March 13th – Coming back up Brownhills High Street I encountered more than the usual share of morons. It was clearly drive like an idiot day, and yet again I appear to have missed the memo. This vehicle – operating as part of Walsall’s Ring and Ride service, the transport provider for people with limited mobility. Is the driver trying to increase the customer base? Note they’re already indicating left when they overtake. Idiot. And yes, my lights were on…
DX10GXS, 6:20pm, March 13th 2011.
March 8th – At the far end of the Tame Valley Canal, bisecting the M5/M6 interchange at Ray Hall, it meets the Birmingham and Rushall Canals and the somewhat inaccurately named Rushall Junction. This is a wonderful spot, even though it is surrounded by the roar of traffic… Maybe because it’s so tranquil. To the west, the twin spires of Wednesbury are clearly visible along the valley, and to the south east, the inviting cycleway to Birmingham, which soon diverges from the canal and cuts through the green lung of the Sandwell Valley nature reserve. To the north, the canal is arrow straight through the nine uphill locks to Longwood Junction, from where it winds it’s contour route through Aldridge and Walsall Wood to Brownhills. I love this stretch of canal, and just wish the towpaths were better. In places, they are in awful condition, and in damp conditions can be a real trial.
March 6th – Back in Darlaston today. Riding up the hill from Walsall town centre, I noticed the Old Clinic in Bradford Street. Clearly vacant, it seems to be doing nothing except acting as parking-clamper bait. I know nothing of this building, or its history. But it is rather handsome. I love the leaded lights. Wonder who owns it? Let us hope that Walsall’s Municipal Arsonists haven’t spotted this one yet…
February 29th – I left work in the light, which steadily faded as I approached Walsall. Another lovely sunset was trying to grab the Black Country’s attention. The trouble with good urban sunsets is finding the right view to set them off. Just as I turned into Scarborough Road in Pleck, I glanced over the canal bridge wall. Beautiful.
February 24th – Saint Matthews Hall – sometime church hall, Walsall County Courthouse and wine bar, has been turned in a specialist real ale pub by Wetherspoons, and by all accounts it’s a decent transformation. I’d not noticed before, but it’s lit with colour shifting, high power LED lighting. I’m not shire what to make of it; it looks gimmicky and cheap, but it is rather impressive. A curious thing…
February 24th – I took plenty of photos in the morning, as it was another wonderful morning – but sadly, I left the camera in the wrong mode and they were all awful. Luckily, I realised my mistake, and returning from Walsall at 7pm, I took some shots of a peculiarly deserted town. This seemed odd to me; when I was a youth, the euphemistically branded ‘nightime economy’ was normally well underway by this time, but it seems not to be the case now. Few were at the bus stands, and few outside the bars and pubs. Bridge Street was deserted, and the town hall looked imperious in the street light. An odd end to an oddly draining week.
February 22nd – After a thoroughly awful day at work, I disembarked from the train at Walsall to find myself travelling home through a soft, pervasive drizzle. The town was looking particularly down-at-heel in the dusk, although, it has to be said, twilight at 5:45 is a wonderful thing right now. Walsall has never been blessed with architectural complexity, and on days like this, it really, really shows. I love this place with all my heart, but by jove, it’s very hard to on days like this…
February 16th – There are some things that Wasall Council does very well. It’s countryside services and estates team are wonderful. Rangers, craftsmen and volunteers work hard to look after the acres and acres of common, heath, park and woodland that the borough covers – most of which remains unknown and unexplored to the majority of citizens, which is sad. Here, taking a spin round Brownhills Common on a grey Thursday I noted that someone is gradually repairing the boardwalk, and appears to be doing some coppicing. Excellent stuff.
February 15th – One of the last vestiges of ‘old’ Park Street in Walsall isn’t actually to be found in Park Street at all – it’s in St. Pauls Street, just behind the old Bus Station Offices, themselves sited in what was built as the Victorian Blue Coat School. On a loading bay door, normally propped open with stillages, there’s a sign indicating that this is the correct entry to the bar of The Priory Hotel, which, as far as I recall, closed in the 1980’s. The access way now forms the loading bay to MacDonalds, but it is the clothes shop next to it that was the pub. Probably better closed, in my day it had a fearsome reputation. Now all that remain are this sign, classically 70’s Ansell’s brewery style, and the two odd mosaic artworks on the front.
February 14th – Hidden away in back street of Walsall, surrounded by factories, sits a real gem. The New Inn – or Pretty Bricks, as it is known, is a real, bustling Black Country boozer. Offering a variety of real ale, a real fire and a lively bar, this pub has been a staple of traditional ale aficionados for years. In the late sixties and early seventies, there was a folk club upstairs where acts like Billy Connoly and Jasper Carrott gigged. It closed for a while, but the hostelry has reopened, and seems to have a good future ahead. The ‘Pretty Bricks’ name stems from the attractive, tiled frontage. This is a pub worth journeying to.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 