Washbrook Lane – BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking

March 5th – Back to the wet, blustery weather. Escaping after a period of spannering the bike in the afternoon, the rain held off as I rode to the Orbital Centre at Bridgtown on an errand. I used the new road that curls through the industrial area that’s being developed there. It’s fast, but soulless.

This is a good area for such development – former brownfield, with mining and historical contamination issues, this land is scarred, ugly and ideal for the warehouses and factories it’s sprouting. But bless me, it’s a dull ride.

Nothing is on a human scale. Everything built here is huge. Everything is massive, and punctuated by huge amounts of open space.

Modern development is a curious thing.

December 27th – I had some stuff to get from Maplin, on the Orbital Centre in Cannock. I hate cycling there – the ride is so very boring. I compensated myself by tearing up Brownhills Common first. After a run up the A5 to the Washbrook Lane junction, near the burnt-out Watermargin restaurant, I turned up the new road and over the M6 Toll flyover. They must have been having some kind of IT problem – the road wasn’t really that busy, yet there were queues at the toll gates. I’ve not seen that before. Good evening, lemmings…