The Cross City line was a vital exploration artery for me during my very early adventures around Birmingham, and I well remember the fascination of venturing out from University station for a ride in between lectures and seminars (although it has to be said that some studying was also done too). Fast forward to Friday 14th September 2012, and with ten years of digital photography now under my belt, the line would once again provide the foundations for an outing that mixed personal nostalgia with new discoveries...
ASTON: and how's this for a fitting place to start? As I mentioned the other day, Aston Station was one of my very first photo locations back in 2002, and here it is a decade later still offering me up some camera targets. It's handy being able to catch a train direct from Wolverhampton, albeit only as a long-winded consolation for the loss of the Walsall-Wolverhampton shuttle service, but at least it makes for a neat connection onto the Cross City, which then takes me north through Spaghetti Junction and on beyond Erdington and Sutton Coldfield.
BUTLERS LANE: I alight at Butlers Lane, actually one of my lesser-visited stations that I can only really recall touching base with once before (with Rog in 2005). Not a lot has changed apart from little hints of London Midland corporate signage, otherwise the ramps, shelters, ticket office and wooden fences are all pretty much as I remember.
- Station Sign at Butlers Lane -
MERE GREEN: it isn't all train travel today so let the walking begin, starting with a wander into Mere Green. Butlers Lane (the road rather than the station) has the prospect of pub shots of both the Butlers Arms and the White Lion, then I take Hill Village Road down to the local centre. The pub/restaurant overlooking the main Lichfield Road roundabout is now called Romantica, and I was saddened to see a whole segment of shopping parade still all shuttered up whilst the site remains in redevelopment limbo.
- What next for these former shops? -
LITTLE SUTTON: into the local estates next as I follow the trail of the 905 bus route along Sherifoot Lane and Gibbons Road. The Pint Pot was a useful pub find on Tower Road, whilst on Grange Road I can photograph the post office opposite the Four Oaks Baptist Church - I'm sure Rog and I passed through here on the way to Roughley once. Little Sutton Road splits away and becomes quietly residential, leading down to Weeford Road where farms and fields suggest you are nearing the edge of the West Midlands county boundary.
WHITEHOUSE COMMON: here's a part of Sutton Coldfield that I don't remember happening across before. Landmarks include the White Horse (a Flaming Grill pub) and a Nisa store post office on the corner of Barnard Road. Venturing deeper into the estate brings me out by the Good Hope Hospital and I'm pleased to get a photo of the Boot Inn, a cottagey-looking pub on Rectory Road.
- The White Horse -
RECTORY PARK: a path down the side of the Boot leads me into Rectory Park, a large area of open sapce that feels quite rugged in places. Playing fields are dotted in amongst wilder common, and there seems to be a football ground in one corner judging by the perimeter rails and the home and away dugout shelters. Another track takes me down to a tree-lined avenue by a car park, the path flanked by what look like sculptural table-tennis tables. The park provides a welcome place to pause for some lunch, hoping that the gathering grey clouds aren't suddenly about to empty their contents on me.
- Rectory Park Football Ground -
FALCON LODGE: any rain thankfully holds off as I negotiate Reddicap Heath (complete with the Reddicap Tavern behind a yellow privet hedge) and make my way into Falcon Lodge. Here we have a self-contained estate that has served as a bus terminus for many years. The shops on Churchill Road make for a distinctive long parade of stores, whilst other features include the pointy Methodist Church and a youth centre. The 904 route is the current service to lay over here but its the 115 I catch today, enjoying a proper bash down through Walmley and along Penns Lane.
- Churchill Road -
WYLDE GREEN: my plan had been to stay on the 115 through to Aston Station but that swiftly got abandoned when it dawned on me that I was entering Wylde Green, an area that conjures up precious memories of my earliest bus adventures, outings completed long before I had any thoughts about digital cameras. Somehow the Yenton pub and the Birmingham Road shops had planted themselves in my brain for all these years and yet I'd never remotely got anywhere near taking pictures of them. This black hole in my archive simply had to be filled, with the afore-mentioned features accompanied by the discovery of the library and community hall building on Emscote Drive - seminal moments indeed!
- The Yenton -
CHESTER ROAD: all of this giddy excitement had to end somewhere, and Chester Road Station happened to be close at hand to tie a big bow around my Cross City contemplations. As stations go this isn't a personal favourite, even though the signs on Chester Road bridge make for a nice photo opportunity. There isn't a huge amount of character to admire with the modern platform structures being functional and largely inoffensive.
- Chester Road Bridge Sign -
The ride home after a hugely enjoyable outing is always a bittersweet experience, where the contentment and satisfaction of a job well done mixes with a tinge of sadness that another adventure has ended. Those self-same emotions are here again today as I stand on the platforms at Chester Road then Aston awaiting my final connections back. This was an outing where my exploration past and my exploration present came together as one, as if the spotty-faced student of ten years ago was right there with me, and it was comforting to think that the same excitement and enthusiasm that fuelled me then still drives me now. The Cross City line has been a staunch backdrop to so many adventures, and today's experiences suggest there are still plenty more places the line can open up for me in future...
No comments:
Post a Comment