July 22nd – And near Shelfield, Grange Farm at High Heath has a good few acres of barley this year, ripening beautifully in the July sun.
This is an interestingly un-uniform crop of undulating height, and with a good variety of other plants interspersed through it. I’m wondering if it’s organically produced, or a traditional variety – most modern crops are so uniform they’re boring.
July 14th – A desperately grey journey home in fine rain. Totally uninspiring. Even my mates the coos of Jockey Meadows have – literally – moved on to pastures new, and the water meadow is recovering from their attentions. It looks good, although you’d not think it at first glance. But a lot of the invasive fast growing stuff has been grazed out, there’s lots of soft earth and mud turned by the lads and plenty of poo to spread the fertile love.
I love this land. It’s like a barometer of the seasons, and even without the coos, it’s fascinating.
June 29th – Intrigued and saddened to see the Four Crosses pub in Shelfield – the last pub in the area, closed a few months ago – now up for sale as a ‘residential development site’.
Planning permission was granted some time ago to build a care home behind the pub and adjoining it; the developer recently tried to get the admission criteria loosened to allow those needing care additional to senior citizens to be admitted. Combined with the pub’s closure, there was a furore in the community and false rumours it was to be a drug, alcohol, mental health or bail hostel.
I would imagine that permission has been denied, or is not looking positive, despite rewording to exclude contentious groups, and the developer has decided to cut their losses and sell.
The building was granted meaningless Asset of Community Value status and a petition raised, too. Both have proven now to be pointless. From a development that looked like it may retain the pub, it now looks likely the building might be lost altogether under more housing.
At the heart of this is a basic truth nobody seems prepared to face: you cannot force people to keep running a business they don’t want to. It’s the huge elephant in the room that sits unspoken in many debates about the future of once-great pubs like this one.
A cautionary tale hangs here, I think. I shall watch with interest.
June 22nd – Grange Farm at High Heath seems to operate a crop rotation system. Last year in this field near High Heath, there was a fine crop of oilseed rape. This year, it’s barley – and it seems to be ripening well.
It’s interesting to note just how uniform this crop is, and how dense the seed heads. Looks like it’s been a good season for it…
June19th – I must admit, I’m fascinated by the landfill at Highfields South, between Walsall Wood and Shelfield on the Lichfield Road. It looks and seems haphazard, but is being operated in an engineered manner. At the moment, the eastern side of the void is filled, now to about 6-8 metres above ground level with a marl cap on top. Gas bulkheads sit atop harvesting tubes inserted deep into the mound. As the pile sinks under it’s own weight and that of the cap, it evolves gas, which is harvested and powers a generating set, feeding energy into the National Grid.
Meanwhile, to the west of the void, the hole is being prepared for the next stack of waste. Systematic. Methodical.
The void existed due to marl quarrying for bricks, and the landscape is favourable for this type of thing. It may not be pleasant, and we should reduce our waste as a society, but the process is very interesting.
May 28th – I came past Jockey Meadows in the early evening on my way home, in bright but cold sunshine. As usual, I cast my eyes to the right to see if there was anything interesting over the fields, and spotted three red deer – two does and a stag, all yearlings I think.
Looking healthy and better now the moult is nearly done with, they weren’t too phased by me and continued to browse the meadow.
A joyous sight, and one I’ll never tire of.
May 7th – I notice that on Jockey Meadows, the pasture field that’s genuinely a water meadow is now staffed by a heard of beef cattle again. About 10 or 12 large animals are browsing the scrub in an effort to maintain it – the cows eat the fast growing plants, and give the slow-growers chance. They also spread the fertile love in the form of cowpats.
Every time I passed them this week, the coos have been far over the other side. Only did I notice when I’d zoomed in that a passing heron was doing his bit too.
May 2nd – I had the camera, this time – although the light was pretty terrible. Heading down Green Lane late afternoon in light rain, I noticed a group of red deer near the brook at the back of Jockey Meadows. I gently approached, and saw there were at least eleven animals, some in moult, some not. They seemed content and relaxed, and tolerated my approach.
That was, until a motorbike came down the lane and spooked them.
A great sight on a grim afternoon not best suited to photography.
April 29th – To my surprise, I noted on my way home that local real ale Mecca the Four Crosses in Shelfield had closed, and was boarded up. With a planning application granted in 2012 to build a nursing home attached to it, despite the best efforts of the community, I guess it was always living on borrowed time.
With the Spring Cottage and Four Seasons gone, I don’t think there are any pubs now left in Shelfield, are there? A great sadness.
April 27th – he was leaping after bugs in a field gateway in Green Lane, Shelfield. He was a bit peeved I spotted him, as he’s clearly a cat of some gravitas who doesn’t do that sort of thing.
He glared at me just long enough for me to take this quick picture, then shot off over the fields. He looks like an adorable chap.
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