There’s change in the air at Lichwheeld Towers so it got me thinking about my time in the Midlands. I realised I have lived longer down south now than in the town where I was born and raised in the North East. It’s been nearly twenty years since I had to alter my broad accent to be understood. I’ve become soft without the wind off the North Sea. I’ve learned to love chips with batter on them.
Thumbing my worn and battered Birmingham A to Z I formulated a plan to try and visit all the places I have lived in the West Midlands, taking in a few other things along the way. With a whole day spare I set off early with the intention of meeting up with a bike reuse project in Wolverhampton and a whistle stop tour of all my previous abodes for a quick photo.
Leaving town on the Walsall Road I turned towards Burntwood, heading for Hammerwich.
Through the village I took Meerash Lane, pausing at the top for breath at the abandoned Meerash Farm, dwelling on the chance of some flatter towpath riding later in the day.
Crossing the toll road and the A5, my aim was to pick up the Lichfield Road for most of the journey. Another drag and I was up into Brownhills and it’s wonderful stainless steel sculpture on the roundabout commemorating the mining tradition in the town. An appropriate piece of public art and better than the elitist civic tosh we have in Lichfield.
The road to Wolves was familiar as we had traversed it many times when we were visiting family in Lichfield. You know you are getting closer to Walsall when you see the signs for the TMO’s. If you love social housing like I do, it’s hard not to get excited about a Tenant Management Organisation.
The road surface is just as wrinkled and stretched as it was and worst in the cycling zone in the margins. Back then the journey by car took until the first or second track on the second side of a TDK90, but it’s not much slower by bike with all the traffic lights and volume of traffic.
Last time I passed, this building near Bloxwich was an abandoned garage I think.
Reaching the city limits at New Invention I dropped down onto the canal for the last four miles or so.
This section of canal is flanked with houses and used as a thoroughfare by pedestrians and bikers. The water is clear and you can see the roots of the lily pads and the entangled plastic bags.
If this is what travelling on the cut is like in the Black Country I could get used to it, a really pleasant ride away from the noise of the traffic and with time to say hello to passing riders and walkers. Passing by Bentley Bridge, I came past another steel sculpture at Heath Town.
And signs that I was closing in on the city proper.
The old and the new side by side in the centre just before the train station.
Rising from the canal at the Wednesfield Road I skipped the ring road and found the first place I laid my head on foreign soil at the University halls of residence.
Through Whitmore Reans I found my next place on Newhampton Road West.
Then just round the corner to Allen Road.
One day the landlord told us he had sold the house and we had to move out in a couple of days. No problem he said, I have another house on the same road.
We didn’t last long there. The snail trails on the wallpaper of the downstairs rooms should have given us a clue as to the condition of the house, and after a few weeks we fled. I paused in the beautiful West Park for a quick snack at the bandstand.
Across the Tettenhall Road (with a cycle path now!) to my final home on Lea Road.
I really enjoyed my time in Wolverhampton, the freedom and autonomy from leaving home and the seemingly endless possibilities before the responsibility of parenthood. I heard a statistic once that said 40% of graduates end up living in the town they went to university in. The reason we left was due to wanting to get a more secure place to live, not to be at the mercy of rogue or absent landlords. Also we fancied moving to the big city, Birmingham.
Just round the corner at Bradmore was my destination for the day, the Bike Shed project on the recreation ground. I had arranged to meet the people running the scheme to see what it was all about.
More about that next time…
Lichwheeld 