WME Flickr Focus - March 2023

With all this talk of industrial disputes in the news I'm beginning to wonder if I should push for a payrise for photostream labour. Fear not, I won't be going on strike (unless the day job ballots for action) so you'll have to put up with the usual diet of street signs, pub branding and canal content for a while longer...

West Midlands Exploration's shop steward in chief has to be WME Wolverhampton which has been as vocal as ever in terms of supplying us with updates. Bradley and Bradmore have borne the brunt of recent dispatches, hence the inclusion of Old Bush banners and Bradmore Arms IPA pint stops (accompanied by the requisite packet of crinkle-cut crisps). Aside from the clutter of Slim Avenue, Wallace Road and Cedar Grove, Bradmore Rec gets a little bit fruity with foliage and football pitches to add into the mix.

Also agitating for improved terms and conditions is WME Dudley, which seems to have spent much of the last month bothering Brockmoor and Bromley. Two lost pubs probably speak up the loudest, namely the Commercial and the Royal Exchange with the latter being witnessed during its Chimera games emporium guise. Over in Woodside, there's something about the Bob Richardson Tools store that seems visually striking - perhaps it's the distinctive horizontal corrugated stripes that catch the eye?

In other news, WME Telford has stuck its head above the parapet with reference to the Blists Hill Victorian Town. Enamel plate advertisements for various soap brands seem to have been in vogue for no apparent reason, so pick your favourite from Hudson's, Puritan or Watson's Matchless Cleanser. If your home hygiene skills are already beyond reproach, you may wish to partake of ironmonger frontages or blast furnace ruins instead.

WME Worcestershire and WME Birmingham appear to have been in cahoots with WME Walsall over a work to rule mandate. All three galleries conspire to file exactly four new items each, even if Worcestershire's quartet of Bromsgrove area street signs won't set any pulses racing. Walsall revisits Blakenall's Kings Head and New Inn hostelries via Bloxwich's ornate ceremonial fountain, then Brum brings in some Bournville intelligence care of Cedar Road. 

Not all of my galleries have been as prominent with their picketing, though it would do them a disservice not to mention their efforts. Thanks therefore go to WME Staffordshire and WME Solihull which both offer a waterways-related newbie, Botterham Bottom Lock and the River Blythe Aqueduct to be exact. Negotiations will now continue over what can realistically be expected in terms of April arrivals, so keep your eyes peeled...