December 4th – Circumstances appear to have dictated that sadly, these signs are now necessary at Blake Street Station. Sometimes, it comes to me that we live in a cold, hard world.
My thanks go out for the kind, patient and dedicated work of the Samaritans. Bless them all.
Nobody need suffer alone.
August 9th – I was pleased to note that someone has taken it upon themselves to paint and restore the old milepost at the top of the Black Path on the Watling Street in Brownhills. The sign, which is quite old, has been broken the way it is for as long as I can remember, but it’s nice to see it white with the remaining test picked out in black. I have no idea why it was erected here, or who by; it’s not in the common local style. I’m also curious as to why it says ‘Rugeley’ at the base, a detail I’d never previously noticed.
It would be nice if it could be restored to it’s original condition. I wonder what the blank arm said?
November 8th – Urban design. This really irritates me – so much so, one day I’m going to twist the sign out of the way. When on the stop line at the front of the queue leaving Birmingham New Street Station, a sign on a nearby lighting column obscures the view of the lights unless you’re in just the right position. Usually, you’re surrounded by traffic, or in bright sunlight, obscuring the other signals.
I’ve been through here in a van and it’s no better, really. I wish people would think about this stuff – it really is time for less clutter signage at junctions.
September 8th – This is a relic of a different time, and most people never, ever notice it. This barcode sign, fixed to a lamp post on the Chester Road in Brownhills, just down from the Shire Oak, is a remnant of a system devised in the the eighties and implemented in the nineties for automatically assessing road maintenance. Surveying vehicles would drive the roads, checking the surface, just as they do now, but in the absence of cheap, accurate GPS, onboard systems looked for markers like this. Upon registering one, the recorder then reset a distance counter. The marker sign was read automatically, and the location of a defect being recorded by the distance from the last marker seen. Thus repair vehicles could locate faults the same way. Each sign gave a unique number. The whole network was obsolete in less than a decade, but the signs remain, puzzling anyone who notices them.
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