October 11th – Working late in Tyseley, the service gets patchy after the evening peak. Leaving at about 8pm, I realised my nearest train was going from Spring Road, located on the road to Hall Green. Stoking it in, I made it with a couple of minutes to spare. Spring Road is desolate and isolated at night, and I didn’t like it much. It was drizzling lightly, I was tired, and glad to see the lights of the train…
October 8th – Walsall Wood Church – Dedicated to St. John – has always been a bit of a conundrum to me. Pleasant enough, but rather odd-looking outside, it was ruined when Lichfield Diocese designed and had added a thoroughly unpleasant extension, a fate shared by many local churches. The interior, though, is different. Very devotional, with a lovely miners-lamp memorial, ad remarkable cast iron arcades. Well worth a visit if you’re passing.
October 8th – I don’t like to see the gradual erosion of our pubs. But since so many are being lost, it’s nice to see when they’re saved – if repurposed. I’m thinking here particularly of The Muckley Corner, which is now dwellings, or The Brown Lion, in Pleck, which is a refuge. Like the Knave of Hearts in Bloxwich, the Spring Cottage in Shelfield has been converted into a bustling Co-op store. Whilst the loss of the pub is sad, at least the building was saved, and not altered too much. If only more closed pubs could be saved like this…
September 28th – Finally, when I got home, I got some cycling in. I had to nip down to Stonnall in the early evening, and as the dusk fell, I realised I hadn’t got my gorilla pod – the adaptable camera mount I use for night shots. Since I don’t have steady hands, I had to rely on my fallback night photography trick – standing the camera on street furniture and fences, and setting it on self timer.
The results were’t too bad.
September 2nd – I just knew all day it was going to be a good sunset. I had no idea why; sometimes you can just tell. At teatime, that cold, damp chill descended, of the kind you only get in autumn and spring, and the sky started to turn pink. I knew it was game on. I took my time and headed to Chasewater, which has to be the best place to catch a sunset in these parts. I was surprised and delighted by what I found: not just a great sunset, but a yellow moon rising the east, geese honked and chattered in the dusk as they came in to roost. Bats skittered about my head, and moths became iridescent in my bike lights. Behind this was the most delightful susurration – the continual lapping of water in the darkness. I realised how long it was since I’d heard that at Chasewater. A fine thing. It’s been grim times, old girl, but it’s nice to feel your recovery at last.
April 21st – I didn’t get out until dusk. A problematic day, filled with frustration, irritations and hassle. I escaped late, and poured myself liquid along the canal to the old railway line trail near the Pelsall Road. Not having tried the new camera in the dark, I thought I’d give it a shot. I’m very impressed. t does well in low light conditions and generates far less noisy images than the TZ20, always that camera’s Achilles Heel. Only meaning to pop out for a short time, I messed around for an hour or more, just enjoying the absence of company. Apart, of course, from my old comrade the fox. He sat on the bridge at Clayhanger, as he often does, then retreated to the scrub to watch the mad human for a while.
March 2nd – Escaping a heavy afternoon of bicycle fettling, I skipped out on a new transmission at dusk. Enjoying the freedom, I headed up over Wyrley Common for a bit, out beyond the old level crossing at the top of Engine Lane. Heading back towards the factories at dusk, I jumped half out of my skin at the surprise of being greeted from the shadows of the scrub by a ne’er do well in a grubby anorak with the hood pulled up, emanating a strong smell of dope. The transmission got quite a test, there…
Catching my breath back near the Hussey Estate, I noted how desolate the site of the old garages at the rear of the Pelsall Road had become. When I was a kid there was decent street lighting here. Only the welcoming lights of the Activity Centre next door stopped it being utterly black. An unsettling ride, for sure….
February 28th – Returning very late from work, cresting the Black Cock Bridge (no sniggering at the back) I stopped to take a picture of the night-time view of Camden Street down towards Oak Park. When I turned around to climb back on the bike, I realised the view behind me was far more interesting. This footbridge (actually green in the daylight) was added to the canal bridge in the 1980’s, and is made from tubular steel, which, when lit by my rear light, looks quite stunning… beauty in unexpected places.
February 24th – Saint Matthews Hall – sometime church hall, Walsall County Courthouse and wine bar, has been turned in a specialist real ale pub by Wetherspoons, and by all accounts it’s a decent transformation. I’d not noticed before, but it’s lit with colour shifting, high power LED lighting. I’m not shire what to make of it; it looks gimmicky and cheap, but it is rather impressive. A curious thing…
February 24th – I took plenty of photos in the morning, as it was another wonderful morning – but sadly, I left the camera in the wrong mode and they were all awful. Luckily, I realised my mistake, and returning from Walsall at 7pm, I took some shots of a peculiarly deserted town. This seemed odd to me; when I was a youth, the euphemistically branded ‘nightime economy’ was normally well underway by this time, but it seems not to be the case now. Few were at the bus stands, and few outside the bars and pubs. Bridge Street was deserted, and the town hall looked imperious in the street light. An odd end to an oddly draining week.
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