Galleries

6th December – Today didn’t start well. A really, really bad journey to work saw me leave the house, return, leave again, just make the train, then sit for ages on it going nowhere just outside Birmingham New Street. When I finally got to Moor Street, the trains there were also not running, so I cycled into Tyseley. Instead of going via Small Heath, I chanced my arm at Camp Hill-Sparkbrook- Sparkhill, which seemed a decent route. 

There is some really great architecture in this corner of south east central Brum. I noticed particularly this old pub on the corner of Shakespeare Street and Warwick Road. I think it must be all flats now, but the terracotta brickwork, architraves and panels are a thing to behold. Sadly, the elegant clocks on the tower are stopped. Few things speak more eloquently of urban decay than a static public clock.

Decmber 5th – Almost as ingrained in the life of Walsall Wood as the Drunken Duck are Oak Park and Walsall Wood Football Club. Nowadays, the old Oak Park – a collection of outdoor bowling greens, tennis courts and suchlike – is largely neglected and forgotten; the name is mostly associated with the adjacent, crumbling recreation centre, well used but nearing the end of it’s useful life. Out back is the all weather football pitch, a heavily used facility that speaks of the area’s love affair with soccer. Tonight, it was in use, with local football players training for the next big match. They looked cold. That’s dedication…

December 4th – Another gorgeous morning immediately after rain. As I headed to Shenstone to get the train, the countryside was beautiful and dramatic, and put me in mind of Joni Mitchell ‘…shivering trees standing in naked rows’. I noted that the twin towers of Shenstone are now visible on the skyline again, the smaller tower – the ruin in the churchyard – is hidden by the trees in the summer months. I love the way the gargoyles on the heavily gothic modern church tower are visible from some distance away…

December 3rd – A great journey to work. When I awoke, it was raining, heavily. But as I left the house, the rain ceased and the sun came out, making for a smooth a fast ride to the station. It felt warm and the wind was at my back. Passing Little Aston church, I noticed the meadow before it was wreathed in mist and looking rather beautiful.

All the time, the sky became more and more gorgeous. This was a great winters day. We’ve had way too few of these so far this season.

December 2nd – I was still knackered from the past few days, and couldn’t raise the wherewithal to get out until after dark. When I did, by jove, was it parky. There was a thickening ground frost, but it was still and the bike went quickly. I spun out to the common and headed down the old railway line in the darkness. On the way, I startled a group of red deer does who were stomping and snorting together for warmth on the shelter of the cycle track; my light picked our the vapour of their breath as they fled down the embankment. On the old cement works bridge, it was silent, and over the factory yards and forgotten corners of Apex Road and the industrial estates nearby it was also eerily quiet. Looping back through Clayhanger, the night was dark, but the lights where on at the chapel and it looked great over the fields. After what seems like the longest autumn ever, it’s now cold, clear, crystal winter. This is more like it…

November 29th – While we’re on the subject of architectural disasters, the new Premier Inn on the waterfront development near the art gallery looks better at night – mainly because it’s grim black colour and peculiar yellow window frames are muted by the darkness. Nearly ready to open, the lights were on and made for an interesting shot or two over the canal basin. Over a decade since development here began, the basin is still overlooked by derelict and unoccupied buildings. Not a great success story, it has to be said.

November 29th – Walsall Station is an odd, ugly place. The original, stunning and imperious victorian station was demolished in the 1970s and the current concrete and steel afterthought bolted into the then new Saddlers Centre shopping mall. Partially in a tunnel, visually the external aspect is very busy and jarrs the eye. To use, it’s grey, dingy and unpleasant, full of dark spots and blind corners, which multiply and threatenn at night.

An awful place.

November 28th – First decently sunny, clear morning for weeks. It was cold, though. The trains seemed stuffed again, so I cycled from the city centre, over Camp Hill to Tyseley. At the railway bridge next to the station, I took in the city skyline in decent light. Amazing how much of it is really quite new. It’s all here: Beetham Tower, Masshouse, The Hiatt, The Cube. Lovely. My city, my future.

November 27th – A little further on, I was cutting through Oak Park when I noticed the old bowling green was flooded, and illuminated by the floodlights of the current bowls club. I couldn’t resist the chance for a photo. Immediately after I took the first shot, somebody switched all the lights off, giving me another opportunity to experiment with long exposure night photos. I’m really beginning to get the hang of this…

November 27th – I see Christmas is rolling in, then. I’ve noticed Christmas lights up in Brownhills, a rather pathetic effort in Shelfield and tonight, Walsall Wood’s Christmas Tree was lit up in St. John’s churchyard. This is an interesting thing – Walsall Council long ago stopped buying trees for the lesser, satellite towns like Brownhills and Aldridge, and encouraged places to dig their own hole. Walsall Wood, for the last few years, has had a tree paid for out of the pockets of Councillors Anthony Harris and Mike Flower, a rare and welcome act of personal largesse. I don’t know for sure, but I expect they’ve done the same again.

We may not agree politically, but this is an act of true public spiritedness for which I thank them. Cheers, chaps.