January 21st – This is intriguing and good news. This new factory has been built from scratch on the Clayhanger/Walsall Wood border at Maybrook Road. This company have decided to move here from up north, creating real engineering jobs and bringing its business into the area. What fascinates me is that the occupiers have been moving in for ages now – loads of cranes and lifting equipment here every weekend. I don’t know what they’re doing here, but there must be a lot of heavy gear involved.
January 21st – Another day of challenging weather. Showers, wind, bluster. Just as well I had stuff to do in the daytime and wasn’t feeling that a cycling opportunity was lost because of my other commitments. Spinning out for a lazy bimble round at 6pm, I spun up through Clayhanger, and thought how dark and quiet the village looked so early on a Saturday night. Clayhanger has always had a slightly Midwich-ish, cutoff air about it, being a wee island in the middle of urban greenspace, but tonight it felt quite distinct. Odd.
January 20th – Like most folk in Brownhills, I use the local Tesco from time to time. I hate doing it, but there are few easy alternatives. The store has no cycle provision whatsoever. It is housed in one of the grimmest 80’s sheds I’ve ever come across, with no natural light. It’s impression is tatty, untidy and gives the feeling of careless grubbiness which makes products you buy there feel secondhand and mauled. It is, however, usually rammed with people, and this Friday was no exception.
Tesco promise to change all this – we are, we are assured, soon to get a new Tesco, built on the site of Brownhills’ now derelict shopping precinct. However, having prevaricated for years, and clearly getting a good return out of the old store, one can but wonder if the retail behemoth will not bother now their share price and profits have taken a pounding. A new CHP power plant was recently installed on the roof, and the toilets have just been refurbished. A company as sharp as this don’t throw money at buildings they plan to demolish.
Tesco destroyed this town. It could at least look like it cares for us.
January 20th – Pottering around Brownhills, getting some shopping in and running errands on a wet Friday night, I wanted some night pictures, and oddly, headed for the canal. These flats near Cooper’s Bridge on the Watermead, looked warm and homely in the blackness. I’ve always been fascinated by the chutzpah of the developers of the Watermead. Built on what was a meadow around a decade ago, all the roads are named after varieties of birdlife eradicated from the area by its construction. Heron Close. Curlew Drive. Moorhen Close my bloody arse…
January 18th – But flung into the modern age we were, for better of worse. This was once the site of a workhouse, so feared in the memory of old Walsallians that one elderly lady I knew, when confused and aged, swore she’d not let her family take her there. They were actually trying to take her to the Manor Hospital for a checkup, the older establishment utilising many of the workhouse buildings.
In the last decade or two, it all changed; first a new Accident & Emergency, then a new hospital, provided by the wonders of magic beans and PFI. This shiny new building, filled with wonderful staff and equipment, is somehow redolent of Art Deco in it’s night time luminescence, yet I fear it may yet, through its cost, render the NHS in Walsall back into servitude.
Progress, eh?
January 9th – Walsall Wood’s attachment to football is deep and ongoing. Home to a popular local club, the outdoor all-weather pitch provided by the council at Oak Park is also very, very popular. This is a great facility, and the floodlights can be seen for miles around. On nights like tonight – returning from the deepest Black Country on a dark night – the hubbub and cries of the players let me know I’m not far from Home.
January 8th – I rested today. The 40 miler I cycled the day before had probably been a bit over-ambitious. I needed to rest, and the stomach was still a bit troublesome. I’d wanted to explore industrial areas at night for a while, and headed off to Aldrige to see what I could find at 5pm. On the way, I passed the Costcutter store on Salters Road. That is some extreme green lighting. I wonder if it serves a purpose, or if it’s just there for effect? It’s bloody hideous, frankly.
December 30th – Something wasn’t right. The weather had been appalling all day. I’d hidden indoors, and I’d been busying myself with a few other projects. As I pottered around, I felt increasingly unwell. Finally dragging myself out of the house at 8:30pm, it was very black, rainy and miserable. I was not on top form. Every pedal revolution felt like it was draining the strength from my body. I forgot my Gorillapod. I never do that.
After a loop around Brownhills, Clayhanger and Walsall Wood, I returned home, still feeling unwell. Later in the evening, I went out to the pub. I sat there for an hour with a good friend, shivering and feeling rotten, and found myself almost unable to walk home. Something was very, very wrong with me.
December 27th – Pritchard-tecture is a curse or a blessing in South Staffordshire, depending on your point of view. The Hednesford based developers have been responsible for much of the commercial redevelopment of brownfield sites around Cannock, Burntwood and Rugeley, often on former mining land. Such faith and confidence in the local economy is wonderful, but the buildings created are not to everyone’s taste. The curved, gaudy, glass and neon structures are certainly distinctive. Here at Great Wyrley, the futuristic buildings certainly improve on their background – the Poplars Landfill site. Give Mr. Pritchard a break, folks…
December 21st – Recklessly running an errand into Pelsall without my passport, I took a scout round for the village Christmas tree, which was certain to make an excellent photo. There was just one snag: I couldn’t find it. After a surreptitious scout around the obvious locations, I gave up and took some night shots of the principality looking a bit festive. The only thing that came close was a tree near station road, interestingly lit to make it look conical. I decided to quickly move on – some tyke had clearly made off with the Pelsall pine and without my visa, I’d be prime suspect….
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