WME Flickr Focus - April 2022

Blogpost number 900 is almost upon us - just one entry away in fact - but before we get there you've got to endure another of my monthly photostream summaries. April's progress was definitely of the steady variety with Rail Rover considerations taking precedence for a while, so here's what has arrived over the last few weeks...

Far and away our lead contributor this time is WME Dudley, which has been ploughing a distinct Kingswinford and Lawnswood furrow for itself. Pub sign pictures representing the Swan, the Park Tavern and the Woodman all make themselves right at home alongside Kingswinford's ex-police station, a Ketley Road farmhouse and selected streetscapes along Lawnswood Avenue. Leys Bridge on the Stourbridge Canal at Brockmoor rounds off Dudley's April haul.

By its usual standards WME Staffordshire has had a fairly quiet 2022 so far but it bounces back to form thanks to assistance from Lower Penn street art. Graffoflarge's endeavours along the South Staffs Railway Walk have yielded further pooch portraits along with exotic ladies and a potential giraffe sighting - it's always worth a wander to see if anything new has been painted. A bandstand-esque structure in Longton's main shopping centre is my other new Staffordshire item of note. 

WME Wolverhampton meanwhile is rarely far away from a decent photo haul and is rapidly closing in on a century of additions for the year. Taking it deeper into the 80s are snapshots from Ladymoor (Gills' Meat Products), Loxdale (the former primary school and a Midland Metro stop sign) and Linthouse Lane (farm fields looking towards Essington). The award for novelty nugget of the month goes to a chef caricature spotted outside Macrome Road's cafe.

Less productive yet worthy of mention are WME Birmingham and WME Warwickshire. Brum has raided the Jewellery Quarter once more for Rectory storks and an old fire station, and the Gate pub off Ladypool Road similarly squeezes into photostream contention. Warwickshire by contrast concentrates on lovely Leamington Spa with reference to the Pig & Fiddle and the Woodland Tavern, not forgetting a brief glimpse of platform 2 at the town's railway station. 

April's stragglers might not be hitting the numeric heights but each of the galleries concerned has reason to be cheerful. WME Worcestershire makes its very first contributions of the year by summoning Bromsgrove's Ladybird and Kidderminster's Park Lane Weavers from the pub file archives. WME Solihull and WME Shropshire both supply a solitary squeak to prove they haven't gone into total hibernation - Solihull's is Lady Lane Wharf on the Stratford Canal near Earlswood, Shropshire's is a Ludlow platform view. That then is all of April's activity accounted for, with hopefully more to come in May...