Happy New Year! It has become custom here on the WME blog that the first post of the incoming year should be a retrospective summary of the preceding twelve months. Let's therefore stick with tradition by looking back over 2015, a year of Monday Missions, hub hilarity, Chip Foundation Chronicles and plenty of photographic discoveries...
January: a steady start saw me enjoying a Sutton Park Sequel outing, picking up where October 2014 had left off by wandering from Wylde Green to Wyndley Gate by way of Boldmere. Mr D9 joined me in Walsall town centre when the Hub Marketing Board opened their annual account with discounts (courtesy of the Katz) and dominoes (courtesy of the Fountain), whereas the Chip Foundation crept into Coventry so that Nick's banned baseball cap could memorably fall foul of the Establishment's dress code!
February: one month later and the Chip Foundation could be found clocking in at Chasewater, rambling around the reservoir then making the acquaintance of the Bloxwich Showman (a new Wetherspoon's outlet that had recently opened). It was a case of Walkers United for a Lichfield lookabout, taking the Cross City line to a captivating cathedral city with pub stops in the George & Dragon, the Angel and the Bowling Green. The Monday Mission series plonked me in Pleck and Wood Green (discovering sleeve closets I would be cashing in later on) while the Redditch Winter Ales Festival saw the bald spot becoming a bona fide CAMRA member.
March: plenty to report from a month that had me haring here, there and everywhere! St Patrick's Day in Shrewsbury involved some excellent craic with the Chip contingent (and a particularly 'smashing' time in the Loggerheads); there were Hub Marketing moments from both East Birmingham (reciting Val Doonican songs along the old Coventry Road) and the Delph (with a side dish of Saltwells nature reserve); Monday memories from Moxley followed by a Friar Park ferret; a Wordsley workout from the first Roger reunion trip of the year, and a Thursday treat in Leamington and Warwick with Prince Nickolenko that featured a foot protruding through the ceiling of the Old Post Office micropub.
April: the crossover from March into April saw me contented in Cornwall, enjoying a family holiday based in Looe with visits to Liskeard, St Austell and Falmouth. April's assortment then went on to include two more Monday missions - Hamstead (with Perry Hall) and Aldridge (with Rushall and Ryecroft) - and a Hub Board blast around Darlaston and County Bridge that had the remains of the Bentley Canal echoing to a Des O'Connor soundtrack.
May: putting a spring into my step among the buds and blossoms were a Big Lizzy adventure whereby Mr D9 sniffed out some steelworks heritage around Bilston and Sedgley - the bald spot would also be present and correct for our Talisman trip complete with sugar hubs and the Springfield Brewery closet. Elsewhere, Nick Turpin was on hand for our popular pilgrimage to Long Itchington (which in 2015 included more of the Stockton Locks and a photocall at Southam's Holy Well), while my solo sights were set upon the extremities of Sutton Coldfield, happening across the site of Hill Hook Corn Mill during a roam towards Roughley.
June: enter the summer and the cricketing fixture list sees Warwickshire in County Championship action at Lords, a historic ground with a unique atmosphere I'd long yearned to experience (although perhaps my most abiding memory from the match is the rare sight of Nick wearing a tie). The Bears completed a two-day triumph in Worcester, the speed of the victory meaning Stephen and I had a spare day with which to explore the Black Country Living Museum (savouring the simple joys of pork pie and chutney in the Bottle & Glass inn). Nick meanwhile adopted the guise of 'Towpath Turpin' during a sun-kissed Shropshire Union Canal stroll involving Brewood and Wheaton Aston, the weather holding nicely for our Stratford-upon-Avon session the very next day - we simply had to pay our respects to Shakespeare's final resting place in Holy Trinity Church. The D9 was stoked up for a visit to the Potteries, uncovering the fascinating industrial heritage to be found in Burslem, Hanley and Newcastle-under-Lyme, not to mention gatecrashing a zombie film set and calling in at the Coachmakers (one of my favourite pub finds of the entire year). Quite a month!
July: comparatively a quieter few weeks, with the main highlights being a Hub Marketing Bloxwich bash and a sedate stay at the Stafford Beer Festival. The former also comprised Caldmore hubs and minion meetings while the latter nibbled on Newport and Gnosall in the company of Nick and a tombola teddy bear. Furthermore, July will go down as the month when I witnessed first hand the demolition of the King Charles pub at Northwood Park, meaning another Bushbury area boozer passed into the annals of history.
August: there are cricketing capers in Nottingham to report although the Bears were ultimately soundly beaten at Trent Bridge (much to Mr Beardsmore's distress). The hub bandwagon rolled into Telford only to find that none of the pubs around Wrockwardine Wood were open (we did recover the situation in St George's and Woodside) - Mr D9 might have wished the Crown at the Wergs had been shut to save him the shock of an especially expensive round! The Chairman got his own back by subsequently leading Secretary WME on a River Tame trek before locating Wincy Willis in a West Bromwich watering hole during our second bout of August activity. My Monday Mission momentum is maintained by nature reserve reconnaissance around Aldridge Airport and Goscote Valley.
September: into autumn and there is an overt owl theme thanks to the Big Hoot project taking place right across Birmingham, providing the cue thereby for some sculptural silliness in Sutton Coldfield with D9 and some city centre statue-spotting with Nick. The beer festival focus falls upon Hinckley and Cannock Chase, while Stephen provides the company for a walk charting the course of the former Bentley Canal - tracking down Hills Bridge in the grounds of the Tata Steel factory made for some highly prized photography.
October: another canal-centric mission saw Mr B and I wrestling with the Wyrley & Essington between Short Heath and Birchills, detouring momentarily to plot a route through Rough Wood where many years ago I undertook some Geography fieldwork. October contributed two of the finest Hub Marketing excursions of the year, respectively revelling in South Birmingham (Highbury, Hazelwell and Hawkesley pretty much sums that up) and Coventry (complete with monster quiffs and Halloween hats), while the Chip Foundation chose Wellington as the starting point of their autumnal agenda (leading to an already infamous sausage shot involving Stephen). In addition, a Solihull outing with Nick introduced me to one of the strangest West Midlands locations I've ever visited, so take a bow Dickens Heath with its arresting take on Italianate architecture.
November: nuggets here include the Dudley Winter Ales Fayre (where D9 purchased a bagful of beermats) and a Chip Foundation afternoon at the Black Country Museum (during which we said hello to the Tipton Slasher and posed at the Pie Factory). My most recent Monday Mission served up the prime photographic potential of Sandwell Priory and Handsworth Old Town Hall, while Sandwell Valley had likewise been a Hub Marketing destination complete with goats, billboard climbing and some Perry Barr pubs.
December: some festive fun to finish off a rousing year. The Hub Marketing Christmas collection and Nick Turpin's Warwickshire forages have both been recently reported, but there was much more besides. Roger and I toured Tipton for a back-to-basics Black Country day out (we even went into the Conservative Club) whereas the Chip Foundation were tempted to Birmingham by the prospect of the Trocadero, the Crown Hotel and the Gunmakers Arms (the last of those being the new tap for the Two Towers Brewery). My final exploration action of the year took place not in the West Midlands but down in Somerset, spending a couple of days in Weston super Mare and enjoying a cracking canal walk in Bath - the Kennet & Avon on a crisp winter's morning, just brilliant!
I know I say this every time I do one of my annual reviews, but it really has been quite a twelve months filled with magnificent memories. My thanks as always go to everyone who has been involved in my adventures - especially Nick, Stephen, Andy and Rog - and here's to more of the same in 2016...
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