WME Flickr Focus - October 2025

Something had to give eventually. After four long months of total Exploration Extra domination, the WME Flickr photostream has finally returned to a normality of sorts by welcoming additions from the West Midlands region again. This means my pictorial exploits can live up to my blog title after all - here's what has arrived during October...

My first port of call involves the safe hands of WME Dudley where the Black Country Living Museum takes centre stage. The regional attraction's 'Forging Ahead' project has involved the creation of a several new exhibits showcasing local life from the 1940s to the 1960s, hence my photos take inspiration from comic annuals, soap sud packages and domestic breakfast tables alongside the more usual fare of bus blinds and boat numbers. In Sedgley, the Beacon Hotel has empty beer glasses drained of Dark Ruby Mild while Belle Vale over in Halesowen ensures I meet my street sign obligations without too much bother.

WME Walsall is next up, breezing around Brownhills for glimpses of Becks Bridge (on the Wyrley & Essington Canal), the Anchor Garage on Lindon Road and even a piece of Eeyore street art. A succession of mostly brown street signs also muscle in, comprising the likes of Pauls Coppice and Pier Street. This is backed by WME Birmingham which manages to avail itself of respective pub letterings from both the Aston Hotel and the Bartons Arms, the latter gem having worryingly closed again recently despite being a spectacular setting for a pint. 

When I'm not obsessed with Exploration Extra matters, you can almost guarantee that WME Wolverhampton is never far from an update (or several). A diet of Bantock Park leaves and blooms might be good for photostream health, whereas the Banks's 'Tells It Like It Is' artworks feel somewhat forlorn after retrospective news that the brewery is closing. Bilston shoehorns in its Lidl supermarket and an evening extract for the Gate Inn near Priestfield.

Beyond those four main contributors, things get much more piecemeal. WME Solihull pays a shapely visit to Birmingham International railway station, whereas WME Staffordshire revisits Awbridge Lock near Trysull for its solitary newbie. The All Nations in Madeley will be similarly familiar to watchers of WME Telford, and Bedworth Market is known on WME Warwickshire too, leaving WME Worcestershire to bring up the rear thanks to the absurdly-named hamlet of Bentley Pauncefoot (which sounds like it ought to be one of Nick's posh chums). Cheers!