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Brownhills Market – is it the silly season already?
I’m not sure what’s going on here yet, until I’ve done a bit more research, but according to the Express & Star, Walsall Council are currently looking for commercial tenders to run Brownhills...
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Birmingham Mail – Tesco abandons plans to pull down a senior citizens’ club
Noticed this article today on the excellent Walsall news site, The YamYam – for once it seems the Birmingham Mail (no longer ‘evening’ you’ll note) have stolen a bit of a march on the Express &...
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Market stalling?
I noted with interest today that a whole slew of new documentation had appeared online under the planning application for the new Tesco store, slated to be developed in Brownhills in the next couple of...
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How bazaar – Brownhills Market rises again
These really are peculiar times. Brownhills Market, originally operated by Spook Erection and closed when Walsall Council failed to reach agreement about lease renewal, is to reopen again in November...
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Brownhills market reopens today!
Just a headsup – reborn twice, Brownhills favourite tat bazaar begins again today, Tuesday 4th November 2010, and will reconvene every Thursday and Saturday thereafter. We’re assured that stalls are...
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A belief in the market
Yesterday afternoon, I decided to take a stroll into Brownhills to check out the latest incarnation of Brownhills Market, this time by market operators LSD promotions, who also run the Bescot Sunday...
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I heard it through the grapevine…
Whilst mooching around the darker recesses of Brownhills High Street yesterday (namely Downes newsagents), I happened upon a pile of yellow leaflets – well, double sided sheets of yellow A4, to be...
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Christmas magic in Brownhills!
It’s worth pointing out that whilst our Scrooge-like civic masters in the Grey Lubyanka were handing round the upturned, moth-eaten and brylcream scented flat cap of Anthony Harris, all the time...
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The Brownhills festivities continue…
Vickie Heydon-Matterface from Brownhills Methodist Church (that’s the one by the Market in Silver Street) kindly sent me an email recently to point out that their Christmas tree festival is on...
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Brownhills – let’s talk it up…
Here’s an interesting experiment. Features writer for the Express & Star, Chris Davies, is writing a piece about life in Walsall, and would like recommendations for good Brownhills businesses,...
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Back to the future…
While we’re in a 1980′s mood, this week I noticed that a remarkable project from the period had been rescued from potential oblivion and saved for the nation. Way back in 1986, when I was generally...
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Sister Dora’s first live gig in 130 years
Posted this afternoon on Twatter by the generally not as funny as it should be @Walsall_CounciI parody account, this hilarious video was originally on Twitvid, but since I can’t embed that in the blog,...
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The Grimsby Fish Man…
[Edited 16/11/11 - The image originally used to illustrate this piece has been removed at the request of the owner, who presumably didn't like the positive nature of the article or free advertising -...
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Scrub fire in Brownhills earlier this evening?
Rachel Gosling, top reader and friend of the Brownhills Blog tonight posted these dramatic pictures on Facebook, which she’s kindly allowed me to share here. It seems that there’s been quite a severe...
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Tesco: have they given up on Brownhills?
I notice from an article in the Express & Star that Tesco appear to be getting cold feet on their plan for a new store for Brownhills. This is grim news, but I’m not surprised, and have been...
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I heard it on the radio
BBC Radio WM’s Phil Upton Breakfast Show for Monday, 5th March 2012 featured the ongoing saga of Brownhills and Tesco, asking the question as to why the retail giant can’t seem to be bothered to...
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Never let the facts get in the way of a good rant
The local press is proving a rich seam of content at the moment here on the Brownhills Blog, and I really wanted to resist raiding yet another reader’s letter from yet another op-ed page. However, this...
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Poisoning the well?
There’s something odd going on at the moment, that I’d like to get to the bottom of. I’ve now seen four separate instances of the incorrect assertion that the Senior Citizen’s protest stopped the...
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Empires and us
Reader Mick Roseblade writes in with a surprisingly common email enquiry. I’m answering this publicly, as I must have answered this four or five times by email to different people over the last couple...
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Eighteen years later
Once again, Gareth Thomas from Lichfield District Council has gifted a whole bunch of fascinating geographic material to readers of the Brownhills Blog. If anyone had told me when I started this...
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Buried dreams
In the miasma of stuff that passes by in the local news stream, I spotted this one from the Express & Star the other day, and It's puzzled me… Continue reading →
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The past, by George!
Brownhills George continues his patient work of converting and uploading his remarkable and breathtaking images of Brownhills history on to Panoramio - The collection in this remarkable poster's...
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You can never go back
The whole Brownhills-Tesco thing has left me interested in the breadth and spread of local opinion, in a way I don’t normally see it. I’m interested in theories people have, their perceptions, and what...
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Photographic memory
I note that over on Panoramio, Brownhills George is continuing his patient work, assembling a great collection of historic Brownhills images - I thought is was about time I featured the latest ones...
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Disastrous marketing
This evening’s Express & Star letters page featured a real gem, and unusually for the paper, they’d actually awarded this sensible communique ‘Letter of the day’ – an award normally reserved for...
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Welcome to Tescotown
Whilst mooching back from work today, I noticed a planning application tied to a lamppost in Silver Street, Brownhills. Reading it, I note it’s for a new Tesco development in Brownhills town centre. I...
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Cautionary tale from The Guardian –‘This town has been sold to Tesco’
A fascinating, grim article in The Guardian newspaper by Anna Minton. Recommended reading for anyone interested in the way Brownhills is being carved up for the retail behemoth. ‘This town has been...
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Tesco development leaflets?
Hi Folks I hear that leaflets are being distributed about the new Tesco development plan for Brownhills. I haven’t seen one yet, so if anyone has one and can scan it or send me a photo, could you...
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Very little helps
It’s been a while since I first posted that the application had been submitted for the new Tesco store in Brownhills. Since approval of the scheme can be viewed as inevitable, there would seem to be...
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Brownhills Tesco development featured on ‘The Stirrer’
Adrian Goldberg’s ‘The Stirrer’ – a great hyperlocal and forum for Birmingham and the Black Country – have today featured the plight of the Senior Citizen’s Day Centre, soon to be lost under the...
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Brownhills Senior Citizens Centre : The Tesco Chainstore Massacre continues
The Walsall Advertiser letters page has been improving a tad of late. More often than not it’s just the soapbox for tedious blowhards like Ian Payne. Just lately there has been some excellent...
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Sense may yet prevail
I’ve been sent some very good news from the fight to save Brownhills Senior Citizens Centre, which as regulars will know has been threatened by the planned new Tesco development in the town. The...
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The ingratitude. Whose town is this, anyway?
The saga of the proposed Tesco development in Brownhills rumbles on. Both Walsall Council and Tesco seem to be very keen to reassure us all that negotiations are ongoing, that everything is being...
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Pity the poor landlord
Five years ago, when I started this blog, one of the largest looming topics was that of the then proposed new Tesco Store in Brownhills - we'd been through a consultation, and the proposal was to build...
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Getting the Bird
Two Brownhills community activists lock horns in the Walsall Advertiser letters page over the subject of Ravens Court - the exchange is interesting, and deserves to be read widely. Continue reading →
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Magic beans
Well, it seems congratulations are in order – Steve Craddock, UKIP councillor for Brownhills and the man whose holiday was more important than political control of a borough governing 269,000 people –...
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The state that we are in
I'm pleased to note that despite the celebratory tones of a report in the Express & Star a couple of weeks ago, Walsall Council are reinforcing the hard line taken on the owners of the derelict...
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Tick tock
This is just a reminder and a request - it's been three months to the day since the dynamic duo of UKIPs Brownhills Councillor Steve Craddock and his best mate and Walsall Conservative former...
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Don’t bank on it
Many of you have asked me for updates on the situation with Ravens Court, the decaying, derelict shopping precinct that lies deserted in the centre of Brownhills - you'll remember that way back in...
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