Tag: old buildings

July 11th – Of all the little towns and villages of the Black Country, one of the places I’m fondest of is Great Bridge. Still bustling and busy, almost orphaned by the Black Country Spine Road, it survives almost in defiance of nearby out of town developments and larger town centres. 

It’s a place where it pays to look up. Lost above the shop fronts (which curiously often don’t alighn with the storey above), a remarkable stucco and ghost sign. 

Down a side street, one of the best Carribean meals you can find for miles around.

June 3rd – I’ve often thought that one of the most attractive things in a person – male or female – is if they don’t realise just how attractive they are. As I’ve got older, I’ve begun to realise this applies to places too. 

One of the reasons Walsall is such a gem architecturally – and it is, despite the abuse of it’s more conventional historic assets – is that it doesn’t realise just what a wealth of diverse riches it has. Stop in any suburb or part of town. Look around. Somewhere, close by, there will be something remarkable – not necessarily beautiful, but always engaging. And the town as a whole doesn’t really know.

I came into Walsall from Aldridge and took a route through Highgate. This house caught my eye while I waited for a reversing driver to complete their manoeuvre – just study it; take it in. Possibly not at it’s best, but from the chimney pots down to the front wall the detail is incredible. A fantastic roofline and gables, and the detail in the window arches.

There are treats like this all over this town, and Walsall just doesn’t know about them.

August 16th – When I made my predictions last month for the next historically significant Walsall building to die tragically in a fire, I forgot about the former Jabez Cliff works. A beautiful victorian building, left to decay with lax security. It had become a magnet for vagrants and junkies, so I guess it was only a matter of time. Yesterday, it was pretty much gutted in a very large fire, the extent of which was clear as I passed this morning. By my return this evening, the beautiful frontage had been demolished. Still, it’ll be much easier to build new stuff on the site now that the troublesome old pile is gone… and with it, yet more of our precious heritage.

Why does nobody in power at Walsall care enough to stop this happening?