Cotteridge Park

Cotteridge Park is a place I’ve known about but only fully explored sometime this year. I was never sure of how to get there, which road I should go down, if it really was the park I could see from the train? Turns out it is the park I see from the train, it’s really easy to get to and I could quite happily wonder around it for a while.

Dear old Wiki tells me that the park is 22 acres in size and is one of the Victorian parks of the city. Didn’t know that. It also has a boulodrome and last year was awarded a Green Flag award!

I quite like this park because there are lots of boulders. I like boulders. I had to ask a couple of people if they would move so I could get a photo of the boulders. These boulders (this word looks silly now) are thought to be more glacial erratics! Lots of these scattered around the place. If all of the Cotteridge Park rocks are glacial erratics, that gives a total of 10 found so far, since I started the blog.

Every year there is a small free festival in Cotteridge Park, called CoCoMad. I went last year (it was very muddy) and it was BRILLIANT. A good day out despite the rain! There are stalls selling crafts and merch and food, a main stage and an acoustic tent area, a shopping trolley pageant and all sorts of other fun stuff.

Cotteridge has Anglo-Saxon roots and the name is first recorded in the early 1300s. There is quite an in-depth history written here which is worth a read if you want to know more!

Cotteridge Park is also on Twitter!

You can read more about it here and here.

More pics:

A pretty awesome willow tunnel!

Thomas The Tank Engine

Not many people are aware of this, indeed, no one I know other than my family knows this, but Thomas the Tank Engine was born in King’s Norton in 1942. Yes, Thomas the little blue engine and all of his adventures were born from the mind of Reverend W Awdry to amuse his son, all while he was based at St Nicolas Church as a curate. It was originally called The Railway Series.

This isn’t really celebrated much, although I keep hearing whispers that this is all going to change soon! I saw some artwork on the railway bridge at King’s Norton the other day that also suggests this.

More pics from the railway bridge can be seen in the previous blog post, which in turn links to the Flickr page.

L x

King's Norton Railway Station Footbridge

My mom mentioned one of the ladies at her work had seen some art on the footbridge over the railway tracks. I went to have a look. Amazing!

One side (by Adeela Ahmad of King's Norton Girls)

The other side (by Oliver Blackburn of King's Norton Boys)

Pretty neat, huh? A brief history of King's Norton and the Cotteridge area in a highly eye-catching form. A few people walked across the bridge whilst I was taking these photos, and they just didn't seem to notice it - such a shame. I think it's brilliant!

More photos are up on Flickr. All pics taken by me, on July 17th. Click for bigger.

I highly suggest you all go and take a look! The bridge can be accessed from Station Road, either by The Camp pub on Camp Lane or from Middleton Hall Road, or from the railway station itself - the bridge is at the far end of the tracks, away from the ticket office. Cotteridge is easily accesible by buses - the 11A/C, 47, 45, 18 and the 49 all stop here. There are steps on either side of this bridge and no lift/ramp access.

A small write up can be read here.

L x