Tolkien's Two Towers

These two towers -Perrotts Folly and the Edgbaston Waterworks Tower -  are prominent landmarks about 600 metres apart in the Ladywood area of Birmingham. As a child, Tolkien lived in numerous addresses in Ladywood and it is reputed locally that these towers are  the basis of  the `Two Towers of Gondor' - Minas Morgul and Minas Tirith.

 This is Perrott's Folly (above), built in 1758 by John Perrott. No-one knows for sure why he built the tower so it's called a folly. It was used as a weather recording station from 1884 to 1979.

This is the tower at Edgbaston Water Works, built in 1870. Although the Water Works is adjacent to a large reservoir , there is no connection - Edgbaston Reservoir was built to supply water to the canal system not the domestic supply.

An obscure saint in Yardley

Yardley Old Village is a haven of rural peace set in the middle of the suburban expanse of East Birmingham. There is a cluster of listed buildings around the mediaeval church of St Edburgha, which includes an old farm and a working blacksmith. The church is currently swathed in scaffolding so no picture I'm afraid.

St Edburgha ( pronounced edburra) was grand-daughter to King Alfred and her relics are in Pershore Abbey whose full name is  the Abbey Church of Holy Cross with St Edburgha. I'm not sure if there are any other churches dedicated to her.

On the way there I surveyed  the new route of the A4040 Church Road, opened this week to accommodate the controversial development of a new Tesco store. The road still awaits a roundabout at its northern end, so the bus route relations haven't been updated yet. Let's see how long it takes other map-makers to update this stretch of road.

Ladywood Circus - a "big top" of traffic lights

I drove though here one night and got very confused with the new northbound carriageway going right through the middle of what used to be a roundabout, so I decided to do a survey.  The results are shown below. Is this a record for the number of sets of traffic lights you can fit onto one roundabout? ( 9 sets and 2 sets of toucan crossing lights!

Needless to say I couldn't waste the opportunity so I surveyed some adjoining streets also. I came across what has to be one of the longest  and most evocative church names I've ever seen. I don't know the origins of this church, but I expect it to have been interesting. Has anyone else come across one of these churches?

I also discovered a small patch of rural delight nearby - what a great way to enliven an otherwise patch of waste ground and make our urban life brighter. Congratulations to whoever is responsible. It's not a great photo but there's a sea of white daisies awash with poppies.

Interesting wanders around the Jewellery Quarter

I'm gradually surveying the Jewellery Quarter by default , as I work through the City Council's database of listed buildings. It's a fascinating journey of urban renewal. Its a very mixed area, with lots of apartment conversions - some architecturally tasteful, some just an eyesore of erected building materials; lots of hip small knowledge and professional companies and their feeding stations of equally hip restaurants, bars and cafés; masses of jewellery workshops and shops and  the odd bit of good old Brum metal-bashing, together with some very derelict parts looking very forlorn.  Mix in stalled building developments, casualties of the credit crunch and you've got a mapper's heaven and probably an urban planner's hell!  Here are some of the best listed buildings I found, along with some falling into decay.

 Above: Tenby Street North

 Above: Legge Lane - a general area of dereliction

Above: Corner of Regent Street and Vittoria Street

Recognition at last!

Many thanks to Christoph (OSM username Xoff) on his departure to Germany after completing his PhD. Christoph performed sterling surveying work over much of SW Birmingham and also contributed a huge technical resource in developing our website mappa-mercia.org and creating NOVAM for verifying
NaPTAN bus stops. Good luck in you future careeer Christoph!