Tag: Walsall Wood

August 11th – Thanks to The Stymaster of Pigblog fame who spotted this and tweeted it for the attention of Walsall Council. Until he posted, I was unaware that the bottom end of Queen Street by Binary Wharf had been renamed. Dictionary for town planning, I feel. Wonder how much that’ll cost to correct?

If the Express & Star are reading this, hope you get lost trying to find it…

August 10th – My dislike of the Walsall Wood pithead sculpture is well known and somewhat controversial. I actually think that it’s not only aesthetically dreadful, but badly engineered and ill thought out. In the construction, there’s a random mix of stainless steel fasteners and normal ones, which stands out; looking at the frame there are multiple sets of holes that appear to have been redrilled, but this may be intentional. The sign commemorating the pit seems to face the wrong way, and cannot be read from the road, whilst the construction is topped by a pennant bearing the initials NCB, for the National Coal Board. The NCB never actually operated the pit, but oversaw it’s closure, which shows a particular ignorance of history.

August 10th – The old Beehive Pub in Hall Lane, Walsall Wood closed years ago, and has since been a foundry and is now the offices of a construction company. I’m sure I remember an old, painted sign on the side, but it now seems to have gone. It’s an interesting building architecturally, made as it is of very red terracotta bricks, once produced locally. Not so much a beautiful building as very striking.

August 9th – Down by Goblin Woods, just off Green Lane, Walsall Wood, there’s a field of barley gently ripening in the late afternoon sun. It’s an interesting strain as it’s very short, and I think it must be being organically grown due the high quantity of weeds in the crop. Nevertheless, it looks gorgeous against the trees, and is in superb condition. Wonder if it’s being grown for brewing?

August 6th – an afternoon visit to a good friend in Walsall turned into an early hours night ride home. It seems ages since I last did this. Flowing liquid through the streets at 1am was a delight and very, very exhilerating. Walsall Wood was eerily quiet, with only the waiting taxis showing any sign of life. I love this time of day. Must do it more often.

July 4th – The day started bright enough, but finished a dull, headache-grey overcast. Returning home from work I hopped onto the canal at Walsall Wood and headed towards Brownhills. I noted that one of the two pairs of breeding swans on the canal were active and had six surviving cygnets. In recent years this has been a large clutch, but 6 or 7 years ago it seemed usual to see broods of 8 or more. I wonder if this reduction in cygnets is just normal or if something darker is at work? The other pair only managed two.

June 30th – Unusually in mid summer, a night ride. Returning from a drink in Rushall, I returned via Green Lane, Walsall Wood, to see if there were any owls, badgers, bats or deer about. Plenty of bats, but other fauna evaded me. The Black Cock bridge is a notorious feature of the area formerly known as Bullens Heath, being steep, rickety and narrow. It looks even more forbidding at night.

June 29th – Nipping to Aldridge later that day (I cruise through all the posh places dontchaknow), I took the canal up through Walsall Wood. As summer advances, the floral pallet changes. The hedgerows and wasteland are now full of beautiful white bindweed, or Creeping Jenny as it’s sometimes known. Although considered a weed by most, I love the ivory white flowers and variety of bugs they attract.

June 23rd – swinging down Maybrook Road on a wet afternoon commute, I took a look at the new factory being built there on the former site of the Walsall Wood Pit spoil heaps.Unusually, it’s a new engineering facility, which is a rarity these days. Sadly, it looks rather hideous, but it’s jobs I guess, and you can’t have everything. This land has been idle for decades and it’s good to see it now being used.