November 19th – It didn’t feel icy. But it was cold, and I guess the first really winterish commute of the season. But this sign – a new appearance today at Moor Street Station – seems to indicate lawyers have been earning their corn somewhere. The language is mealy mouthed too.
Oh well, it kept a sign maker busy somewhere…
October 2nd – I parked the bike and popped into the gents at Moor Street Station for a pee.
It didn’t apply to me. I wasn’t wearing a dress.
July 7th – Oh my goodness, this is geeky. But it appeals to my sense of the absurd. This road sign on the ‘old’ A5 near Mile Oak isn’t unique, but it’s certainly rather unusual. What makes it so is not the restriction and advice it gives, but the accidental inclusion of the road number C0036. Just about every road in the UK has a number to the Ministry of Transport (or whatever it’s called these days) and to the local authority, but in theory, only the familiar A and B class roads are allowed to be marked on signage.
There are, actually, five classes of road – A through D, in order of major to minor, and U, meaning unclassified, even though they actually are. Maps for public consumption only use A&B, and the remaining numbers are intended for administrative use only, but occasionally, in cases such as this, due to CAD or administrative errors, a C or D number will creep on to a sign.
This one has been in place since the bypass was built, a good few years ago now, and always raises a wry smile.
June 15th – Yesterday, a local tweeter spotted something amusing outside our local newsagents in Brownhills. I posted it on my main blog. Passing this afternoon, I took stock myself. The original was still there, as well as these other three. Only one is spelled correctly. It’s been claimed that this is a joke. Is it? Marketing ploy? Not working for me.
I have no idea what’s going on here at all. It takes all sorts, I suppose…
March 14th – Monkeying through the back streets of Walsall Wood on an errand today, I traversed Hollanders Bridge, the pedestrian-only canal crossing next to Binary Wharf. Closing the bridge to through traffic years ago cut off Queen Street from the Lichfield Road side of the canal, and created an orphaned stub of road that was of no consequence until a new housing development was constructed adjacent to it, on the site of an old computer business. Somewhat cringingly, the road-stub was christened “Steep Bridge Way’.
Way back in August, 2011, local blogger The Stymaster noted the original sign was badly spelled; then, in May 2012, I spotted that sign had been removed. It seems to have been finally replaced.
One wonders at the cost, and how slowly the gears of bureaucracy can grind in such matters…
September 16th – I keep passing this sign at the back of the shops in Brownhills, just off Great Charles Street. The temptation to whip out a marker pen and append a ‘h’ there is getting way too strong.
Salad vegetables need love too…
April 16th – Signage is an interesting thing. Passing the Anchor and Anchor Bridge on my way back to Brownhills I noticed these two examples. Of the dog water, I’d be interested if anyone had actually ever charged for that, or whether it encouraged any patrons.
‘Fancy a beer, Bob?’
‘Not here, we need to find somewhere I can get free water for Fido’
I’m not knocking it, just interested in the thought process. It took effort to do that, to satisfy what the sign writer saw as a market. Curious.
The canal distance markers sprung up like mushrooms when the canal footpaths were rebuilt here about 8 years ago. A fantastic project, it did involve some inexplicable decisions, like closing off access to the canal from the Pelsall Road bridge. Sadly, someone forgot to tell the guy casting these expensive, cast iron signs, and the distance to the Pelsall Road is painted out on every one. Unfortunate.
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