Hub Marketing 2021: Wednesbury

Certain places have become enshrined in the Hub Marketing minutes book as heartlands locations, those 'faithful servant' sort of settings which we return to time and time again. Whilst Smethwick probably ranks as our ultimate mainstay, Wednesbury isn't far behind after becoming the focus of this August adventure...

- Robinson Brothers, Phoenix Street -

Friday 13th August 2021 hopefully won't bring any bad luck as Secretary WME takes a leisurely amble prior to the designated 11:30am rendezvous. Phoenix Street is my choice for some morning photography, focusing in on the ex-George Inn (now acting as a base for yet another hand car wash) and the Robinson Brothers Limited chemical works. The latter is a family firm originally established by three brothers in 1869 that has gone on to specialise in fine chemical production and rubber accelerators. The factory overlooks Hadley Bridge on the Wednesbury Old Canal, more of which is coming shortly.

- Let the Dartboard Duel recommence! -

The unloved expanses of Greets Green Park combine with Turner Street as the allotted hour arrives and Chairman D9 emerges from his bunker hideaway. He's keen to get straight down to business so we reclaim the Greets Green Community Hub at Harwood Street Resource Centre and then pitch up at the Fox & Goose. It seems ages since we last put our darting prowess to the test, D9 Destroyer being the reigning champion from the curtailed 2020 season. Our collective rustiness is embarrassingly apparent so it's probably wise that the adjacent walls are well protected! WME Whirlwind can barely hit the board to begin with yet somehow prevails by three legs to two, perhaps inspired by a Blondie (The Tide is High) and Bob Marley soundtrack or an opening slurp of Beardsmore bleach.

- Wherefore art the Wednesbury Old Canal? -

The Chairman isn't necessarily known for Shakespearean speeches but he certainly delivers a grand oratory as we revisit the Wednesbury Old Canal from Belper Bridge to Swan Village. The plight of this BCN backwater provokes D9's ire, the line having been abruptly decapitated by the construction of the Black Country New Road in the 1990s. Boats historically used to be able to access the Ridgacre and Balls Hill branches but nowadays even the nominal Swan Lane terminus would be hard to reach due to a proliferation of reeds blocking the channel. The towpath could make for a nice walk if not piled high with fly-tipped rubbish.

- Wednesbury Market Place -

Swan Village's demolished gas holders are in our thoughts as we pause at the Ridgacre, a Table Table chain effort next to a Premier Inn (drop in for a Doom Bar if you must). We've charted the remains of the Ridgacre Branch before although a brief reprise works well en route to Black Lake, and soon enough a 79 whisks us off to lovely Wednesbury. Always seemingly one of the lesser-heralded Black Country towns, there are some fascinating fragments for the Secretary to capture on camera. The Market Place Clock Tower was installed in 1911 to celebrate King George V's coronation while some John Taylor Duce & Sons lettering displays steadfastly above the current post office.

- Checking out the Community Hub -

Pub-wise the Hub Marketing Board have covered Wednesbury quite comprehensively over several previous trips, albeit there are some changes to report. The Turks Head (otherwise known as the Tavern) on Lower High Street is now calling itself the Seven Bar while the George has been renamed as the William Archer in honour of a long-serving local councillor. Mr D9 is particularly smitten with the second of those, not just because of its flat-roofed wedged appearance but also on account of its discount potential - two pints for less than £4, no wonder the place is so popular! All of Wednesbury life seems to be in here today and there's even cricket coverage to keep the Secretary happy (until Sibley holes out that is).  

- The Park Inn -

Another Wednesbury watering hole primed for a revisit is the Park Inn, an unassumingly plain free house on Walsall Street. Armed with respective glasses of M&B Mild and Carling, we settle in the front snug to 'admire' the heavily patterned leafy wallpaper and play Popmaster. Our Del Amitri knowledge lets us down on the 3 in 10 but we score respectably highly on the main two rounds, aided by some inspired answers involving the Troggs and Annie Lennox. We would have followed the Park Inn with Wood Green's Horse & Jockey but that was closed, so the Queens Head on Brunswick Park Road provides a useful fallback for Wye Valley HPA amidst portraits of Queens Victoria and Elizabeth II - not bad at all.

- Disguised Driving on the 11 -

Wednesbury has definitely done us proud and our next move is to catch the number 11 bus over to Pleck, that multicultural portion of Walsall pressed tight between Bescot and the M6 motorway. The Chairman recalls the late 'Wednesbury Tone', a local character who was known for gesticulating at bus drivers - thankfully there are no offputting hand signals to distract us during this bout of D9 steering. Pleck's pub offering is the Bradford Arms (a.k.a. Champy's) perched above Pagett's Bridge on the Walsall Canal; sadly we don't have enough time to partake of their highly-regarded curries but a pint each keeps any thirst at bay.

- Incognito Secretary at Herbert's Park -

The day draws to a close with a Darlaston denouement, calling firstly at the Nutan Club for  down-to-earth hospitality that had Mr D9 waxing lyrical about 1970s social club seating and public payphones. That might have been that until the 39 bus reminded us of the King George V's Forge Road existence - this is probably better remembered as the Herbert's Park Tavern or Gabba's Bar until a recent Desi-style transformation. Secretary WME tries to go conceal the fact he's drinking Carling again but no amount of flat cap and sunglasses can hide the truth. Mr D9's 79 timetable is put to the test at Catherine's Cross and fails abysmally, meaning the Staffordshire Knot has to spare the bald one's scheduling blushes, and that pretty much concludes our extended crawl of Wednesbury and surroundings areas. Cheers!

Swerving the Saturday Showers

It must have been well over a year since I last staged a Saturday outing, such has been the change of weekend routine brought about by the Covid pandemic. An iffy weather forecast wasn't about to deter me from amending that situation, so on Saturday 7th August 2021 I braced myself for the prospects of rain during a Rowley Regis, Shell Corner and Hurst Green circuit...

- A Merrivale Mess -

The plan is simple enough - get myself to Rowley Regis station and set about taking a few photographs - but yet again the railway gods have other ideas. For the second time in a matter of weeks, trains on the Stourbridge Line are subject to cancellations, lack of train crew being the root cause on this occasion. The 49 bus is my backup option as I consider visiting Brandhall, only for that idea to get torpedoed the moment I see the sadly stricken Merrivale. Once a fine suburban roadhouse, this Langley landmark looks a total wreck with half of its roof missing so its days must surely be numbered.  

- Causeway Green Post Office -

Budding Adam Peatys and Rebecca Adlingtons are making their way to Langley Baths for a morning swim as Joinings Bank combines with New Henry Street, custom dictating that I take my usual detour for snaps of Langley's Carnegie branch library. The Royal Oak as was is in a state of perilous half-demolished limbo, whereas in Causeway Green the former Hen & Chickens is now calling itself Saphari (still operating as an oriental buffet restaurant). Across the Wolverhampton Road, I note the presence of Oldbury Pharmacy, the Causeway Fish Bar and the local post office while trying to stockpile photos prior to any precipitation. 

- Shell Corner Memorial -

The rain holds off long enough for me to proceed via Penncricket Lane (passing Causeway Green Primary School and a Methodist Chapel) into Cakemore Road, albeit there is definitely drizzle in the air by the time I reach the Arcelor Mittal plant. Hurrying up a tad, Nimmings Road connects me to Shell Corner where I can admire a World War One memorial styled as an artillery munitions shell complete with painted poppies. The current commemoration came about following a heritage campaign and is a nod to a previous version which stood on the Nimmings Road/Long Lane roundabout from the mid 1920s through to the early 1970s.

- The Swan -

The promised showers are really making their presence felt so luckily the Swan is on hand to help me shelter from the squall. I recall this pub being under threat a few years ago; thankfully Black Country Ales stepped in and it continues to go from strength to strength. I'm almost spoiled for choice beer-wise but Salopian's Mind Bomb Stout soothes my craving for a darker brew, the accompanying cheese and red onion cob having a hefty wedge of cheddar. Cricket scores from Trent Bridge mingle with a Curtis Mayfield soundtrack as I ponder the joys of Saturday supping and check on Team GB's Olympics progress in Tokyo. 

- Banks's Amber at the Fairfield -

Any thoughts of venturing towards Old Hill are scrapped as soon as I see raindrops bouncing off the pavement, so I'd best stay close if I'm to keep dry. Hurst Green is a mere dash away, hence a hood-up scurry along Oak Barn Road has me homing in on the Fairfield. For a standard estate Marston's effort this is rather a handsome building, originally opening in 1938 although it has been modernised a bit since then. The front bar is just out of squealing range from the family dining contingent and serves me nicely for some Banks's Amber and a chance to cheer on the 4 x 400m women's relay team - they came 5th, no disgrace in that.

- Rowley Regis Conclusion -

With the rain relenting slightly, I take a punt on one more watering hole before heading home. My pick is the Clock Inn, languidly curving around the corner of Nimmings Road and Masters Lane. Carling suffices in the absence of cask ale as I make the acquaintance of an Elvis cardboard cutout over by the pool table - his blue suede shoes would've got a soaking today. I'm then handily placed for a dart to Rowley Regis railway station where I'm relieved to find a train is imminent and that's job done for my Saturday session - cheers!

Lost Pubs from the WME Archives: Part 22

My previous post in the 'Lost Pubs' series concentrated very much on the Black Country for inspiration, so in order to redress the balance this time I'm flinging the net further afield. Let's see what we've hauled in as part of August's archive catch...

- The Royal Exchange -

Okay, I confess! I couldn't resist squeezing in one more from those four local boroughs although it is contentious as to whether Bloxwich truly comes under the Black Country banner. Situated on Stafford Road just north of the Bell traffic lights, the Royal Exchange has been shut for several years and made for a forlorn sight when the Beardsmores and I happened by a couple of months ago. Hopefully the building still has a future even if its pub days are over.

- The Raven -

Still within the West Midlands, we now broaden our horizons towards Birmingham where the Raven used to be a Brewer's Tudor establishment serving the Weoley Castle community. Pub pictures were quite a rarity in the very early WME archives because I mainly concentrated on bus and train photos back then, but I did feel compelled to capture this place using my very first Fujifilm digital camera. The Castlecroft Residential Care Home now stands on the site.

- The Plough -

Edging next into neighbouring counties, our third port of call is the Staffordshire village of Trysull, a place that is no stranger to the WME blog. Nor indeed is the Plough which I must have mentioned quite a few times over the years, including confirming back in February that it had been converted for purely residential use. This photograph depicts the pub during its Marston's days, preparing for Halloween and Bonfire events in the autumn of 2010.

- The Rock Tavern -

Another from my 2010 stockpile is this view showing the Rock Tavern, formerly a free house that overlooked the River Stour in the small Worcestershire hamlet of Caunsall. I nearly didn't get a shot of this one at all because I was more enamoured with the nearby Anchor, a lovely traditional inn famed for its generously-filled cobs. Alas the Rock is no more, unceremoniously gouged out of the landscape, but the Anchor is still on hand to tempt the thirsty; Caunsall is on the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal close to Kinver, Cookley and Wolverley. 

- The Mermaid -

We finish with something of a Welshpool wildcard all the way from lovely Powys, where of all the town's watering holes it was the Mermaid which enchanted me into having a pint during my September 2010 Cambrian getaway. The timber-framed frontage impressed me more than the beer to be fair, and the building continues to be a Grade II-listed charmer despite having been repurposed for general residential use. Now that lockdown has lifted and I'm getting into wider exploration circulation again, I anticipate that my Lost Pubs series will become a more occasional blog offering although I do hope to keep raiding my archives from time to time. 

WME Flickr Focus - July 2021

The Olympics are the pinnacle of this sporting summer and I've been really enjoying watching Team GB's athletes competing in their various disciplines now that the Tokyo Games are underway. I won't pretend that my photostream endeavours match the herculean efforts we're seeing in Japan but it is nevertheless time to bring you up to date with the WME medal table...

It's gold all the way for Exploration Extra which has been utterly untouchable in the updates competition over the course of July. Several locations have helped propel Extra to the top of the rostrum, starting with Suffolk where Ipswich provided the Isaac Lord quayside bar plus a Lord Nelson pub sign, and Felixstowe combined the Drill Hall with a seafront truck snap. More locks from the Kennet & Avon Canal in Bath have added their muscle to the total, while Leicestershire landed two Hinckley pub sign punches courtesy of the Holly Bush and the Duke of Rutland.

Still with Exploration Extra and another major contributor to the gallery's success has been Kent. Faversham powered in pictures of the Bear Inn and the cheekily-named 'Old Gits Corner' from the Elephant; the Broadstairs bandstand clocked in for its second appearance, supplemented by the Divers Arms at Herne Bay; and Deal took care of the watersports honours with a specimen from the Ship Inn. Away from the south east, Wales featured prominently on account of Chirk's platform mural and Conwy's vintage A55 RAC pointer. An impressive haul all round!

Silver medal position just about goes to WME Staffordshire, edging into second place on the back of Burntwood's Springlestyche Lane, Tamworth's Whitbread pub stanchion and Long Lane's canal remains on the Wyrley Branch. Bronze then becomes a three way tie between WME Shropshire (the Kings Arms at Church Stretton joining the Ellesmere White Hart), WME Walsall (Bentley Cairn and Aldridge Parish Church) and WME Sandwell (two contrasting views of the Red Admiral on the Gorse Farm estate). Well done to all of the medal contenders there.

The minor placings are filled out by a handful of galleries that should still be proud to have competed. WME Wolverhampton - so often a frontrunner - was quiet on this occasion, mustering up a single tram sign shot from The Crescent. Solitary additions are likewise the story for WME Dudley with its Black Country Museum vegetable basket, and WME Solihull which snares the 73A People's Express route. The final word is however reserved for WME Coventry, at long last receiving its first new item of the entire year thanks to the 34 bus at Tile Hill South terminus - sometimes it really is the taking part that counts!