October 30th – It’s good to see the site of the long-gone Superalloys factory being redeveloped. Derelict for thirty years or more, it’s stood for decades as a testament to Brownhills’ lost industrial past. Once a chemical works and known to locals as ‘The Chemical’, the land was contaminated and hard to pitch to developers. Finally, one of the last major manufacturers in the area, Castings PLC, have decided to expand onto the wasteland and the new building is positively flying up. Although it towers over Ogley Junction, I welcome the jobs and business this new factory will bring. Good news in a bleak economic landscape.

September 23rd – The old boatyard and basin at Ogley Junction have a chequered history, really. Once the home of a commercial boatyard, the truncated stub of the closed Lichfield and Hatherton canal is now being rented out for private narrowboat mooring, and is also in use as a work yard for British Waterways maintenance crews. Hopefully one day, the canal will once again extend from here to Huddlesford, near Whittington, but for now it stops at The Long Pound. Quite what’s going on with the half-car on the trailer is anyone’s guess…