One Cut Mark and some other sightseeing in Walsall

Trigpointing is always an Easter Egg Hunt with the real treasures scattered around as you follow the Bunny Trail to your quarry.

I caught up to my first and only Cut Mark of the day trip to Walsall etched into the corner of the fantastic Town Hall (above and below, here).

As I turned to head the wrong way to the kebab shop I planned to lunch at (and which was closed albeit listed as open), I spied the monument to the gunnery seaman JH Carless, VC. I love to read Medal of Honor and Victoria Cross stories, despite the blindly patriotic narratives most of them entail, and Carless’ was cast in bronze for all to see:

John Henry Carless, V.C.
Born at Walsall 11th November 1896, killed in action Heligoland Bight 17th November 1917. Awarded the Victoria Cross for most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty. Although mortally wounded in the abdomen, he still went on serving the gun at which he was acting as rammer, lifting a projectile and helping to clear away the other casualties. He collapsed once, but got up, tried again and cheered on the new gun’s crew. He then fell and died. He not only set a very inspiring and memorable example but he also, whilst mortauly [sic] wounded, continued to do effective work against the King’s enemies.

Correcting my path, I ignored the ironic dereliction of duty of my targeted kebabery and continued through town to a second choice. Along the way, I encountered the former Taylor’s Music Shop, 29 Bridge Street, the decorative details of which were really worth a closer look.

Filled with my donner sandwich, at last, I looped back to the north side of the town centre and passed, on my way to the Oak Inn, this former Salvation Army site (lead photo is a detail of the building) which is now an occupational safety training site.

Finally back to catch my bus home with no other targeted Ordnance Survey marks to report, I spotted this ACTUAL ordnance mark from the First World War on a building just across from my bus stop. Really fantastic that they preserved some of the damage. As one who is proud of the scars he has accumulated over the decades, this made me feel even more kinship with these locals.

Lichfield Day Trip

Lichfield is just lovely. While the Cathedral is by far the most ornate, gothic architecture abounds in the medieval city. Note the middle of the three spires is also trigpoint TP12463.

Heading through town to grab a bite to eat at the Feathers, I walked past the old St John’s Hospital, above, which appears to still be in use.

The Swan Hotel appears to converted to a cut rate Italian restaurant. The Cut Mark is to the lower right in the above photo (photo of the mark is on the Map linked here). The sign for the old hotel is still there, though:

Just beyond that is the library (I try to find a library in every town I visit).

Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of the naturalist Charles Darwin, holds court on the edge of the park just outside the southwest corner of the library:

He also guards the Flus Bracket # S8687 just beyond his left hand on the library wall:

After lunch, I wandered down to the George and Dragon but spotted another Cut Mark kitty-cornered from the pub on corner of a house now sheltering a dental clinic (the Cut Mark is on the corner around from the Dental Offices door):

Passing the Cathedral, I jockied for photographic angles with a Japanese tourist and we both settled in at the statue of Carolus Rex (the original King Charles whose fate is too good for those who still cling to ‘royalty’).

Charles’ Cut Mark is on the door buttress just out of shot to the lower right (photo on The Map).

Heading toward some bric a brac places and just around the corner from the Cathedral on Dam Street I spotted one more Cut Mark before I cut the scavenger hunt short:

Shrewsbury Day Trip

First time in Shrewsbury and I am blown away by the lovely architecture, starting with the rail station, above. Usually utilitarian and coarse and ugly this one seems a church to the industrial age.

The Market Clock Tower caught my eye on my first loop around the city and I realised later that the vane isn’t just pretty but is a triangulation point (TP11863)…lucky find.

After a breakfast beer at the Shrewsbury Hotel, my next loop involved a narrower circle and a more targeted trigpointing effort. I found the Lion Hotel’s mark (too early for the bar there) but prowled the exterior a bit for pictures, info, and any loose souvenirs (no luck on this last front, alas).

The Blue Plaque, on the other hand, really tempts another trip and perhaps a stay (in Disraeli’s suite if we’re lucky).

I got caught behind a pool of about 30 pensioners trundling up the street opposite as I searched for the Flush Bracket on the old Guild Hall (now a residence). They stopped the walking tour for the docent to give her spiel right in front of the building I thought it was but after inspection I decided to continue on to my next spot. Looking back one more time, I spotted it two doors up from my first guess and ran over to get ahead of their slow blockade:

Then, it was on to St Alkmund’s church but not before marvelling at the houses in the adjacent square. Not for the likes of me unless that Lotto ticket finally works.

St Alkmund has a dubious backstory even questioned by the parishioners of this gothic church, but they were out in force doing some grounds tidying as I prowled about looking for my Cut Mark.

It was on a buttress on the north side but not near a corner nor facing out. These are often the most satisfying finds.

Done with the trigging, I moved on to simple tourism and a bit of lunch before exploring the magnificent library. Here is Darwin, guarding the entrance.

The walls must be 18 inches thick and awe inspiring. Well worth ten minutes visit a couple blocks from the station (I was there two hours).

Birmingham Benchmark Run

The Cut Benchmarks and Triangulation Points are less means than ends. For instance, as I approached Albert Street (the section of which would have had a Cut Mark but the building was lost to the high speed rail depot site) I spotted a Blue Plaque for Joseph Priestly on the side of St Michael’s.

I scored some CMs on and near the Victoria Law Courts (finished in 1891 and Grade I listed since the 1970s). “Forward” seemed to be a theme in late 19th and early 20th century Brum.

“Justice Giveth Everyone His Own” sounds like a promise and a threat at the same time. Kind of like the lyric in the Christmas pop song, “The Man With The Bag,” which says “you’ll get yours.” My tourist friend here looks concerned.

There were once law offices at 175 Corporation St, next door, where I picked up another CM.

And, on the east side of the Minories at what used to be a pedestrian subway (that’s an underpass, Americans), a cast mural celebrating the area. Sadly, the mark here was on a wall next to the stairs leading down, none of which exist or — if they do — they’ve been filled in.

I did find the one on the left side in this photo of the Minories, a modern shopping arcade similar to the Victorian ones all over the City Centre.

The Angel Fountain is another of those features I knew was there but have never really bothered to examine.

Finally, I headed down the humourously named Needless Alley to find a pin (TP 18334) at the Union Chambers which was replaced ages ago with this glass and steel insult. Needless, indeed.

So, here they are:

Sunbeam, Wolverhampton tourism

Walking around Wolverhampton on a rainy Friday looking for something else I spotted these fantastic plaques on the side of the Garden Centre.

The Sunbeam Tiger was Maxwell Smart’s (Agent 86’s) car. The company was from Wolverhampton, originally.

These fence decorations are better than the strip mall deserves.

But, spectacular.

Short Jurisprudence Review — Release the Kraken

There are a lot of things I could say about Sidney Powell (soon to be disbarred) but they all boil down to, “Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…ahhh [taking a breath]…ha hahahahahahahahah!” Release the Kraken, indeed. {Update: two more co-defendents, both lawyers, have also flipped on Orangeman…and as of this note dated 29 October his kids are all testifying next week and the man himself the following Monday.}

Hawthorns to the House Trigging

This is my second failed attempt at the Pillar in the golf course, which lies about 100m beyond the wall, above. This time, it was a Sunday around 8:15 am but still too late as the greens were crawling with maintenance dudes.

Continuing down the hill from there, I am pretty sure my next mark in the wall is obscured behind all that shrubbery. I opted to turn around here but the cemetery across the road was stunning:

Back up the Birmingham Road across from where Park Lane meets it, I picked off a decent cut mark in an old building:

Then, is was mostly a straight dash down to the High Street and homeward except I new of one intermediate stop to do…

I’ve looked this structure up before but this was my best excuse to prowl around it. It is listed as Arch Lodge on my database (there’s a Rivet on its benchmark) and was one of the gates to Sandwell Hall, a stately pile demolished in 1928, long before the motorway over the house and bisecting this roundabout was even conceived.

This side of the roundabout interior is something like a park and fairly clean largely due to the hazardous crossing. I spotted a fox and several wrens during my short stay.

There were a couple of misses from there and then I hung up the database to focus on building up a sweat before reaching the far end of the street market at St Mike and the Angels Catholic Church.

This was probably the door to the vicar’s lodge, but hiding away behing a rain drain pipe (I almost typed ‘Pope’) is the last Cut Mark of the day.

Northfield Run, 2CM (& 2CMx), 1TP, 1Bolt

It was a lunchtime run to Northfield to shake out a few miles, grab a kebab, and dash to the rail station to get back to work. Along the way, as has become an obsession, there was TrigPointing to do. At top, the locations of the final two marks while the photo just below is the location of the first one found this trip:

This is the weakest one I’ve seen and I suspect that it was filled with mortar at some point. Find it at the corner of Weoley Park and Bristol Roads.

I wasn’t successful at locating a couple of others on the stone walls stretching down the hill but then the ‘bridge’ as they call it at Wood Brook (which regularly floods right here since the bridge acts more like a dam) revealed an extraordinarily fine specimen.

Here you can see that the bench top is still suitable for the wee board that fits in and supports the levelling equipment:

Making some mileage from this point, I opted to run past some other targets but stopped at the former site of the Northfield Public Baths:

The marks were removed with the rubble of the old Northfield Baths seen here still intact in July 2014:

Trying again, I swung past the YMCA housing near the turn onto Church Lane, but the building — while not razed for the current iteration — underwent a major refurbishment a few years ago.

These temporary accommodations were as seen above when we were looking for our first house in Brum late in 2018. The GMAP streetview, below, is dated March 2017…it is possible that the mark is still over on the corner to the left but that will have to wait till the next jog this way:

My real target this time was the Bolt in the parish church which sits near the Great Stone Inn:

This was my first Bolt on this new project since the ones on the canals are dead hard to find and the one in the St George’s former Sainsbury’s is covered with some awful plastic hoarding.

To finish off (since my train was due and I was still a quarter mile away), here is my logged photo for TP11495, the centre of the top of the tower on the church. Overall, not a bad little run.

Castle Vale Trig Outing

I took a half day off from work the Friday after my final skin cancer treatment hoping in vain the side effects would start to abate by then. Fortunately, I picked one of the flattest areas in the region to do my minimalist run, Castle Vale.

On my way out to the bus, I stopped by the Med School and logged the Cut Mark on the gate. It would be the last for a while.

Castle Vale was not flattened by Hitler despite it having an important test flight aerodrome for the Spitfires. Instead, it was flattened by urban planning with the oldest buildings all started in 1963 (the year after most of the Cut Marks involved in the Re-Levelling being made before 1962 … like me!).

As I left the town of relatively new-build, I encountered missing and covered over marks and a non-existent (and without an interesting back story) Triangulation Point. The Cut Mark in the photo, above, is on The Raven pub out in Hodge Hill (which was largely built only slightly earlier than the Castle Vale abomination).

I’d given up by the time I reached 4 miles and 1 pint. At the bus stop I had a ten minute wait to deal with and checked my benchmark map only to find a Cut Mark was listed on the side of a works building directly behind me. The building is reduced to a single wall, now, but a hit is a hit.

Day out in Digbeth

Jackie spotted a small poster for a vintage furniture place (the Moseley Vintage Hub) near Bordesley Station and, since we need a piece to put our turntable on and store CDs within, we headed down on a Saturday, mid-July. We actually had success and it was delivered a week later, but we’ll definitely be back.

We killed a few minutes going through the vinyl there while a rain outbreak passed, then made our way to the Rainbow for a beverage. We passed an enormous wedding party at a big venue on the way then, as we prepared to turn to the pub I stopped for a Cut Mark I knew was close (another one, on the pub, turned out to no longer exist).

Refreshed, we headed back out and looped by the central bus garage, a magnificent and massive building.

Jackie was really taken with the heraldry above the bus door, pointing out art and industry having a lean against the shield of, perhaps, the monarch or maybe the City or the County. The arm and hammer out of the parapet remains a mystery but I’ll update this if we figure it all out. FORWARD!

Voce Books was our other target, a small independent shop hidden by the arches just down from the cop shop on Alison Street. We could have bought the entire inventory, but settled on a couple of tomes we both wanted to read.