West Midlands Places (15) : Northfield

Nowadays it is an outer suburb of Birmingham but until 1911 Northfield was a separate village and part of Worcestershire. There have been people living in the area since the Stone Age and later during the Roman occupation. Northfield itself was originally a Saxon settlement and was mentioned (as Nordfield) in the Domesday Book. St Laurence's church dates from the 12th century, the oldest surviving parts of the church being from about 1170.

Northfield was on the main road between Birmingham and Worcester which was later turnpiked. Northfield was a stop on the Bristol Road stage coach route. Apart from farming, nail making was a major industry in the village until the 19th century. In 1870 the railway station was opened and the village benefited from local employment opportunities including the Austin works in nearby Longbridge. However, as Birmingham expanded Northfield ceased being a largely rural village in north Worcestershire and became part of the city in the early 20th century.

Project Windsock

When i saw you could get a windsock for less than ten pounds on Amazon the only question is, why not? So, my windsock is now installed on the shed. What use this is for me is unknown, but i love it.

Churches (219) : Holy Trinity, Coventry

Holy Trinity Church in Coventry dates from the 12th century and is the only complete medieval church in the city. The church is large and is Perpendicular in style. The tower has a seventy-two metre high spire, one of the highest non-cathedral spires in the country. The church has transepts, a chancel with chapels and the nave has north and south aisles.

The church is close to Coventry Cathedral.

Model week : Back on track

The new layout project is starting to take shape, although much of it will reuse my huge stockpile of N gauge stock and supplies i did need some new track and that arrived yesterday. I was able to set up the planned layout on the new board and ran a quick test train using my Class 33. Now i am finalising the track layout and once that is done i will look to make it permanent. With this layout i am trying something different. I am going to mark where the ballast needs to go, then remove the track and lay the ballast, then i will put the track back and nail it in place. A different method to how i have done it before, we'll see how it turns out!

Typing on a Leader II

At the moment this is the latest typewriter in the collection.