April 21st – I came back through Walsall Wood as I had to make a call, and noted that the new leisure centre at Oak Park was nearing completion. Due to the size and location, it’s been really hard to get decent pictures of, but it looks like it’s going to be a great place and a worthy successor to the raging centre currently here.
I note huge amounts of earth are being moved around the site at the moment to regrade an re-landscape it.
I look forward to seeing the finished project.
June 25th – People have been asking me why I haven’t featured any pictures of the new leisure centre development at Oak Park yet. There’s a simple answer to that – it’s very, very hard to get good images of.
The site is huge, surrounded by trees and high hoardings, and you can’t get a good angle on it. But it does look like it’ll be nice; looking through the trees today I could see they had been digging the pools out under the steel frame.
It’s also a remarkably well-run site, with flowers planted outside the gate, and even water for passing dogs.
I’m watching it carefully, and as soon as there’s a better photo-op I’ll go for it.
June 18th – The other end of a long day, Walsall Wood’s Oak Park bathes in a glorious golden hour.
It doesn’t get much better than this.
May 10th – Just in the Walsall Wood border country, a new leisure centre is being built at Oak Park, on the playing field of the earlier 1970s one.
In the middle of a huge building site, I realise that now the election is over, that must be what they did with Ed Miliband’s block of stone.
Curious, but nice to know it’s not going to waste…
January 15th – Walsall Wood’s winter lido is again filling up courtesy of the inclement weather.
Once a bowling green, and passed to Walsall Council after being created for the local miners to enjoy, the old Oak Park – beside the leisure centre – continues to decay, unloved.
This is little short of a crime. Every time I see it it makes me angry – very angry indeed.
November 21st – After rain in the night, I rode past the old bowling green at Oak Park on my way to work, sadly noting that it was starting to flood once more for winter. If we have much more rain, in a week or two, this will again be a pond.
There had been groundworks here in the Summer, and I hoped it was to fix the blocked land drain causing the problem; but no such luck.
It seems this forgotten, forlorn park – created by, and for the miners of Walsall Wood to enjoy in perpetuity as a break from the darkness – is to be forever neglected by a council that don’t understand or value it’s significance.
It makes me angry. Very angry indeed.
March 21st – Off to the new Screwfix at Walsall Wood in the morning for some odds and ends, I made a point of checking out the flooded bowling green in the old, neglected and dilapidated Oak Park. Still flooded, but with waters receding, it’s still a tragic sight. This used to be the pride of the community, left to become a waterlogged marsh with no sign of resolution. Walsall Council have allowed this to happen with poor maintenance, and stood by as it continued from one year to the next.
This land is supposed to be held in trust for the community to benefit.
The only community benefiting from this sorry mess is the wildfowl one – these two mallards were having a ball.
March 4th – The old bowling green at Oak Park is still flooded, and it still breaks my heart. But passing this evening, it made for a remarkable sunset.
Nice as the scene is, I wish the authorities could fix the flood, and show the park some love. It used to be such a lovely place.
February 18th – A great sky tonight, and a good sunset although I wasn’t in a good place to catch it. The day had been showery, but mostly dry and sunny, with a low wind. I really feel right now that the weather is, at last, settling down a bit.
I was on the lookout for good views of the sky on my way home from Walsall, and found myself unable to get any, but plenty of urban textures and skylines.
I bet it was beautiful at Chasewater, or up on Barr Beacon…
February 12th – Will it never stop? Have we somehow opened a portal to weather hell? After a wet, cold and punishingly hard ride to Darlaston very early, I left in the afternoon with a 30mph wind behind me. In what was a heart-in-mouth ride, I rode up Navvys Hill into Rushall at 35mph and made it home in only a shade over 30 minutes.
Avoiding the danger of crosswinds, I tacked over Oak Park and noticed the bowling green here still flooded. I have been told by the Council that the flood is due to a broken drain, and will be sorted out. I was promised a press release, to no avail.
This still breaks my heart – this used to be such a fine little park. It’s like seeing an old friend become destitute.
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