Galleries

March 2nd – The old Central Boys School at Brownhills, just at the central island, known to my generation as ‘The Annexe’ is no longer a school and is now called Brownhills Activity Centre – a sort of community centre on steroids. There are all kinds of clubs and classes going on here, from adult education, to a motorcycle club and youth groups. Even at 6:15pm on a Friday, the place is buzzing. It wasn’t until I stopped to take these pictures that I realised how gorgeous the building actually is, and how wonderful it looks at night. Never really noticed before.

March 2nd – Escaping a heavy afternoon of bicycle fettling, I skipped out on a new transmission at dusk. Enjoying the freedom, I headed up over Wyrley Common for a bit, out beyond the old level crossing at the top of Engine Lane. Heading back towards the factories at dusk, I jumped half out of my skin at the surprise of being greeted from the shadows of the scrub by a ne’er do well in a grubby anorak with the hood pulled up, emanating a strong smell of dope. The transmission got quite a test, there…

Catching my breath back near the Hussey Estate, I noted how desolate the site of the old garages at the rear of the Pelsall Road had become. When I was a kid there was decent street lighting here. Only the welcoming lights of the Activity Centre next door stopped it being utterly black. An unsettling ride, for sure….

March 1st – Cycling home in the daylight for a change – I can see myself really getting used to this spring thing – I cycled down the Goscote Valley cycle trail, NCN 5. Hopping off at Pelsall, I cycled through High Heath. I hadn’t noticed this little redbrick chapel before – I think it has now been converted into a house. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and I love the preserved old-style cast iron street signs at the corner. Does anyone have more information? Funny how you can cycle past something for years without really noticing it.

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 27th – I like bike cargo hacks. This one was locked in the stand at Telford Station, and is rather well executed. A standard plastic crate, of the kind you can buy at hardware stores and DIY chains, with holes drilled in the bottom. Secured with cable ties, the ensemble only loses points for the untrimmed ties. Love the reflector and rear light attached to the box itself. Wonder what the rider carries?

February 26th – Since we’re on a bit of a refuse theme today, as I trundled up the canal to Aldridge, I stopped to look at the gulls, crows and jackdaws scavenging on the Highfields South Landfill, just behind Barons Court in Walsall Wood. This is the reality of our waste problem, and Walsall Wood and Brownhills have plenty of landfill sites. A hole has been dug – in this case, for brick marl – leaving a large, watertight void. Ideal for dumping our rubbish. Highfields is filling at an alarming rate – what’s under that vehicle looks like a combination of domestic and industrial general waste with what appears to be incinerator ash. Carrion birds are picking over the food waste. It stinks. And we can’t keep doing this. We have to cut the waste we generate. Nobody wants to live near a landfill – and the space within them is reducing, week by week. Yet mention bin regulation or recycling and we’re up in arms. It’s as if we can’t see the connection. I find it utterly depressing.

February 26th – It was a day of discarded objects, but this was odd. A single, high quality aluminium crutch, in the scrub on the inaccessible side of the canal near the aqueduct on the Anglesey Branch in Brownhills. I don’t know how it came to be there, or why. It’s vaguely unsettling. One possible explanation is that a miracle was performed here, whilst the participants were walking on water. Yeah, that’ll be it…

February 25th – Another public service announcement. The hedge clipping season continues – this time, British Waterways have flailed the hawthorn Hedge beside the canal through Catshill in Brownhills, from the Anchor Bridge to Ogley Junction. This hasn’t been done for a while and the towpath is covered with thorns. If you don’t have thornproof tyres, my advice is to avoid that bit of canal if possible for a week or two.

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…