Iron eyecatcher
In Kidderminster, while I had my eyes on the towers of distant carpet factories, the Resident Wise Woman (who can spot an edible mushroom at 200 yards through her eye corner while driving at speed along a country road) had her attention fixed on the small but significant things around her: “Look at that!”
“That” turns out to be the one surviving gate pier of Kidderminster’s former cattle market. Having been held on the streets, the market was moved here in 1871, when presumably this pier (and at least one other to match it) was put up, along with the nearby brick Jacobean-style entrance lodge. The pier and lodge are the only market structures that remain on the site, and livestock are no longer sold here, although the town still has a large general street market.
The coat of arms is the one used by the town between the 18th century and 1963, although the colours have been tampered with. The two chevrons and three large roundels should be gold and the four roundels on each chevron black. Battered and bruised, the coat of arms remains on this corroded iron pier that is coming apart but, wonderfully, has resisted the elements, the demolition men, and the heraldic perfectionists to survive to attract and please those with sharp eyes.
brilliant find! I love marooned things like this, standing unremarked upon and unseen by most
ReplyDeleteThey're great aren't they, marooned things? Hundreds of people must pass this post every day, but probably only a handful notice it. And yet it's pointing out a place that was the site of a large market that must have been central to the lives of people in the town and round about for over 100 years.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how these things hang on. I've noticed quite a few on the outer edges of old cattle markets where everything else has gone. Nottingham, the Caledonian Market in London, (although that does have the original clock tower). Judging by the state of most of them it must be because they're a bugger to remove, rather than a 'heritage' instinct to preserve. Like pillar boxes, there must be a great deal of the iron pier underground.
ReplyDeletePeter: Yes, if you look at that very solid base, I'm sure the thing goes deep into the ground. Oddly, though, the main part of the pier is not so solid. It's actually made up of four plates, and they are coming apart at the corners. You can see the corner gap in the photograph, and if you;re there you can peer into this gap and see the void inside the pier. There doesn't seem to be much in there at all.
ReplyDeleteBeing someone who lives in kidderminster you will be suprised at the amount of old historical items like this have vanished from our town !! after being put in storage ?
ReplyDeletetypical kidderminster, just saw a scrap man smash this up with a sledge hammer and take it away , saw out of the window in the college by the time i got outside it had gone
ReplyDeleteAnon: Many thanks for this update. It's sad how people have no regard for such bits of history.
ReplyDeleteyep i am worried the remaining cast railings will go next , i thought this was a listed building, i noticed the cast iron spikes go off the roof too when the roofing contractors were there in the spring, shame the post went today it should of been preserved somehow , i never expected this to go for scrap
ReplyDeleteYou will be saddened to know that this wonderful bit of our history it seems has been smashed to pieces and taken away by travellers!
ReplyDelete