WME Flickr Focus: January 2015

January has been housekeeping month on the WME Flickr photostream as I concentrated on hoovering up a few pesky photos that had thus far managed to dodge being published. Some of my old Fotopic favourites were returned to the fold alongside some longstanding 'test' items that needed to be dealt with - here's a quick look at what I tidied into position...

Of the returning Fotopic originals, I'm pleased that two 702 Tesco bus photos from WME Coventry have been restored to give Travel de Courcey a little more representation. A Midland Metro tram at The Hawthorns made a welcome reappearance, as did the 436 bus at Much Wenlock and a 259 bus in Stourbridge, while Short Heath shops crept quietly back onto WME Walsall. Exploration Extra ushered more shots of Clacton's seafront gardens in from the cold, not forgetting a railway platform scene from Totnes. This leaves precisely 553 images that graced Fotopic back in the day but haven't as yet furnished Flickr - still a lot of housework to attend to then!

Poking around in the dusty crannies of my general archive, I found a fair bit of unused material that needed to be scooped up and deposited correctly. Cobwebs were thus blown off Edgbaston Reservoir and Sheldon Country Park (WME Birmingham), a Wychbury Hill footpath (WME Dudley) and the Monks Walk near Lapley (WME Staffordshire), all photos which I'd almost forgotten about. Also waiting in the wings for a long time had been a second look at Rough Hay Post Office (WME Walsall) and a vintage Mobil sign as seen from a canal towpath (WME Wolverhampton), both no doubt glad to get a proper airing.

Not all of January's additions had been sitting on the shelf for half an eternity though. Injections of freshness thus arrived courtesy of Coventry Transport Museum and Sutton Stop (WME Coventry), the former Severn Apprentice pub in Coton Hill (WME Shropshire) and the Rainbow pub at Coven (WME Staffordshire). Exploration Extra was perhaps the most eager with the broom, sweeping up Parliament Square, Kendal Castle and the bridges of the River Tyne with great gusto. All of which means that the WME photostream probably had its spring clean a little ahead of schedule this year, but as ever the job is never done and February's feather duster is ready and waiting for the next set of archive assignments...