LOCAL RECORD · NOTES FROM SHELDON
John Crane
Local Record contributor · Sheldon, Birmingham
I started keeping notes about Sheldon because things tend to disappear quietly. A footpath gets fenced off. A shop changes hands. A building comes down and six months later nobody agrees what stood there. Most of this is photographs, old maps, bits of local history and whatever I notice while walking the park. It is not intended to be comprehensive.
Atropos migrated my old local blog into Local Record in 2027, mostly because they offered better photo storage and I was tired of paying for hosting. Anything older than that may have formatting problems. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it.
Lights Out
The power went at 18:35. There was a low vibration first. I felt it through the kitchen floor. Then the sky lit blue-green for a few seconds and…
The Road
We looked out. We didn't go anywhere. Chaffcombe is almost completely still. Cars are where people left them. One is half on the pavement with the driver's door…
Midlands Check-In
Putting this on all four contributor pages because the Local Record group chat is becoming close to useless and messages are arriving out of order. Birmingham Airport is…
Graham
Graham is here. He arrived with a torch, half a loaf, chocolate digestives and a camping stove he claims he bought for fishing. I have known him for…
The Man Near the Park
There's a man near the park who has been bothering me for the best part of an hour. I first thought he was looking at his phone. Dark…
Sirens
Still no useful explanation. The airport is closed and the advice is to avoid the area. Local groups have supplied the rest: aircraft collision, fuel fire, armed police,…
Sent Before Eight
Someone sent me the photograph below at 07:11. I am not naming him because it is his photograph, not mine, and because I have a feeling he was…
Tuesday
I was going to put up Sunday's photograph of the park this morning. It came out better than I expected, mostly because the light was doing the work…
Sunday Evening
Graham has put his bins out. Collection is not tomorrow. I mention this because he has previously argued, at some length, that putting bins out too early makes…
Airport Weather
You can live near an airport for years without learning anything useful about aviation and still become annoyingly confident about what the weather is doing from the noise.…
Graham’s Fence
Graham’s fence is no longer leaning into my garden. This is a development worth recording because Graham has spent most of the summer explaining that it is technically…
Things Sheldon Has Lost
I had meant this to be a post about an old photograph and then realised the sign in this one does the job better. Sheldon keeps bits of…
The Park Behind the Houses
The title makes it sound as if I own considerably more land than I do. I do not. There are gardens, fences and other people’s gardens between me…
LOCAL RECORD UPDATES
Follow Notes from Sheldon
Receive an email when a new Local Record entry is published, including new Notes from Sheldon entries.
No site account is required. You can unsubscribe at any time. Email privacy.