Spring is in the air, in spite of the cold weather that has been happening in the Midlands recently. April was a busy old month for the blog, so here’s a recap of where I have been in the past month.
I first visited Narborough way back in June 2019, when the blog was in its infancy. At the time, I was concerned only with visiting railway stations and not really exploring the places that I went to. I enjoyed my time in Narborough back then, even though it was raining. There was no rain when I returned on 27th March for an explore around the village, and also an old railway line which has been turned into a footpath. I also made up for not having taken a picture of the station last time I was there, as you can see above.
On Wednesday April 12th, I was back on the Cross-City Line to visit Alvechurch in Worcestershire, and also take my second ever trip to University station in Birmingham. I had been there previously on a pre-blog day out to Bournville in early 2019. A lot has changed at University in the meantime, with a new station building under construction. Also, the station was much quieter than it was on my first visit there, seeing as it was the Easter holidays. At Alvechurch, I wasn’t there for long; just for a walk down a canal, then through to the centre of the village, the obligatory church and then back home.
The next main trip of the month was to the charming South Yorkshire town of Penistone. The town’s railway station was formerly a bustling multi-platform station until some lines were closed in the 1960s, and the main industry of steel is long gone. There are many sights to see in the town, including the remains of an old railway turntable and a tank ramp built and used in World War II to load and unload military tanks from trains. I spent longer there than I had hoped, though, due to a cancelled train. To add insult to injury, my rush-hour train back from Sheffield was only four coaches, rather than the usual nine, so I was wedged into the vestibule with about seven others for an hour. These things happen, I suppose.
A new page on the blog!
Having completed all the Nottingham Express Transit tram stops in March, I set about making a map and page for the blog, then promptly forgot all about it until I remembered recently. You can find a link to it on the menu to the left, or just click here to marvel at my handiwork.
Didn’t you promise us a video on Facebook?
I did post on Facebook that I was going to post a new video on the YouTube channel. It will hopefully be up later this week. It is done and almost fully edited, it just needs a little bit more work. To be the first to find out when it is uploaded, then you can subscribe to the YouTube channel here.
Going down like a ton of bricks
When I visited Longport in Stoke on Trent back in 2020, I spotted a brick head sculpture close to Festival Park, the site of the 1986 Stoke on Trent Garden Festival. I found out recently that the head, representing pottery legend Josiah Wedgwood, has been destroyed by road workers working on the widening of the road. The city council have apologised profusely and have vowed to have it rebuilt.
Forthcoming attractions
On Thursday last week, I took a train (and a bus) to visit the famous spa town of Buxton in Derbyshire. That post will be up on Sunday. Other plans in May include finishing off the Staffordshire Stations, taking great strides towards the finish of the East Midlands Ranger Area, and crossing off another couple of Cross-City Line stations.
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