2012 - Day Out 02: Wolverhampton

Date: Saturday 28 January 2012

It is the second day out of 2012, and we decide to do a local trip in the West Midlands, it means that we have a later start and an earlier finish, which is okay by me as it is a cold winters day.

First of all, I make my way to Wollaston and have a few minutes wait for the 09:16 journey of Service 276, operated by National Express West Midlands. As I wait I have to put up with an old woman moaning about bus drivers, why they should let her on because it is cold and that Hanson's drivers are the friendliest. I put up with this for a few minutes and I see a welcome sight, Service 276 coming from Wollaston Island, I get on board using my NBus travel card and promptly make my way to the back of the bus where I can give my ears a rest. I send the usual text message, and after five minutes, we are in Norton, where Mr UK Buses boards our first bus of the day, we now make our way into Stourbridge, on a day where there are no plans, and as we come to the bus stop on the Stourbridge Ring Road, we alight, where Mr UK Buses gets his camera out for the first time today and decides to take a few photographs of the Bell Street Multi Story Car Park, and we also have a walk inside and around the outside of The Crown Centre, which is now being prepared by contractors. Tesco have just acquired the land from Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, and within the next few months will demolish the shopping centre and car park to make way for a new Tesco store, this will also change the landscape on this side of the town and will also rejuvenate the town as a whole. Photographs have been taken and we make our way back to the bus stop on the ring road.

We wait a few minutes and we decide to board the National Express West Midlands Service 246, as we board I am told by the driver (he organised the last 246 charity walk that we helped with marshaling), that I have to walk the route, I don't think I will today, as it is a bit nippy. We make our way through Brierley Hill and Russell's Hall Hospital before arriving at Dudley Bus Station, as we alight I get my own back on the driver and tell him that "I could have walked it here faster." He seemed to take it in good spirit's, like I did when I got on the bus at Stourbridge. We decide where to go now, and Mr UK Buses is already on the case as he darts to catch the National Express West Midlands Service 313 which will take us to Walsall. Along the way we head past The Black Country Living Museum, and through Princes End. We arrive at Wednesbury and considering that Wednesbury bus station here is already a few years old, I just hope that the new Stourbridge Interchange will not have the same dreary character to this station, not one of CENTRO's best efforts of bus station renewal. We soon depart Wednesbury bus station, and make our way once again towards Walsall. We are soon near our destination and as we arrive at Bradford Place terminus we reluctantly alight, we were comfortable and warm on the bus, now we are in the cold literally and after a few photographs taken whilst in the Bradford Place vicinity, we make our way to Walsall Bus Station located next to St Paul's. Along the way, we pop into WH Smiths, where Mr UK Buses and myself buy the latest edition of Buses Magazine (and I also get my monthly edition of F1 Racing), Mr UK Buses gets served first and after he is served he waits for me close by. I get served and pay my one penny for a WH Smiths carrier and find out why Mr UK Buses is lurking about so close, as I wait for my change, Mr UK Buses is in penny saving mode and as swooshed into action by putting his magazine in my bag, considering the speed of this deed, Mr UK Buses could be one of these magicians which show off the "close at hand" tricks. After deciding not to charge Mr UK Buses two shiny penny's for the rent on my WH Smiths bag, we make our way to Walsall St Paul's.

We take a few shots whilst in the area and after the photographs have been taken, we decide to rest our feet and get a little warmth by visiting our first J D Wetherspoons of the day and enter "The Imperial", which is located virtually opposite the entrance to the bus station. Last time we were in Walsall, this place was undergoing a refurbishment, and we can tell, it has improved the look inside of the public house, and as we make our way to the bar, I am informed by Mr UK Buses that it is my round. We opt for a coke and we decide that we are cold enough already and skip the ice. Mr UK Buses finds a seat, and after being served I take the drinks across. I inform Mr UK Buses that where we were seated was once a place of a big model of a dinosaur when this Wetherspoons first opened here years ago, I think he was a bit confused when he replied that "Mr D9 is not with us today". After a rest and finishing our drinks, we decide to make our way back to the bus station and we opt to use the new disabled entrance / exit to the pub. We decide to make our way across to Wolverhampton, but after finding out a couple of long services that will take us there, we also find out that both services have just left a few minutes prior and there would not be another for at least twenty minutes. Mr UK Buses bus radar is on form today, and he spots a service that will get us to Wolverhampton, so after quickly making our way to the stand, we have to move to the next stand as another bus is blocking its stand, and we soon board National Express West Midlands Service 89. This service will get us to Wolverhampton in just over an hour and along the way we head through Pelsall, a place I have visited before and the chip shop confirms the location as I remember having chips there and eating them outside in the freezing cold. We also head through Bloxwich and Wednesfield. We eventually arrive in Wolverhampton and as we make our way through Broad Street, Mr UK Buses makes a note of a few specialist shops that he may want to visit on future trips to Wolverhampton. Again we reluctantly alight from the warm bus just around the corner from Lichfield Street and we make our way to our second Wetherspoons of the day, "The Moon Under Water", and we decide to have lunch here.

I get my own back on Mr UK Buses and inform him that it is his round, and after the drinks are ordered we look for a table. Instead of hiding out at the back half of the pub, we decide to get a table in the corner at the front and also a place where it is warm, see picture right. We scan the menu before ordering and Mr UK Buses opts for his now standard BBQ Chicken Melt with out the "Melt", and I opt for something different, A gammon and chips without the egg. We also feel a bit peckish and opt for an extra bowl of chips as on the last few occasions, a Wetherspoons portion of chips have been the "Chester" standard. We wait about ten minutes and our food arrives, we now think that bowl of chips may have been a bad idea as the portion of chips today has been a greater portion. We eat our lunch and also force the extra chips into our stomachs, which means that we are full and it is nearly time to move to our next location, so we opt for a few more minutes rest to let our extra food settle.

We decide to go out in the cold, but only for a few minutes as we descend on another Wolverhampton regular, "The Wheatsheaf", situated on the corner of Market Street and Castle Street, we get back in the warmth and take our usual seat in the lounge at the back of the pub, see picture left. We spend a little time here to let our big dinner have more time to settle in our stomachs. Today, we don't have the bar maid that served us on our last visit to this establishment and Mr UK Buses seems a little disappointed, but at least we are in the company of a lot of friendly regulars who make our visits to this establishment worthwhile and always make us want to return. We finish our drinks and we could stay here for the rest of the trip as we are warm and comfortable, but we do have other places to visit, and we sluggishly make our way from the pub.   It is now 14:15, so we decide to have a walk past the Wolverhampton Central Library and then down Cleveland Street where we wait and decide which bus to catch next.

At 14:25 a National Express West Midlands Service 3 turns up which we duly board, I think I know a pub that I have visited a couple of times which is towards the end of this route so we decide that we will alight when we see it. After passing the Molineux, home to the Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club, we make our way back to Stafford Road and make our way along this long road, making a slight detour around Fordhouses before making our way back along the Stafford Road, where I recognise the area and keep an eye out for the stop that we need to alight. We don't move a lot further up the road where I spot our next destination and we alight and cross the road to our next place of warmth, "The Moreton Arms", see picture right, a public house that I have visited a couple of times before and was impressed with, so I decide that today it is Mr UK Buses turn to be introduced to this establishment.

Mr UK Buses is eager to get indoors and decides to enter the lounge, a room in this pub that I have never visited as I usually frequent the bar, the drinks are ordered and we take our seats and decide to move, we take another seat and decide to find our way to the bar, as we seem that the regulars in the lounge don't like to have outsiders sitting in there establishment, we make our way through the double doors and I find that my usual seat is vacant and we decide to rest in the more friendlier company of the regulars in the bar, we find a spot to perch our cameras and take a cheers photo, see photo left. We finish our drinks and we can't seem to time it right today as when we get to the end of our drinks we find that we are comfortable and warm and we have to reluctantly get up and go back out into the January chill. We investigate the bus stop in Springfield Lane and find out that it is no good for us, so we head back round the corner and stand in the shelter located outside, and after an Arriva bus has passed us, we signal to the National Express West Midlands driver and we board another Service 3 which takes us back into Wolverhampton. We alight outside The Varsity and make our way back down Lichfield Street and into Wolverhampton bus station.

We find ourselves at the entrance and looking at the live destination boards we find it hard to see what bus we can catch as the screens display keeps going off and comes up with an information screen informing us that the stands will be changing tomorrow for certain services. Amidst all this, Mr UK Buses finds a service that we can catch. We also try out the touch screen information points and we find a big error in the way it works as when we put in our next service we want to catch, Service 81, it won't display information as the route number needs to be three digits, lets hope that these points won't make their way to the new Stourbridge Interchange when it opens in a couple of months. We track down our stand and after a couple of minutes wait we board National Express West Midlands Service 81 which will take us to the Merry Hill Centre passing through Coseley and Dudley along the way. As we leave Wolverhampton, the bus takes us for a tour around the old Cleveland Road depot which is still standing and currently being used as a covered car park.

After we pass through Dudley, we head through Netherton, where I inform Mr UK Buses that there is a picture of his bus that he drove in his past life on the wall in The Old Swan. We make our way through some back streets before finally arriving at the bus station in Merry Hill, where it seems that the current station is in need of a change as there are now too many routes serving the shopping centre, which means that the bus station is normally a congested place. The light has gone now so we cannot take any more transport pictures today, and after a few minutes of seeing what is due, we decide that we will wait a little longer and catch a National Express West Midlands Service 276. This gives me time for a "fresh air" break and after I finish, we make our way to the stand where we only have a short wait before our service 276 bus pulls up. We pass through Lye and Pedmore Fields before arriving at Stourbridge, Mr UK Buses has had a good idea for once as we will not have to alight at Stourbridge in the cold as we can stay on board and go through to Norton and Wollaston, it is at this point that I inform Mr UK Buses that I may end up in Dudley later as I am too warm and comfortable and dread getting off into the cold at Wollaston. As we pass the Stourbridge Interchange, we notice that the destination screens and stand points have been installed in the main building, and it is currently working as I can see Stourbridge services information on the screens. We make our way back onto the ring road, before heading up Worcester Street and past Mary Stevens Park, where after a few more minutes we are in Norton, where Mr UK Buses says his goodbyes (also grabbing his magazine after a rent free day in my bag) and I stay on board for a further few minutes before alighting at Wollaston and having a little warm in the Chinese takeaway for my now customary end of the trip meal to take home and devour.

Another good day out has been had despite the cool temperatures of the day, and the snow has been kept at bay for another trip. One month down, two trips in, and we still have the rest of the year to look forward too. We will be back out in a couple of weeks time and hopefully the trip will be a warmer experience. All in all it has been a good start of 2012 with the accommodation sorted out already for our weekends away to Weymouth and Torquay this year in June and September respectively. A big thank you goes to Mr UK Buses for the excellent company today.