WME Flickr Focus - July 2022

It's not very often that a month's-worth of updates manages to tick most of my gallery boxes but July 2022 has provided a little bit of everything - well, almost! Admittedly Exploration Extra and WME Solihull didn't quite get in on the act but all of the other WME constituents have received new material recently...

You may recall that June was a remarkably productive period for WME Staffordshire and that resurgence has continued unabated deeper into the summer. The Rickerscote area of Stafford leads the charge with street signs and H.L. Boulton access markers, aided and abetted by the town's former rugby club and a sniff of the Star & Garter. Elsewhere I can report more pickings from Penkridge (Preston Hill Farm) and Pool Hall (private fishing grounds near Trescott).

Not to be overshadowed, WME Wolverhampton puts in a strong showing with an emphasis on the Smestow Valley Nature Reserve. Canalside meadows join various vegetation shots and even a smiling globe as one of my prime lockdown boltholes comes to photographic prominence. Other Wolverhampton arrivals include Regis Road - pretty Tettenhall terraces there - plus a nod for Springfield's Brownfield Research and Innovation Centre development. 

Skipping across to WME Shropshire, we acknowledge respective additions from Shifnal and Shrewsbury. The first of those locations supplies archival representation from the Beehive, a pub that has since perished at the hands of the wrecking ball. Shrewsbury meanwhile grants us a gander at the Loggerheads and the Albion Vaults whilst pausing for a peek at Pengwern Road. In related news, near-neighbour WME Telford paraded around Priorslee picking out painted pebbles displayed around The Flash - the local schoolchildren clearly got quite artistic during the original 2020 lockdown period.

WME Walsall hasn't earned much fanfare thus far in 2022 so the presence of four more items definitely counts as tangible progress. The Brown Lion in Pleck is probably the main attraction here just because I really like the vintage Highgate Brewery frontage but that's not to dismiss the value of Queslett's Old Horns or Short Heath's Duke of Cambridge. There are then some fallen leaves at Holly Bank Basin if you prefer my glimpses into the natural world. 

Quickfire shout-outs go next to the Brum/Dudley/Sandwell triumvirate which take delivery of three new photos apiece. WME Birmingham secures Sheldon Country Park and a flashback to platform entrance construction at Snow Hill railway station; WME Dudley dutifully stops off at Sedgley to scoop up pub piccies of the Leopard, the Bulls Head and the Mount Pleasant; WME Sandwell lingers at Spon Lane Top Lock (i.e. under the M5 motorway, never the most appealing of sights) then raids my back catalogue for Reddal Hill Primary School.

What's left after all of that lot? Well, WME Warwickshire goes truly cultural by visiting the grave of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon while WME Worcestershire retrieves a Redditch running board - in the dark no less! The final word goes to WME Coventry which snares itself a Sewall Highway street sign from somewhere out in the wilds of Wyken Croft. Whether as many galleries garner attention again in August remains to be seen, but until then please enjoy the pictures...