’s still very industrial, a couple of the old, large factories here have been replaced by new build housing.

The old Exidoor factory that made panic bolts was lost to apartments some years ago, and over the last couple of years, a pleasant enough, but unremarkable estate has grown on the site of the former Servis domestic appliance factory pretty much next door.

Servis was a household name, started by nearby power press manufacturer Wilkins and Mitchell who are also now gone; they made passable washing machines and the like which were functional, and often very innovative (The Servis Quartz was the first ever electronically controlled automatic washing machine) but suffered from poor quality and reliability.

Gradually outsold and outclassed by competitors due to the traditional British twin failures of lack of investment and corner cutting, Servis fell from UK ownership to various international owners before finally collapsing.

The works, which once even had it’s own brass band, fell silent, was demolished, the ground reclaimed, and now houses sprout from where the ground once shook under the blow of heavy presses. 

Such is the story across modern Britain. We are in the middle of great change.

July 9th – I wasn’t particularly late back, but the golden hour seemed to settle in early, on a peaceful, mirror calm Catshill Junction. The new flats have balconies now, but still no sign of anything being done with the scrub and statue on the canal bank. 

On the towpath side, the buggers don’t seem to stop mowing at the moment – I’ve never known a year like it. It’s almost as if the moment an interesting flower pops up it must be cut down.

It never used to be like this. I’m convinced it’s just so the Canal and River Trust can look like they’re pro active whilst ignoring real infrastructure issues.

February 21st – a blustery, squally Saturday, and I had errands to run. My energy was low, and I was still dog tired from work; but in the afternoon the riding was pleasant enough. I passed the site of Silver Court Gardens, where the 1960s maisonettes had been demolished a decade ago, and noted that finally, work has begun on the 160 dwellings to replace them. To me, this is good news; this swathe of barren wasteland has made the town centre desolate, wind-blasted and empty for far too long.

It’ll be interesting to see how the development goes.

December 1st – I keep passing this, and often wait at the lights looking at it – and every time I do it irritates the hell out of me.

On the Pleck Road junction in Walsall, where it meets Ida Road and Rollingmill Street, there is a new build block of apartments. Blessed with an aesthetic only a mother could love, it’s not the physical ugliness that bothers me – but the finish of the woodwork, external plumbing and hardstandings.

If this is what the outside quality is like, one can only wonder about the inside…