Trigpointing – Page 2 – Endless British Pub Crawl (Part 3)

Kidderminster Rainy Day

The first pedestrian subway I met in Kidderminster surprisingly didn’t smell like a urinal: surprisingly because of the quality of the graffiti and the young couple drinking beer at 8 in the morning.

However, the graffiti improved as the day progressed from the politically eloquent to some sublime Republican sentiments.

It was new TrigPointing territory, as well, and I found my first on Exchange Street as I hiked between the Swan and the library (helpfully highlighted in yellow chalk):

Peckish, I headed toward the Home of Souvlaki for a gyros and stopped by an old Telephone Exchange to bag another Cut Mark. But, I was also treated to a quite special post box (yes, I’m still doing THAT, as well):

The building also had a lovely Blue Plaque for the ‘instigator’ of Penny Post (so I got to triple dip at this tourism site):

The mark itself was somewhat anticlimactic:

Lunch done and the rain chucking it down, I worked my way back to the station withonly a modicum of exercise under my belt. Only one of the four Cut Marks on my list still exists, the one at 31 George St.

Soaked but safely back at the station, I noted an old horse trough (how 19th century of these people).

There is also an old but still operating Bundy clock there. When still used, there was a spool of paper inside and the bus drivers reaching this point would stick in a key unique to them and the time of arrival would be stamped on the paper spool.

Likewise well preserved was this Victoria Regina post box, on the short walk to the King & Castle pub in the Severn Valley Rail (historic steam trains here) portion of Kidderminster Station:

Langley Trigging

Rainy day mid-September and I had the afternoon free from lunchtime. I hopped off the train at Sandwell & Dudley and headed toward a lunch kebab with the idea of picking up some trig points along the way but the kebab shop, like the marks I sought, no longer existed. I continued on toward the Soho Cottage and found the BIP Plant (British Industrial Plastics, a polyurethane factory) which purportedly sports an inaccessible rivet designated TP18376:

A few dozen meters up and across the road a Benchmark kept this from being a total washout:

Still unsure of what the building is used for now, the one I was standing before when I snapped this picture is the home of the Hope In A New Age cult.

Cut Mark: The ESO of the C&S, Wednesbury

Pedestrians were moseying diffused across most of the pavements so I steered my run down streets normally abandoned. One of those went past St James Church which purportedly had a Cut Benchmark on one face but has always been locked away at the street gate when I’ve passed before.

And, lo, the gates were swung wide for me this fine day.

The church has long since converted to a Nigerian congregation known as the Eternal Sacred Order of the Cherubim and Seraphim, with the old school across the street now another African church, or possibly choich.

St James has plain glass windows typical of Anglican churches that have dodged adornment since the time of the Civil War when stained glass was considered heretical (or, at least a distraction).

I Googled the ESOCS but their websites tend to be ‘unsecure,’ so I got some info from Wiki. The photos available online show this church’s services to be costume oriented. I snapped my Cut Mark photo and left promptly for my pub stop, concerned I might be kidnapped and forced into labour but the congregation is probably more a danger to its members than to the general public.

Butt Puppy TrigPointing

I was recovering from a respiratory infection and had a bunch of brick masonry to do so I resolved to keep the run short. Until, that is, I spied “Butt Puppy” on by benchmark map and thought, “hang on, I didn’t authorise this name check.” Turning off my default Sophomoric Humour mode for a second, I realised that this was for the Buttress to an Aqueduct at Puppy Green. Fair mistake.

Butt Puppy benchmark is near the ground level to the right in the above photo.

There were some disappointments, of course. A pub that had been converted to social housing no longer has a mark. There were once some public baths at the top of Victoria Park but that was razed roughly 2014 and the hoarding has been up since late 2013…but I managed to find a gas line plaque with Imperial units on the wall at the pavement.

The area, just down Queen’s Road from a residential (wall) Cut Mark, has been secured and allowed to lie derelict for almost a decade:

Even so, it looked perfectly functional and in use in this screen cap from July 2012:

I had some other non-residential targets that allowed me to escape the roads and use some tow paths. Here’s the bridge where I started that segment:

And, here’s the one where I got off the canal to log another mark:

I was heading from there to the ToolStation at Dudley Port so had to pass under the work on the new tramlines. Simple as it is, this old rail bridge with the beer ad on it is one of my favourites in the region. Its CM is on the wall just beyond the blue barricade:

Aston Uni BMs, Courts of Justice

I’ve probably gone to the Gosta Green more frequently than the other bars in the area because it has an early license. This time, it was just for the Cut Mark at the Holt Street sign.

The only other mark this trip was on a wall next to Rio’s Peri Peri but in a nice early 20th Century block of offices:

The really nice bits this time revealed themselves (revealed, not exposed) at the late 19th Century Courts of Justice.

The details on these buildings really beg for more time than I had to spend there (and, speaking of time the magnificent clock was either 5 hours behind or 7 hours ahead):

The robes of Justice, herself, look like they would rustle if a wind blew by:

Fat little cherubs hold the whole filigreed structure aloft:

The Victoria entrance needs a bit more time to fish details out of, too.

Victoria looks warm and is flanked by partially clothed women and sits just above George slaying the Dragon. I don’t think the guy climbing the steps really stopped long enough to take this all in, but such is the nature of the business he’s probably in there to do.

…and show me a sign

We were walking to Rudy’s for some pizza prior to a farce at the Rep (Noises Off … this was ages ago). I spotted this bracket in the pavement the likes of which I hadn’t previously noticed. Jackie patiently waited while I recorded it for later (she also finds some of the TrigPointing interesting, so she’s patient with my Street Furnishings obsessions). This one is there to fix fencing in place, occasionally.

We were next to PopWorld, a shitty nightclub (but, I repeat myself) known for sartorial splendor, knifings, and rivers of puke. The structure, formerly the Second Church of Christ Scientist (so still shitty but points for irony go to the PopWorld management), is splendid and I was thinking all of this as Jackie was saying, “I’m surprised this one doesn’t have one of your benchmarks.” I pointed up to the mark that, indeed, was there where we stood at waist level barely more than arm’s length away.

On our way to the tram a half hour earlier, our pre-travel consumption led to Willing as an earworm. A sign, eh?

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:

Graven Images on a Baptist Church

As is typical, most of the sought after Cut Marks this trip were either on occupied houses or used to be until new brickwork superceded the old marks. God damn it, though, there was one on the side of God’s house:

On the run out there, I passed this bit of lame Dad Humour on one of the country park’s bridges:

A Game of Two Halves

I missed all my front end Cut Marks including one that was supposed to be on the Rosehill Tavern, my midpoint on this run. The others fell in rapid succession with an 80% hit rate. Trigging is like that.

At the start, I took the Gilbert blue brick as a promising sign. Hubris.

Where the fence on the left, below, meets the wall (either down the bottom of the stairs or just behind me) was supposed to have another Benchmark but nooooooo:

The cannon at the top of the hill foreshadowed the weird compound it stands by.

Something of a fortress, I have yet to get a satisfactory answer for what this place is:

After the Rosehill Tavern, I found my first mark on this former church, former Citizens Advice Bureau, and current Islamic education centre:

The Library held the second CM. The front of the building was polluted with adolescent girls so I took the photo around the side:

#30 Lower High Street holds a Ukrainian restaurant and the third mark of this fruitful section.

Just down the hill from there, #48 was my first failed find since leaving the Rosehill. The Island Lounge, across the way, has one employee and she refuses to serve you (so, that was the SECOND miss of the back half…but the Turk’s Head two doors down will fix you up):

Finally, as I was heading back to the tram I picked up my last Cut Mark on the CURRENT Citizen’s Advice but the Science School next door was so much more compelling to photograph:

Rounds Green and Rivet-Free

With almost a complete dearth of marks to find on this trip, I was quite pleased to find the modern bridge lighting as I approached the canal on my return.

A short time before, I had stopped in front of the Rounds Green Primary School to consult my map and realised that the school wasn’t entirely fenced in. I had assumed it was before setting out and, thus, had written off the Cut Mark listed for it as probably inaccessible. Close to unrecognisable, to be sure, but definitely where it was meant to be:

I had earmarked the short section of tow path due to three Rivets being listed on it and, having yet to find one along the canals, I figured this was as good a gamble as any. Yet, the first one was SUPPOSED to be about 2 meters from where the edging bricks stopped…one of these would have been the substrate for Rivet #1 in this direction:

The second seems to have been displaced by the root system of this buddleia:

And, the third fell to a change in substrate from the old, bullnose, blue bricks for newer edging (again, Rivet #3 should have been a couple meters to the right):

The search continues.