Tag: Walsall

March 15th – Passing through Pleck on an evening commute at sunset, mashing into the wind. Not a pleasant ride, but stopping to wipe my eyes, I noticed what a lovely effect the light was having on the wonderful row of terraces on the Walsall Road.

Such fine chimneys, and remarkable symmetry. Even the sun over the canal – from what normally could barely be described as good view – was gorgeous.

I love these spring and autumn sunset commutes. Shame Walsall doesn’t have many good places to catch them from.

March 8th – There’s clearly a traffic survey going on along the feeder routes on Walsall Ring Road. A huge amount of monitoring equipment has been temporarily installed at junctions and crossings, some of it quite high tech.

In a journey between Lichfield Road and Ida Road I must have seen 20 different items of equipment – cameras, motion sensors etc.

This must be costing a lot of money. Wonder what’s going on?

March 7th – I don’t often ride through The Butts in Walsall, although it’s a lovely place. The tightly packed streets of traditional terraces are lined with parked cars, and any ride through this fascinating place is marred by conflict with other traffic, which is a great shame as I miss scenes like this.

Stopping to wait for my companion caught up further back, I looked up Borneo Street to see a perspective sunset, perfectly replete with TV aerials, chimneys and the ghostly white LED street lights.

I could really love this place, were it not such a challenge to cycle around.

March 5th – I met these two interesting characters whilst returning in the morning from a trip into Walsall on an errand. I had planned to go to the annual bike jumble at Eddington, but my health was still not great and the weather – windy, with periodic showers – was so damned unpleasant, I just couldn’t be doing with it. Which is sad, but we usually get a better day for it.

Tacking into the wind, I decided to try the cycleway down the Goscote Valley on the way back, which was a bit of a mistake. Nipping down Cartridge lane to join the cycleway, both the donkey and horse were stood by the fence, so I said hello. The donkey was grumpy and walked away, but the horse happily had his nose stroked and seems sad when I made to go. 

That donkey is a lovely animal, but I don’t think it likes me very much!

March 1st – Another grey day, but it felt warmer. At dinner time, I had to venture back into Walsall from Darlaston and took the canal, which was a mistake: the works to relay the towpath have made sections not impassible but hard going.

Passing over the Bentley Mill Way Aqueduct, I looked down at the works below. Running three months late, the road has been closed and totally relaid – but the main bottleneck that is the narrowness of  the bridge I’m standing on – has not been touched. I’m at a loss here to understand how anything other than the footpath and possibly drainage has been improved.

Sometimes it’s hard to see the benefit in road schemes until they operate in practice. I hope that’s the case here.

February 26th – Really not well at all, I did a few hours of necessary stuff at work and crawled home mid-afternoon. I wanted a change, so I came over Church Hill, and stopped to take some photos while up there. 

Church Hill is one of those conundra that I find troubling. St. Matthews is as beautiful as ever, and the views would be splendid were they not obscured by mature, beautiful trees. I want rid of some of them for a better view, but I also don’t…

No sign of the peregrines on the bellcote, but this is the first time I realised you can see the Workhouse Guardian’s offices from up here – and they look better from such a distance, and also, terribly out of place. Marooned.

St. Matthews itself is suffering the rogues of the weather, and desperately needs some love. I hope the CofE can get around to giving this venerable old church a bit of love soon.

February 23rd – After a bloody awful day that started well enough but slid rapidly downhill mid-afternoon, I just wanted to get home. I was cold, I hadn’t had enough to eat and I felt lower than a snake’s knees. 

I hauled myself up the hill from Pleck as I didn’t trust my judgement on the ring road this evening, and rolled liquid through the centre of Walsall. Cutting down Darwall Street to pop something in the post, I was caught up short by the view. The bus station, the lights, something about it. 

I was so cold, I didn’t stop again. Some times, you just have to keep on moving.

February 22nd – Dat moon. I first spotted it when I was coming home late along the ring road in Walsall – large and full, it doesn’t seem like five minutes since it was a new crescent, which I suppose means this year will pass very quickly.

I liked the contrast of the electric, traffic-choked urban night and the ancient light of the moon. 

February 17th – Only a couple of photos today as the commute was horrid both ways – driving, squally rain. I was cheered however, by spotting this grumpy-looking sentry on duty at St. John’s Church in Pleck. I don’t think he lives there, but was certainly availing himself of the shelter to watch the world go by.

I clearly didn’t amuse him. But he’s a big lad and I suspect someone loves him very much.