Tag: Wolverhampton

#365daysofbiking Classical gas

March 5th – The BOC plant in Wolverhampton isn’t the most photogenic of things  but it certainly seems interesting as I grabbed this sunset from a moving train on the way home.

The huge yard with thousands of canisters and metal bottles supplies industrial gases for everything from brewing to welding. It is massive, and a bit otherworldly if I’m honest.

The sunset looked gorgeous and mat a mundane, industrial thing appear like something from a science fiction film.

You don’t get that every day!

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#365daysofbiking New ways out

May 27h – Recovered from the punishing excesses of Saturday’s ride, I headed out again on a grey bank holiday lunchtime for a gentle bimble once more to the west.

Finding decent routes past the dreadful Cannock/Great Wyrley/Churchbridge morass is always the challenge heading out that way and today, I took the canal to Brewood, through Wolverhampton – a lovely run of waterway I often forget about. The towpaths were good, and the only downside was an. encounter with a particularly unpleasant boater at Wolverhampton.

Leaving the canal at Brewood, I rediscovered this gorgeous village and vowed to return when the shops were open. The sun periodically came out and accompanied me north through Whiston, Bradley, Copenhall and Weeping Cross.

A ritual visit to the Wimpy at Milford reloaded the fuel tanks and kept me warm in the steady rain that fell on my way home.

All in all a nice 58 mile ride in lovely countryside.

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#365daysofbiking Station approach

May 22nd – Something that’s mostly been happening beyond my notice although I pass through regularly is the rebuilding of Wolverhampton City Railway Station. All of a sudden I notice from a waiting train that steelwork has sprung up and hoardings have been erected at the north end of the old station.

I don’t get the hate for Wolves station. It’s a bland, semi-modernist, semi-brutalist station in the postwar style common in the midlands on the West Coast Main Line. Save for the signs, at Wolverhampton you could be in Stafford, Tamworth, Coventry. It’s light, it’s open, it’s dull but functional.

My only criticism really is the steep access bridge and weird separate bridge for lift access. But it works.

Now it seems we’re in for a new structure, with new facilities and it’ll be interesting to see how it develops. I hope it’s better in outlook and ambition than the risible New Street revamp, and also that it has more aforethought and usability than the monstrous, ill-conceived access bridge at Telford.

Frankly, I’m not optimistic.

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June 5th – An awful day that found me running around the Black Country on errands. A strong wind, threatening rain and late for a meeting caused me to hop on a train at Wolverhampton.

Wolverhampton station is functional, but I dislike it – it always feels harsh, inhuman and exposed. With threatening skies today it was almost dystopian.

February 1st – An odd morning. I had to go to Tipton, then Telford and as it was raining when I left, I headed to catch the train. Sadly, assuming the service I caught stopped at Tipton when it didn’t, I ended up at Wolverhampton. With a 30 minute wait in store and the weather clearing, rather than hang around, I hopped onto the canal at Horseley Fields and rode to Tipton on the canal.

Ninety minutes and a breakfast later, I took a train to Wolverhampton, and then one from there to Telford, so I did a sort of loop around the north Black Country.

It actually felt springlike at Wolverhampton, but the picture doesn’t convey it at all. But the weather was warm, and dry save for a strengthening wind, and there was a definite joy in the spring flower shoots on the towpaths and verges I passed.

February already – where did January go?

November 10th – It was a very long, tiring day; I was in work early, and in the afternoon, made a couple of errands by bike in the Black Country and Wolverhampton. Whilst there, I was called back to work take on a very urgent job, so I hopped on the train to Coseley. Sadly, as I boarded the train, it started to rain, and it caught me in a downpour from Coseley to Darlaston.

I found myself starting work again at 5pm, soaking wet and cold. I finally got home around 10.

I love my job but sometimes it’s unrequited.

September 17th – Unusually, I had to visit a supplier in Wolverhampton late in the afternoon. With a strong wind blowing from the west, it was a fun, easy ride home along the canal, which I picked up near Horseley Fields on the Ring Road. 

I notice 540 Degrees, the cat-loving street artist whose work I’ve spotted before has been to Wolverhampton. I know I shouldn’t, but I do like his work.

May 31st – A really bad commute home this evening. The train I was due to catch – the 16:08 from Telford to Brum – was running 30 minutes late. Then cancelled, which meant there wasn’t another train until 16:51. Then it reappeared on the system, and rolled up at about 16:40… to terminate short in Wolverhampton. Resigned to my fate, I changed onto the stopper train from Wolves to Walsall that stops at every anthill and lamp-post. I arrived in Walsall – this train itself late – at about 18:25. I should have been at home with my feet up by then, and I still had to cycle home.

Wolverhampton station is a barren, soulless place. Like the city itself, I’ve tried to love it, but can’t, sadly. Always seems way too harsh and way too neglected to me. It matched my mood perfectly.