A day in the wilds of Ludlow.

On Sunday i had double booked myself in to covering the out of hours phone for work, and going on an organised metal detecting rally with the club i hold membership with.

On Saturday evening my good wife had decided that we order a Chinese curry in for a treat. My son Darren loves a curry, and my wife is partial to a a bit of Chinese as well! Anyway, i had a mixed meet curry (i usually have noodles). My son also had a mixed meet curry, with spare ribs and sweat and sour pork balls. The wife being a veggie had a plain curry and rice.

About 2 hours after i had eaten mine, i started feeling a bit queezy! i asked the others if they felt sick, which they did not. it wasn't long before i was on my knees in front of the porcelain thrown! i soon hit the sack feeling pretty sorry for myself. My son told me the next day that he had felt sick on the night as well.

Well i woke up on Sunday feeling like i had been in a car crash. I was determined to go on the rally so began filling the vehicle with my goodies. i had my call out phone with me and my work folder with all of my contacts details in it. About half way through my journey i had a call out for Nottingham which i passed to the engineer (we cover heating breakdowns). That's going to be it for the day i thought as i arrived at the venue at 8.30am. It was a picturesque valley occupied by almost exclusive pasture land. I looked at my phone and noticed a very poor signal, this was worrying. a quick walk around the first field showed that the higher part of the field gave a boost to the signal on my phone. then, my phone goes off again. Another call for Nottingham, which i passed to the engineer. At this point i decided to set my phone calls to go to the engineer in Nottingham should i have no signal. We later had another call for Boston, which took the engineer over two hours to reach. However the volume of calls had put me on edge and upset my rhythm on the fields.

The searching began well, with me finding a Victorian half penny within the first 10 minutes. i then went on to find another two Vicky's within about 20 meters of the first one. However i was concentrating my search to an area where i knew i had a good phone signal, rather than where i thought the better part of the field was. I eventually moved to the next field which had no phone signal, i quickly moved onto the highest of the fields which had a signal but did not look as attractive. By looking attractive i mean that the field which had no signal, had a old barn in it as well as ruins of an old house. i found very little over the next couple of hours. one of the lower fields produced a Georgian penny but that was about it.

I have made a few friends on the few rally's i have attended. frequent stops for a chat are sometimes the highlight of the day. I spoke with the guy who got the club the permission on these fields, his forum name was "Ayit" sadly i don't remember his real name but will make an effort in future to recall it. He had found similar to what i had found.  Another member had found a large roman crud, basically a bronze disc with no discernible markings. He later found a cut quarter hammered silver coin i believe from near to the old house. I later found out that quite a few hammered silvers were found near to the house, with one of the members finding as many as five. Another of the lucky fellas found a silver roman brooch which i have a great desire to find some day. i also heard that he may have found a Celtic coin. Again i only know his Forum user name which i believe is Woody (well done woody)

I had to leave at about 3pm as i had an hour and half drive home, and was still on call. The wife was going to the cinema on the evening and i did not want to arrive as she went out.

All in all it was a very enjoyable day. There may be another rally on the opposite side of the valley, which looks even more appealing. its south facing and has some interesting field markings. Lets hope i am not on call that week as i would be really p***** off if i could not have a whole day at it. Thanks to JJ (organiser) the marshals and  all who attended.

woz.

Brownhills developments.

It has been slowly sinking in to my thick head that i enjoy reading blogs, and had aught to try blogging myself.

I have been using Facebook for a couple of years or more now, and had the great pleasure of meeting some old long lost school friends while doing so. One of my friends, introduced me to an amazing blogger by the name of Brownhills Bob. I have followed Bobs blog's with enthusiasm over the last 12 months, and have consequently been introduced to other interesting bloggers in our area, well Walsall area anyway. Bob's blog centers on the happenings in and around Brownhills, he also covers other interesting villages etc as he rides around the countryside on his bicycle. So thank you Bob for setting the blog seed in my heavily composted brain.

I live in the shadow of the new buildings which are going up at a rate of knots at the bottom of the high street. These buildings now occupy the ground which once had the wretched 3 story maisonettes stood on it. For those who have not been to Brownhills for a while, two of the four high rise have now gone. Those that have been demolished are Wayne house and Bailey house (where i once lived). Humphries house and Severn house are in the latter stages of a refurbishment which has left Humphries house in a shade of pastel Blue and cream. Not sure it looks right yet, but it could only be an improvement on its old facade. Severn House (kids always knew it as block Severn) however has not been fully revealed by Wates and WHG. All of Brownhills maisonettes have now been raised to the ground. The buildings which i live in the shadow of are about 5/6 of the way through the building stage. They are modern looking thinks with curved and sloping roof's. the facade comprises of wood and render, again in pastel shades. The building which replaced the Maisonettes next to the Anchor pub, is the one which is 5/6 the way through developments. The building going up opposite the old Anchor garage is in the embryonic stage, however it will be much like the other building once completed.

Lets hope that WHG see fit to move a suitable type of tenant into these new buildings. It would not take long for the buildings to fall into a state of disrepair should they be filled with "dole dossers" and the like.

Below are two images. Top one is Humphries house in the latter stages of renovation, looking from the canal side.
Second image is of the old gully at the bottom of Hodgkins close leading through to Anchor bridge. This gully will be lost once the new buildings are complete.