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| Do you know,I am beginning to find the urge to be rude about Stourbridge irresistible? I think this has something to do with the photo opposite of the Crown Centre, which obliterated a perfectly innocent and almost pleasant grassy area about twenty years. I think we poor innocent townsfolk were spun some line that this new complex would have architecture inspired by a Spanish hacienda, but what we found imposed on us is a redbrick nightmare that |
| wouldn't look out of place as the administrative headquarters of a Nazi Concentration camp. On the plus side, the Crown Centre is one of the very few locations in the UK where you can get married on the top of a car park. So that's all right then. Moving swiftly on, whilst I may have minored in denigration at university, I really ought to point out some of the heritage of Stourbridge, just to redress the balance a little. One claim to fame for the town is the Stourbridge Lion, the locally-built locomotive, which was the first steam engine to run on rails in the Western Hemisphere. The remnants of the engine can be seen on the Smithsonian Institution website , but Stourbridge's most famous metallic son is commemorated on a rather inadequate plaque on the entrance to a subway which stinks of urine.It is almost an insult to the history of the town, but I don't suppose anyone has the energy to propose an alternative. |
| Apparently though, we have the European Union to thank for some of the town centre improvements. I could have included a photograph of the new public toilets outside Stourbridge Town train station to demonstrate the largesse of the EU, , but I think by then you would not unreasonalby surmise that my sanity was in doubt. Perhaps the European Commission reasons that if they have got us by our bladders, our hearts and minds will surely follow. Do keep up now. On the left is another symbol of Stourbridge's fame as a producer of fine glassware: a statue of a glassblower outside the train station. Unfortunately, it was the victim of repeated vandalism, and it had to be placed on ever higher and unsurmountable plinths in order to protect it. The statue has also avoided being knocked down by speeding trains that more than once went off the rails and knocked down walls at the station: considering that the branch line between Stourbridge Town and Stourbridge Junction must be the shortest in the country, this really was quite an achievement. |
| Finally on this page, is the scene of part of my, and Dr Samuel Johnson's education,the King Edward VI College, which was formerly the town's grammar school. I think it's fair to say that Dr Johnson benefited more from his education there than I ever did- I have to admit that I am still writing A level English Literature essays that are twenty years overdue. What indeed, would my fellow alumnus have said about the town? " A man who is tired of Stourbridge has made the mistake of being there in the first place." No? Oh well... |
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