Sunday February 14th 2021 – The snowdrops are shaping up excellently this spring, I must say. I had thought the cold weather might stunt or harm them, but that’s not the case.
Coming up a very windswept and damp Barracks Lane, these delicate little flowers growing beside the vet’s paddock at Warrenhouse were just the beautiful thing I needed to see on a grey, late winter Sunday.
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March 15th – The first real ride out for the hell of it in a few weeks proved to be a real tonic. Not far: Just up over to Walsall Wood, Lazy Hill then around the lanes of Lower Stonnall, Hilton and Warrenhouse, but a delight all the same.
I hadn’t been in these lanes for the devil of it for so long. It felt like coming home – and the flowers, views and rain-sodden landscape made me feel at once refreshed and home again.
Whatever happens in coming months, I’ll always have this, my spiritual home.
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June 19th – I swung past the island on the Warrenhouse at 221 Hay, where the Lichfield Road meets Barracks Lane. I was heading to Stonall, but the display of flowers on the verge caught my eye.
I’m not sure who plants the verge here, whether it’s the garden centre or vets – both nearby – but it’s always beautiful, no matter what time of year you look.
At the moment, poppies are the order of the day. Huge poppies, of several different colours. But other flowers are in the mix too, and it’s just a wonderful, chaotic riot of colour.
I’m sure many drivers pass this by unnoticed; I commend you not to. It’s a fantastic thing, so why not take a look next time you’re in the area?
April 10th – Down at the Warehouse, Where the Lichfield Road and Barracks Lane Cross, a horse’s neigh from where the Staffordshire Hoard found Hammerwich, some beautiful flowers by the horse pasture. Forget me nots, wallflowers, blackcurrant, daffodils, hyacinth and others vie for attention in a busy hedgerow.
A gorgeous sight on what was a blustery, rather cold day.
January 1st – New Years Day 2016, and the weather is so unseasonably temperate that calendula are flowering on the verge in Barracks Lane, just at the Warrenhouse, near Brownhills. And they aren’t the only thing.
I welcome the colour and cheerfulness, but this can’t be right, can it?
August 21st – A grey and depressing day with a heavy, punishing wind. On my way home, for a change, I rode over Springhill and Barracks Lane down to the Lichfield Road, and came into Brownhills that way.
On the crossroads of Barracks Lane and Lichfield Road, what I think must be one of the oldest buildings in Ogley Hay and wider Brownhills; Warrenhouse Farm’s barn.
Now converted into a dwelling, I’m sure parts of this stone and brick structure are very old indeed; the farm here was where the Warren Keeper lived, who kept the rabbits on Ogley Hay for hunting – hence the Warrener’s Arms pub. Another noted resident was William Roberts, who tried to retire here, but found it too quiet and he soon returned to the bright lights and bustle of Brownhills.
These days, Warrenhouse is no longer a farm; it is private houses and a noted veterinary surgery, but this was the closest building to the location of the Staffordshire Hoard, found only a couple of hundred metres away, and is therefore evidence of a much earlier time, before Brownhills itself.
The converted barn has some lovely flowerbeds running around it too; such a delight on a grey day.
December 17th – I went out in darkness, and found myself in a refreshingly cold night, with a huge, beautiful, partially cloud obscured moon. I rode up the canal intending to visit Chasewater, but spent ages instead experimenting more with long exposure photography.
I’m not a photographer, I never learned any technical stuff. What I know I learned by trial and error, and finding this camera offered me a couple of really long exposures, I’ve been trying them out.
The landscape over Home Farm at Sandhills, Ogley Junction and Warrenhouse yielded some fairly interesting results, but I think I need more practice…
February 18th – Down at the junction of Barracks Lane and Lichfield Road, in Brownhills, not far from where the Staffordshire Hoard was found, there’s a filed of horses, which I think belong to nearby Warrenhouse Farm. At the entrance to this field, I spotted this two delightful patches of snowdrops in the hedgerow. Beautiful and delicate, yet somehow hardy, they are a marker, a signal. THeir appearance means that spring cannot be far away…
January 14th – A cold, clear, crisp, beautifully frosty winter day. At last. Normally, on days like this I’d wrap up warm and head for Cannock Chase. Sadly, I wasn’t up to that, so settled for a sunset pootle around Brownhills and Warrenhouse. The views from Barracks Lane over Home Farm were gorgeous, as was the dusk over the canal near Ogley Junction. I really regretted not being in better condition. I bet the Trent Valley was gorgeous tonight…
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