From November 6th – Walsall new ring road, Green Lane Junction about 5:10pm, Wednesday 6th November 2013. I didn’t feel it safe to stop as the guy behind was stuck to me like a wet T-shirt. This is far from unique driver behaviour here – get in the wrong lane trying to queue jump, then bugger everyone else trying to sort it out.
More of this run later.
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October 18th – I’ve been in Darlaston all this week, and Kings Hill continues to pique my interest. As well as some great faded architecture, this characterful post-industrial borderland between Walsall and Sandwell contains a really great park. Recently refurbished Kings Hill Park – which I erroneously referred to as King George Park in an earlier post for some reason – is hilly, wooded and beautiful. There’s a wonderful new sculpture, and the whole place is wearing autumn beautifully. Emerging into Franchise Street, I admired the view of St. Matthews, Walsall over the rooftops. There are some fantastic old houses here.
Darlaston is full of surprises.
September 11th – A very peculiar day. I had something important to do in the morning, and was expecting to be out of action for the rest of the day. As it happened, the morning didn’t take quite the toll I expected it to and I went to work. Staying late, I came back home as darkness fell. I can’t really put my finger on it, but I’m really taking a serious dislike to the ‘new’ New Street Station. The platform access is now at the one end, and the space down there is restricted and made claustrophobic by the ever-changing hoardings. Passenger information screens are not positioned in useful points anymore, and the cramped lifts, already scuffed and grubby decor in the upper concourse all stink of compromise and bodge.
This is not a transport hub undergoing a Lepidoptera style emergence from the cocoon of renovation, but a desperate attempt to polish a turd that should have been flushed years ago.
September 7th – This is a bit odd. The last time I cycled through Shenstone, this clock wasn’t here. Didn’t get a good look at it, but it’s an odd thing, really. My biggest question is ‘Why?’, mainly – it does seem to commemorate people and companies in village life though, in the cobbles.
I’m not really sure what to make of it. It’s nice enough, I suppose.
Anyone know what it’s in aid of?
August 20th – pleasing to see that the new bike racks that sprang up throughout Birmingham city centre in advance of the tunnel closures are being well used. Wandering down to New Street after doing a little evening shopping, I noticed this new facility was almost at capacity, even at 5pm. Interesting variety of bikes, too. That fixie with no brakes looks like a fun ride…
August 19th – Thanks to friend of the blog Rosa Maria Burnell, I can reveal that Brownhills has developed a second pop-up bench. Again, secondhand, it’s appeared at the junction between Silver Street and the Miner Island. It’s not a picturesque spot, but Rose reports it was being well-used.
I have nothing against such street furniture, but I’m curious as to who’s erecting them, from where, and why.
June 18th – A bit of a disaster, photographically. I forgot my trusty camera, and was reduced to my phone. I’ve never used the phone for close up stuff before, and took 20-0dd pictures of wildflowers that looked OK on the screen in sunlight, but turned out to be out of focus smudges of colour.
The only images any good were of the new pond in Clayhanger, and the remarkable meadow that surrounds it. Alive with buttercups, dandelions, vetches, trefoils, clover, and multiple species of grass. It’s buzzing with insects and small mammals, and really is a place to explore and take in with all the senses.
A beautiful thing, rendered rather flat by a poor camera. My apologies.
May 19th – Up on the north heath at Chasewater, something rather great has been happening. From the existing path that runs over the hill from Norton Lakeside halt to Chasewater Heaths, there’s a new one been laid towards the lake. Well finished, it bends to the east, crosses a couple of really nice boardwalks and crosses Fly Creek, whereupon it meets the eastern path from behind the Rugby Club. A lot of work must have gone into it, and it opens up the north eastern heath to walkers beautifully.
For those interested, this is what Brownhills Common should look like: a mixture of heath grassland, deciduous copse and heathers. Not a conifer in sight and the deer absolutely love it, as do the resident maintenance crew, the cows. It varies from being wide open, to dense native woodland, and it’s teeming with life – flora, amphibian, insect, mammal and avian. It’s all here, and a fine work of conservation it is.
May 11th – As I returned, I passed a particularly intemperate Canada goose on the towpath, standing sentry on one leg. He hissed and honkey at me grumpily, and I couldn’t see why. Just as I was about to squeeze respectfully past, I followed his gaze. There, upon the opposite bank was his mate, and their brood of 3 (or possibly 4) goslings. She looked like she was still sitting. Those guys had cute in shedloads, and are the first goslings I’ve seen this season. Marvellous.
April 29th – Birmingham New Street – new start? Well, it’s bright, and smells of resin, I suppose. It also smells heavily of engineering compromise, forced retail opportunity and bodge.
My first experience of the much vaunted new station access way was this morning, and after all the hype, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s very much unfinished, and some aspects of the project show quite bad judgement.
This is no longer a station, but is a shopping centre with railway platforms. Everything is quite a bit longer to get to than before, and the access points funnel crowds carefully past the new shop units. The platforms themselves remain as narrow and cramped as ever, but with new escalators and lifts that go direct between concourse and platform, instead of via the subway. Sadly, they’re tiny, unable to accommodate a bike and pushchair at the same time, or my bike lengthways. This is dreadful.
The new concourse is nice, the light is pleasant and it’s quite airy. I’m not keen on the stone flooring, but each to his own. The cafe looks nice, and the information up there was good, unlike the platforms where a mixture of old, incorrect signage and new stuff just confused people.
The ticket barriers are much better, and access with a bike is OK even when crowded. However, the exit in Stephenson Place is bizarre, and doubles the length of the journey to Moor Street, meaning I’ll no longer make tight connections.
My advice to anyone planning to park a bike in racks there and travel is don’t do it. There are woefully few racks, stuck in a dark corner of the Moor Street access subway, a while away from the station. Although covered by CCTV, the Sheffield stands are only bolted down. An industrious pair of scallies with a spanner and some bottle could clear those stands of bikes in minutes. This is unforgivable.
On the whole it’s nicer, but functionally more awkward in many ways. It’s much more walking to get in and out, and I wouldn’t fancy it with limited mobility. The architecture is nice, and they’ve worked hard to make a space with no natural light more human-freindly. But the pokey lifts, poor access to Moor Street and focus of retail jarr with me a little too much.
It’ll be interesting to see how things develop.
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